Ack!!! I’ve been going out of my mind trying to find a video (file, not a cassette . . .) of the animated short for this song. It’s really quite funny. Made by the National Film Board of Canada, if I’m not mistaken. It’s about 7.5 minutes long. I can find info on it in all kinds of places on the web, but NOT the video! I’ve tried every search engine, etc, that I can think of, even Scour. Someone help me, please! Where can I find this beloved cartoon?!?
I’ve seen it before on “O Canada”, the Canadian animation showcase on the Cartoon Network. If you can’t wait, the short is on a DVD called The World’s Greatest Animation.
I doubt you’ll find it as a freely-available video file, because it’s an award-winning, copyrighted film; people who put out that kind of effort don’t often just give their stuff away.
Back when Comedy Central had a show called “Short Attention Span Theater” they used to show it. Try contacting Comedy Central . . . maybe they’ll know where you can get your hands on a tape of it . . . it’s worth a shot.
I LOVED that piece! One of the funniest bits of animation I’ve seen. And the great little ditty sticks in your brain forever. I’m sure that as a result of reading the title of your OP I’m going to be singing all day:
But the cat came back
the very next day.
The cat came back
- they thought he was a goner! -
but the cat came back
the very next day to stay.
Darn you!
I figured it was worth a shot. Thanks anyway guys.
I recall seeing this on Nickleodeon, circa 1988? I doubt that helps much, but it’s all I got.
Go to the Internet Movie Database search page. Enter The Cat Came Back, and wait for the page for that movie to come up. On that page, click on the Shop section on the right. You’ll find two anthology tapes on which it’s available.
Guess I"ll just have to suck it up and spend money on it. I can’t find it for free in any file format . . .you’d think on the web you’d be able to find anything bootleg. Oh well.
I really hate that “The Cat Came Back” isn’t more widely known. It’s so good that I find myself assuming that everyone knows it. This leads to things like saying “But the cat came back” in meetings when we’re discussing bugs that we think we’ve fixed only to have them recur, etc. No one ever gets the reference, but I can’t help thinking that they should.
Available on the tape ‘Leonard Maltin’s Animation Favorites From The National Film Board Of Canada’
I have a copy only because our local video store was bought out by the B!0<kbu$+er mega-chain (I can’t stand to type their name) and sold off the [snarling sarcasm] ‘excess, non-corporate approved’[/snarling sarcasm] videos.
Didn’t grab the tape with “Instant Sex” in time. Another classic. Anyone know of where I can get “Instant Sex?” <sigh>
This is a film? I have the song, on one of Trout Fishing In America’s CDs.
I only wish I had your luck screech-owl. I’m sure you can find a more pleasing alternative to “Instant Sex”, though a classic is hard to replace. 
CurtC, from what I’ve found so far, The Cat Came Back is an ooooolllldddd folk song (no specifics on years, probably an exaggeration) and I’ve found it done by everyone from the Muppets to Raffi. The short film is really quite entertaining, if you can find it.
My father had a 1940s version of Tommy Makem singing “The Cat Came Back,” and I have seen sheet music of it going back to the 1890s (with a drawing of a battered, Alfred E. Newman-looking cat on the cover).
Probably goes back even further; maybe it was an Irish folk song that came over with the immigrants of the mid-1800s?
Thank you, Wendell…I just came back from the Amazon site, where I laid out twenty bucks for the Maltin anthology of Canadian animation.
I LOVE the film of “The Cat Came Back.” And I think that one of the other films on the tape, “The Sweater,” is the one zat is done entire-ly in zat hi-LAHR-ious Franch-Canadian accent, non? About zee little boy who wants to puchase zee red sweater of zee Montreal Canadiens, but instead must wear zee BLEU sweater of zee Toronto Maple Leafs? And his hockey coach, who’s also the town priest, spits on him?
Christ, that one was a riot…I must’ve seen it at LEAST twelve years ago, and I still remember every scene!
Better not let Roch Carrier hear you say that. He wrote the story in French originally and supplied the narration for the French and English versions of the film. He didn’t set out to be hilarious; his first language is French.
But a good story, is “The Sweater.” It was pretty much the same in my neighbourhood in Toronto, except that nobody wanted to wear the Montreal sweaters–we were all Maple Leafs.
As for the OP, no, I doubt you’ll be able to find bootleg files of any NFB films. But as other posters have mentioned, Amazon is a good place to get their videos, or you can try the NFB itself.
Another NFB favourite of mine is “The Log Driver’s Waltz.” The original song is by Wade Hemsworth and the film version is sung by Kate and Anna McGarrigle, IIRC. If you liked “The Cat Came Back,” you might like that one too.
Everyone’s favorite Muppet dog, Rowlf, did a version of “The Cat Came Back” on The Muppet Show once, with music and lyrics very different from the version in the Canadian cartoon. The interested can find Rowlf’s version of the lyrics here.
OK, I found an 1893 minstrel version of it. It has sound, but you can quickly disable that if you’re at work, as I am:
http://www.melodylane.net/catcameback.html
This is the sheet music cover I remember: “The Song that Beats McGinty!” Everybody, all together: "Down went McGinty, to the bottom of the sea . . . "
…and not mention Richard Condie.
Especially ‘The Big Snit’.
WILL you STOP… SAWING… THE TABLE?!
I’m NOT! I’M NOT!!! I’M NOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!
I’ve seen all the films mentioned here, basically 'cos of O Canada, but I remember seeing The Cat Came Back in the mid- to late 80s on HBO. I always kinda dug on Mr. Johnson.
The song is obviously much older than that, as Eve has shown. I first remember it from ZOOM back in the early 70s. So I probably would get any reference you make to it, rackensack. There are some of us out there who are hip, if not cool.
Well, I won’t tell him if you won’t. It IS a great tale, and I have the utmost respect for him as a storyteller, even if his voice IS a stitch.
I agree with you on “The Log Driver’s Waltz.” It is also on the Maltin anthology tape, which I heartily recommend everyone go out and buy right now. Nobody does animation like the Canadians!