KidsFirst Kid Review

https://www.kidsfirst.org/detail/223126.html

Kris the Cat is a fun loving adventure of a pampered cat who has all he needs except a mate.

A short animated film inspired by an old Icelandic folktale, Kris the Cat tells the story of the beloved and pampered Queen's male cat, who is a skilled mouse catcher. The cat has everything he could want except a mate. One day, while hunting a mouse, he becomes lost in the countryside, where his adventure begins. He is plucked up by a little girl, who takes him home to her farmhouse. He meets a female cat who gradually takes to him. The little girl and her father name him Kris. Helga, the Queen's Head of Household, finds him at the farmhouse and, despite the girl's objections, buys the female cat and takes both Kris and Freyja back to the castle, promising to give the little girl one of their kittens. Kris discovers that love, in its many forms, surrounds him.

This sweet animated short film will warm your heart as Kris the cat finds true love. I love the 2D animation style. It's clear and very detailed. I also really enjoy the narration by Joanna Parson, with her clear voice filled with lots of inflections. The other voice talents are equally good. Helen Herbert plays the Little Girl and Russell Jordan plays Father. There is a bit of a dilemma when the head of castle offers to buy the girl's cat from her. She doesn't want to lose her cat, but her dad convinces her that the money will feed them for a year and they will be invited to the castle to select one of Kris and Freyja's kittens in the future. So the deed is done. Kris finds true love and the little girl and her dad find economic stability.

The film's message is a quiet meditation on maturity and finding love.

I give Kris the Cat 3.5 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 5 to 12, plus adults. By Julie S., KIDS FIRST!

TMFF Review

United Kingdom, Nov. 2, 2022 — What’s really fascinating about the stories for kids is their universality and how they capture, beyond their naïve interface, some pearls of wisdom for an audience of various ages. This seems to be the reason that leads Aimee Todoroff to create the short animation Kris The Cat, inviting us to witness the adventures of the protagonist, who, at the end of his odyssey, discovers true love. Despite its simplicity in terms of the animation style and the editing, the project has that sunny, optimistic aura that stems from a real passion for the fascinating world of storytelling. Thus, the director fully embraces the classic stylistics of a fairy tale, hiding behind a narrative voice to present us with the initiatory path of an atypical character – a tomcat from Iceland. Starting from the pretext of a folktale, the animation becomes not only a great example of putting immortal narrative structures into practice but also a declaration of love addressed to our four-legged friends.

It is wonderful to see that such animations manage, despite their apparent naivety, to charm, even when the message is not new, especially to a seasoned viewer. This rare quality is due to the skill with which Aimee Todoroff keeps the balance between the style of the narration, the subtextual message, and the “clean” visual and musical interface through which the little spectators can create empathic connections with Kris. No, this is not a project that wants to be non-conformist or original at any cost. In fact, this stake is not important for the director who rather gives us this animation not to surprise nor to provide some “life lessons” but for the pure and vivid pleasure of storytelling. And that is perhaps all that matters when we talk about such a project. In other words, Kris The Cat offers that moment of disconnection, making us forget about the rigors and ambitions of an “elitist” cinema in order to fully immerse ourselves in the fascinating act of storytelling or perhaps even in the nostalgia for our own childhood..