Raining Cats and Frogs (French: , literally "The Prophecy of Frogs") is a French traditional animation children's feature film, released in 2003, directed by Jacques-Rémy Girerd and written by Girerd, Antoine Lanciaux and Iouri Tcherenkov at the animation studio Folimage. It is the first feature produced by Folimage and is distributed internationally by Universal Pictures.
The film is loosely based on the story of Noah's Ark. It is about a group of frogs who predict an imminent disaster where it will rain for forty days and forty nights. They tell a boy and girl who subsequently help save the animals in a zoo.
The French DVD was released in 2005 with English subtitles.
The US and Canada DVD Raining Cats and Frogs was released in 2008.
Plot
Ferdinand Bauer lives with his wife Juliette on a farm on a hill with their adoptive son (actually his grandson), Tom. The film begins when they agree to care of Lili, his other granddaughter, whom they will look after while Lili's parents travel by car and trailer to Africa to find crocodiles for their zoo, which they also leave in the care of Ferdinand and Juliette.
On the farm, there is a small pond. The frogs in the pond are restless, as their calculations have shown that the Earth is about to be flooded for forty days and forty nights. The frogs initially are reluctant to tell them, since they cannot change anything but decide to tell Tom and Lili, so that they can warn people.
Suddenly the flood starts, apparently washing away all live on Earth. The zoo animals escape to the barn which is on top of a hill, the foundations of the building are torn away by the flood and floats on a huge tractor tire on the water. Ferdinand, an experienced sailor, takes on the role of the captain and every one agrees that they will only survive if they stick together. When the rains finally stop all the animals are very hungry. Ferdinand has stored 28 tons of potatoes which he uses to make French fries, but the carnivores are unhappy because they cannot survive only on French fries but Ferdinand convinces the carnivores to yield in view of the greater good of everyone on the floating barn.
A tortoise appears, injured by a crocodile attack and has lost a leg. Lili befriends the tortoise and Tom notices that she has kept her distance from him ever since. The fox and the lion grudge about their lot of having to feed on potatoes when a voice tells them that they should raise against such decision but the lion prevails in that they should respect the captain's law, however after a few days their huger gets the best of them and they attack a sheep and Ferdinand vanishes the carnivores to a bathing tub that floats behind the barn. In the meantime, Ferdinand and Tom talk about his father, who was the machinist at Ferdinand's boat, who was very handy with them. Ferdinand manages to "motorize" the barn by modifying an old tractor engine to oars at the side of the building.
The tortoise tells Lili her story of how she saved her life and three of her eggs despite losing her limb to the crocodiles, who attacked everyone, including humans, at the time of the flood and convinces Lili that her parents died. Ferdinand and Juliette adopt Lili as their own. At night the carnivores notice that the tortoise is actually in cahoots with the crocodiles to feed the entire barn to them, but she must get rid of the captain. The carnivores are initially unconvinced, but they latter agree to mutiny and in the ensuing fight they throw Ferdinand off the board in a barrel and Juliette jumps off after him. The rest of the animals and the children are locked away at the bottom of the barn. Lili sees now that she fell into the tortoise's trap, who had told her that she would not be her friend if she continued being friends with Tom.