In many a German movie, dark themes of Holocaust, experimentation and Nazi ideology lurk beneath the surface. If there is a Grandpa with dark secret, whatever it is, it is a sublimation of the one who had not much fun in Stalingrad, and it is an almost uniquely German experience. Having been guilty for uspeakable inhumanity of the Holocaust and rarely discussed aggression and genocide of the Slavs, and counting such people as Dr Mengele as their greats, Germans have a dark cynical streak that almost comes off as humor. At least, that part of self aware honesty was still present in 1994, before the Merkel years and renewed expansionism. This little cartoon is a wonderful animation of a bestseller novel by a Turkish German guest worker and writer, that strikes chords of this kind of German sickness but in the world of cats or uber-cats. Turks have a fondness for cats (as immortalized by the documentary about Istambul cats) as Islam treats dogs with less than respect, and in Germany ubermen are "in" again, despite through denaz ification, only pushed beneath the surface, into subconsciousness so to speak. Combine the two basic ideas and you get this darkly fun cartoon with a bit of mystery. Entertaining to watch, but ultimately nothing can beat the real thing and many many skeletons in the closets of the humorless but sickly amusing psyche of Germans past and present.

Now as a lover of adult animation I already knew I would like this seemingly unknown German film from what I read about it. I watched it on youtube in English dub, which was pretty convenient. It gives a great outlook on how a cats life would really be like. If you are not one for violence then you prolly shouldn't watch this. A lot of gory and odd imagery but it was much needed to set the mood for the storyline. I have noticed a lot pf the commenters on youtube were bothered by the sex scene between the main character and a girl cat. All I can say is its adult animation for a reason. If your gonna be a titty baby and not bare a sex scene between two cats that doesn't even last a min then you should go back to watching cats don't dance and eating your capn crunch. I loved this movie. It was dark, strange, a little raunchy, and I love cats.

As an animation fan, it's always good to seek out those that may have slipped through the net. In relation to what animation actually comes out in Uk cinemas, the numbers are most definitely poor compared to the cinema's in Europe and Asia - spending time in France allowed me to see many ore animated films, of which many were fantastic, only to have them never aired in the UK.Felidae is an example. First off, it's age of release makes it an unlikely purchase at the DVD store, but it's an interesting and ambitious example of 2d animation from Germany that deserves recognition. Up there with Watership Down and Plague Dogs, Felidae is a ghoulishly gory tale of murder amongst a cast of cats. The animation is good, the concept well rounded and the general narrative an interesting one.However the vivisection sequences and violence may leave some audiences upset and scratching their heads. Felidae is not a children's film, and contains a rather novel sex scene that left me a little surprised - the character designs seem to suggest a younger target audience then the narrative allows. Aside from the gore, I doubt children would be able to follow the story without being frightened. I strongly recommend that the film is seen in German with subtitles as well, as the lip syncing is an impressive achievement, somewhat cheapened by the rather poor English dubbing. Overall the film is an impressive achievement, though in my opinion, over ambitious. It tries hard to develop adult ideas but fails to balance them with characters that you empathise with. The dream sequences are expertly achieved and an example of fantastic art but some of the character designs left me underwhelmed.Credit where credit is due, Felidae tries hard to be dark and different and deserves a look.

I'm surprised that this film isn't very well known and that its mean score here is a mere 7.1 (which isn't that bad, but isn't that good either). This movie is often compared to The Plague Dogs (Mean score: 7.7), as they both are animated films with a lot of gore and language, but if you ask me, The Plague Dogs pales in comparison to Felidae. The Plague Dogs has better animation, but Felidae has so much more than that: Clever characters, unpredictable plot, witty humor, a developed cat culture, metaphors for human society, superb voice acting, and scientific references. The only danger I see with it is that some kid may want to see it since it's animated and has cats, and since it has no rating, the parents won't know it's not for kids. It would have PG-13 or R rating if it was rated. Be warned: It has frequent mild language (frick, hell, a**, a**hole, d***, god d***), occasional strong language (b******, s***, bulls***, s***head),some sexual references and innuendo, brief cat sex, and a lot of intense cat violence with animated blood and gore (intestines, lungs, and bones).