Cheshire Cat in popular culture

The grinning Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has made many appearances in diverse derivative works across many media. Academics have written on such particular examples as the depiction of "John Edwards as the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland" in political cartoons. This article covers some of the more notable examples in various media.



Film
*The Cheshire Cat can be found in Disney's film version of the books, wearing pink and purple stripes and singing of the Jabberwocky in Sterling Holloway's voice. He speaks to the viewer on the games found on the Disney Masterpiece DVD version of the film, and sings the deleted song, "I'm Odd". Jim Cummings voices him here. In the video game, he turns out to be a villain.
*In The Muppet Movie, the song "Can You Picture That?" performed by The Electric Mayhem includes the line "Grinning like a Cheshire Cat."
*In Just Friends, the song "Forgiveness" performed by "Samantha James," the character played by actress Anna Faris, includes the line "Just like the Cheshire Cat, who says "Meow, you're running out of time, time, time, time, time, time, meow!'"
*In Star Trek episode "Who mourns for Adonis", Kirk and Chekov argue over the origin of the 'vanishing cat', where Chekov alleges that it comes from Minsk.

TV
*The 22nd episode and the season finale of the Prison Break' second season (Sona), describes his smile as the Cheshire Cat when he meets Brad Bellick in the jail cell in Panama.
*On Aladdin: the Animated series, in "Moonlight Madness", Genie turns into the Cheshire Cat resting on a old sack, saying "The Dog may be out of the cage, but the cat is out of the bag."

Video games
*The Disney version of the Cheshire cat also makes a "non-speaking" appearance in the Disney/Squaresoft video game Kingdom Hearts, where he gives Sora the Blizzard spell, helps them with proving Alice's innocence and summons the Trickmaster Heartless (The Manga states that Maleficent made the Cheshire Cat the same offer she made to other villains like Jafar, but he turned her down, the only "villain" to ever do so). Before disappearing after Sora, Donald and Goofy defeat the Trickmaster, he tells them that Alice is "Gone, off with the shadows," implying that the Heartless and Maleficent captured her.
*The computer game American McGee's Alice features a tattooed, emaciated Cheshire cat who is Alice's constant companion and guide.
*In the arcade game ', the Cheshire Cat makes an appearance in a level that parodies Alice In Wonderland and recites the poem of the Jabberwocky.

Books
*The novel Automated Alice features a scientific explanation for the Cheshire Cat's ability to appear and disappear.
*The cat appears in Jasper Fforde's novels about Thursday Next, in which it is the librarian of the great library in the book-world. In these novels, the cat has been renamed the Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat because the county boundaries were changed.
*In Charles Stross' science fiction novel Accelerando, the robot cat Aineko is often described in terms relating to the Cheshire Cat, most notably when materialising or dematerialising from cyberspace domains.
*In The Looking Glass Wars the cat appears as an assassin for Queen Redd with knives for fingers, nine lives, and the power to shapeshift into a burnt-gold kitten.
*In The Outsiders there is a reference to the Cheshire Cat. "Grinning like the chessy cat".
*In "Their Eyes Were Watching God" Zora Neale Hurston compares Janie's suitors to "chessy cats" by the way they grinned.

Comics
*A variation of the character is found in the Peanuts comic strip occasionally, when the dog Snoopy takes on the persona of the Cheshire Beagle, with the same large smile and disappearing abilities.
*In the graphic novel Batman: Haunted Knight, the Mad Hatter drugs runaway teenagers with tea, dresses them up like characters from the Wonderland stories, and keeps them with him for a deranged tea party. The first child Batman encounters while searching for the children believes herself to be the Cheshire Cat, and says nothing but quotes from his appearance in the book.
*The DC Comics supervillain Malice controls Chessure, a monster resembling the Cheshire Cat.
*One Garfield strip features Garfield imitating the Cat during the night with his teeth shining in the dark. This wakes up Jon who demands to know if he's been reading "Alice in Wonderland." Garfield responds "You must be psychic" in the same position as the Cat.
*An excerpt from Alice's conversation with the Cat is used for dramatic purposes in Narbonic when Dave, upon reading it, realizes the secret Helen has kept from him since they met. (Earlier, she had also given him the cryptic warning "You don't want to go among mad people.")

Anime
*In the anime Kiddy Grade, Tweedledee and Tweedledum's spaceship is called C-Square, alias Cheshire Cat.
*In episode 13 of the anime, Ouran High School Host Club, the Cheshire Cat is portrayed by the twins, Hikaru and Kaoru.
*In the anime and manga, "Gakuen Alice", Natsume Hyuuga is the Cheshire Cat. (Although maybe a bit more stotic version)
*In the anime Cardcaptor Sakura, there is an episode which features Eriol as the Cheshire Cat.

*The anime My Neighbor Totoro has a character named Catbus. He is as large as a real bus, has twelve legs, and has a hollow area with bus-like windows and fur-covered seats. Though not said to be a cheshire cat, he has the same large elongated smile and the ability to appear and disappear at will in striking resemblance to the Cheshire Cat.
*The anime Miyuki-chan in Wonderland features a buxom female version of the Chesire Cat.
*The anime Project ARMS Keith Green's ARMS name is Cheshire Cat.
*The 1998 anime Serial Experiments Lain in one episode has a hacker whose avatar forms a "grin without a face," and is even referred to as a cat.

Music
*Blink-182's debut album was titled Cheshire Cat.
*The band Milburn's second single is titled "Cheshire Cat Smile", released 10 July, 2006.
*Ted Nugent's Song "Free For All" contains the line, "See you there with your Cheshire grin"
*Aerosmith's title track to Rock in a Hard Place is subtitled "Cheshire Cat".
*The Smashing Pumpkins' song "Frail and Bedazzled" contains the line: "She don't know that I have stole my smile from a Cheshire cat."
*On the opening track "Our Eyes Give it Shape" of his album Singularity (2006), Peter Hammill refers to the Cheshire cat in conjunction with the Schrödinger's cat: "It's a fifty fifty call: maybe Schrödinger's cat could be the Cheshire one too?"
*Something Corporate's "Walking By", from the album Audio Boxer, contains the line "Why do you leave these stories unfinished? My Cheshire Cat doorstop, with tears in your eyes."
* Swedish indieband Cheshire Cat took their name from the story.
*Bruce Springsteen's song "For You" contains the line "Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted to her Cheshire smile."
*The band Hypnogaja uses the lyrics "and a cat who smiles like the crescent moon" to indicate the Cheshire in their song "Looking Glass" (the song is about Wonderland)
*On Radiohead's Album "In Rainbows" (2007) in the song "Jigsaw Falling into Place", the line "You've got a Cheshire cat grin" appears.
*Stephen Malkmus' song "Baltimore" references a "Cheshire cat grin."

Miscellaneous
*An image of the Cheshire Cat is sometimes seen on LSD blotters.
*A computer programming technique, used to hide information.
*In the online MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing, there is a familiar known as the "Cheshire Bat".
*Graffiti resembling the Cheshire Cat and known as Monsieur Chat began appearing around France in 2001.
 
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