Cat Video Film Festival? In Celebration, the 12 Greatest Cats in American History

Culture

Only two places in world history have treated cats with the reverence they deserve: Ancient Egypt and modern day Minnesota.

That’s right: the second annual Internet Cat Video Festival is returning to Minneapolis. 10,000 attendees were invited to nominate their favorite vids last summer, which were then projected onto the big screen at Walker Art Center and voted upon. This was the winner:

Kind of amazing, right?

This year’s festival, which can fairly be called the cat-centric composite of Cannes and the Academy Awards, will take place in August and allegedly grace Brooklyn, New York later this year (you can bet your ass I’ll be there).

But let’s get serious: Henri le Chat Noir gets much of the shine these days, but he’d be just a scrub without his esteemed feline celebrity forebears. Indeed, the history of great cats in popular culture is a long, torrid, and tumultuous one, full of passion, friendship, death, betrayal, ecstatic highs, and devastating lows.

Yet despite it all, their legacy lives on. Here are twelve of the greatest cats in the history of pop culture:

1. The Cat in the Hat:

Photo Credit: Great American Things

The one who started it all: f*cking up your house since day one.

2. Sylvester:

Photo Credit: Blogspot

It’s time to face facts: he will never, ever catch that bird.

3. Felicia from The Great Mouse Detective:

Photo Credit: Freewebs

So enormous, so terrifying.

4. Maru:

My sister put me on to this guy, so I had to include him.

5. Jones from Alien

Photo Credit: Blogspot

Besides Ellen Ripley, the only survivor of the ill-fated Nostromo. A hero to cats everywhere.

6. Magical Mr. Mistoffelees:

Photo Credit: Deviant Art

Such an obnoxious song, but he also gets a (dubious) shout-out in Team America: World Police.

7. The Cheshire Cate:

Photo Credit: Lenny's Alice in Wonderland Site

Like your grandpa, he mostly just smiles and doesn’t make sense.

8. Si and Am from Lady and the Tramp:

Photo Credit: Fanpop

Their song is tied for the most racist moment in the entire film!

9. Thackery Binx from Hocus Pocus:

Photo Credit: Blogspot

Because he just won't die.

10. Mr. Bigglesworth from Austin Powers:

Photo Credit: WordPress

The feline equivalent of a Naked Mole Rat.

11. Lucifer from Cinderella:

Photo Credit: WordPress

So mean.

12. Church from Pet Sematary:

Photo Credit: Do Blu

He was dead, but now He is risen.