Francis (Felidae)

Francis is the main protagonist of the Felidae book series by Akif Pirinçci, and its 1994 animated film adaptation. He is an intelligent cat detective who tries to solve a murder mystery caused by an entity known as "Claudandus".

In the original German version, he was voiced by Ulrich Tukur. In the English dubbed version, he was voiced by Cary Elwes.

History
He has moved into a gloomy house with his owner and discovers a dead body in the yard, while meeting up with a foul-mouthed cat named Bluebeard. Later, he begins having nightmares about a mysterious man with no face and realizes that there's been another killing. He and Bluebeard discover the cat's corpse with a torn open throat, similar to the previous murder and Francis believes that the murders have something to do with sex.

The following night, he wakes up and stumbles upon a group of cats led by Joker and committing suicide under worship of an entity named Claudandus. The cats discover him and a long chase is ensued until Francis falls through a skylight and discovers a blind cat named Felicity, who supplies Francis with information on the Claudandus sect. The next morning, Bluebeard takes Francis to an old cat named Pascal and discovers that most of the murders were European shorthairs until he realizes that Felicity had fallen victim. That night, Francis is haunted by a nightmare in which the famous friar and geneticist Gregor Mendel leaves him with riddles.

After waking up from his second nightmare, he goes on a rodent hunt until he stumbles upon an old tape containing a document about a scientist named Dr. Preterius and how Claudandus became the sole survivor of his experiments on fibrin glue. Kong comes in and confronts him as Francis believes that he was the killer. A chase is ensued until they stumble upon a dead pregnant cat named Solitaire, who happens to be Kong's mate. Francis and Bluebeard then meet up with an elderly cat and discover his shrine. After waking up from a strange dream, Francis hears his name being called from a female voice and discovers a female cat named Nhozemphtekh, laying in their garden. The two cats mate and Francis discovers that she belongs to an "old and new" breed.

Later, Francis and Pascal gather up all the cats for an announcement to find the killer, while Bluebeard goes out to look for Joker. Pascal claims that Claudandus is dead and believes that Joker is still hiding. Bluebeard returns and says that he couldn't find him. Francis goes over to the building and finds Joker's body and discovers that this kind of murder was an execution. Francis and Bluebeard then go over to Pascal's place to find the Felidae project, but Bluebeard is mauled by an unknown cat. As Francis looks at the project, Pascal returns and reveals that he was Claudandus the whole time. Claudandus pleads that he tried to dissuade his victims from mating with Felidae and only killed them when he had no other choice in order preserve the purity of the project, before arguing about the vileness of humanity. However, Francis rejects his extremist rhetoric and erases all his files. A violent fight is ensued between Francis and Claudandus after Claudandus accidentally sets the house on an electric fire after destroying the computer. As Claudandus lunges at him, Francis ducks down and gores him, disembowling him. Claudandus expreses some regret about his actions before Francis flees the building as Claudandus gets burned in the fire.

Francis then departs with Bluebeard, whose life is saved, but he never reveals the truth, preferring to remember Pascal as a wise mentor rather than a maddened extremist.