twenty fantastic film felines for International Cat Day • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

Cats are perfect. This is a truth universally, anecdotally and evolutionarily ackowledged; with their beauty, athleticism and independence making them some of the best hunters on the planet, according to scientists, cats have also attained perfection in the eyes of their human owners, who know all too well the joys of feline companionship. Whether cats are curling up in our laps at the end of a long day, entertaining themselves with balls of yarn or other such dangling toys, or making us work absurdly hard for their approval, our animal friends teach us all the meaning of unconditional love and support. 

Of course, celebrating the cats in our lives is an everyday, year-round activity. But in honor of International Cat Day, we’re looking back at some of the many famous felines whose movie appearances have been purr-ticularly memorable, from colorfully animated kittens to heroic house cats portrayed by real, working cat actors. For the purr-poses—last one, promise—of this starter pack, we’re limiting our twenty candidates to domestic cats, setting aside the largest members of the cat family (including tigers, lions and leopards, with all due respect to Tigger and no desire to hurt Simba’s pride). We’re also focusing on fictional cat characters, though plenty of cat-centric documentaries—especially Kedi, about the stray cats of Istanbul—come with our highest endorsement. And we’ve only made room for one extraterrestrial posing as a cat, with apologies to Goose from Captain Marvel, whom that film goes out of its way to stress is in fact a flerken (and the tentacles it shoots from its mouth have us convinced). 

We should also acknowledge that, to even the playing field, we’re minimizing the number of animated Disney cats in play; with the likes of diabolical Lucifer (Cinderella), loyal Oliver (Oliver & Company), mischievous Figaro (Pinocchio) and cuddly Mochi (Big Hero 6) meowing about, it’s safe to say we could have stocked a starter pack exclusively with the studio’s scene-stealing cartoon cats. But don’t worry—a few favorites from that roster are still represented below, along with some potentially lesser-known feline friends from world cinema that we hope you’ll fall for as hard as we have, presented in chronological order by release date.