The Cheshire Cat is a pink cat with purple stripes from Wonderland that appears in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and Kingdom Hearts coded. The Cheshire Cat has mysterious powers and constantly teleports from one place to another. He speaks in riddles and wears an almost permanent grin on his face. He also likes to move his body parts around in odd positions, mostly his head, to see the reaction of his audience.
Journal Entries
Kingdom Hearts
A mysterious, grinning cat who talks in riddles and can appear and disappear at will. He loves to mislead and confuse.
He entered with a big smile in "Alice in Wonderland" (1951).
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A mysterious, grinning cat who always talks in riddles.
He appears when you least expect it, and disappears whenever he pleases.
Story
Kingdom Hearts
In the first game, the Cheshire Cat aided Sora and his friends during their time in Wonderland, guiding them not only in finding evidence of Alice's innocence, but also in finding the Trickmaster. His true intentions though, were not very clear, and he seemed more interested on seeing how Sora would handle the challenges than on seeing him succeed. After Sora and company defeated the Trickmaster, the Cheshire Cat was the one who told them that Alice was no longer in Wonderland, and had been taken by the shadows. He left disappearing into the darkness; his fate after he leaves is unknown as he is never seen in Wonderland for the rest of the game.
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
The Cheshire Cat appears as a figment of Sora's memories in Wonderland, created by Naminé, giving him advice on how to save himself from being executed by the Queen of Hearts (albeit in riddles).
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
The Cheshire Cat appears again in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. This time, the Cheshire Cat aids Roxas and Luxord during their missions in Wonderland through riddles. He appears frequently, and on Roxas's last encounter with him, he asks the Cheshire Cat if he is a friend or a foe, to which the cat replies, "Neither... or both. It's quite up to you. Once you believe, truth and lie are quite the same thing. Let your heart decide- it's in your heart you must confide." This verse somewhat summarizes Roxas's internal conflict throughout the game, and his questions about the Organization XIII.
Kingdom Hearts coded
The Cheshire Cat appears in this game during the third episode to converse with Sora and Alice.
Origin
He first appeared in Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" which was based of of the book by Lewis Carrol called "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". The Cheshire Cat was one of the first people to actually care about Alice's problem about not being able to get home and sing in front of the guests at the party. He thought that it was better to have fun and be brave then to have never tried at all, even if it killed you. This almost happened when he brought Alice in front of the Queen of Hearts.
The Cheshire Cat had a strange habit to appear and disappear as he wished and to take his head off and on, along with any other body part he wanted to rearrange at that time. The Queen of Hearts is said in the book to have tried to behead the Cheshire Cat, but was unable to because he took his head and walked off with it after it was sliced off singing something about Jabberwockies. This is a reference to the poem, the " Jabberwocky", also written by Lewis Carrol.
He spoke in riddles that he only understood but where in fact very important to understand. In a way, he is the true power in Wonderland, as his very name struck fear into the natives, and he always knew what everyone in Wonderland was doing.
Appearance
The Cheshire Cat is a bizarre, rather rotund cat with a perpetual grin. The cat's fur is striped purple and pink, a pattern that stops abruptly at his wrists and ankles. His mouth, hands, feet and the tip of his tail are all a very light pink color, while the fur on his head is ruffled at the top (obscuring his small ears), and a solid red-violet. His eyebrows, which are always raised, are black, and his eyes are yellow. His nose is a dark rose color, and below it, are six grey whiskers, three on either side of the cat's upper lip, that are oddly off-center from the follicles. His hands and feet both seem to have opposable thumbs, along with three other fingers or toes. Each of his digits sport short, black claws. The Cheshire Cat displays a high degree of balance and dexterity, usually standing on his hind legs and occasionally on his hands. Most notably, the Cheshire Cat is able to make parts of his body appear and disappear at will, remove his head from his shoulders and continue talking, occasionally balancing it on his feet during his handstands, or even balancing the rest of his body on the head itself.
Quotes
- "Shadows here, shadows there, shadows everywhere, and the mome raths outgrabe!"
- "The shadows are coming! Are you prepared for the worst? If not, too bad!"
- "To trust or not to trust? I trust you'll decide."
- "Here, a maze is a maze of mazes. Isn't that amazing?"
- "Once you believe, truth and lie are quite the same thing."
Trivia
- The Kingdom Hearts manga reveals that the Cheshire Cat was offered a position among the Disney Villains by Maleficent, but according to Jafar, he refused. This was to the displeasure of the group, who believed that he should have been eliminated for not accepting their offer.
- The Cheshire Cat is one of the few neutral characters in the series. He is considered neutral because he is not evil, but is not helpful either. In the movie, he is the reason Alice is on trial, and he causes her to almost lose her head, although this is mainly because he wanted to see the Queen of Hearts angry, and it was the Queen of Hearts mostly blaming everything on Alice.