Animation: Akif Pirincci's FELIDAE

Akif Pirincci's ---=== FELIDAE ===---

If you are looking for where you can get Felidae, either movie or books, this is the right place.

"Humans tried to make them obey, to force them into submissive surrender since the age of the caveman. But the felines don't lose their pride, instict and heart at all. Cats never forgot who they are, remaining the way they were supposed to be. The cats are still that way today. And these days, a series of brutal murders bring fright and pain to one city. Every day reveals bloody corpses!

The one and only who can uncover the secret about the mysterious psychotic murderer: Francis, the most well known cat detective in the world among his kind in freedom. Doing his dangerous researching and investigations for the cruel murders, the sleek cat detective sinks more and more into a misty web of passions, sex, dreadful sect activities and computer bytes..."

The Story of FELIDAE

Francis's a cat, a cat detective, and right as we start off, his owner Gustav Loebel is about to move off into a house in another city, taking his cat with himself of course. Francis doesn't like moving at all. And the new house being quite some kind of a ghostly castle's ruins is giving him the creeps. It smells all like... medical stuff, dust, and dried blood. Exploring the house and it's yard Francis soon finds himself a possible friend - Bluebeard, one of the many other cats living in the new and yet to explore area and it's neighbourhood. But the first glimpse at his surroundings tell Francis that something awfully foul is going on here. As he finds the first corpse in the backyard right on the day when he get's to see the house - the trouble starts. Do the murders have something in common? Was it a human maybe? Wouldn't be the first time...

Bluebeard (middle) and Francis (on the right) start to crack this case together, meeting the strangest fellows you can possibly imagine. Here, they meet the local Bully Kong (left).

Felidae, do you know what this word means? Just in case you were not familiar with it, it stands for 'the race of cats' (if I may put it that way). It is the title for all cat species and sub species of cats. To give you one example, Felidae Felis Felestris is a european wildcat. Back to the storyline. It turns out that the old house has been a doctor's laboratory, years ago. Experiments with cats for a 'wound glue' project, Francis soon learns all about it. Written down with love to detail, the doctors and his assistants wrote down all the cruelties done to the cats. They wanted to find the concept for a medic that glues a wound closed so that it is sealed and can recover safe from infections.

Francis (left) flees from a hundred cats and falls from a window in the ceiling into a house, where he meets Felicitas (sitting on the chair to the right), one blind but aware feline who is, unlike most of the other cats around, nice for a change. And she's got some clues for this case. Willing to help, she tells Francis what she knows.

Felidae has been the most expensive german animation project so far (JUNE 1998). The production cost about 15 million german marks. The efforts put into it by international artist groups and the english national orchestra will never be forgotten. The great details that have been put into the movie with such love to it that it can be compared with movies that come from far more widely know companies. Michael Schaak, the co-regisseur has produced the movie real close to the book! Nothing of the story changed! The people who lent their voices to the characters are well known in germany, being actors and usually showing up in series every week, people who have a passion for projects like this. Like Uwe Ochsenknecht and Helge Schneider.

She won't tell her name right away, but Nhozemphtekh is definately the most attractive cat Francis meets. But there is something strange about her real self. She's part of the puzzle, and as she and Francis become mates, he learns something without he would never be able to figure all the murders out.

Music has one of the most important roles in Felidae. Much like a character, or just like a character, the music tells the story and adds more feelings. Sometimes it gives me the creeps, makes me want to run away - sometimes it lulls me into harmony and happiness. Especially in Felidae however, the music's used to make you feel just how gloomy one must feel when in a murder situation like this. There's no cat police or something. The rules in Felidae are the real ones - and they're set. It's about life and death, and that is what the music lets you feel. The soundtrack is valuable since it's not been in hype production like with other movies. If you can't find one for you anywhere, sorry but then you'll very probably not get one anymore. Once I found one! Makes a great present, too =) ... Now, here are the songs on it in chronological order:

I might add Mp3 files (with low quality) sometime. First I have to check somewhere if that is okay, since to my information, no Felidae soundtracks are being produced and sold anymore since quite some time. We'll see. =) Email me immediately if you bought recently the soundtrack, tell me where you got it so I can include the info here!! Same goes for the english version of the movie, on video, dvd, whatever. Please tell me...

1. Felidae - Title
2. Main Theme
3. Bluebeard and Archie
4. Kong and his Cronies
5. Celebrating the black Mass
6. Felicitas
7. Pascal the Enigma
8. Mendel's Waltz
9. Blood Sport
10.A gruesome Encounter
11.Catacombs of Doom
12.The Egyptian Dream
13.Seductive Nhozemphtekh
14.In the Snow
15.The riddle falls into place
16.I am Claudandus

With Bluebeard's help, Francis examines the dead body of an old cat named Deep-Purple (right). Traces of blood lead from outside into the garage where the corpse rests. Francis wonders how the old cat came to rest on the motorcylcle.

Now, you probably wonder how you'll get to see Felidae. If you do not live in germany it might be hard to find it in video stores, so good luck. However, there exists one US version of it, that I know for sure. It should be sold at video stores somewhere! If you know where exactly, please mail me about it immediately so I can include this information right here. Thank you very much! If you're curious about the US version (which is the same as in german, just different voices and some of the dialouge changed for english equalents) and you wanna know more about it, read on. Let me quote some words about what it's like, from a letter that my friend Sega wrote me(I leave personal things out, just what's in it about Felidae):

"The OTHER film we saw was "Felidae"! It was very good! They had dubbed it into English, with good voices and perfect synch. They even re-did the computer scenes so we could read them. It was a great mystery, reminding me of "Secret if Nimh" and "Pulp Fiction" or "X-Files". Francis was really neat! He was smart and very handsome! I liked how he wasn't bothered by what the big, bad cat said. He was a very cool cat! I can see why you like him so much. It was great to see a really adult animated film, and a detective story too, which is one of my favorite kinds of stories."

(left) About the books: The English translation got this title cover. The sequel called "Felidae on the road" (which may become a movie somday, too) looks almost the same, except that the colors of the cat face on the cover are more pinkish and it says "on the road" on it. Go look for the book if you like reading... you'll have more of the story.

If you read this Sega, =) be nicely greeted (the whole First Light Pride!), the typical TLK way and hugs go right along =).
Your Jammet, happy!

And why I think this movie is great...

Let me start off with what I don't like: The violence, the blood, and the cruelties. It makes me cry, because many think reality works that way. But reality is different. Love is reality =). This one movie is really red in tooth and claw, and one very well known one, too. Now for the positive side:The classical murder story which involves research and many seemingly weird or awfully normal characters fascinates many of us. As for me, Jammet, I do like this great movie very much, as it is very close to the book written by Akif Pirincci, who is by the way one very good (or the best) book author when it comes to CAT, and he has written a sequel to Felidae which has not (yet?) been planned as another animated movie. Francis the cat detective existed. But his name then was Cujo, and he lived around Akif Pirincci's house. There are very violent and scary and sad parts of the story. Nothing of the cruelties is hidden. The few humans who show up in the movie are mostly the 'doctors' of the experimental laboratory, and they're not doing anything nice. Yes the movie scared me! I do not want to watch movies that scare or disgust me. If Felidae wouldn't have such a fantastic storyline ... but it's not a flat movie like so many others. What makes Felidae different from many other animated movies is the fact that it has got a lot of adult content, even though it's for ages from 12 and up in germany. Don't ask me why. If I had been watching this movie at the age of twelve I think I would probably have died crying. The story is what makes Felidae so great! It's got quite a lot of complexity and it's own mysteries so listen carefully and remeber important things. =)

Resources on Felidae:

1. The Books
1.1 Felidae
     Title: Felidae
     ISBN: (soon) Pages: (soon) Price: (soon)
1.2 Felidae on the Road
     Title: Felidae on the Road
     ISBN: 185702-307-2 Pages: 236 Price: 4.99 pounds