The most memorable pop culture cats

How could we choose? Cats is packed to the gills with cats! Some of the most famous cats in culture are in this story, from the stage to the screen. The infamy of the Cats film helped rack up more unforgettable memories for Rum Tum Tugger and crew.

He hates Mondays. He loves lasagna. Garfield is pop culture’s foremost cat. Beginning with the Jim Davis comic strip, the orange cat ended up with a TV show and a couple of (terrible) films. Hollywood, forever in love with I.P., is going back to Garfield, this time with Chris Pratt voicing the cat.

Now, "Puss in Boots" is an old-school character from European fairy tales. However, he became a famous character as Puss in Boots, from "Shrek." Voiced by Antonio Banderas, Puss is the one character from "Shrek" to get a spinoff film. Two, in fact!

In the world of Looney Tunes, Sylvester is the top feline. Mostly, he’s interested in chowing down on Tweety. Of course, since Looney Tunes traffics in family-friendly cartoons, Sylvester never manages to succeed.

Speaking of unsuccessful cats. Tom is perpetually tied to Jerry, his mouse nemesis. It’s truly a game of cat-and-mouse, but with Jerry as the underdog (so to speak), Tom always has to fail. Hey, the dynamic has worked for decades of cartoons now.

In the world of The Simpsons, Itchy and Scratchy serve as a parody of Tom and Jerry. Of course, the violence is a little more serious in The Simpsons. Itchy brutalizes Scratchy in violent, gory ways. It’s all a bit of satire of cartoon violence.

Witches and cats go hand in hand. Sabrina has a cat, naturally, and Salem happens to talk. In the Melissa Joan Hart sitcom, Salem is often depicted with a very fake look at a puppet that is always funny, but not intentionally.

In 1974, Art Carney won Best Actor at the Academy Awards for his work in the film Harry and Tonto. Harry is on an adventure with his best friend, a cat named Tonto. The movie is remembered for Carney’s win, particularly because he beat the following nominees: Albert Finney, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, and Al Pacino for The Godfather Part II.

The ground is sour, and that’s the problem. When you think of “Pet Sematary,” you probably think of the cat. The cat is part of that movie’s iconography. When Church dies, the cat gets buried in the titular “sematary,” which was the first mistake. Church is revived but is decidedly not the same.

Two generations of kids got That Darn Cat. The 1965 Disney movie starred Hayley Mills. In 1997, it was Christina Ricci. Either way, the cat that calls all the commotion is named D.C. because he is, indeed, that darn cat.

Hey, not every cat is a house cat. Lions are from the “big cat” family and are the kings of the jungle. So, naturally, we had to include Simba, who became the titular ruler of The Lion King. That film made so much money and was indelible in pop culture. Whether young or old, Simba is a ‘90s feline icon.

In the 1961 original The Incredible Journey, the cat is named Tao. Maybe some people remember that movie, but if you are reading this, you are more likely familiar with the 1993 remake Homeward Bound. In that one, the cat is named Sassy and also voiced by Sally Field.

OK, millennials. We don’t like Hocus Pocus, but we’re here for you anyway. Binx is a cat in a movie about witches, but Binx is not on their side. He’s a guy trapped in a cat's body by a curse from the inexplicably popular witchy sisters.

Sure, technically, the cat in Alien is named Jones, but he’s called Jonesy. Whether Harry Dean Stanton searches for the cat on the Nostromo or Ripley saves Jonesy in a literal “save the cat” moment, Jonesy is a crucial part of the film.

Morris is a particularly finicky cat. He would only eat 9Lives cat food, for whom he was the mascot. We remember him for that and his appearance as Phillip Marlowe’s cat in Robert Altman’s excellent The Long Goodbye. That is Morris’ acting peak.

It’s hard to forget a name like “Mr. Bigglesworth.” When Austin Powers begins, he’s a fluffy white cat, a direct parody of Blofeld’s cat in the James Bond movies. Then, cryogenic freezing leaves him hairless, the version of Mr. Bigglesworth we remember.

Originally a Japanese movie, Columbia cut 15 minutes from it, Americanized it, and gave us The Adventures of Milo and Otis. It’s still a film about a pug and an orange tabby cat, with narration provided by Dudley Moore. Watching the film now really makes you question the animal handling in the film, but for kids of a certain age, Milo and Otis were part of the childhood experience.

Too Many Cooks really made a splash, didn’t it? Granted, most people didn’t watch the one-off short when it aired without fanfare on Adult Swim. Then, it became viral online. The parody of ‘80s-sitcom opening credits featured a puppet cat named Smarf, whom we will never forget.

The Jungle Book is loaded down with animals. Maybe you remember Baloo the Bear the best because of his famed song. The story wouldn’t work without Shere Khan, though. After all, the Bengal tiger is the antagonist of the piece.

You could argue that Hobbes is a bit of a stretch. Not because the tiger is a cartoon or because he talks. It’s because, well, Hobbes isn’t really doing any of that. He’s just a stuffed tiger, but in Calvin’s imagination, he comes alive. Of course, in the iconic comic strip, we’re seeing him in that form, and thus, we have to count him.

A.k.a. Lion Jesus. In the world of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan is a lion but also effectively the Jesus analog. Lewis was, after all, quite a religious man. In the film adaptation, with which most people are likely familiar, he’s also voiced by Liam Neeson.

The Wizard of Oz has been a family favorite for decades. Dorothy meets an assortment of characters on her way to see the wizard, one of which is the Cowardly Lion. He’s looking for some courage and perhaps a costume that looks a little less silly.

Another animated big cat from Disney, but this one doesn’t talk. Rajah is the companion and seemingly best friend of Jasmine from Aladdin. He’s a little more “human” than a real-life tiger, but he’s not exactly anthropomorphic. Rajah didn’t need to be to make a splash.

In the film, the titular Pink Panther is a diamond. However, in the credits, we see an animated, literal pink panther, and that character becomes his own thing. In time, the Pink Panther would get animated shorts and his own cartoon show. Not bad for a guy who began life as a character solely designed to keep people entertained during an opening-credits sequence.

Gargamel gave his cat quite the dark name. Azrael is the name of the angel of death in many religions. In the world of The Smurfs, Azrael is just a cat. Sure, the bad guy’s cat but not exactly on the “angel of death” level.

In the Nickelodeon cartoon CatDog, Cat and Dog are conjoined. That being said, they are different characters. Cat is a cat, admittedly not one with a clever name. He and Dog are still a duo personality-wise, even if they partially share a body.