May 17, 2022 2 min to read

The cat piano is a mystical story for the fans of noir

The story unfolds in a city of cats with the style of Middle Eastern culture, populated by aesthetes and music lovers.

© Magic Films

Many artworks have a powerful socio-cultural or personal foundation that is close to everyone. We are going to talk about the cartoon, which has both of them … about a wonderful short animated film The Cat Piano ²⁰⁰⁹. This cartoon is very often characterized as the “style” of Sin City ²⁰⁰⁵ and compared to the work of Frank Miller, although it is a typical piece of noir. At the same time, The Cat Piano is a more pronounced noir than the film Sin City.

The idea of the film is rooted in the piano for cats, an invention that belongs to German scientist-encyclopedist and inventor Athanasius Kircher. That sort of piano used cats in a special mechanism for making sounds. Not surprisingly, an intelligent man of that time dreamed of such an invention because in those days it was believed that the sound of meow was able to cure melancholy.

© La Nature / Wikipedia

THE PLOT

The story unfolds in a city of cats with the style of Middle Eastern culture, populated by aesthetes and music lovers. The protagonist and narrator of the story is a cat-poet who is in love with a cat-singer.

The city of cats is plunged into darkness and cold when all musicians and performers begin to disappear. The only evidence police can find are human footprints. When the beloved cat-singer of our hero disappears, the main character cannot get rid of his obsessive thoughts. He gathers a team, and they go to rescue the captives.

SOUND

The voice of the narrator, which belongs to the famous Australian musician Nick Cave, gives a special atmosphere to the cartoon. The text of the story is presented in the form of a poem that was inspired by Jack Kerouac and Edgar Allan Poe.

© Gregorylee / DepositPhotos

GRAPHICS

The cartoon features very high-quality graphics and 2D animation. The creators worked with the cartoon for more than 2 years. As a result, The Cat Piano has won awards at many film festivals. The creators also applied for an Oscar nomination ²⁰¹⁰, but the cartoon was not even nominated, which showed the wrong side of the ceremony.

A similar idea of visualizing a family of cats portrayed as people can be seen in the animated series Around the world with Willy Fog, the cartoon Return of the Cat, and Blacksad comics. But the cartoon The Cat Piano is more mystical, mysterious, and fascinating.

CONCLUSIONS

The Cat Piano is a beautiful noir story and a dream of all fans of the genre. In just 8 minutes you can feel both rigidity and tenderness, as well as despair and hope. These emotions are something we so often long for when watching most feature films!