Award-winning animation from France (released theatrically in 3D), from a comic book series by Joann Sfar who co-directs with Antonine Delesvaux. Visually, the graphic hand-drawn æsthetic is an enchantment of North African light, architectural design & decor, but as story, something of a picaresque mess. It’s 1930s Algiers, a time when you could find Muslim, Jew, Christian & Russian Orthodox in the same town, if hardly in perfect harmony. At least our rabbi can always talk over Talmudic fine points with his cat, who suddenly starts to speak after assaulting a pet parrot. (The cat’s attempted bar mitzvah the film’s comic highlight.) Then, with daughter & friends from afar, cat & rabbi joining a series of adventures in & out of town, eventually driving into the African interior, with a Russian Jew who fled pogroms at home by stowing away inside a trunk of religious books. He’s convinced that a ‘Black Jerusalem’ can be found in Africa along with a lost tribe of Black Jews. Sfar’s general tone is less kid-friendly than sophisticated European, with lots of racial & religious stereotypes used without irony or apology for easy characterization. Some now looking more than a little objectionable. But it’s the hit and miss quality of the storytelling that keeps this from reaching its potential. Still, visually, a treat until an oddly abrupt ending.
DOUBLE-BILL: For a more satisfying French animated cat: A CAT IN PARIS/’10 (see below).
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