Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire Cat is a mysterious pink and purple striped cat with a devious, mischievous personality from the 1951 Disney film Alice in Wonderland. He was voiced by Sterling Holloway and now he is voiced by Jim Cummings.

Personality
The Cheshire Cat has a permanent smile on his face and can disappear at will. The cat is a very odd being able to reshape his body to either amuse or frighten his visitors. He's very mysterious and in his own way very dark. Like all members of Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat is mad but unlike the other he admits it with pride. All of Wonderland's inhabitants hold a fear over the Cheshire Cat, most likely due to the fact that he is the maddest and craziest of them all, or it could be due to his unique abilities.

Alice in Wonderland
After a gamete of nonsensical events in a pursuit of the White Rabbit, Alice enters the Tulgey Woods. There, the Cheshire Cat arrives offering her help with directions. She tries to receive practical answers, but the cat continues to goof off by asking random questions, and continually showcasing his abilities. After a while, he advises her to seek answers from the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. Alice, not wanting to associate with mad people, denies the advice, but the cat claims that everyone in Wonderland is mad, including himself. He then slowly fades away into thin air, laughing and singing in the process.

Later on, Alice finds the trail of the White Rabbit once again, and begins to pursue him once more. She is lost again, but this time, all hope seems lost. She breaks down in tears, just when the Cheshire Cat arrives. Delighted to see him, Alice claims that she's no longer looking for rabbits, and wants to find her way home. However, Cheshire Cat explains that in Wonderland, she has no way, and that all ways there are the queen's ways. Confused, Alice informs him that she knows nothing about the queen, so Cheshire reveals a secret passage way to her card-inhabited kingdom.

During a croquet game with the Queen of Hearts, Cheshire Cat arrives and continuously gets Alice into trouble with her majesty. At one point, Cheshire Cat causes the queen to flip over, revealing her bloomers. In utter embarrassment, the Queen puts Alice on trail. With the witnesses being the Mad Hater, March Hare, and the Doormouse, the trial gets nowhere. Soon enough, the Queen of Hearts sentences Alice with death by beheading, until she finds more mushrooms in her pocket, which causes her to grow to a gigantic size. She then takes advantage of the opportunity and insults the queen, but she shrinks down to her normal size once again. The Cheshire Cat appears once more, repeating Alice's insults which causes the Queen to lose her temper, and this leads to the climactic chase.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Cheshire Cat can be briefly spotted during the final scene of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. His tail and also half of his face and body can be briefly seen during the final shot.

House of Mouse
The Cheshire Cat has numerous non-speaking appearances in House of Mouse. The Cheshire Cat also appears in Mickey's House of Villains, but wasn't a part of the villains that take over the club. Instead, the Cheshire Cat was seen with the crowd of Disney characters such as Cinderella, Brer Rabbit and Princess Jasmine, celebrating the defeat of the villains. This clearly means in the film, the Cheshire Cat wasn't one of the villains.

In "The Stolen Cartoons", when Donald Duck proved to be a terrible host, Cheshire Cat vanished from the club. In "Big Bad Wolf Daddy" - the Cheshire Cat was blown away leaving only his grin behind during the wolf's performance. In "Ask Von Drake" he was seen atop the Queen of Hearts' crown during the Ludwig Von Drake Song. In "Unplugged Club" when Pete took out the club's battery, and only the Cheshire Cat's eyes and grin showed in the darkness. In "Super Goof" the Cheshire Cat could be seen atop on the March Hare's chair with the Mad Hatter pouring tea on the Hare. In various episodes such as "Mickey & Minnie's Big Vacation" he could be seen clapping after a cartoon has ended.

Kingdom Hearts series
The Cheshire Cat 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.

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, weren't 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' 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 somewhat overshadows Roxas' internal conflict throughout the game, and his questions about the Organization.

Kingdom Hearts coded
Once Data Sora is in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat reappears to converse with him and Alice, though made out of data. The Cheshire Cat gives hints about what Data-Sora should do next. He explains how words linked to Alice's memory are scattered across Wonderland, and how collecting them will help restore it.

After Data-Sora completes Alice's requests, the Cheshire Cat will appear once again, telling Data-Sora that "Funny thing about memories is that something will lie forgotten in your heart for ages- then one day, you'll remember. But then, a moment later, the memory may drift away again to wherever memories sleep", foreshadowing what appears to be Naminé's connection with the real Sora, or Sora's memories of Ventus, Terra, and Aqua.

The Cheshire Cat appears again in Castle Oblivion, where you have to solve a riddle he gives you. If you solve it, you get an inkling.

Kinect Disneyland Adventures
The Cheshire Cat briefly appears during the Alice in Wonderland mini-game during the player's free fall down the rabbit hole.

Electric Holiday
In the animated short, Cheshire Cat was one of the many Disney character guests to attend Minnie Mouse's fashion show.

Disney Parks
The Cheshire Cat is usually seen only in parades in the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. In the past, he had appeared as a walk-around character as well.

Alice in Wonderland
Cheshire Cat appears as an audio-animatronic in the dark ride based off the film in both the Tulgey Wood and in the last room ride as a giant head just before the Mad Tea Party sequence.

Disney's Electrical Parade
Cheshire Cat appears in the popular parades. In the parade Cheshire Cat appears with Alice on his back. During the parade Cheshire Cat demonstrates his powers by continuously disappearing leaving only his mouth, eyes and nose in sight.

Fantasmic!
Cheshire Cat appears in the bubble montage in the live show at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

World of Color
Cheshire Cat appears in the new nighttime spectacular in Disney's California Adventure park in the Disneyland Resort. Cheshire Cat appears at the very end of the show during its finale. In the show Cheshire Cat's face is seen in the water while the rest of his body is made completely of water.

Trivia

 * Cheshire Cat was used as inspiration for the character Chaos in the Aladdin television series as well as the talking zebra in Phineas and Ferb.
 * Despite being a generally neutral character, the Cheshire Cat is apparently considered a villain by the Walt Disney Company, as evidenced by his inclusion in Disney Villains merchandise. Starting in 2010 The Walt Disney Company currently does not consider Cheshire Cat a villain.
 * The Cheshire Cat is the third Disney character originally voiced by Sterling Holloway and taken over by Jim Cummings. The first two are Winnie-the-Pooh and Kaa.
 * When Alice first hears the Cheshire Cat, he is singing the first and last stanza of the poem "Jabberwocky".
 * Cliff Edwards, the original voice of Jiminy Cricket, was suggested for the role before Sterling Holloway.
 * Originally, the Cheshire Cat was supposed to sing a song called "I'm Odd" but was later replaced with "Twas Brillig". For the Alice in Wonderland: Special Un-Anniversary DVD it was remastered and sung by Jim Cummings as the Cheshire Cat.

Gallery

 * For more pictures and screenshots of Cheshire Cat, click here.