A wonderful time awaits anyone who seeks out A Cat in Paris, the constantly enthralling film noir masquerading as a cartoon in this beguiling Oscar nominated animated feature. It’s also a visually breathtaking hand-drawn confection that delights the senses as well as the intellect.

This is not one of those cutesy-poo Disney-style talking animal movies as might be implied by the title, but rather a beautifully drawn tale of a housecat who lives two lives. By day he’s the companion of a young girl driven mute by the murder of her policeman father. By night he’s the companion of a cat burglar with a kind heart. Eventually his two lives connect in an unexpected way as the girl’s police commander mother and the cat burglar join forces to capture the bad guys. Oscar winners Marcia Gay Harden and Anjelica Huston and 80s star Matthew Modine are the top-billed voice actors in the U.S. version, but veteran voice actors Steve Blum and JB Blanc do the heavy lifting, the former as the heroic cat burglar, the latter as the film’s arch villain. Harden is the police commander, Modine her top detective and Huston her duplicitous housekeeper/nanny.

I’m not sure what the vagaries of the rules are for Oscar’s Best Animated Feature, but the original French version that was nominated last year seems not to have been shown in the U.S. except at film festivals. The English dubbed version was not released in the U.S. until June, 2012. Available on both Blu-ray and DVD, the original version is presented as an alternate audio selection.

Equally enthralling is Chico & Rita, a co-production of Spain and the U.K. which was another Oscar nominee for Best Animated Feature last year.

Based on a graphic novel, it tells the tale of a pianist/composer and singer who fall in love in 1948 Havana, are separated in 1959 New York and Las Vegas and re-united 47 years later. Filled with wonderful music, both new and old, and hand-drawn to beautiful effect, it’s a rare adult themed animated feature that is available both on Blu-ray and standard DVD in Spanish with English subtitles.

One of this year’s better animated feature Oscar hopefuls is the stop-motion ParaNorman voiced by, amongst others, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, John Goodman and Elaine Stritch.

The central story of a boy who can see and talk to dead people is a real charmer with well-defined characters in the real world. The problem is the dead people, who with the exception of those voiced by Goodman and Stritch, are not all that compelling. On the other hand, it is a cartoon, so there is no point in complaining too much. Anyway, the film has enough heart and enough laughs to keep it on the plus side.

ParaNorman is available on Blu-ray 3D, standard Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Taken from a story by Luke Short, André De Toth’s 1947 film, Ramrod is an early example of the adult themed western that came into prominence in the late 1940s. Noir goddess Veronica Lake, without her trademark hair falling over right eye, is still quite the dame as a strong-willed woman left a ranch by her cowardly finance. Joel McCrea is her trusted foreman or “ramrod”. Donald Crisp is the honest sheriff, Preston Foster the local bad guy, Don DeFore a conflicted good guy, Charlie Ruggles Lake’s not-so-nice father and Arleen Whelan the girl who waits for McCrea in this cult classic.

Ramrod is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

A taut thriller set in the California desert, Norman Panama’s 1959 film, The Trap, is simple, yet complex tale of murder and suspense.

Richard Widmark stars as a lawyer duped into helping the mob who must asks his sheriff father (Carl Benton Reid) and deputy brother (Earl Holliman) to look the other way while the mob escorts kingpin Lee J. Cobb to the local airport and out of the country while Holliman’s wife (Tina Louise) decides to hightail it out of town. Greed, family concern and sudden death get in the way of a simple execution of the plot.

The Trap is available on bopth Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Ira Levin’s long-running Broadway playDeathtrap was turned into a 1982 film by Sidney Lumet. A bit too tongue-in-cheek for its own good, the mostly one-set film barely masks its stage origins which are referred to over and over again. Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve are excellent as the main protagonists, but Dyan Cannon’s constant screams and Irene Worth’s theatrical German accent are put on a bit too thick for my taste. Nevertheless the film looks smashing on Warner Archive’s newly released Blu-ray edition, the first tiem the film has been released on home video in widescreen.

There is a tendency in some circles to put down the 1962 film version of Gypsy that that can be traced all the way back to stage diva Ethel Merman’s hurt feelings for having been passed over for the part of the ultimate stage mother she created on Broadway. Well, too bad. Merman may have sung better than Rosalind Russell, but Russell was the better actress by far and with her singing voice blended with that of lesser known stage diva, Lisa Kirk, she did just fine. Many actresses, including Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone have essayed the role since, but I’ll take Russell’s interpretation over any of them, thank you very much. There is no need to remake this film with Barbra Streisand or anyone else. Warner Archive’s Blu-ray upgrade makes it look like it was filmed yesterday.

Natalie Wood shines in the film’s middle section and acquits herself with authority as Gypsy Rose Lee in the latter scenes even if the real Gypsy was built more like Russell than Wood. No matter, it doesn’t detract from the overall enjoyment of the film.

New DVD releases this week include Beasts of the Southern Wild and Hope Springs.