Cats Are Mean: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:garfield2_3383.jpg|link=Garfield (Comic Strip)|right]]

 

Cats get a bad rap.

 

== Anime & Manga ==

** The fact that Kamineko gathered up the cats just to attack Sakaki and Chiyo-Chan seems to point to the conclusion that it was just a jerk.

*** Furthermore, in the last episode, when Sakaki apologizes to it for trying to pet it all the time without taking its feelings into account, it walks up to Sakaki, allows her to move her hand toward its head as though to let her pet it...then bites her without any warning.

* ''Totsuzen! Neko No Kuni Banipal Witt'' (aka ''[[Catnapped]]!'') takes place in a world populated by anthropomorphic cats. Two children are brought there by the cats to save them from the boy's kidnapped dog, Papadoll. Exposure to the cat world's sun has turned the dog into a rampaging monster being used as a weapon by Princess Buburina to take over the entire cat realm.

** But really only Buburina and Doh-doh (sort of) are bad.

* ''Puchi Puri Yuuchi'' (aka ''[[Petite Princess Yucie]]'') has an episode where Glennda, princess of the Demon Realm, has to fight Cait Sith, an evil cat attacking her realm and turning everyone there into cats.

** Then again, if this Cait Sith is the same one as the one in the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series, it's actually a Japanese interpretation of a Celtic mythological character.

** Meowth's backstory has him trying to impress a female Meowth he was in love with by, over a period of months, painstakingly learning how to walk on two legs and speak a human language. She rejects him, calling him a freak and saying that he still has no money. Even later, when he fought a Persian for her (and won!), she ''still'' thought he was a freak and chose the Persian over him.

*** Said Persian may or may not count. While he did try to force Meowth to rejoin his gang, he took the female Meowth in when her owner abandoned her and, prior to all this, gave Meowth a fish when he was so hungry he thought baseballs were food.

* Shampoo's transformation shape in ''[[Ranma One Half]]'' is a cat, and she uses that to her advantage several times.

** Others have also used Shampoo's transformation to their advantage - namely, as an easy way to torment Ranma. Genma uses her to frighten Ranma so he can't beat the old bastard up in the first Nekoken story. Akane uses Shampoo's transformation to force Ranma into agreeing to throw his second official duel with Mousse in the manga...and in an anime-exclusive OAV, she splashes Shampoo so that Ranma will run headfirst into a wall with her because Shampoo mockingly pointed out that Akane didn't have the skills to face the OAV's [[Villain of the Week]].

* Due to her past experience of being toyed around by a cat and having watched too many 'dog' detective TV series (whereas a cat is often the villain), in the words of Shinkuu, ''"Cats are enemies of all [[Rozen Maiden]]!"''

** Arthur also makes trouble for Lelouch by unwittingly making off with his Zero mask.

*** Neko-Zero takes offense to the implication that he would ever do anything unwittingly!

** Shingo, Usagi's young brother, was bitten by a cat when he was just a baby, giving him a phobia of them until Luna comes along. Even after he gets over his fear, they're still far from his favorite animal.

** Then there is Tin Nyanko, who, despite being a member of an evil organization, seems to really relish in being bad. It's kind of funny, since she is half healed and has a split personality.

* Almost EVERY SINGLE CAT in ''[[Nyan Koi]]'' is like this.

** Tama gets a bit of a pass as he's a white tiger.

*** But Nagi calls him a kitten, even arguing with Hayate about it.

** And Isumi's great grandmother uses cats in her first appearance when she's a villain after Hayate. Afterwords, she becomes an ally and doesn't seem to use cats anymore.

* ''New Voices In The Dark'' - Souichi's sister adopts a wandering young cat, which unfortunately catches Souichi's interests. When Souichi gets blamed for harassing the cat, he vows revenge by placing a curse on Colin (as the cat was named). In the beginning a sweet, playful kitty cat, [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/shin_yami_no_koe_kaidan/v01/c001.2/3.html Colin] became steadily [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/shin_yami_no_koe_kaidan/v01/c001.2/18.html more violent] and [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/shin_yami_no_koe_kaidan/v01/c001.2/20.html ugly] [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/shin_yami_no_koe_kaidan/v01/c001.2/26.html until...]

* In [[Go Lion]]/[[Voltron]], Jaga The Blue Cat is an able and wicked familiar for Honerva/Haggar, likely blinding Shirogane/Sven before he was killed/disabled. Add to that, the Space Mice are definitely justified in fearing being devoured by this monster, who came from a world where it was bathed in Human blood. On the minus side, any sighting of the Blue Cat told the force that something was up, so its ability to spy (ala Laserbeak) was later limited.

* In [[Apocalypse Meow]], the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army are portrayed as cats, while the American soldiers are portrayed as rabbits.

** This movie runs this into the ground as well. Every antagonist in the film is a cat, from the Cossacks at the beginning to the American gangsters at the end.

{{quote| "For there are no cats in America/And the streets are paved with cheese!/There are no cats in America/So set your mind at ease!"}}

* In ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven|All Dogs Go to Heaven 2]]'', [[Satan]] himself is an evil, anthropomorphic cat named Red.

* In the [[Don Bluth]] film ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'', cats aren't just [[Cats Are Mean|mean]], they're [[Nightmare Fuel]].

** Played straight again in the sequel, to an extent, anyway. Troy and Muriel are more [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|anthropomorphic and bumbling]] than Dragon, what's more, they have been experimented on by the [[Big Bad]] into doing his evil deeds. They ironically seem to be the only villains to meet their demise at the end of the film.

* The only TRULY evil cat in the German-animated film ''[[Felidae]]'' is {{spoiler|Pascal/Claudandus, who is the one behind the murders in the first place. Oh, and he killed a human too...}}

** The cats who play Dr Calico's pets are pretty mean outside set, enjoying taunting Bolt and exploiting his belief that the show is real for their own entertainment.

** Subverted with Mittens (see below).

 

== Film - Live-Action ==

** Babe does contain its share of unpleasant dogs. There's the dog who works for the sheep rustlers and the trio of stray dogs who attack the flock (admittedly, none of these dogs are given any kind of character and are portrayed more as [[Dogs Are Dumb|mindless beasts]], who are following orders/acting upon instinct). On top of which, even the motherly Fly has her dark side, and treats the sheep pretty coldly throughout the film. What makes Babe so effective as a "sheep pig" is that, unlike the dogs, he is willing to treat the sheep as his equals.

* In ''[[Scary Movie]] II'', a mean cat goes so far as to attack the heroine with a broken bottle.

* ''[[The Incredible Shrinking Man]]'': when Scott Carey shrinks to six inches and has to live in the dollhouse, guess what animal breaks his dollhouse apart and tries to eat him?

* There was a movie called ''Nightwalkers'' where this trope was utterly subverted: cats are the only ones who can sense and destroy the evil aliens/monsters and several cats heroically sacrifice themselves to save humans.

** Ditto Stephen King's ''[[Sleepwalkers]]'', assuming it's not the very same film.

* The 2011 Korean horror film, "The Cat" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNBP7pi5WXE, MIGHT be an example of this. A murdered woman's cat, Bi-dan, is the only witness to her death. Of course, when the protagonist So-yeon takes it in her care, weird shit starts happening. She investigates the mystery when she finds her friend, who also recently got a cat, dies as well. Of course considering Asian horror's tendency for Shyamalan style twists, this may be subverted.

 

 

 

== Literature ==

* The book ''Grumpy Old Men: A Manual For The British Malcontent'' contains a long, particularly surreal, and rambling rant about cats. An extract:

{{quote| Here's a clue about cats: tigers. Are tigers bastards? Yes. And what are tigers? Just big cats. Therefore cats are tigers only smaller. Therefore they are bastards. Here's another clue. Lions. What do lions do? Lie around all day and then, when they're bored, jump a giraffe and eat it. Cats don't even do that. Ever see a cat jump a giraffe? No. Why? Because we've cossetted them and welcomed them into our homes and invented cat food, just for the idle bastards.}}

* Happens to the family cat after its "resurrection" in [[Stephen King]]'s novel ''[[Pet Sematary]]''. But even before, the main character doesn't want to neuter him, because he likes him "lean and mean", and thinks that cats are "gangsters of the animal world, living outside the law".

** Even more so in his uncollected short story, ''The Cat from Hell''. Two words: [[Orifice Invasion]].

** But as noted above, King utterly subverts the trope in his short story ''The General'', which was later filmed as part of ''[[Cat's Eye]]''.

* Pete the Barncat from ''[[Hank the Cowdog]]'' often teases and takes advantage of Hank and the other characters. Other cats aren't shown to be much better.

* Since ''[[Watership Down]]'' has rabbits as its protagonists, the cats are indeed scary antagonists ("Can you run? I think not!"). Dogs (and foxes), by contrast, are just contemptible and disgusting. (The culture-hero El-ahrairah sets one up for a thorough [[Humiliation Conga]].)

** That said, [[The Hero|Hazel]] manages to embarass a cat into giving up chasing him, and [[Badass|Bigwig]] beats one in a fight and [[Charles Atlas Superpower|trains the whole warren to be able to do the same]].

** But then, considering Alex is a [[Villain Protagonist]], the cats could be considered heroic vigilantes.

* The [[Paul Jennings]] short story ''Picked Bones'' features a nasty, horrible cat that scratches someone up so badly that they need '35 bandaids' and which tries to smother a grown man.

* The ''novel'' ''[[Stuart Little]]'' plays this absolutely straight (in contrast to the film), with Snowball the cat attempting to trick the family into thinking Stuart has decided to act like a mouse instead of a human. Later, he convinces an alleycat friend of his to try and kill Stuart's love interest, Margot the sparrow. Book Snowball is actually quite the [[Card-Carrying Villain]].

{{quote| KROOK: Hi! show 'em how you scratch. Hi! Tear, my lady!}}

* In the [[Larry Niven|Known Space]] universe, the Kzinti as a whole aren't exactly known as being gently pacifistic, what with starting a bunch of wars with various species - in particular, humanity. On the other hand, individual Kzin can be more heroic, or at least less frightening and outwardly 'evil', such as Speaker To Animals, especially after [[The Dog Bites Back|they get their asses handed to them by humanity]] and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|lose the war]].

* [http://essays.quotidiana.org/belloc/them/ This essay] even touches on the problem of their [[Cute Kitten|corrupting kittens]].

* A glass cat is a [[Brown Note]] [[Cosmic Horror]] in ''Cat In Glass'' by Nancy Etchemendy.

* One of the eponymous ''[[Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark]]'' is about a cat. That should be enough to tell you all about that cat.

** Later in the series, though, we see Dolores Umbridge's fluffy cat Patronus, which is undeniably evil simply because SHE is evil.

** Subverted with Crookshanks, who Ron initially sees as evil because of his hatred of Scabbers the rat. In the end, it is revealed that he had good intentions all along and even helped the human protagonists with things they wouldn't otherwise have been able to do (get into The Shrieking Shack for the big reveal).

* ''The Black Cat Of Killakie''.

* The demonic cats and werecats mentioned in ''[[Goosebumps]]'' books.

* The abusive alley felines in ''The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her To Fly'', by Luis Sep?da.

* Subverted and played straight in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]''. There is one not so nice cat named Ginger in ''[[The Last Battle]]''.

 

 

{{quote| You know they're going to eat your eyes when you die alone?<br />

'''Nora:''' I try not to think about that. }}

** Anyone but ''her'' humanoid, that is. A lot of cats latch onto a person or couple of people, and think of anyone else as an invader.

*** This Troper recalls Reginald Barclay getting along extremely well with Spot, much to everyone's surprise.

** Data and the cat definitely share a strong bond. In the "Generations" movie, Data finds Spot alive after the Enterprise crashes but is surprised that his newly installed emotion chip seems to be malfunctioning: [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|he's happy, but can't stop crying.]]

 

== Music ==

* Catbert from ''[[Dilbert]]'' is probably the living embodiment of this trope. After so many of his fans, independently, named the character, Scott Adams wanted a reason to keep the character, and came up with Catbert being hired as the Director of Human Resources. His rationale was that a cat was ''perfect'' for HR...and would bat you about before downsizing you. Of course, Dogbert isn't much better.

** In fact, ''Dog''bert is often shown to have the personality traits of a typical cartoon ''cat''.

* Add "proudly ignorant" and you have Bucky Katt from ''[[Get Fuzzy]].'' And he doesn't chase mice.

** According to Dog, Horse's mother was a one-eyed, hook-handed alleycat, and his father a [[Hot Skitty-On-Wailord Action|Barracuda]].

** Horse himself believes he is the son of a Leather Jacket.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** [http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/magic_single_card.asp?cn=Mirri,%20Cat%20Warrior&sn=Exodus Like this]: a [[Catgirl]].

* A frequent joke in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]] 3.5'' was that cats are the greatest enemy of humanity. Statistically, a common housecat would be able to kill a first-level human peasant better than half the time. In defence of the cats, there is nothing in the rules indicating they ''want'' to kill humans. [[Cats Are Superior|They are just surprisingly good at it.]]

 

== Video Games ==

* The [[Carmen Sandiego]] series has Carmen's pet cat, Carmine, who shows up every now and then to taunt the players in certain games or lie on Carmen's lap.

* Bad Cat was the last and hardest obstacle in the original ''[[Glider]]'' (much like a [[Final Boss]], except that the ''Glider'' games never had [[Boss Battle|Boss Battles]]).

* In ''[[Dragon Age]]'', a demon takes the form of a cat and tries to possess a little girl. The PC can save the girl or let the demon go on its merry way.

* ''[[Fur Fighters]]''' main antagonist is a massive cat. He leads an army of dumb bears which you can't help but feel are being taken advantage of.

* ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' features deadly cougars that [[Demonic Spider|can end you and your horse quick with just a few swipes of their claws]]. And if that wasn't enough, [[Paranoia Fuel|they like to sneak up on you]].

** One of the bosses is a giant "catfish" that's more cat than fish.

* In ''[[Dead Rising]] 2'', there's Snowflake the Tiger. Luckily, [[Crazy Awesome|Chuck can actually tame her and give her to his daughter]] ''[[Crazy Awesome|as a pet]]''.

** Although, that does not really present the feline as downright mean; she is very likely just trained by the psychopath boss that way.

*** And she was hungry.

* In ''[[Blaz Blue]]: Continuum Shift'', Kokonoe acts this way towards Hazama in his gag ending, especially whenever he starts repeatedly sneezing uncontrollably due to his horrible allergies to cats, which, as suggested from her, are rather severe. ([[It Makes Sense in Context]] because in the actual story, Hazama was [[Complete Monster|way meaner]] and Kokonoe had a justified grudge on him)

{{quote| '''Kokonoe''': Hmmm. I have to say, I kind of like the way your voice sounds right now... Are you crying? Is this the result of a suppressed fight-or-flight response constricting your airway?<br />

'''Hazama''': Just stay right where you are, all right?! You're freaking me out!<br />

'''Kokonoe''': Oh, you look so damn scared... Your face looks like a balloon, and you've got some sort of liquid oozing out of just about every hole in it... Ahaha! This is wonderful! Suffer some more! He he he... }}

* According to the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHFMTB3f4V8 trailer], someone on ''[[The Sims]] 3 : Pets'' development team is definitely a dog person. During the trailer, dogs see off burglars, share the odd, bemused [[Aside Glance]] with the viewer, and rescue Little Timmy from Bullies. Cats? They eat the pet fish, give their owners the runaround at bathtime, and shred the furniture, hissing and spitting all the while and never bothering to make eye contact. The only ones they seem to like are the horses.

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

** Oddly enough, though, he also manages to be completely adorable while doing so.

* Black Kitty from ''[[Goodbye Kitty]]''.

* Neko from [http://nekothekitty.smackjeeves.com/comics/939963/735-and-it-s-working/ Neko the Kitty Comics].

* Lackadaisy: this may or may not count, considering [[Word of God]] has stated that the characters are more "humans in cat form" than straight up anthropomorphized cats, but every single character in Lackadaisy has at least one semi-psychotic trait. Rocky is [[Crazy Awesome]] bordering on [[Psychopathic Manchild]], Freckle is [[Ax Crazy]], Mordecai is a [[Four Eyes, Zero Soul|cold-blooded]] [[Psycho for Hire]], Viktor is a [[Retired Badass]] with a tendency of [[Overprotective Dad|beating the hell]] out of Ivy's various boyfriends, Nina has shades of [[My Beloved Smother]] mixed with [[Mama Bear]], and even gentile Mitzi has a well hidden [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|ruthless streak]].

** Early in the strip, Choo Choo was shown ''smothering'' a kitten, much to the girls' horror, but he has mostly regressed to just panty-stealing and being a background character recently. Twitchy Hug was assassinated mainly because he was getting increasingly psychotic -- he killed a hooker in a throwaway gag strip, was seen dragging a body through the house in another strip, and was about to attack Davan when he was killed himself. He also had Mickey-Jesus' head in a jar on top of the fridge.

** In strips where Choo Choo Bear answers the [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot]], he's shown to have utter contempt for the readers, the other characters, and the cartoonist. Of course, he also wears a smoking jacket and talks instead of going "Murr!". And is a recurring character in [[Sadist Show|Something Positive]].

* ''[[Sinfest]]'' features the cat Percival, who, while not overtly malicious, is certainly arrogant. Percival and his [[Dumb Is Good|friendly but stupid]] dog companion, Pooch, live with a human whom Pooch calls "Master", while Percival contemptuously calls him "the man".

** Percy has a soft spot for Pooch, though, sneaking in and patting him comfortingly when he's ill.

** Well, you can't see the rest of the word...there could be [[You Do NOT Want to Know|an "s" there]].

* [http://www.nerdcomics.com/sdjc/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/attackcat.gif Based on a true story.]

** Lita pretty much belongs to Gary now.

** Of course, Gary is allergic to cats (though he is apparently on medication).

** Mr Scruffy has proven his true alignment by mercilessly (and gorily) slaughtering a level 1 commoner gladiator. (Okay, one might argue he was trying to defend his owner and was unaware the latter was in no danger at all).

** And, later... poor, poor [[Meaningful Name|YukYuk]]: the kobold might have had retribution coming... but that is '''''Evil'''''. But, again, you could lay that mainly at Belkar's door. Maybe.

* In ''[[Off White]]'', a snow leopard causes trouble for a group of sledders because it was offended at them for intruding into its territory.

* ''[[Karate Bears]]'' have a sidekick, Kat, [http://www.karatebears.com/2011/01/karate-kat-with-scimitar.html who is very cruel on occasion.]

 

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* One of [[Desu Des Brigade|JesuOtaku's]] cats (the calico) isn't very friendly, as seen in the review for ''[[Fruits Basket]]''.

* Tanya in the ''[[Metal Gear]]'' fanfic ''[[Stray (Fanfic)|Stray]]'' can be a vicious little creature, although she [[Tsundere|intersperses a few affectionate moments with the unprovoked clawings]].

* [[Memetic Mutation|Ceiling Cat is watching you masturbate]].

{{quote| {{spoiler|The one big thing I forgot to mention/was that he wasn't fighting./He just wanted attention.}}}}

* Steve Cash's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjZrUn03kXI Talking Kitty] videos on youtube.

* [http://trollcats.com/ Trollcats] is pretty much [[Cats Are Mean]] [[X Meets Y|meets]] [[Refuge in Audacity]].

* In the [[Orions Arm]] setting, the Queen of Pain is exactly what you'd expect to get if you took a terrified, furious, half-dead cat, uplifted it five times in a row, and gave it the body of an Eldritch Abomination.

** In the ''[[Alice Comedies]]'' Disney made before creating Mickey, Pete is a non-descript bearlike creature. Alice is also accompanied by a non-villainous cat named Julius.

*** In ''[[House of Mouse]]'', there is some proof that Pete is a cat, as evidenced by Mickey telling Pluto that Pete's the only cat he's allowed to chase.

*** And he's a boss in ''[[Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep]]''. Go figure (if that sounds one-sided, Ventus is the size of Jaq the mouse for that level).

*** Not only that, but she practically comes across as a feline [[Ax Crazy]] with her bulging eyes and spastic mannerisms.

* [[Chuck Jones]]' Claude Cat was eventually recast as a mean antagonist to the much cuter Frisky Puppy and/or Pussyfoot the Kitten.

** He even changes appearance in the recasting, going from soft and rounded to scraggly and angular like Wile. E. Coyote.

** The comics version of Garfield is an outright bastard about killing spiders, though. This may be intentionally deconstructing the Cats Are Mean trope, though, since most humans have no compunction about acting the exact same way toward arthropod vermin.

*** There have also been a few instances in the comics where Garfield devoured sentient, talking houseplants while they begged for mercy. At least the spiders can run away...

* ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' condensed this entire trope into one thirty-second skit: a cat, sitting at the top of a staircase, deliberately trips its owner. Big, flashing letters declare "Cats Are Jerks". We then get the tripping in super slo-motion, just to make the point.

** In a much later skit, several officials discuss why there was a cat at many disasters such as Kennedy's assassination and Hurricane Katrina (and also the above sketch). They conclude that they are being manipulated by cats. When one asks, "what can we do?", the scientist reveals himself as a cat, responds "YOU CAN DO NOTHING!", and shoots them all. Then a big "Cats are Jerks" pops up.

* The ''[[Kappa Mikey]]'' episode "Lily Meow" features a devious, scheming, [[Devil in Plain Sight]] kitten named Kello who uses his cuteness as a weapon.

* ''[[Cat Dog]]'' fits this trope pretty well, with Dog being rather unintelligent, but Cat being prissy and rude. He does learn a lesson quite often, though, and there are many moments when he shows genuine kindness. He's still one of the meanest of the show's protagonists, close in the running to the mouse, Winslow.

* Katz, from ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]''. "A bit of sport before dying, old boy?"

* Played straight with Ren and Stimpy in the ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'' episode, "Who's Stupid Now?", as a consequence of the [[Personality Swap]] plot.

* Mr. Jinks, the enemy of Pixie and Dixie.

* Kitty, the psychotic [[Devil in Plain Sight]] cat from ''[[Taz-Mania]]''.

* An episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'' deals with this trope. Hank signs up to care for the pet of an army commander, assuming immediately that "Pet" means "Dog". When he's assigned a cat, named Duke, Hank is portrayed as cheated and humiliated for it. Further, Duke himself is mean and ill-tempered, making life a living hell for his good-natured caretakers. Bill meanwhile, winds up taking care of a dog through the same program, who winds up not only being loyal and well-behaved, but makes Bill successful with the opposite sex. Subtle.

* You only need to watch one episode of ''[[Atomic Betty]]'' to see it was obviously written by a cat hater.

* In ''[[The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs]]'', [[Captain Obvious|dogs are the heroes]], so cats are often the villains.

* ''[[Mighty Mouse]]'' cartoons used "Cats are Evil" as their main premise.

* Ravage from ''[[Transformers]]'' is a Decepticon leopard/puma.

* The Schwartzentigers on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''.

* Makunga, the evil [[The Lion King|Scar-]]lookalike lion villain of ''[[Madagascar|Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa]]''.

* [[Lost Aesop|During the]] [[Animal Talk|Animal Talk episodes]] of Arthur, [[Lost Aesop|this trope is played completely straight.]]

* [[Krypto the Superdog]] has to deal with [[Big Bad|Mechanikat]], [[Cute Is Evil|Snooky Wookums]], and [[Femme Fatale|Isis]].

** Even his feline [[Sidekick]], Streaky, can come across as a bit of a jerk sometimes. Though if you lived with a girl like Andrea, you'd probably have the same personality...

* Played straight in the [[Sports Cartoons]] that used to air on Nickelodeon during commercial breaks. The blue cat, in every cartoon except for one, is an unfair cheater who almost always gets his come-uppance by either the hippopotamus or the pig.

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Chi's Sweet Home]]'' is all about this. A curious little kitten shares her take on day to day events.

* Happy from ''[[Fairy Tail]]''.

* Kyo, from ''[[Fruits Basket]]''. Basically hated by his own family for being the cat of the zodiac, he is also saddled with a curse that {{spoiler|turns him into a hideous and apparently horrible smelling demon should he ever not wear his magical bracelet. The curse stems from the cat of the zodiac legend disagreeing with God. Turns out, he [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|didn't want to live forever.]]}} His charming personality doesn't exactly help either. {{spoiler|Of course, he gets the girl in the end.}}

* Averted in ''[[Outlaw Star]]'': The [[Catgirl]] Cop is on the good guys' side in spite of being slightly antagonistic towards them.

** Heartwretchingly subverted in the new 2009 adaptation of "Jungle Emperor Leo", {{spoiler|where Kimba lives with his parents in an artificial, strictly controlled habitat with the other animals designed by the creator, Director Ooyama, who doesn't actually have their best interests in mind. In fact, he's not doing it to save the species, but to show his god-like power over life, including genetically engineering animals in [[People Jars]] (or, should I say, animal jars) to populate his new neo-jungle with perfect species, while disposing of the ones who don't meet his genetic requirements. One of those unfortunate failures who survived was a panther named Toto, who, as a cub, was forced to watch the rest of his cloned siblings die as a result of Ooyama's purging for their genetic imperfection. Watching an adorable little cub become a battle-heartened, cynical panther dedicated to killing humanity makes his [[Redemption Equals Death]] when helped by the only person who showed him kindness (and the director's son no less!) all the more sad.}} Of course, Kimba and his parents are subversions too.

* Played straight and then subverted in ''[[The Borrower Arrietty]]''. Sho's cat, Niya, at first, is mean and predatory towards Arrietty, but he ultimately makes peace with her.

 

 

== Comic Books ==

* Seemingly played straight with the Red Lantern's [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair|blue]] house cat, but subverted in a recent spotlight on Dex-Star which explains ''why'' [[Start of Darkness|he's so angry]]. {{spoiler|A gang of thieves killed his human, and he wants revenge on them. Yep, a cat with loyalty.}}

** "[[Tear Jerker|I good kitty.]]"

* The Church Mice children's 'comics' feature a cat called Sampson that lives at peace with a positive plague of mice that inhabit a suburban church. It is made abundantly clear in at least one book that Sampson is something of a freak...

 

 

== Films - Animated ==

* Subverted with all the lions of ''[[The Lion King]]'' and the two sequels, except Scar and Zira.

** That said, [[Canon Immigrant|after gaining a star role in some of the]] [[Classic Disney Shorts]], Figaro was portrayed [[Took a Level In Jerkass|as a slightly meaner-spirited character]], usually acting as an antagonist for Pluto. That said, due to [[Tastes Like Diabetes|the cutsiness of most of the shorts he starred in]], he usually didn't exceed much past being rather [[Bratty Half-Pint|rambuncious and moody]].

** On the other hand, ''Pinocchio'' also has Gideon, a mute but otherwise very anthropomorphic cat who tries his best to help the evil talking fox J. Worthington Foulfellow in his schemes to encourage children to be irresponsible and endanger themselves. But Gideon is not so much actually mean as just dumb.

** Historical note: ''The Aristocats'' was the first film produced after Walt's death.

** It's addressed in a surprisingly mature way. When Bolt realizes that this trope simply ''isn't true'' (at least, not to [[Always Chaotic Evil|the extent]] he's been trained to think), it's the first major step in his [[Character Development]]. And while it's only [[Subtext]], it's implied a few times that Mittens suffers from [[Fantastic Racism]] as a result of this perception.

** Furthermore, it's implied that Mitten's behavior before meeting Bolt was a [[Jerkass Facade]] to stay alive, i.e. she only bullied the birds because {{spoiler|she's declawed and can't hunt}}.

* Alex the lion from ''[[Madagascar]]'' and his parents from the sequel.

** Tiger gets a pass because he's a [[Carnivore Confusion|vegetarian]].

*** [[Don Bluth]] said once in an interview about the production of ''An American Tail'' that "We knew that if we were going to say [[Cats Are Mean|"all cats are bad,"]] we wanted to have at least one good one...and that's Tiger."

** Averted with Mei Ling from ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]: Secrets Of The Furious Five''.

 

 

== Film - Live Action ==

* The only feline character in the Hungarian movie ''The Cat Trap'' who subverts this trope is [[Cute Kitten|Cathy]], the daughter of one of the villains' henchmen who's actually friends with a mouse.

* In the remake of ''[[Doctor Dolittle]]'', the sick tiger is about to commit suicide on behalf of this trope, and Dolittle ([[Eddie Murphy]]) is forced to think of an example of a positive depiction of a tiger in popular culture in order to convince the tiger to change his mind.

** On the other hand, note that said tiger himself is depicted as surprisingly gentle and kind (Albert Brooks' voice doesn't hurt) with the only 'meanness' being due to {{spoiler|a shard of bone in his head pressing in on his brain}}.

* ''[[The Adventures of Milo and Otis]]'' was extensively reworked from its original Japanese release...but the protagonist cat, Milo, is portrayed as good-natured and curious, and even his occasional mischievous moments are generally endearing rather than offputting. Also somewhat unusually in fiction, he's close friends with a pug named Otis, hence the title.

* Film exception: You'd expect a [[Stephen King]] film about a cat to be all over this trope, right? But in the anthology film ''Cat's Eye'', the cat is a mere bystander in the first two stories, and in the third, despite the mother's belief that it should be kept out of her daughter's room in case it "steals her breath", it actually defends her from the troll-like creature which is ''really'' doing this. Maybe [[Stephen King]] likes cats.

** Given that, at least for a while, many of his author portraits on the back of his books have been of him holding his cat, I'm going to say yes.

** Also, in ''[[Sleepwalkers]]'', the villains look like werecats but real cats attack them on sight. In fact, it's a small army of cats that saves the day when they scratch the villains to death.

 

 

 

== Literature ==

* Partially subverted in Patricia Highfield's short story "[http://books.google.com/books?id=I1O8LKN74VYC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=%22ming%27s+biggest+prey%22&source=bl&ots=2V8z8pfGaU&sig=ayR3yLCfirVQlHWvkXEcl7358Mk&hl=en&ei=wvlGTJujKYP-8Abtrtn-BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CC0Q6AEwBA Ming's Biggest Prey]"--Teddie is abusive to Elaine, and tries to drown Ming, but Ming clearly resents anyone and everyone who takes Elaine's attention away from him.

* In the fourth of Christopher Stasheff's ''[[A Wizard in Rhyme]]'' books, the manticore that menaces the hero (who eventually [[Captain Obvious|gives him the name 'Manny']]) at first seems to be this trope, but then pulls a [[Heel Face Turn]] and ends up being a stalwart and brave companion (though there are [[Running Gag|a number of instances]] of his predatory nature being used as the basis for jokes.)

* Reversed in ''[[The Cat Who Went to Heaven]]'', a novel written in 1930 by Elizabeth Coatsworth and based on Buddhist folk tales. A painter is commissioned by some Buddhist monks for a painting glorifying all the animals blessed by Buddha at his death. According to classical Buddhism, the cat rejected Buddha and was not included <ref>in many other tales, cats are depicted as demonic</ref>. Nevertheless, the painter had recently adopted a stray cat, and having loved the animal, could not imagine Heaven not accepting cats. To the outrage of the monks, he includes a small white cat in the painting, and his own cat dies of happiness at the same time. The next day, by miracle, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|the painting of Buddha has changed]] [[Tear Jerker|to him blessing the cat personally]].

* In the short story "The Price" in his ''Smoke and Mirrors'' anthology, the cat, though scarred, grizzled, and usually bleeding profusely, is actually defending the family from [[Satan]], who keeps trying to sneak into the house. The introduction implies that the cat is a guardian angel, of sorts.

** Lovecraft has a somewhat more obvious aversion in the early story "The Rats in the Walls", where the cat's agitation and natural animosity with the rats (here clearly an evil force) makes them good and very useful for the suspense.

*** And at the same time turning what could be another great Lovecraft story into pure [[Narm]] by having the rather often repeated name of Niggerman.

* In ''The Cat Who Wished To Be A Man'', by [[Lloyd Alexander]]. The eponymous cat, Lionel, begs his master (a wizard who gave him speech in the first place) to turn him into a human. Lionel is one of the kindest, nicest, and most generous humans in the book, especially compared to the villainous and tyrannical local ruler, bent on bleeding the town dry with outrageous taxes and fines.

** Lloyd Alexander has played this trope in many of his books.

* Subverted and played straight in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]''. Aslan the [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Golden Lion Jesus]], while [[Good Is Not Nice|"not tame"]], is most definitely the head Good Guy. He also disguises Himself as a domestic cat once in order to comfort Shasta. There are other good cats, such as other lions and leopards.

** The Glass Cat is vain (although that is more her maker's fault than hers), but she does help out Dorothy and co. quite frequently.

** There's also the white kitten Eureka, brought to Oz by Dorothy in one of the books, with whom the Glass Cat has an ongoing rivalry; like the Glass Cat, Eureka is somewhat bratty, but not evil.

* Subverted in the [[Amelia Peabody]] series, where the cat Bastet (always referred to as "the cat Bastet" in full) and her daughter, Sekhmet, are somewhat snarky in behavior, but about as useful and familiar-like as cats can be in non-fantasy fiction.

* You would expect that the book series ''[[Redwall]]'' would ''only'' obey this trope, since mice are about half the cast. Oddly enough, it doesn't. The first cat we ever meet, Squire Julian, spits the mouse hero out when he accidentally falls into his mouth, complaining that he doesn't eat rodents anymore; Julian is more of a resigned noble than anything else. His ancestor, Gingivere (seen in the later-released but chronologically earlier ''Mossflower''), is genuinely a good, kind soul, and his father Verdauga has his good side. On the ''other'' hand, Gingivere's sister, Tzarmina, is that book's [[Big Bad]] (and kills their father, framing Gingivere for it), and their uncle Ungatt Trunn is the villain in the book ''Lord Brocktree''. It's about an even split.

** It's worth noting that Julian is one of the few actually described as a cat, rather than a wildcat. This might simply be because he appears in the first book and Jaques didn't think to realize domestic cats wouldn't be around in a world without humans, but nonetheless, it paints a much less feral image.

** Oddly, various non-cat species that prey on rodents, even within the Redwall universe (seeing as Badgers don't seem to, even though they do in real life), such as hawks and owls, are not always portrayed as evil, ranging from noble heroes (there was one owl sage, at least one heroic hawk, the latter because he was rescued by woodlanders) to dangerous but neutral on the good-evil scale (would eat woodlanders in theory, but more often preyed on vermin).

* [[Neil Gaiman]] also subverts this trope.

** Neil ''does'' write nice things about Bast, the Egyptian Goddess of Cats.

* Partially subverted in ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]]'': while the leopard-man's behavior is sinister and a puma hybrid kills {{spoiler|Moreau himself}}, it's the ''hyena'' [[Biological Mashup]] that's the true beastman villain of the piece. ([[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|Even cats have better press than some species...]])

* In the sequel anthology to [[Watership Down]], a couple of cats aren't villains: in one story, a peaceful cat becomes a temporary ally of the hero, and in another, a group of rabbits gang up on and [[Family-Unfriendly Death|gruesomely]] kill a harmless cat, which [[Downer Ending|leads to their whole warren being exterminated]].

* In ''[[The House of Night]]'', cats are friends and allies to the Changing [[Phantasy Spelling|vampyres]]. They roam the House of Night freely and main character Zoey's cat Nala is a source of comfort and aid to her.

* In ''[[Snot Stew]]'', POV Character [[Cute Kitten|Kikki]] is a [[Shrinking Violet]], subverting the stereotype. Her brother, Toby, starts out more mischievous, but [[Took a Level In Jerkass|becomes more of a jerk]] as the plot kicks in. {{spoiler|And pays for it, too.}}

* Subverted in ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban|Harry Potter]]''. Hermione's pet cat Crookshanks repeatedly attacks Ron's pet rat Scabbers, {{spoiler|who turns out to be the evil Peter Pettigrew in disguise}}.

** Here, cats aren't really evil, or cruel, or mean, so much as bodies for poetic justice to walk around in.

* ''The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her To Fly'', by Luis Sep?da. Although almost the entire cast is made of well-meaning cats, they do have to deal with abusive alley felines.

* Subverted numerously in Tamora Pierce's ''Tortall'' series.

** In the ''Song of the Lioness'' quartet and the ''Beka Cooper'' books, Faithful (AKA Pounce) is the Cat constellation sent to help the heroines.

** In the last book in ''Protector of the Small'' quartet, a cat dies attacking the Big Bad in order to give the protagonist enough time to counter strike (she gets better).

** In one of the ''Immortals'' books, the main character is helped by two cats to infiltrate a castle.

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''My Cat From Hell'' is a more of a show about Jackson Galaxy showing cat's owners how to treat a cat so the cats are not "mean" to others. Often, he shows how cats interact with their environment and how to "communicate" with the cat.

 

* Subverted by ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]''; Hobbes the stuffed (?) tiger is more or less Calvin's moral center.

** When he isn't pouncing on Calvin. One of the comic books is entitled ''Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat''.

* Given his experiences with World War I, [[Peanuts|Snoopy's]] reaction to Frieda getting a cat was understandable...as was his surprise to see Fabian, an incredibly laid-back cat that dangled from her arms, when he showed up.

{{quote| ''"That's'' a cat?!?"}}

 

== Toys ==

 

 

* Subverted in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''. While two of the Ronso do appear as [[Those Two Guys]] to follow and menace the party, and end up being bosses, the race in general is made of [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|proud warrior race guys]] who are noble, honorable, and heroic, and one of them is a member of your party. Every other one encountered as an NPC is polite, mild-mannered, and friendly.

* Played and subverted with Blaze The Cat of the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series. Despite her [[Grumpy Bear|cold and somewhat temperamental nature]], she is a well intentioned protagonist and [[Defrosting Ice Queen|tones down a little]] following [[Character Development]]. Subverted heavily with Big the Cat who, [[The Ditz|despite having the brain approximately the size of a peanut]], is a rather friendly and gentle soul.

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' may have given us the Demon Cat, but it also gave us the Resurrection Kitty, Ser Pounce-a-lot, Anders' cute companion who had the nifty trick of reviving all unconscious party members. Mind you, it wasn't until [[Dragon Age 2|the sequel]] that we really began to miss Ser Pounce's [[Morality Pet|anti-crazy]] effect on [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|Anders]]...

 

** Also, [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20041015 this] strip.

{{quote| Blade on a Stick: Carrot had one...before he ran off in terror away from a harmless monster.}}

* Bec in ''[[Homestuck]]'' is a [[Big Friendly Dog]] whom Jade loves dearly. His alpha counterpart, Godcat, is fickle and mysterious and Jane feels very ambivalent about him.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** Averted with the several hundred kittens in "Catteries Not Included", who become kitten-napping victims, at least one just wants to get back to his humans.

* Ortensia from the ''[[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]]'' cartoons (she was called Sadie back then) and ''[[Epic Mickey]]''.

* Tillie the tiger cub from the [[Classic Disney Short]] ''Elmer Elephant''

* Julius the cat from the ''[[Alice Comedies]]''

* The cats from ''[[Top Cat]]''. While the main character is a con artist, he's also a pretty decent guy. His gang is even more of a subversion - while they generally obey him, they won't hesitate to refuse to help him whenever he tries something truly immoral (like the time he tried to sell Dibble's birthday presents).

* Max from ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]''.

* Tigger of ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'', while hardly "mean" per se, is one of the more rambunctious and egotistical residents of the Hundred Acre Wood compared to his mostly far more docile friends.

** It didn't help that nearly half the shorts involved another bigger animal siding with Jerry and helping him antagonize Tom and steal more food. Heck, sometimes the ''very people who ordered Tom to go after Jerry in the first place'' side with the mouse in the end. Then again, it's very wrong to say there weren't points where Tom was picking on Jerry [[It Amused Me|for the sheer fun of it]] (or enjoying his job a bit too much).

** Which make the occasional instances where Tom wins all the sweeter.

*** Likewise, there's an episode where Tom's identical mouse-fearing cousin, Jasper, comes over to visit. Long story short, it's an inversion of the trope in which it's a ''mouse'' (namely, Jerry) tormenting an innocent cat (Jasper). Of course, Tom can only take Jerry teasing his cousin for so long before [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|he decides to help Jasper and show Jerry WHY it's a bad idea to pick on someone who has a look-a-like relative.]]

** Sylvester arguably came off as [[Designated Villain|the most sympathetic Looney Tunes antagonist]], given that, unlike others that were [[For the Evulz|directly antagonistic]] or criminals, most of Sylvester's actions didn't exceed past that of a normal cat (in some cases, he was established as half-starved and desperate for food). It's worsened in that, similar to the Tom and Jerry example, the universe seems skewed to punish Sylvester, when not labelling him a monster and a cad for trying to catch an innocent little bird, he is being branded a coward and a joke for NOT catching another (supposedly) smaller defenseless animal. And of course, there were plenty of moments [[Screwy Squirrel|mice, birds, and dogs tortured him unprovoked]].

** His son, Sylvester Jr, while [[Bratty Half-Pint|rather snobbish and condescending to his father's bumbling]], is pretty tame as well.

* [[Heathcliff]] is another antiheroic feline; while a likeable guy, he also tends to pick fights, steal fish, and generally cause trouble. Oddly, he befriends mice like Garfield does.

* Subverted with the one-shot ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'' character, Kitty. She's more bitter than mean, due to being separated from her friend, Bunny, by a cruel Doberman. Because of this, she holds a [[Fantastic Racism|deep hatred towards dogs and openly expresses said hatred at Courage]]. However, at the end, {{spoiler|she's reunited with Bunny and realizes that Courage was the one that helped her out, changing her viewpoint on dogs.}}

** {{spoiler|"I was wrong, Bunny. Not all dogs are bad."}}

* Inverted in ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'', where [[Cats Are Mean]] goes up against [[Dumb Is Good]] and loses by technical knockout. [[Dumb Is Good]] goes on to meet [[Dogs Are Dumb]] in the semi-finals. In other words, Ren is a [[Jerkass]] dog and Stimpy is a nice [[Good Is Dumb]] cat.

* Subverted by Steeljaw, the Autobot lion from ''[[Transformers]]''.

*** Tigatron is all over this one.

* Inverted in the Barbie direct-to-video movie ''The Princess and the Pauper.'' The heroines each have a cat, while the villain's pet of choice is a poodle.

** Also, Sweetie, sociopathic little monster that she is, will usually antagonize Furball until he breaks and chases after her. That said, the show avoids the same [[Double Standard]] Tweety was granted, and does show Sweetie as a genuine antagonist on occasion (sometimes, she herself played the bumbling predator against the [[Bookworm]]). There were even a few rare occasions [[Team Rocket Wins|Furball got the last laugh on Sweetie]].

* [[Chuck Jones]]' Claude Cat started out as a sympathetic figure (always being exploited and heckled by the wisecracking mouse duo, Hubie and Bertie).

* Subverted with the many moments when Cat from ''[[Cat Dog]]'' shows genuine kindness.

* ''[[Eek the Cat]]'' is extremely kind to everyone, even those who are actively trying to mangle him.

* In ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'', ''[[The Garfield Show]]'', and animated specials, Garfield is a hero who will go out of the way to save his friends.

** His son, PJ, is even more of a subversion, despite being portrayed as a [[Dogface]] as opposed to a cat.

* Utterly inverted in the classic short ''[[Bad Luck Blackie]]'', where a mean dog torments a poor kitten, and the titular black cat is a [[Karmic Trickster]].

* Subverted and inverted with the mother puma and her kittens in the "Woodland Critters Christmas" episode of ''[[South Park]]''. The pumas turn out to be good, while the Christmas Critters, who are [[Woodland Creatures]], turn out to be evil and are raising the [[Anti Christ]]..

 

* Also subverted by a recent ad [[Sarah McLachlan]] did for the Humane Society. One of the shelter cats in the ad looks like it has tears in its eyes. Cats are so well known for being cold and aloof that [[Not So Stoic|seeing one near weeping]] is heartbreaking.

** That "weeping" is usually the product of an eye infection. Whether that makes it better or worse is up to the reader.

{{quote| '''Dr. David Dosa''': He is not a cat who will spend quality time with residents on the ward, unless they're about to die; he's not a cat that likes to spend a lot of time with staff; he keeps to himself.}}

** Either that, or he literally loves the smell of death, since dying people excrete trace amounts of certain chemicals undetectable by human senses.