Annie-nominated "The Rabbi's Cat" opens in Calif.

Nominated for an Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, France's The Rabbi's Cat is being released this month in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego theaters.

The Rabbi's Cat can be seen in 3D at 5 and 6:30 p.m. today (Sunday, January 20) at the Downtown Independent (www.downtownindependent.com).

Traditionally animated, the film is based on a graphic novel by co-director Joann Sfar, one of France's best-known comic artists.

Algiers, in the 1920s. Rabbi Sfar lives with his daughter Zlabya, a noisy parrot and a mischievous cat that eats the parrot and only speaks to tell lies. The rabbi wants to drive him away. But the cat, totally in love with his mistress, will do everything to stay with her... even have a Bar Mitzvah! The rabbi will have to teach his cat the basis of Moses' law! A letter tells the rabbi that in order to keep his profession, he must pass a French examination. For helping him, the cat does an act of sacrilege by calling on the name of God. The rabbi passes his exam, but the cat does not speak any more. He is considered again a normal animal. His only friend is soon a Russian painter looking for a dream Jerusalem where black Jews live. This painter manages to convince the rabbi, an old Czarist soldier, a singer and the rabbi's cat to follow him on the colonial road...

Other Los Angeles screenings are at the Laemmle Music Hall (on Wilshire), Laemmle Playhouse in Pasadena and Laemmle’s Town Center in Encino.

The movie will screen at the Landmark Embarcadero and the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Francisco. The San Diego location is the Landmark Hillcrest.





[Via Cartoon Brew -- www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/the-rabbis-cat-opening-on-the-west-coast-76549.html]