Cats Are Mean: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

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{{quote|''"If cats looked like frogs, we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are."''|'''[[Terry Pratchett]]''', ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Lords and Ladies|Lords and Ladies]]''}}

 

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

* Rivalling [[Discworld (Literature)|Greebo]] as a personification of this trope and [[Badass]] is Horse from ''[[Footrot Flats]]'', a bad-tempered semi-stray who chases off dogs several times his size. Incidentally, he's [[Write Who You Know|based on a real cat]] that used to hang around the author's home.

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

*** And not just any leather jacket: one of the jackets of the local biker-gang (owners of his mother). Ah Horse, the only animal who could give Major the pig-dog what-for.

* Eben from ''[http://www.twolumps.net Two Lumps]''.

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

* The Evil in ''[[Sluggy Freelance (Webcomic)|Sluggy Freelance]]''. Kittens who are literally the spawn of [[Satan]], and which have a tendency to [[Killer Rabbit|kill people]] if they don't get their milk.

* ''[[Something Positive (Webcomic)|Something Positive]]''. It's implied that Choo Choo Bear and Twitchy Hug get up to some evil stuff off-camera...until Choo Choo arranges to have Twitchy Hug assassinated. On camera.

** [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney's]] ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney)|The Jungle Book]]'' has both an antagonistic (Shere Khan) and friendly (Bagheera) feline character, but this is hardly Disney's invention.

*** Partially subverted in ''[[Tale Spin (Animation)|Tale Spin]]''. Shere Khan is a ruthless businessman with some [[Black and Gray Morality|questionable morality when it comes to his work]], but otherwise has a very strong sense of honor and integrity (he's even willing to admit when he's wrong). He also has a (grudging) respect towards Baloo. He's more along the lines of [[True Neutral]] or possibly [[Neutral Evil]], since he's more interested in profit than anything of true malice.

** At the beginning of ''[[Bolt (Disney)|Bolt]]'', we see two of the felines who play Dr. Calico's [[Right-Hand-Cat|Right Hand Cats]] on the [[Show Within a Show]] winding up Bolt.

** Unsurprisingly, ''[[The Great Mouse Detective (Disney)|The Great Mouse Detective]]'' has an example, with the cat Felicia acting as [[Big Bad|Ratigan]]'s equivalent of a [[Shark Pool]].

* Subverted with Bagheera from ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney)|The Jungle Book]]'', though this is hardly Disney's invention.

* Walt's story men were able to get a real feline protagonist into ''[[Pinocchio (Disney)|Pinocchio]]''. True, Figaro was a cute, unrealistically obedient kitten who took a lot of crap from an old man and a goldfish, but still, good cat!

** 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.

* ''[[Oliver and Company (Disney)|Oliver and Company]]'' strongly subverts this (if not inverts it) with Oliver the cat portrayed primarily as [[The Woobie]], with probably the fewest wrongdoings of any character, with the possible exception of Jenny, another woobie. Even questionable morality is mostly on the part of the dogs and, of course, [[Humans Are Bastards|the human characters]] (except Jenny). This approach is very unusual for a Disney movie.

* The Disney animated feature ''[[The Aristocats (Disney)|The Aristocats]]'' both subverts and supports this trope. The elegant, refined Duchess and her rambunctious-yet-lovable kittens are as nice as you can hope; they're even friends with a mouse named Roquefort. Then there's Duchess' boyfriend O'Malley, the alley cat, and his pals, Scat Cat and his jazz band, all of whom are "a little rough around the edges." While Scat Cat's gang are definitely good guys, at one point, they capture Roquefort and toy with him, clearly intending to eat him. Roquefort survives only because he blurts out that he knows O'Malley. The film features a pair of dogs, who don't treat each other quite as well.

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

* The titular hero of ''[[Bolt (Disney)|Bolt]]'' sees all cats as servants of Dr. Calico early on, though he eventually grows to become friends with Mittens. Mittens herself fulfills this trope at first, behaving like a Mafia don toward the local pigeons, bullying them into bringing her food scraps in exchange for not getting eaten, [[Defrosting Ice Queen|but soon starts to drift away from it as the film progresses]]. She turns out to be a [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]] and a [[Broken Bird]] whose relationship with Bolt leads them to become [[Fire-Forged Friends]].

** 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.

== Literature ==

* [[Diana Wynne Jones]]'s ''Castle in the Sky'' (sequel to ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (Literature)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'') features a black cat who generally makes herself a nuisance to the main character, putting her and her kitten's needs before anything else. Later in the book, {{spoiler|she is revealed to be Sophie, the protagonist of the first book, and the kitten is her and Howl's son, Morgan}}.

* 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.)

* [[Petaybee]]: [[Playing With a Trope|while the cats are on the good side]], they are portrayed as belligerent at best and vicious at worst.

* 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.

* Mostly averted in [[Tad Williams]]' [[Tailchasers Song]]. Cats are described as being catlike, but not in a mean or selfish way; they're just cats. The bad guy's a cat, [[Captain Obvious|of course]], but mostly an [[Eldritch Abomination]].

* 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.

* 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.

* [[The Cat in The Hat]] is a trickster subversion.

* In the ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' series, the treecats of Sphinx are sentient, empathically bonded to their humans, loyal to a fault, and fully capable of obliterating anything that dares threaten them or their human charges. (Nimitz, Honor's treecat, sees enemies in two forms: those that have been properly dealt with and those that are still alive.)

* 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.}}

** 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]].

*** It's important to note that Sylvester is somewhat of a toned-down version of the most famous Looney Toons canine - [[Wile E Coyote and The Road Runner (Animation)|Wile E Coyote and The Road Runner]]. The Coyote gets a meaner portrayal, with his hunt being a little less innocent and his prey being more innocent than Sylvester's. Of course, Mr. Coyote is not a domestic dog, but rather an animal normally considered dangerous to humans, which makes it easier to portray him as a villain (much like wolves often are). What IS interesting is that while many viewers preferred to see Sylvester as the villain in his relationship with Tweety, the Coyote is often remembered as the protagonist of the Roadrunner cartoons ''anyway''!

* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'''. The [[Show Within a Show]] "[[The Itchy and Scratchy Show]]" features a subversion - Itchy and Scratchy magnifies the degree of sadism with which Jerry treated Tom. Itchy and Scratchy just removes the "he started it" justification. Scratchy the cat is [[Dumb Is Good|dumb and nice]], believing Itchy to be his friend, while Itchy conspires to kill him for no reason whatsoever. Sometimes, Scratchy, the cat, tries to team up with Itchy, the mouse. Itchy always takes this opportunity to launch an appallingly violent surprise attack.

* [[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.

* Many [[Real Life]] cat moms that first give birth will adopt ''anything'', including skunks and squirrels.

** For example, Snaggle Puss the cat [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04RZrf3-Mgo adopting Bubbles the rabbit].

{{quote| (from the poem on [http://www.moggies.co.uk/html/heroine.html this] page): "The rescuers have called me cat.../but [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|I am also 'mother.'"]]}}

* Sometimes, a cat will accept the baby into the family and take care of it.

[[Category:Magic for Beginners]]

[[Category:Cats Are Mean]]