An animated fable from Latvia. Apocalyptic without a clear moral. No dialogue (nothing was spoken in the version I watched). They got many of the cat behaviours right but not all: I've never met a cat with any loyalty not secured with food and the right kind of scratching, or seen one climb down a vertical structure (here a mast). I hadn't heard a feline growl in so long. The other animals mystified me.
I can't say I understood the point of it all. At one point things get a bit transcendental, a bit Terrence Malick as the bird ascends to something-or-other. It won the Oscar earlier in the year for best animated feature film; even so the animation itself struck me as a long way from the state of the art. Over two nights due to a lack of grip.
Calum Marsh made it a Critic's Pick at the New York Times. "[A]voids the sort of whimsy and sentimentality that might plague, say, a Disney movie with the same premise." Carlos Aguilar at Roger Ebert's venue: four stars. Wendy Ide: four stars. All claim there's not a lot of anthropomorphism going on. but really, come on.
