Characters / Felidae

Francis

Voiced by: Ulrich Tukur (German), Enrique Mederos (Mexican Spanish), Jeff Harding (English), Patrick Poivey (French)

• Beware the Nice Ones: He may be the nicest character in the movie, but he gets into a vicious fight with Claudandus in the finale and brutally disembowels him.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He's a black cat and the hero.
• Deadpan Snarker: Makes quite a few quips.
• Nice Guy: The only decent and peaceful cat in the story besides Felicity, who is unfortunately brutally murdered shortly after Francis meets her.
• Phrase Catcher: Often called a "clever shit" (Klugscheiße, which is essentially German equivalent of a smart-ass) by other cats; he eventually adopts the phrase as his own at the end.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: At one point, he gives a long and very snarky one to Kong.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Bluebeard's Manly Man.

Bluebeard

Voiced by: Mario Adorf (German), Graham Parker (English), Patrick Messe (French)

• Big Eater: He loves eating on the job frequently, especially liver and codfish. Francis calls him out on caring more about his next meal than the mystery a couple of times.
• Catchphrase: He often says "Shit yes!" in the novel.
• Comically Missing the Point: Francis tells him at one point that the murders and the Claudandus sect can lead to something big happening. Bluebeard (who's feeling hungry at the moment) asks if it's a fresh piece of fish and makes a very funny grin.
• Handicapped Badass: He talks down Kong at one point, despite being blind in one eye and having a mangled left paw.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Best portrayed when he defended Francis from the much bigger Kong.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: He doesn't like humans that much, but he does agree that Francis's owner is a good cook.

Pascal

Voiced by: Klaus Maria Brandauer (German), Peter Marinker (English), Bernard Alane (French)

• Cool Old Guy: A lot more reliable than Bluebeard. Too bad he's the Big Bad.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: He uses computers and teaches Francis how to use them as well, ultimately leading Francis to his real identity in the hopes that he would take over for him.
• The Mentor: Acts as one to Francis.
• Nice Guy: To the same degree as Francis. He later turns out to be the murderer of over 400 innocent cats.

Felicity

Voiced by: Mona Seefried (German), Mónica Manjarrez (Mexican Spanish), Tamsin Hollo (English), Déborah Perret (French)

• He Knows Too Much: Although blind, she heard one of the murders take place so the murderer had her mutilated to Leave No Witnesses.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: To match her Russian blue coat.
• Kill the Cutie: She's brutally murdered not long after talking to Francis.
• Nice Girl: Alongside Francis, she is the kindest character, and also the most innocent.
• Off with His Head!: This is how she meets her end.

Kong

Voiced by: Wolfgang Hess (German), Bob Sessions (English), Benoit Allemane (French)

• The Bully: He loves throwing his weight around, quite literally at times.
• The Brute: A hulking bullying cat who has no problem harassing the neighborhood cats.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Not really "evil", but comes pretty close. The murder of Solitaire, one of his girlfriends, made Kong want to find who was responsible and rip off his limbs.
• Gonk: He's nominally a Himalayan, but such a hulking, fangy brute has more in common with a smilodon then a domestic cat. Averted in the book where he is simply described as "abnormally huge" but is otherwise a normal cat.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Ultimately comes out with the horrifying death of Solitaire, his mate, causing him to do a Heel–Face Turn, forget about menacing the protagonists and turn all his energy into finding the murderer.
• Meaningful Name: He's the biggest cat and named after the biggest beast in fictional history.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: You would think him having a personal vendetta against the killer would make give him a big role in the movie/book. But he almost completely disappears following the murder of Solitaire and his only further contribution the plot is helping Francis and Pascal get their voices heard during their "press conference".

Joker

Voiced by: Ulrich Wildgruber (German), William Roberts (English), Philippe Dumat (French)

• Cult: The leader of one that worships Claudandus as a prophet and martyr.
• Pet the Dog: Yeah, he's a total crackpot, but he did take in and raise Isaiah.
• Secret-Keeper: He knew Claudandus was still alive and behind the murders.
• Undying Loyalty: Joker makes serving Claudandus his purpose in life. He lets Claudandus kill him to prevent their secrets from getting out.

Isaiah

Voiced by: Helge Schneider (German), Ian Tyler (English), Jacques Ciron (French)

• Dark Is Not Evil: He lives in a crude tomb with only skeletons for company but he's not looking to make more.
• Mistaken for Murderer: Kong wrongly accuses him of killing Solitaire.
• Sanity Slippage: A lifetime of guarding the dead has left him more than a bit unstable.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After miserable years spent in his crypt, Isiah is ultimately found and adopted by a kindly bartender.

Claudandus

Voiced by: Klaus Maria Brandauer (German), Ricardo Hill (Mexican Spanish), Peter Marinker (English)

• Affably Evil: Even after being exposed as the Big Bad, he still treats Francis like an equal and remains polite.
• Apologetic Attacker: Apologizes to Francis quietly before going in for the kill when Francis tries to delete the logs of his murders. It's emphasized slightly more in the original English dub, whereas in the original German Claudandus throws Francis' own apology back in his face before attacking.
  "You can't begin to imagine how deeply I regret this, Francis..."
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: It's made perfectly clear multiples times that Claudandus would never have become such a heinous individual if he hadn't been so painfully and gruesomely experimented on by humans.
• Berserk Button: Humans, but especially his belief that Humans Are Bastards being challenged.
• The Chessmaster: He's been working on his eugenics plan for decades and attempts to groom Francis to be his successor.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: In the movie, Claudandus dies in a truly horrific manner when he attempts to leap at Francis in a murderous rage. Francis ducks out the way and slashes Claudandus down the stomach — right on the scar where he'd repeatedly been vivisected — graphically disemboweling him to the point where his internal organs completely spill out of his body once he slams into the ground.
• Dark and Troubled Past: As a young cat, Claudandus was taken in by human scientists who subjected him to countless experiments for months.
• Dark Messiah: He serves as this for the Claudandus sect, with Joker preaching the ‘gospel’ of his sacrifice and how salvation may be found through him. Nobody except Joker knows that he’s still alive and living right in the neighborhood with them.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Claudandus' plan revolves around a theory that select breeding will undo domestication and free cats from human oppression. It's not lost on Francis that this makes him no better than Preterius.
• Fantastic Racism: His experiences have convinced him that all of humanity is irredeemably evil deep down.
• Freudian Excuse: Claudandus was once a normal stray cat...until he was taken in by scientists who repeatedly and painfully experimented on him. This traumatic ordeal left him forever traumatized and filled with rage and hatred for all humans.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He started out as an orphan cat who became Preterius' lab subject. After months of torture, he kills his master and sets out to remake the current cat population.
• Handicapped Badass: Despite being an old cat dying of cancer, stated to be a few months ahead of the reaper, he does manage to ambush and seriously injure Bluebeard and fights like he's got nothing to lose against Francis.
• He Who Fights Monsters: As Francis points out, Claudandus has become no better than the worst of the humans he hates.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: He believes this firmly, displayed when Francis tells Claudandus that there are good humans in the world, and he screams that there are no good humans.
• Living Legend: To the religious fanatical cult led by Joker.
• Rage Against the Heavens: In the novel, Claudandus flat-out declares that he hates God for allowing men like Preterius to exist, decrying Him as a “huge, horrible spider in the dark”.
• The Reveal: Pascal is Claudandus.
• Villainous Breakdown: He screams with pure fury at Francis for believing that there are good humans in the world. Then he decides to stop talking and kick some tail.
• We Have Become Complacent: In the novel, Claudandus opines that cats have allowed humans to mould them into “bad caricatures” of humans, flaws and all, content with their subservience and the shame of the Felidae race. Francis, however, fires back by claiming Claudandus has only become what the worst of humanity is.