I identify with all things feline...
for me , it's a "purr-fect" fit [sorry...]
but my house is NOT stocked with cat bric-a-brac...
because it is stocked with the REAL thing...
so I've NEVER been that...
"oh, it's SOOO precious...I want 3... in PINK... with rhinestones..."
kind of person... [yuck...barforama...]
but, I always melt around real kittens...
[they ARE sooo cute...I can't resist them...]
the size of my cat family, makes that fact, obvious...
today...I want to invite you to explore the animated cats...
as in the "drawn", created characters...
who have been a part of my life since I can remember...
[and that's a LONG time....]
their position in popular culture ...at first, as villains...
[ah, the poor mice, birds & dogs who are their victims...]
eventually morphing into rebels, "individualists" and weirdos...
just like the rest of us...
illustrating the societal shift ...
between the clear "good vs evil"...
the "pc" movement...
which has had both good [inclusive]...
and bad [reverse prejudice] outcomes...
and today's attitude of ...
"I've got mine, go get your own/finders keepers..."
often carried to extremes...
promoting general rudeness, lack of respect...
no concern for others and the rapid dissolution ...
of a cohesive society based on common values...
this is from "Steamboat Willie", 1928 ...
Disney's introduction of Mickey Mouse to the world...
it was also the introduction of "Black Pete"...
a villainous cat, as Mickey's arch enemy...
although Black Pete...
had first appeared in 1925...
in one of the "Alice" shorts...
and would reappear, as the villain...
with other names...
[aka "Pegleg Pete" & "Bad Pete"] in other Disney shorts...
it would be his position of nemesis...
to Mickey & his gang...
that guaranteed the continuance of his character...
and his subsequent "pc" metamorphose ...
[dropping the "black" in his name...]
into Goofy's neighbor..."Pete"...
in the "Goof Troop" TV show ...
and movie spin offs of the '70's & 80's...
"Pete", Goofy's "best friend", is a bit of a selfish blowhard...
who means "well"... but generally does the wrong thing...
[think, "Ralph Kramden"... or even "Fred Flintstone"...]
but at his core, he's not really a bad guy...
[way to totally "gut" a character for profit, Disney...]
THIS "Black Pete"... was a flat-out bad guy...
throughout the comic books and cartoons of my youth...
Black Pete, often with the aid of his lackeys, the Beagle Boys...
terrorized all "good" Disney characters...
[ie Mickey, Donald Duck, Goofy & Uncle Scrooge....]
it was only as I got older...
that I realized... he was a cat...
it was obvious to me, even as a child...
seeing "Cinderella" at the movies...
that "Lucifer", was a bad cat...
terrorizing all the "nice mice" who tried to help Cinderella...
as well as sabotaging all of her efforts to finish her work...
he belonged to the "evil stepmother"...
and was her nefarious collaborator ...
as well as her malicious soulmate...
he not only did her bidding...
he relished it...
the two Siamese from "Lady & the Tramp"...
were not only sneaky, selfish and evil...
Disney, who we now know was a racist...
made them strangely foreign...
and therefore... truly villainous...
[this was 1952... just 11 years after Pearl Harbor...
anti-Asian sentiment was right below the surface...]
now, I consider their song, shallow and annoying...
as well as having "racist" overtones...
then... I loved it...
and NOTHING could stop me from singing it...
over... & over... & over... & over...
[come on, join in... I KNOW some of you want to...]
"we are Si-a-me-se, if you ple-ase...[meow]
we are Si-a-mese, if you don't please...[meow]
we are for-mer re-si-dents of Si-am... [me-ow, meow, meow...]
there are no fi-ner cats, than I am...[meow]"
I remember especially enjoying
"doing" the meow parts...
what ?... I was only 5 at the time...
[ rolls eyes...] "get a grip"...
*hrummmph...*
THEN... there's THIS cat...
I have to admit... all the silliness in "Alice in Wonderland"...
REALLY annoyed me as a child...
for I was a serious-minded, literal child...
who did NOT appreciate foolishness...
[I've never cared for slapstick, either...]
NOTHING in "Wonderland" made "sense"...
it wasn't supposed to...
but I didn't understand that, then...
however... as I got older...
and could appreciate the symbolism in Carroll's story...
the entropy... the chaos...
the sheer lunacy of it all...
"down the rabbit hole"...
I could allow myself to let go of reality enough...
to recognize the farce & dementia for what it was...
to let it just be a form of "play" I could participate in...
[I believe I've mentioned my control & trust issues...]
now that I no longer identify only with stodgy, serious Alice...
I can appreciate the absolute goofiness and glee...
intrinsically inherent in every fiber of the Cheshire Cat...
and his whimsical, multistage vanishing act...
slowly "dissolving" before our eyes...
until only his grin was left...
then, *poof* ... it would be gone too...
in the world-weary 70's...
a new kind of cartoon cat arrived...
"making his mark" on society...you might say...
one with "cat-itude"...
and often a victim of "life"...
as were we all...
Garfield was fat... he was lazy...
he was self-centered and arrogant...
he didn't suffer fools gladly...
and he was surrounded by "fools"...
of which, not the least annoying was NERMAL...
cuteness purr-sonified...[oops...sorry...]
at times brilliantly devious or just plain dumb...
he was, ALWAYS, drop-dead, cute...
and, to Garfield, annoyingly so...
Garfield's everyman reactions to the pitfalls of life...
rang true with most of us....
because in being "like us" in his reactions to his world...
we could laugh both at him...
and at ourselves...
we could identify with his attempts ...
to "cat-ify" Nermal, in his own image...
attempts, which NEVER got the desired result...
[talk about,"going over to the dark side..."
or in this case, "the drool-y side"...]
Garfield's "lovable" snideness would be supplanted, however...
by a truly unattractive cat...
[notice the pattern on the boxers...]
"Bill, the cat"...from "Bloom County"...
lived a substance abusing, testosterone riddled existence...
in a place where everyone, but Opus, was truly wacko...
excess...was the new minimum...
with EXTREME excess being the norm...
snarky, sarcastic characters surrounded Bill...
his only comment... "thppfft"...
some would characterize Bill and his brethren...
as a "post-modern, 20th century" reaction ...
to the "pc" [politically correct] movement...
[or just "off the wall"...]
and they're probably right...
whether you agree with my analysis or not...
you do have to admit... it's hilarious...
my current favorite cat is an anti-hero...
Bucky, [Get Fuzzy] is despicable, demented, paranoid...
psychotic... and dangerous...
weird, anti social cat...
vapid, "pleaser" dog...
sarcastic, human prey...
what's NOT to like ?
his primary target is humanity......
however... the fallout is epic...
widespread... snarky...
and hilarious...
then ...
there are "the looser cats"...
they populated my childhood...
and I never cared...
they were inept losers ...
or just totally annoying...
from Sylvester...with his "sputtering" boobiness.....
[I'm sorry, NO canary is that clever...
Tweety was simply Bugs Bunny with feathers...]
and DON'T get me started on that insufferable bulldog...
so smart he drooled... or "sweet" old Granny...
[puh-leease...]
yet "clever" Sylvester was ALWAYS caught in the act...
"hoist by his own petard", as it were...
then ... there was... [let's all sing along...]
"Felix the cat... ["tah"*]
the wonderful, wonderful cat...["ta-tah"*]
you'll laugh so much, your sides will ache...
your heart will go "pitter-pat"...
watching Felix, the wonderful cat..."
[* trumpet note[s]...in cup mute...]
I hated that insipid song then... and still do...
that and his "wonderful bag of tricks"...
I think I knew that my intelligence ...
was being insulted by each line...
[hurl chunks...]
and Tom...
so "dense", he even moved slowly ...
Jerry, the bright mouse, ALWAYS got the better of him...
and it wasn't even hard...
[I despised both of them equally...
with their bright eyed imbacilety ...]
a perfect example of "good" always winning...
Mighty Mouse... would "come to save the day"...
ALWAYS at the expense of some stupid, greedy, evil cat...
enough, already...
I was a "tad" too old for this guy...
when he appeared...
as I was for all this author's books...
so I never "got" him...
or any of the rest of them...
[well... maybe the Grinch...]
I, however, totally got this guy, thank you very much...
"Fritz the cat"... was a 60's excuse...
to draw animated sex, drugs & rock and roll...
and I wasn't sorry to see him disappear...
with the rest of his "era"...
so, that's it...
you can, hopefully, see the evolution...
or if you're like me, dissolution...
of our society and culture...
just by this quick overview ...
of the role of felines in animated literature...
[OK, OK... pulp fiction comics and children's TV...]
I didn't start out to write a thesis...
like my subject matter...
this post just "morphed"...
I can only hope, if you're still reading...
that you've been both amused...
and informed...
as well as entertained along the way...
"see you in the funny papers..."
[you have to be OLD...to get that one...]
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