Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

What an excellent animation, a very pleasant surprise ! Able to talk (not to much insisting on the religious side) about Judaism, Jews and Muslims all together without being heavy, pedant nor dogmatic and with a great touch of humour, I loved that. The drawing are very well made, the dialogues (rather simple, like my comment) have the right touch to make you smile... and the cat is just perfect !Usually I avoid every movie talking about Judaism, not because of Judaism itself (I am an atheist), but for political reasons : since 1967, I am fed up with all the propaganda made for (sionism and) Israël. I mean the state, not the people living there. For a country created on foreign lands which did not belong to the Jews more than it did to the Palestinians... and the last mentioned were already there... ! Personnaly, I have no problem to speak and communicate with any Israelis, Arabic or Jew, unless he/she comes along with his/her Uzi or AK-47 and puts it in front of my noise :-) And I am also fed up with the brainwash in most newspapers and in TV channels made since WW2, as if the Jews were the only ones who suffered and died during the six sad long years... Why Russian or Polish couldn't also lament for 70 years ?! Imagine the newspapers, filled with these types of articles : it could last for 300 years !!!Well, back to this funny animation, I will recommend it to my friends and/or to anyone who could enjoy something fresh, original, out of the main stream blockbusters. I agree there are some missing explanatory parts, but I don't care, I enjoyed the whole part. 10/10A film is never really good unless the camera is an eyes in the head of a poet Orson Welles10/10A film is never really good unless the camera is an eyes in the head of a poet Orson Welles

Set in Algiers initially, then many places in Africa around 1920.A cat adopts a rabbi and his daughter. The cat, after eating a talking parrot, gains the ability to speak and read. He helps the rabbi with his professional development test. In doing so he invokes God's name; the rabbi passes, but the cat temporarily loses his ability to speak French.A large box of books from Russia; the box also contains a body. Only the cat recognizes that the body is still alive. When the cat awakens the Russian, he finds the prince can understand him (in Russian) even though the others cannot understand him in French.They look for a person in Algiers who speaks both Russian and French. The rabbi finds him and recruits him to translate for the prince.There are a number of philosophical discussions and talks about the politics of the area in 1920. As a side effect of all this, a quest is started to find black Jews in Africa. Getting there was hilarious. It is also revealed that the prince wants to paint all sorts of subjects throughout Africa.The rabbi, the prince, the cat, the rabbi's Arab Muslim friend and his talking donkey set out to find this city. There are lots of changes along the way. The cat regains his ability to speak French. The prince finds his wife. Eventually the prince and his new bride find the city. The humour is outstanding.-----Scores------Art/Animation: 10/10 The style is pen and ink, with minimal shading. This is rather well executed in great detail.Sound: 10/10 Always good.Screenplay: 10/10 Brilliant writing for an ensemble of clever characters. The story is humorous and moves right along, from beginning to middle to happy ending. The comedy of manners aspect is deftly handled.

I really enjoyed this film. It's brilliantly drawn, charming, discusses real events from history, and touches on philosophy. It also takes its time, which is refreshing nowadays. Clearly a lot of work went into this piece of art, which doesn't attempt to be a money making blockbuster.It was neat to see another famous cartoon character make a cameo appearance midway through the film.I'd really like to see more films like this. 8/10. Great work.And now my usual Lorem Ipsum to satisfy IMDb's ten line requirement: But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful.

Joann Sfar is the director of Gainsbourg, Une Vie Heroique, a film that I loved immensely, one of the best I have seen lately. I was not astonished to learn that his Jewish origins are doubled by some Belgian identity, as he is a well known author of 'bandes dessinees'. The character of one of his most popular series - the rabbi's cat is coming now to screens and we spent a couple of hours in our last day in Paris to see this 3-D animated movie.The story is set in the Algiers of the 30s and the characters are the strongest side of the film. Rabbi Sfar is one of these venerated figures of Sephardi rabbis we would like to see more in real life. He is wise and has a great sense of humor, is tolerant and his best friend is the Muslim sheik Mohammed Sfar (of course, a mirror of himself in tolerance and ecumenicism), he gladly bends the strict rules of Judaic conversions when faced with true love and even pardons the cat who has swallowed his beloved parrot just because it got the divine gift of speaking. The ideal rabbi.Although we get too little time to know the other characters in the story we are already charmed by the daughter of the rabbi and we hope to meet her in the next episodes of what must become a series. A few other colored characters embark in a cross-African adventure with Indiana Jones flavored promises in the search of the ideal Jewish city where pure Jewishness and proud independence is to be found. Short after the city is found and proves to be a militaristic fortress (any hint with present tense on the responsibility of the viewer) the movie quite abruptly ends. So it must have a continuation, as almost nothing is solved from a characters or story development, and as the action happens in the 30s we now know too well what happened to the Jewish world in the 40s.The film has a lot of charm and a lot of flaws. I loved the way it is drawn, which descends from the best French and Belgian tradition in the genre. The 3-D effects seem under-used, and I do not think it will make much difference to see this film in 2-D. The characters are interesting and as a viewer you start caring for some of them almost as soon as they show up on screen. The Jewish world of North Africa is well rendered, and the story of the Russian refugee has a touch of Chagall. The message of tolerance and understanding between faith may be naive but such a message is never preached too often. It is exactly the action component so string in other films of the genre which is missing in this movie, or maybe this was just a prelude, in which case I would preferred to see it together with the first and maybe second episode in the series.