Review of Felidae (1994) by Dee R — 29 Apr 2017

This was like a more horrifying Secret of NIMH.

Follow the life of an especially soft-spoken cat that moves into a new neighbourhood and immediately takes it upon himself to become involved with a series of off-putting cat murders like it's a field day. No reason. He also approaches and "befriends" a dubious-looking cat that happened to be sitting outside of his home at the time of his first murder discovery. Also no reason. And a surprising lack of suspicion from his part.

Shortly afterwards he gets threatened with buttrape by an especially Don Bluth-looking character and doesn't care. This series of events sets the tone for everything else that follows after.

This was a strange movie. I didn't think the whole focus on reproduction and the almost ridiculous level of gore fit the cute art style. The animation is quite good, though, I don't have much to say about that.

What was quite horrible was the English voice acting. These guys really didn't know how to deliver a proper sentence, and I think the story suffered under it. I'm able to understand German, so perhaps I should try that out sometime. Though, I wonder if the voice acting will fix the plot.

The Secret of NIMH backstory felt out of place, and that's because of the general storyline where they make it obvious that unpermitted intercourse is the mystery that needs to be solved. The science backstory was definitely more interesting, but I'm still not sure how the rest else ties in with it. The mutated cat from the science backstory is revealed to have set up this selective breeding rule, but, why?

Why couldn't he have set up a plan that actually revolves around his mutation? Why would he de-evolve cats and call it an improvement? The claim is that the cats of the past are tougher, but it feels like such a waste of time to be focusing on that, as a highly intelligent creature. Why isn't this mutant creating a mutant army, or sticking it inside everyone himself? Or just anything else that makes more sense.

But instead, he makes his kind more feral, by extension stupid when you think about it, and then trusts a complete stranger to take over his place after he dies. A stranger, who he knows has been playing detective ever since he arrived and tries to stop what he's doing. How even.

But well, if the movie taught me one thing, it's that cat claws have the capability to completely rip open someone's stomach with a slow motion swipe.