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..