Cinderella the Cat

A vast ship sits in the port of Naples: the Megaride. It was designed to become a centre for science and technology, its owner was murdered, and it was left to rot. His daughter Mia is still aboard with her stepmother and six stepsiblings. Control of the ship is in the hands of the man who killed her father. Marino Guarnieri directs, with Alessandro Rak, Ivan Cappiello and Dario Sansone. It is a Neapolitan Cinderella that leaves nothing familiar intact: no ball, no prince who rescues, and a wicked stepmother who is part of a criminal organisation. The source is not Grimm or Perrault but Giambattista Basile's La Gatta Cenerentola, written in Neapolitan in the seventeenth century, one of the oldest European versions of the tale. The animation mixes techniques: hand drawing, three dimensional modelling and scans of real locations. The interior of the ship therefore looks both drawn and built. The real subject is Naples itself: recorded ghosts, abandoned industrial projects, and organised crime taking possession of the city's future. It won significant prizes in Italy, including at the David di Donatello. Who it is for: viewers who like adult animation and the dark branch of fairy tale adaptation. Who it is not for: the narrative is tangled, there are too many characters, and this is not a film for children.