The Cat King is the main antagonist of the Studio Ghibli film The Cat Returns. He is the king of the Cat Kingdom.
He was voiced by the late Tetsurō Tamba in the original Japanese version. In the English version, he was voiced by Tim Curry, who also portrayed Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the 1990 TV movie adaptation of It, Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Wadsworth in Clue, Lord of Darkness in Legend, Cardinal Richelieu in the 1993 film adaptation of The Three Musketeers, Captain Hook in Peter Pan and the Pirates, Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island, Farley Claymore in The Shadow, Palpatine in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Rooster St. Regis in Annie, Professor Oldman in Scary Movie 2, Simon Doonan in the 1996 TV movie Titanic, Dr. Slicer in Recess, Big Brother in Johnny Bravo, Trymon in Terry Pratchett's The Color of Magic, Professor Calamitous in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Billy Flynn in Criminal Minds, Anatoly Cherdenko in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Drake in The Pebble and the Penguin, Philippe in Barbie and The Three Musketeers, Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck in Monk, Goblin King in Scooby Doo! and the Goblin King, Slagar the Cruel in Redwall, Taurus Bulba in Darkwing Duck, Caliph Kapok, Kileem, and Amok Mon Ra in the Aladdin TV series, El Maléfico in ¡Mucha Lucha!: The Return of El Maléfico, King Chicken in Duckman, Von Talon in Valiant, Thaddeus E. Klang in TaleSpin, Skullmaster in Mighty Max, Evil Manta in the Little Mermaid TV series, Nero and Nihilus in The Story Keepers, Kilokahn in Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, one of the Sub-humans in Fire and Ice, Yegor in Fly Me to the Moon, Belial in The Legend of Atlantis, Ben Ravencroft in Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost, Konk in The Pirates of Dark Water, Maestro Forte in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, Worthington Dubois in Phineas and Ferb, Dr. Anton Sevarius in Gargoyles, Nick O' Teen and Scarlet Fever in Ozzy & Drix, Fox Jacket in Dinosaurs, Lord Dragaunus in the Mighty Ducks TV series, and Hexxus in Ferngully: The Last Rainforest.
Biography[]
The Cat King and his men are first seen arriving at the house of Haru (the actual protagonist), congratulating her for saving a cat (who absolutely was nobody but the King's only son, Prince Lune). He and the men keep trying to repay him by having her marry Lune, much to Haru's dismay. He even calls her babe.
As Haru (who has gotten smaller due to her forced arrival at the Cat Kingdom) is being prepared, the King makes her part-cat in order to have her and his son married, but she is still unwilling. He has any entertainers who don't manage to stop her crying thrown out the window. Baron Humphert von Gikkengin (in disguise) takes the case. He discovers that Baron has come for Haru, and he, Haru and Muta escape after a fight.
Later, as Baron, Haru and Muta have just arrived to the top of a tower, the Cat King destroys it in order for the top to turn into a bottom. After finding out that Prince Lune has decided to marry Yuki (a white cat whom Haru used to feed a whole box of fish crackers when the former was a kitten and the latter was a little girl), the Cat King reveals his actual goal: to marry Haru himself, but she refuses. As Haru is climbing up the stairs inside the dome, he fights with Baron until his glass eye shatters and he loses most of his fur. He declares that the tower is hundreds of feet shorter now.
When Haru is finally returned to her world, the King (along with Natori) plans to retire.