Billy the Cat

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Not to be confused with Bill the Cat.

Not to be confused with Billy the Cat and Katie.

Billy the Cat is the title of a Franco-Belgian comic strip and an animated cartoon, available through the American Broadcasting Company, amongst others. It deals with the everyday and secret lives of urban animals. This is a comic-strip created by the Belgian Stéphane Colman and Stephen Desberg.

Billy was originally a human boy who took pleasure in annoying non-human animals. However, Billy makes an unwise choice when he unwittingly bullies a magician's cat. The angry magician uses a spell to change Billy into a cat, and the rest of the series deals with Billy's adventures as a cat. The magician also uses his magic to make his cat assume Billy's old form, although neither the magician nor Billy's replacement make any appearances in future episodes, even ones where Billy visits his former house. When the series ends, Billy the Cat remains a cat and shows little to no interest to becoming human again, although this is not said explicitly by any character. In 1996 there was a cartoon show produced by DIC Entertainment in USA and EVA Entertainment in UK.

It should be noted that the comic book story is completely different from the TV series. In the comic book Billy was turned into a cat after getting run over by a car. He had been looking at adult magazines in a store and when the store owner noticed him he chased Billy out. While Billy turned around to make fun of the store owner he did not see the car coming at him and got hit. He got transported to a strange universe where an anthro Crocodile and Lady Bug told him that since he had behaved so badly as a little boy he would be punished. As they pushed him toward a cliff, Billy grabbed on to the Crocodile's cape to keep his balance. Annoyed, the Crocodile pushed him and Billy fell off the cliff. As he fell down little voices told him that he could go back to Earth but he would not be back as a human. Obviously Billy's new form was a yellow kitten. No one took his place so to his family he is dead. In Album#3 he met up with his sister Marie who quickly understood that the kitten was her "dead" brother. Since the comic book series has not concluded yet, it is unknown whether or not he will become human again.