Victor Costa

"Listen up, boys. This is the one I've been waiting for. My sweet mother hung this over my crib. It's my earliest memory. And now I want it!"

- Victor Costa

Victor Costa is the main antagonist of the 2011 animated French film, A Cat in Paris. He is a Parisian crime lord and public enemy number one.

He was voiced by Jean Benguigui in the French version of the film, and JB Blanc in the English adaptation.

DESCRIPTION
Victor is described as short, stocky, greedy, arrogant, manipulative and quick-to-anger, "capable of the worst tantrums". He is also very capricious and unpredictable, to which his men are often afraid. He seeks to steal an imposing African statue, perhaps reflecting a certain inferiority complex about his size.

FILM
Prior to the start of the film, Costa and his mobsters attempted to steal the Colossus of Nairobi statue located in Paris, but fail. In the attempt, Costa manages to kill one of the police officers, causing the daughter of the officer, Zoé, to lose her voice and isolate herself from her mother, Jeanne, who in return has reoccurring nightmares of Costa returning to harm her or Zoé.

Years later, the statue is prepared to be moved back to its original location in Africa, where Jeanne, who is commissioned to handle the security of the statue, believes Costa will attempt to get his hands on it once again.

All the while, Victor Costa has been indeed planning how to steal the statue with his dim-witted minions to whom he assigns names that they keep forgetting, M. Bébé (Mr. Baby), M. Hulot, M. Grenouille (Mr. Frog), M. Patate (Mr. Potato). While discussing their plan in an alley way, Zoé, who followed her cat Dino to find out where he wanders off at night, spots the gang and Claudine, her housemaid, who is actually a spy working for Costa. Zoé accidentally reveals herself and is chased by Costa and his minions into a vacant house, where she is rescued by Nico, a thief and hides her in a zoo, but Costa discovers a piece of Zoé’s t-shirt in the bushes and orders his minions to follow her, but Zoé manages to escape by a boat, due to the fact that none of the gang members can swim. Nico is captured and arrested by Jeanne and her cop partner Lucas, and Jeanne leaves Zoé with Claudine, unaware that she is with Costa. With the help of Dino, Nico escapes the police car and runs off to find Zoé.

Claudine takes Zoé to Costa’s house and they lock her in one of the rooms to use as a hostage when they steal the statue. Dino manages to smell Claudine's perfume and leads Nico to the house, where he cuts the power and sneaks in to rescue Zoey. At the last moment Nico’s presence is discovered and once again he escapes with Zoé over the rooftops with Costa in pursuit.

The chase takes them up to Notre Dame de Paris, Nico leaves Zoé in one of the terraces and teases Costa to go after him, they both fall since the gargoyles cannot support their weight but Costa manages to grab another gargoyle while Nico is saved by Jeanne. Costa manages to find and grab Zoé and jumps over to a nearby crane followed by Jeanne and Nico, only to be stopped in his tracks by Dino. Costa manages to push Dino over the edge and Nico jumps to save him, leaving Jeanne to confront Costa by herself. Costa strangles Jeanne, but when she hears Zoé yell at Costa to leave her mother alone, Jeanne manages to strike Costa, sending him tumbling onto the crane's hook. As Jeanne and Nico attempt to save Costa, Costa bangs his head against the crane and becomes mad and hallucinates that the statue has come to rescue him, so he jumps off the crane’s hook into the hands of the statue, only to fall to his death. Upon the death of Costa, the rest of his gang, including Claudine, are arrested for their crimes.