| Felidae | |
|---|---|
 VHS release poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Schaack |
| Screenplay by | Martin Kluger Akif Pirinçci |
| Story by | Akif Pirinçci |
| Based on | Felidae by Akif Pirinçci |
| Produced by | Hanno Huth |
| Starring | Ulrich Tukur Mario Adorf Helge Schneider Uwe Ochsenknecht Klaus Maria Brandauer |
| Cinematography | Werner Loos |
| Edited by | Klaus Basler |
| Music by | Anne Dudley |
Production companies | TFC Trickcompany Fontana |
| Distributed by | Senator Film Distribution |
Release date |
|
Running time | 78 minutes |
| Country | Germany[1] |
| Language | German |
| Budget | DM 10 million ($US5 million) |
Felidae is a 1994 Germanadult animatedxenofictivepsychological horrormystery film directed by Michael Schaack, written by Martin Kluger, Stefaan Schieder andAkif Pirinçci, and based on Pirinçci's 1989 novelof the same name. Produced by Trickompany, the film features the voices ofUlrich Tukur,Mario Adorf andKlaus Maria Brandauer. The story centers on domestic house cat Francis and the grisly feline murders taking place in his new neighborhood.[2]
Francis, an intelligent and cynical cat, moves into a gloomy, dilapidated house with his owner, Gustav Löbel, a romance writer and archeologist. The top floor of the house gives off a mysterious and distinctly chemical odor. During Francis' exploratory tour of the house, he discovers the body of a cat who was killed by a bite to the neck. At the crime scene, he meets and befriends Bluebeard, a foul-mouthed, one-eyed, mutilated Maine Coon. After another corpse appears, Francis discovers that his house's top floor is the meeting site of a sect of cats led by Joker. The members of Joker's sect worship an entity named Claudandus and perform ritualistic suicide by throwing themselves into anelectric current. When Francis' presence is discovered, he is chased by the sect members across the city's rooftops. He escapes through a skylight and meets ablind cat named Felicity, who supplies Francis with information on the Claudandus sect.
The next day, Bluebeard takes Francis to Pascal, an elderly and tech-savvy cat who has taken to meticulously maintaining a list of feline residents of the area, who informs Francis that Felicity is the latest victim. That night Francis is haunted by a nightmare of the famousfriar andgeneticistGregor Mendel. During a rodent hunt, Francis discovers a video recording that documents the top floor's previous use as an experimental laboratory. This laboratory was devoted to the research/development of afibrin glue and tissue adhesive that would close wounds in an instant. The test subjects largely consisted of stray cats that, more often than not, died in agony as a result of the failed test runs. The one cat who survived the experiments was christened by the lab's technicians as "Claudandus", Latin for "He who should or must be sealed". However, Claudandus eventually murdered the project's alcoholic and increasingly unhinged lead technician Dr. Preterius, leading to the escape of the other strays and closure of the lab. Claudandus would subsequently become a legendary martyr figure revered by the modern-day sect.
Francis discovers a crypt with hundreds of cat skeletons and realizes the murders have been occurring secretly for years. He comes to suspect Joker, the only cat who claims to have met Claudandus, until Joker is found dead as well. Francis confronts Pascal, who reveals himself to be Claudandus. After murdering Preterius, Claudandus was taken in by Preterius' former assistant Ziebold and learned of Mendel's laws of heredity. Over years he created a new breed of cat with ancient traits, aiming to recreate the primal ancestor of all domestic cats, capable of wiping out humanity. The murdered cats had refused to comply with his eugenics program. Claudandus, who is terminally ill with stomach cancer, declares Francis his chosen successor. Francis defiantly deletes Claudandus' computer records. The ensuing fight between the two starts a house fire. Ultimately Francis manages to disembowel Claudandus, who mourns his lost innocence as he dies. Leaving his legacy to burn, Francis rescues an injured Bluebeard from the flames.
Some time later, Francis once again encounters his mate, and in voiceover, encourages the viewer to keep believing in a world where humans and animals can live together in harmony.
Felidae was the most expensive animated film produced in Germany to date, reportedly costing 10 millionDeutsche Marks, or 5 million US dollars.[3][4]
BMG Video first released the film on VHS in Germany after its theatrical release on November 3, 1994.
The soundtrack was released on a 16-track CD. The title song Felidae was sung byBoy George and co-written by him with John Themis.[5]
It was released on PALDVD region 2 with Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 surround sound for the original German audio and Dolby 2.0 for the English audio dub in Dolby 2.0. Extras (in German only) include DVD commentary, trailer in German, and a "making of" documentary.[6]
The film was released in the United States as anUltra HD Blu-ray by Deaf Crocodile on December 31, 2024,[7] while it was released in Canada on February 11, 2025. This is the film's first ever release for those markets, containing a new restoration of the film and Deaf Crocodile's first Ultra HD release, though the English dub is not present.[8][9][10]
Although the film has had acult following,the film failed at the German box office due to poor marketing, and the English version had not been widely released in any English-speaking country aside from a hard to find VHS in Australia, possibly due to the movie's strong violence and sexual content,[5] prior to the rerelease by Deaf Crocodile. The dub was, however, included as an alternate-language option on the German and French DVD releases and has since been uploaded in its entirety ontoYouTube.
Eric Hansen ofVariety said that the film lacked screen time for the plot, and it needed more to avoid confusion. Hansen complimented the voices behind Francis and Bluebeard, but criticizedKlaus Maria Brandauer's voice-over as a "by-the-numbers performance."[11]
Austin Film Society has called it "catnip for any weirdo who's ever pondered the possibilities of an R-ratedDon Bluth movie".[12]
| Felidae | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | |
| Released | 1994 |
| Recorded | 1994 |
| Genre | Orchestral |
| Length | 41:35 |
| Label | Polymedia |
