Movies for Cat Lovers

When I was a little girl, I fell in love with a movie about a cat. It was called The Three Lives of Thomasina. The title character is a cat who wanders around a small town to three different homes. I haven't seen the movie in years, but I still remember loving it when I was little.

I was a little older when a silly and fun science fiction film called The Cat from Outer Space came out. I read the book, and it was one of the few movies I saw in a theatre when I was growing up. I saw it again a few years ago, and it's by no means a great film. I still enjoyed it, though.

A few days ago, I saw the original That Darn Cat, with Hayley Mills on a rack of discounted Disney DVDs. I passed it by, but I might have to buy it. As I recall, Hayley's character says that her dad is the reason the cat is called D.C. It stands for "darn cat," except that dad didn't say "darn." It's a charming movie with a bit of a mystery to it.

A couple of films with cats in minor roles are Star Trek: Generations and Alien. Interestingly, both cats are orange tabbies.

In the former, Data's cat Spot is featured prominently early on. During an intense segment in which the ship is about the crash and everyone must evacuate into the saucer section, Spot disappears. We don't find out until the very end what has happened to Spot, and it really irritated me because I, of course, was worried.

Alien takes place on a spaceship, and Jones is the ship's cat. When the crew decides to evacuate due to the dangerous alien on board, crewman Brett is sent to find Jones. As he approaches, Jones starts hissing, but it turns out, he's not mad at Brett, he's warning off the alien that's right behind him. Jones and Ripley are the only survivers of the doomed flight. I tell you the outcome, because if you haven't seen this 1979 classic film by now, this blog probably won't make you rush to view it.

Finally, I'll just mention Mr. Bigglesworth from the Austin Powers series. Initially played by a Persian cat, Dr. Evil's pet loses all its hair after being cryogenically frozen, and henceforth Mr. Bigglesworth is played by a hairless Sphynx.

Are there any good, positive cat movies that I haven't mentioned here? I may have forgotten about it, or maybe I haven't seen it. I don't like to watch movies where cats are portrayed as evil or where they are the victims of cruel humor, but I would love to hear about movies featuring our feline friends.