A CAT'S LIFE -- Cute Cat Adventure Sullied by Asinine Anthropocentrism

Review by Daniel Lima

If you make an action movie, you highlight the action. If you make a comedy, you try to make the audience laugh. It is a shame, then, that so many filmmakers set out to make movies about animals and then sideline those creatures in favor of human drama. Such is the case with A Cat’s Life, the American dub of the French film Mon chat et moi, la grande aventure de Rroû. Though the scenes rooted in nonhuman perspectives are an absolute delight, anthropocentric instincts limit how much the film can actually achieve.

An adaptation of the 1931 novel Rroû, the film divides its attention between a young Parisian girl and a kitten she finds in her apartment’s attic, whom she names Lou. As Lou grows into adulthood and chafes at his restrained domestic life, the girl finds herself acclimating to her own changing circumstances. Eventually, the film ends.

The film ambles along at an easy pace, unconcerned with adhering to a traditional narrative structure that would necessitate narrative momentum. The family goes on a trip to their house in the country; they spend time with the reclusive old woman who lives next to it; the cat enjoys exploring the woods. Each new detail comes and goes without any jeopardy or tension. It’s all presented as just a part of growing up. This lack of any sense of importance undermines the emotional journey of the young girl, as it is hard to care about her as a person when the film seems to take her trials and tribulations no more seriously than the antics of a young kitten.

To make matters worse is the ludicrously bad dubbing, completely obliterating any sense of drama or intentional comedy in every scene with the human characters. It’s unclear why the American distributors thought this blaring, cartoonish, completely artificial voice acting over what appears to be a grounded slice-of-life story was preferable to making kids read subtitles, but it was absolutely the wrong approach. It is certainly unintentionally funny when a woman bluntly explains to her confused daughter that divorce just means that two people don’t love each other anymore, but that doesn’t make the rest of the tortured line readings any less painful.

What makes the human-centric focus even more aggravating is all the scenes without them are absolutely delightful. Rather than rely on narration, voiceover performances, or CGI creatures, the filmmakers utilize real animals and good old-fashioned visual storytelling to show the world from Lou the cat’s perspective. Each of the various animals is given distinct personalities, from the star’s unending mischievousness and curiosity to Rambo the dog’s lazy, slovenly nature. The camera stays low to the ground, offering a feline perspective of the world. Scenes of Lou inquisitively exploring new spaces, forming new bonds, solving problems, and making grand escapes are all wonderfully conveyed through precise editing that lends him autonomy without simply anthropomorphizing him. It’s a marvel to watch unfold, particularly for anyone who has ever tried to make a cat do anything on command.

It’s a shame that Lou cedes so much time to unwieldy and unconvincing human drama. One might expect that the girl’s coming-of-age narrative might neatly mirror the cat’s, yet such a parallel eludes A Cat’s Life. While it doesn’t seem that there’s an English translation of the original novel or even information on the book in English, it seems that it is entirely about the cat, with no human POV to speak of. One cannot help but wish the film was a more direct adaptation. ​
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A Cat's Life is now in theaters.

Rating: 3/5