January has been a very busy month for me, but it seemed appropriate to continue in my Disney animal series. So far, we’ve previously done histories on Disney bears and owls. Today, we look at cats. Now I had to narrow things down, so this is just domesticated cats, not large cats like tigers and lions. I tried to cover all of them, but if you catch any I missed, leave it in the comments’ section.
Enjoy and have a purr-fect day!
(In no particular order)
Gideon and Figaro
One of the many delightfully weird things about Pinocchio is they have both a regular cat in Figaro and an anthropomorphic cat in Gideon. There is no reason why Gideon is anthropomorphic. I guess they just felt like designing him and Honest John that way.
Lucifer
Unfortunately for cat lovers, many of the Disney cats are nefarious in nature. In Cinderella, Lady Tremaine’s cat is actually named after the Devil himself
Cheshire Cat and Dinah
There are two cats in Alice in Wonderland. The most prominent is the Cheshire Cat with his sly riddles. Then we have Dinah who is Alice’s cat before she goes into Wonderland.
Siamese Cats
I’ve always felt like these cats got underused in Lady and the Tramp. They sing their song, and then you never really see them again. The villain in most of the movie is the rat, not the Siamese cats. I guess some people consider them culturally insensitive, but they are a part of Disney Canon nonetheless.
Madam Mim as a Cat
In Sword in the Stone, Madam Mim turns herself into a cat at one point.
Sgt. Tibbs
The unsung hero of 101 Dalmatians is Sgt. Tibbs. After all, he’s the one who rescues the puppies from Jasper and Horace and makes sure the Colonel gets the right message from the Twilight Bark.
Robin Hood Cat
This is an obscure one, but there is a brief shot of a cat playing a kazoo or some instrument in the folk dance scene of Robin Hood.
Aristocats Cats
The Aristocats is the shining hour for Disney cats. We’d be here all day if I did a separate post on all of them, but there are the main leads—Duchess, Thomas O’Malley, Toulouse, Marie, and Berlioz. Then, there are the scat band members—Scat Cat, Shun Gon, Hit Cat, Peppo, and Billy Boss
Rufus
Rufus in The Rescuers tells Bernard and Bianca all about Penny and her sad story of not getting adopted and how she ended up missing. He is one of the nicest of all the Disney cats.
Felicia
Felicia is the humongous cat that works with Ratigan to intimidate his enemies in the Great Mouse Detective (I bet you didn’t know that was her name!).
Oliver
Of course, our lead in Oliver and Company is the plucky, little orange cat named Oliver!
I guess Disney was so busy with large cats in Lion King and Aladdin that I didn’t find any cats in the Disney Renaissance. If you know of any, let me know!
Yzma as a Cat
This one is similar to Madam Mim’s cat transformation. In Emperor’s New Groove, Yzma turns into a cat when she drinks one of the vials of potion. It leads to one of my favorite jokes of the film when she realizes she has a new voice as a cat.
Captain Amelia
This is kind of a weird one, but technically Captain Amelia in Treasure Planet is a cat. She falls in love with a part-dog man, so in this world anything is possible!
Mittens
One of the sassiest cats is Mittens from Bolt. I love Susie Essman as her voice and how sarcastic and funny she is with the innocent and naive Bolt. I also love how the pigeons trick her into being followed by Bolt.
Mr Whiskers
This isn’t Disney Canon, but I thought it would be fun to include nonetheless. In Frankenweenie, ‘Weird Girl’ has a cat named Mr. Whiskers, and I love her character design.
And finally our last cat is…
Mochi
Hiro, from Big Hero 6, has a cat named Mochi. This lovable feline comes in handy when he is trying to sneak Baymax in and out of the house but can sometimes be in the way.
So how did I do? Did I miss any? Which of these cats is your favorites? Put in the comments section, and let’s have fun talking about Disney cats!
Edited by: Kelly Conley
