A CAT IN PARIS film screening outdoors at FARM INSTITUTE

Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature

A CAT IN PARIS is a nifty little caper in which blustery gangsters, intrepid detectives, cat burglars (one of them literally feline) and a little girl named Zoé scamper across nighttime rooftops unraveling a pleasantly tangled plot. The film, just about an hour long and directed by the French animation team of Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol, is also a refreshing reminder, at a time of large-scale, highly polished cinematic spectacle, of the essential, elemental sources of movie-watching pleasure.

Children watching “A Cat In Paris” may experience a few moments of fright and sorrow — there is gunfire, and Dino’s murder of innocent lizards is celebrated rather than condemned — but they are also likely to be captivated by its elegant mixture of gravity and mischief.

As are adults, since there is very little of the noisy, sentimental pandering that is too often a feature of kid-targeted entertainment nowadays. This movie is graceful, subtle and sure-footed.

2012 * French * 60 minutes * Animation * English