Pettson & Findus: The Kattonaut – Pettson och Findus – Kattonauten (2000)

Directed by: Torbjörn Jansson, Albert Hanan Kaminski, Árpád Szabó | 75 minutes | animation, family | Dutch voice cast: Louis van Beek, Wim van Rooij, Kees van Lier, Maria Lindes, Marjolein Algra, Rob van de Meeberg, Hero Muller, Joep van Egmond, Lotte Lohr, Rieneke van Nunen

The Swedish animation film ‘Pettson and Findus: De katonaut’ is twenty years old at the time of writing (the film was initially released in 2000, in Dutch cinemas in November 2001), but the timeless animation has not lost any of its power. Charming and nostalgic, without being corny, beautifully animated and main characters to close to your heart.

In ‘Pettson and Findus: The katonaut’ several stories are discussed, which seamlessly merge into one another. In a sepia-tinted prologue we see how the somewhat idiosyncratic loner Petterson receives a present from his neighbor: a young kitten. At first, the old boss, who feels fine in his own environment without interference from others, does not like the animal, but when it turns out that the cat can talk – Petterson can’t resist him. Findus, as he calls the cat, Petterson invariably calls Pettson, thus creating the legendary duo.

Pettson and Findus become best friends. As befits a good friendship, they bring out the best in each other. Without Findus, Pettson would become a hermit; Pettson occasionally slows down Findus, but on the other hand goes very far with the fun. He lets Findus experience an unforgettable adventure when the cat indicates (inspired by the first space dog Laika) that he wants to go to the moon as the first cat. He builds a rocket, transforms the environment into a moonscape and even gets his chickens to dress up as moon chickens.

They go camping, fishing, visit a circus and are visited by Pettson’s urban brother. The stories are not earth-shattering, but are therefore close to the perception of the target group. The hand-drawn images are very detailed and attractive, you imagine yourself – as with many other Scandinavian animation films – in a picture book come to life. Several elements – the broken toilet door of Pettson’s crummy outdoor toilet and the letter Findus writes to the king, for example – act as a common thread and keep the whole thing together. The same goes for the funny intermezzos with the small farm inhabitants (whose species are difficult to determine – they look like mini hippos, but behave like mice), who tell a story of their own in a few striking fragments. Nice to see you (again)!