Children's animated films

[hyphenate]

I've decided that it's time to start boycotting all children's animation. Why? Because it's completely and totally unrealistic.

Yes, I know that's an oxymoron, but here's my problem:

Rats and mice are cute, harmless creatures, and cats are wicked and nasty killers.

Go figure.

I suppose Walt Disney started that crap with Mickey many years ago, and animators have just run with the idea ever since. I guess the territorial war between rodents and cats is age old, and that rodents are the underdog in the fight. But let's consider:

If cats hadn't been around from ancient Egypt and beyond, people would have starved to death.
If cats hadn't been killed during the Dark Ages and medieval times, 1/3 of Europe's population would not have succumbed to the Black Plague, because the cats would have taken care of the rodents and their fleas.
If cats weren't around, ships at sea would never get anywhere, because the rat population would have eaten all the grain onboard.

Cats are definitely on the list of the "good guys" so it makes me believe Walt Disney was an ailurophobe.

But I think we need to find a way to combat the cutesy portrayals of rodents in animation (and perhaps in most areas of entertainment) and instead begin to support the idea of cats being the heroes in films, just as they should be depicted.

[phantom power]

1. what about Aristocats?

And Hello Kitty?

[asdjrocky]

5. Let's face it-

That girl cat in Pepe Le Pew was pretty cute.

[phantom power]

6. oo la la! Le mew!

[devilgrrl]

8. One pro-cat film from 1970

that so makes up for it.

Sorry, I'm sick of the "cats suck" crap from the entertainment industry.

[hyphenate]

16. Amen!

That's my answer right there. 70 years of pro-mouse can't be apologized with one or two cat films. It probably has created generations of cat haters in the meantime!

[noonwitch]

2. Have you forgotten about The Aristocats?

Sweet, furry little kittens and their mother (voiced by one of the Gabor sisters) being mistreated by their owner's butler. It's out on video again, now.

[hyphenate]

18. Nope--not adequate!

We need to show what rats and mice have done and how cats have saved mankind, in more ways than one. Apologizing to those who have mice or rats as pets, though, rodents are largely vermin. I think that cats have been maligned for too much of history, and that's just wrong.

Yes, this is an amusing thought in many ways, but as a cat lover (and crazy cat lady, to boot!) I have watched cats get the short end of the stick too often.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Is this like that scary racist penguins thread?

[hyphenate]

19. I'm not familiar with that one! eom

[uppityperson]

4. Yeah, you really believe there would be NO rat poop if rats were chefs?

Cats rule!

[hyphenate]

20. That's right

I'd really like to see a screenwriter seriously contemplate letting a rat into his or her own kitchen. I think the answer would be quite obvious at that point!

[uppityperson]

57. Something even funnier

people on another website think this is series. Cats RULE!!!

[hyphenate]

59. Well it is you know

A very series issue! Poor cats are the most maligned creatures on earth, you know. Even more than any other group, including Christians!! ;)

[devilgrrl]

7. I too am sick of the anti-feline bullshit from Hollywood

Yes, we get it - Dogs, mice and fish are great but Cats suck...

BTW, people who hate cats (excluding people who are allergic) are seriously fucked in the head.

[hyphenate]

21. And I can't see too many ways

to fight it properly! I don't think a giant letter campaign to all the writers in Hollywood is gonna work, though. After all, they've all managed to get back to work recently, haven't they?

[trof]

9. You hate Mickey and Minnie. Commonist.

;-)

[hyphenate]

22. That's right

I'm a commonist. :rofl:

[supernova]

10. No Ballet-slippered hippos for you!

[hyphenate]

24. One of my favorite segments

from Fantasia. Despite it being another example of Disney propaganda, dontcha know.

[Speck Tater]

11. OMG! This is WAAAY more important than...

... spiraling health care costs, oil wars, global climate disaster, peak oil, economic collapse and the next great depression. What was I thinking worrying about such trivial things as that? The thought of global thermonuclear war in the mid east over dwindling oil supplies just pales in comparison to the anti-Sylvester the cat bigotry. Where IS my head?

[hyphenate]

25. I don't know

where IS your head? We have to think of the little ones sometimes, you know. Even if they're the four-legged, furry and feline small fry. ;)

(If we worry about all the big stuff all the time, what would be the sense of going on? It's when we don't see the irony in the smaller issues that makes people blow their heads off--or anyone who just happens to be in the way.)

[gollygee]

12. Lion King?

or are you only looking at house cats? Also, Kimba the Lion if lions count. The Pink Panther. Hmmm maybe that isn't a kid's cartoon? How about Snaglepuss?

[hyphenate]

27. I was thinking mainly of the littlest felines

in my rabblerousing. They get shat upon by so many pro-rodent productions, it's completely unfair.

I DO love Snagglepuss, and I will give you that one, but the main difference is that the TV shows don't get the backing and publicity that TV shows do. TV has produced some shows that are pro-cat, though, more than any high budget movie, like Felix the Cat (and the aforementioned Snagglepuss) as well. But even in television, cats are maligned--look at poor Sylvester. I would have made sure Tweety was Sylvester's snack that first day they were introduced. ;)

[CoffeeCat]

13. What about Marc Antony and Pussyfoot???

My favorite cartoon EVER!



Here's the whole cartoon--where Marc Antony thinks Pussyfoot gets
baked into a cookie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnEeCOZMbko

Priceless and adorable.

[hyphenate]

30. Thanks for the link!

I probably remember the show somewhere in my memory, but I think I need to refresh it!

[hyphenate]

60. PS

Thanks for the link. I watched it, and now recall the characters. The most fun thing about that clip is looking at the human character in it. Even though you can only see her from the knees down, that says a lot: stockings with the seam down the back, wearing a dress/skirt while doing housekeeping, high/pump heels......boy, does all that date the cartoon!

[Tesha]

14. "Top Cat"

[hyphenate]

28. Yes, another winner!

But have you noticed that most of the really good cat shows are on television, and not film? That's why I'm ranting. More money goes into a "big" animated film than most of those animated TV shows got for their entire budget. It sucks!

[Tesha]

15. Live action: "Homeward Bound"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeward_Bound:_The_Incredible_Journey

[hyphenate]

31. There are quite a few live films

that favor cats, but in animation, it's a whole nother thing. It's ironic, really--cats are notoriously "bad" actors (I've heard wranglers complain of them all the time) because they aren't as eager as dogs who follow visual cues very well. You would think that animators would therefore be delighted to work on cat related productions since they don't have to deal with stubborn felines in live films.

[knitter4democracy]

17. What about Rita and Runt on Animaniacs?

I loved that show, and Rita was the best. :)

[hyphenate]

32. I'm not familiar so much with

the Animaniacs. But again, TV rules for cats, animated films, rodents need only apply.

[knitter4democracy]

35. Oh, then you need to rent some of their DVDs!

The best one was a re-make of "Of Mice and Men."

[htuttle]

23. Your cat put you up to posting this, didn't it?

Hey, that's okay...I know how they can be when they don't get their way....

[hyphenate]

33. Which one?

:rofl:

I suppose it had to be Jean-Luc. He's the only one I've got with a surplus of brains.

[bunkerbuster1]

41. Oh NOES!

the secret's out.

[mitchum]

26. If my wife wins the lottery she is going to pay an animator to make a cartoon...

where Sylvester finally catches Tweety and eats him.
She hates that annoying Little yellow motherfucker even more than I do

[hyphenate]

29. GMTA!

I was posting above to the same result--I think Tweety was dith-picable, personally.

[DS1]

34. You can have my cartoons when you pry them from my cold, dead, burnt, firecrackered,

sledgehammered, mouse-trapped, shark-bitten, frozen, broiled, diced, and steamrollered hands!

[hyphenate]

39. Sure, Chuck--

We know how much you like your guns--er, cartoons.

Remove some rats and mice from some still grabs and put a cat in them. It might be the only time we have cats in a new animated motion picture.

;)

[TheMightyFavog]

36. What about Samurai Pizza Cats?

IIRC, that series had a villain who was a cross dressing rat.




And what about SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron?

[hyphenate]

40. I'm not familiar with them

but the same thing goes for them if they're TV and not films.

[lukasahero]

37. Does Shrek count as a "children's" film?

Because if it does, you left out the cat with the highest pop-culture cachet on the planet right now - Puss 'n Boots.

Of course I have no idea whatsoever inspired this post and am probably missing the joke but I figured I needed to point out this glaring oversight. ;)

[hyphenate]

42. Puss is a truly admirable character

and I would think Mike Meyers must be an ailurophile, because the Austin Powers films have a cat in them as well. However, Puss is completely anthrormorphized, and is only a cat in appearance, not a cat doing catly things. For a long time, though, I used Puss as my avatar, having a fondness for him.

[kiva]

38. No more cute mice, please.

Puss in Boots is great, but we do need more pro-cat movies. There was a movie a few years ago (can't remember the name) that was a cat vs. dog thing, had a cute beagle secret agent, but all the cats were evil and stupid. My cat has her evil moments, but never stupid.

[hyphenate]

43. Yes--Cats vs Dogs

Abominable. Dogs are cool, too, but pitting the two species against one another was just another propagandistic tool to make cats even less liked!



One of my favorite children's films is Babe, but even there, the cat is the bad guy and the mice the feisty little compatriots of the hero. The fact is, the cat was right--under ordinary circumstances. But Babe turned out to be less ordinary than most pigs. So it made the cat seem all the more evil, trying to spread lies and nastiness. :shrug: Perhaps resistence IS futile.

[mcctatas]

44. I'm glad to see someone focusing on what REALLY matters...

my pet rat and I will pray for you :hi:

[hyphenate]

50. Is his name Ben, by any chance?

Actually, I have friends who raised white rats--itty bitty things. They were cool. But I love my kits and want to see some justice for them!

[mcctatas]

51. Even less original than ben...

templeton. My siamese cat is afraid of him for some reason...

[hyphenate]

55. heh, heh

It's kind of funny to see how some animals are "afeared" of others! I know this horse that was terrified of a Pomeranian, and a Great Dane that was terrified of a Siamese. I haven't known too many cats that were "afeared" of mice or rats, though! :)

[hyphenate]

45. I can tell you how bad things are in Hollywoodland

in one instance, even though the film came out of Britain: The Three Lives of Thomasina.

If you are familiar with the film to some degree, you know that it starred Patrick McGoohan, Susan Hampshire and Karen Dotrice. Karen played Patrick McGoohan's daughter, and Susan Hampshire played this young woman in the woods who comforted all creatures and cared for them. People though she was daft and called her a witch. Rumours made sure that she was left alone, and that was okay with her.

Mary MacGregor, Dotrice, has a pet cat, Thomasina, and her father (McGoohan) is the town's only vet. Naturally, the plot involves lost cats, romance and other things like that, but the one main animal in the story is Thomasina, who is a marmalade cat. (A red tabby) First of all, most, not all, but most red tabbies are male. It has something to do with the genes for black and red being on the X chromosome, and since a male only has one X, he will get either the black or the red, but not both. That's why calicoes are mostly (95%) female, because females carry both the red and black genes. A male calico is rare, but most importantly, is sterile. His chromosomes are screwed up and he is likely XXY.

However, to go on, Thomasina is one of those rare marmalade female cats. During the film, you see quite a lot of Thomasina, and it's never the same cat. Foolishly, the producers were rather arrogant in their thoughts that no one would notice switching cats, but it's obvious in many places, as they used a classic red tabby for some scenes, and a mackerel red tabby for other scenes.

That alone should say quite a bit--if producers can't respect the animals they're using, how can we ever hope to get a change in their attitudes? It does suck, don't it?

[doni_georgia]

46. This post is ratism of the highest order eom

[hyphenate]

47. Yes!

An intolerance of all things rodent! :rofl:

[knight_of_the_star]

48. Just to point one thing out about the Plague

There's new evidence emerging suggesting it wasn't a flea-borne disease. Thought I would toss that out there for ya.

[hyphenate]

49. Yes, I've seen that

as some historians look at more than just the Black Plague of the 14th century and see multiple regions hit with plague-like illnesses throughout history.

It is a good postulation when we have the hindsight to see things more objectively, but it doesn't negate other factors in the history of such epidemics.

Rotting corpses might have carried the highly contagious virus which might have been responsible, but there were significant cases where rotting meat in general carried the virus, and mice and rats were rampant in the larger cities of the day. It's equivalent to a hantavirus reaching a large city and spreading out to most of the world because it is a hub for people to come to and leave to their own part of the world. Most CDC doctors agree that it not the viruses themselves that will kill the most, if there is ever an epidemic, but the panic, the sheer need, but impossibility, to contain and quarantine, and the lack of cures for many viruses or manufactured strains of them. Remember, viral infections can't be handled by antibiotics as bacteria can, and people are just not prepared for such a disaster to take place.

If cats hadn't been slaughtered previous to some of the scourges, far more of the vermin would have been around, and while it might not have been the fleas which caused the problem, making more sanitary conditions with the eradication of the pestilence would certainly have brought better living conditions, and therefore made people far stronger to withstand the infections.

[JHB]

52. Support your neighborhood catbus! The Green (maybe orange) way to ride!

http://www.totoro.org/images/gallery2/

[Touchdown]

53. Oh' Father! For SHAME! I want a Mouthspttt!

A brief history of Hollywood's good cats.

Figaro (Disney)
Tom (He won against Jerry half the time)
Bagghera (panther in Jungle Book)
Tigger
Simba/Mustafa (Lion King...the most successful animated film in history)
Puss in Boots
Sarge (the recon/scout cat in 101 Dalmatians)
Cat Woman (well, she's a sexy anti-hero, but she did purr at Batman)
Mr. Bigglesworth (he did nothing wrong. It was all Dr. Evil and Scott, the test tube love child with Frau Farbissina)
Tony the Tiger
Gigi (From Kiki's Delivery Service)
Sebastian (from Josie and the Pussycats)
Tex Avery's Black Cat (he walks by and a flower pot lands on the bully dog's head. He got hired by a kitten who blew a whistle when in danger)
Pete Puma (Ok he was a bad guy, but he was soooo funny!!!!)
Sylvester (when he was with Porky Pig in the haunted house and on Mars. He actually saw dangers. Porky didn't)
The Cat From Outer Space (dumb movie, but he was a good guy)
Crookshanks (Hermione's cat from Harry Potter)
Stimpy, or Ren...can't figure out which.
The little kitten Marc Anthony (bulldog) tried to protect from being made into a cookie, cuz she fell in the flour bin.
Leo (The MGM Lion)... Disney has their mouse, MGM has their cat, Paramount has their mountain, and Columbia has their bimbo.
General (From Stephen King's Cat's Eye)
I might be missing some.

All heroes, except for my cat Sonic! Little Miss Queen Bitch of the Universe. "Let me roll on the floor showing you my pussy so you'll give me a treat, and if it's those crappy Greenies, then I'll puke in your bedroom doorway! So there!":grr:

[hyphenate]

54. Very cool list!

I see you've been doing your homework! :rofl:

Some of these I'm not that familiar with on the film end. There are quite a few live action films with cats, and I'm familiar with a lot of them, and TV cartoon characters as well. Not all, but most....hell, we even decided at one point that Dino, the Flintstones' pet, was more of a cat than a dog, even though I don't think they ever decided what he was. (Of course, this was like 40 years ago, and if you quote me, I will have to deny it!)

One of the best movie cats (live action), besides Thomasina, was Pyewacket, from Bell, Book and Candle. Gorgeous Siamese. And a real great one was Jonesy, from the original Alien film.

I'm always up to seeing cats in movies.

P.S.: Trivia for you--the "bimbo" for Columbia is reportedly modeled after Annette Bening. Every time I look at her, she reminds me of Barbara Babcock.

[Touchdown]

56. It can't be Annette Benning.

She wasn't even born when the studio came up with her. It was founded during the golden age of Hollywood, back in the teens/20s. It is rumored that she is based on a silent starlet, but her real name is Columbia, the Roman Goddess.... EDIT, who BTW this continent (America the native name) was named after when it was found by Europeans.

The bimbo remark is just my obnoxious way of talking.:P

I forgot about Jonesy. His hisses made Alien more scary than without him. He was brief in the second film, but still got in a hiss.

Dino, IMO, was a dog character. He jumped Fred and licked his face when he came home every night. My cat doesn't do that. She barely gets off the bed.:eyes:

Now, here's a poser. Who was Spot on The Munsters? The dragon that lived in the basement. I say she's a female cat. full of attitude, and ready to spit fire. You can tell who rules the roost in my house, and it's not me!:rofl:

Oh'... speaking of Dino and Spot, bad Rat parable. Trouble with Tribbles in Star Trek. They multiplied so fast, that they took over the ship...because The Enterprise didn't have any cats on board to control the population.

[Norrin Radd]

65. Adding to your list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_cats

Felines definately tend to be portrayed more favorably in literature. Lots of writers who are ailurophiles. My personal favorite is the fantasy author Fritz Leiber. His charming thief character The Gray Mouser was half based on his best friend, and half on Fritz's admiration of cats (Mouser was a proud cat personified).

Though I happen to also like the nice clean pet rats and mice.

[nemo137]

58. So, you gonna take the scissors to Aesop, too?

Town Mouse and Country Mouse, the story about putting the bell on the cat, the cat and the mice, the lion and the mouse, and probably two or three others I'm forgetting.

Is your thoroughgoing liberal rationalism really so strong as to start tearing at the basis of western society?

</moderately sardonic tone>

[hyphenate]

61. Indeed, yes--

that's the start of all things pro-rodent! We need to quash all anti-cat propaganda, now, while we still can! They all say that roaches will survive the Apocalypse--I say rodents, too, will be a major part of the new world!

[Kat45]

62. That always bugged me too.

When I was a kid, I loved cats, but in most cartoons, the cat would be the "bad guy," he would lose.
Cat vs mouse, cat loses.
Cat vs bird, cat loses.
Cat vs dog, cat loses.
Even cat vs person, person puts cat out.

Even Itchy & Scratchy on The Simpsons, it's always the cat that gets pummeled and/or killed.

[hyphenate]

66. I think it's one of the reasons

they do it in animation: the real live cats would never cooperate with a director, so they make it so the cats HAVE to do degrading things in the animationed features. I can count on very few cats who would walk away from a spat with a mouse, rat, bug or other small animal. They'd kick the shit out of it, eat part of it, bringing the rest to your doorstep for you to praise for their excellent hunting capabilities!

[BreweryYardRat]

63. Shouldn't this be in the Lounge?

Surely you're not serious...

[hyphenate]

67. Sure I'm series!

Cats are among our closest friends in the real world, and we must protect them at all costs!

[HuffleClaw]

64. "Everybody wants to be a cat!"

and Simba and Naala were CATS, just really big ones. and Figaro from Pinocchio

[hyphenate]

69. Thankfully

here at DU, most are animal lovers, so we don't have such a bias toward cats. I hope that it stays that way!

[RainDog]

68. forget disney, studio ghibli has the goods

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli

ten times better than any disney (sincerely)

go for Wallace and Gromit. okay, Gromit is a dog, but bad guys are penguins and sheep and other dogs. shorts are better than feature length, imo.

animation is a serious subject!!