ShortList 2019: Jon Frickey’s Animated Identity Tale ‘Cat Days’ Began With a Sick Day in Japan

For German animator Jon Frickey, “Cat Days,” a playful little tale about a boy discovering who he is began on a sick day in Kyoto and has become…something more. “Cat Days,” a finalist in TheWrap’s 2019 ShortList Film Festival, follows a boy named Jiro who is diagnosed by a serious-sounding doctor with a flu that can only be contracted by cats. While the doctor doublechecks with a DNA test, Jiro and his father are left wondering if the boy really is a cat and the dad buying books on raising cats to better understand his son. The idea for the film came in 2012, when Frickey came down with a bad case of the flu when he was living in Japan. While recuperating in the small apartment he rented with some friends, he joked that he had come down with “cat flu” from a cat who howled outside their building every night. That joke stuck with him so much that he decided to make a cartoon out of it. Also Read: 2019 ShortList Film Festival Finalists Announced: Watch and Vote for the Winner!! “Now, on the one hand, the plot is obviously not genuinely Japanese — it could take place...

Read original story ShortList 2019: Jon Frickey’s Animated Identity Tale ‘Cat Days’ Began With a Sick Day in Japan At TheWrap