This is a very different kind of animated film, much more of a literary exercise than the standard DreamWorks/Pixar cartoon outing, other commentaries classing the black and white, techno-nightmare fable as cross of Blade Runner and Sin City. Finally released in 2006 after six years cooking, Renaissance is a dark tale set in 2046 Paris about a hard as nails cop assigned to find a beautiful young genetics researcher gone missing.

Daniel Craig voices the snatch squad captain, Karas, with Romola Garai as the missing girl, Jonathon Pryce well-cast as her devious corporate box, Ian Holm as her mentor and Catherine McCormack as Garai’s gorgeous older sister rounding out the top line cast.

Karas, we see straight from the start, is a stereotype, the I do as I see fit copper constantly running afoul of his superiors and so you won’t be surprised that halfway through, after pissing off the case’s prosecutor he gets suspended. His team are loyal to him despite the prospect of serious career damage and, of course, the sister and Karas fall in love. Not many surprises in either plot or characterization.

No, the attraction of Renaissance is the striking visual of his motion capture animation and I wasn’t surprised that the opening credits featured (that is, the ones before the title, usually only given to production companies, stars and the director) those responsible. Director Christian Volckman gives us a future Paris that mixes the mega-urbanity of Blade Runner’s Seattle and the Fritz Lang 1927 classic Metropolis where daylight seems to be vanishing along with, say, the flora and fauna.

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