Tuesday, December 06, 2016

My Seven Greatest Movie Cats of all Time


​Cats have been with us for thousands of years and ever since the Ancient Egyptians actually started worshipping them they've developed major attitudes as well! No wonder then that Hollywood (and Disneyworld of course) find them movie star material and feature full length flicks on the exploits of these suave, svelte and saucy supurr-stars…


Puss in Boots: has been a source of wonder for practically hundreds of years, from his humble beginnings during the Brothers Grimm era of fairy tales and gaslit graveyards, right down to the more recent swashbuckling daredevilry of Shrek's side kick and then a film star in his own right, in his own film-named Puss In Boots, of course (2011). A nimble quick thinking sharp witted orange cat of real finesse with sword fighting skills to boot.


Tom from Tom & Jerry for an eighty year old celebrity who has survived from 1940 to the current day, perhaps its simply all that running that has kept Tom (and Jerry) healthy and fit to date! Tom who started out more cat like but evolved into a cat-faced biped for reasons unknown, is also alas one of the most undeniably violent cats in the movie world and has tried everything short of nuclear war upon his small brown rodent nemesis. His plots inevitably backfire leaving him blown up, barbecued or bisected, which since its a childrens' cartoon and since cats have nine lives,has no real effect on him except in passing. It also has no effect on his optimistic confidence that he will get Jerry the next time round, which of course makes for the reason for one of the longest running cartoons of all time.


Sylvester the Puddy Cat is a cat of breeding as evidenced by the tux, and much like Tom is hyperactive and indestructible.Perhaps this is what happens when cats decide to walk upright!


Orion from MIB- although by rights entitled to being pompous about it, since he has the entire universe in a marble round his neck, Orion is a moggie of an appealingly humble and unassuming nature who genteelly disappears after unfortunately losing his marble to a Bug, so that the story goes on to a sequel...


Simon's Cat A more recent addition to pop-cat-culture born 2008 with a fandom now reaching millions world wide, this is a permanently hungry and somewhat fat regular white cat who resorts to various subtle and not so subtle attacks to get his way in life. As with real life cats, Simon's Cat often simply walks away from anything boring displaying a very cute asterix-like butt hole.There's charming comic music in the background that adds a quintessentially British flavour to each video and the youTube channel is based on a cat named Hugh, owned by  who lives with British animator Simon Tofield.


Sylvester the Talking Kitty Cat

No relation to the Puddy Cat of the same name, this is another real life internet sensation rivalling the popularity of Simon's Cat, and more explicit with his language skills than all the others put together. Sylvester is real and he talks. The videos were put together by Steve Cash who says there "aren't that many" as he prefers quality to quantity - indeed some of the footage would have taken a great deal of patience and catnip to put together. The cast of this hilarious YouTube movie series are Sylvester, Shelby, Random, Steve and R.I.P. Gibson.


Garfield: probably the most famous tabby of all time, fat, lazy and also orange, this lasagna- eating striped walking cushion began as a comic strip as long ago as 1978! Garfield lives with a gullible human named John who feeds and attends to him, and Odie, Johns other animal companion who is a haphazard hyperactive pooch. One of the finest animal Zen masters Garfield's  life involves eating, lazing, and commenting calmly on life as he sees it. Occasionally he is forced to exert himself when the overzealous Odie tries to communicate with him...whereupon he expertly deflects his attention and smoothly escapes. Well -the escapes are *usually* smooth unless his pot belly gets stuck somewhere...

1 comment:

Suchetha said...

You forgot that fantastic feline, the cat from outer space ...