Henry's Cat is a UK children's series broadcast from 1983-1986 and 1992-1993 starring Henry's Cat and his friends.
The tropes are:
- A Day in the Limelight: The final episode, "Valentine's Day", is one for Pansy Pig, with Henry's Cat's latest scheme to set her up with a Valentine's date after noticing she's lonely. Unfortunately, Pansy ends up picking Rum-Baa-Baa.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Mosey Mouse, Douglas Dog, Denise Duck, Ted Tortoise, Sammy Snail, etc.
- All Just a Dream: Many of the episodes take place in the hero's imagination, although there are are occasional instances of Or Was It a Dream? (their real life world isn't much more mundane after all).
- All There in the Manual: Creator Stan Hayward explained that the reason for the title character's name is that his owner, Henry, had moved away. The cat's terrible memory meant he forgot to go with him, and even forgot his own name before Henry's, leading him to simply term himself "Henry's Cat".
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Henry's Cat and Chris Rabbit are yellow and blue, respectively.
- Animation Bump: The final Uncancelled season uses cel animation. While it still emulates the original marker style authentically, it leads to slightly more detailed animation. The backgrounds also tend to be more fully realised instead of the usual blank white backdrops (and sometimes even with Art Shift gags like photographs).
- Big Bad: Rum Baa-Baa is a comic example.
- Big Eater: The eponymous feline's gluttonous tendencies are frequently the motivation for the plot.
- British Brevity: Subverted with the first two seasons, though seasons three to five consisted of 4-6 episodes. The show lasted 51 episodes over 10 years, a rarity back then given BBC's notorious reliance on re-runing their one-season animated shows rather than renewing them for more episodes.
- Christmas Episode: Two of them - "The Christmas Dinner" and "The Mystery of the Missing Santa".
- The Comically Serious: Constable Bulldog.
- Confusing Multiple Negatives: The theme song for Series 4 and 5 explains that Henry's Cat "knows everything about nothing, and not too much about that".
- Dastardly Whiplash: Rum-Baa-Baa may not have the moustache, but has everything else. The end credits for Series 5 even show him doing the old train track routine.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Having Henry's Cat sent to prison all for the sake of unwittingly kicking down Farmer Giles' wall was rather heavy handed. If Farmer Giles had any heart, he would have merely made Henry's Cat rebuild the wall instead.
- It's a Running Gag that Rum-Baa-Baa inexplicably serves multiple life sentences ("or perhaps longer") for every scheme he commits, no matter what severity. He's still always back an episode or two later.
- Gruesome Goat: Rum Baa Baa is a Dastardly Whiplash-type villain who happens to be a sheep.
- Grumpy Old Man: Farmer Giles.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Henry's Cat and Chris Rabbit.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Farmer Giles may be angry towards Henry's Cat, he has got cause to be annoyed at him. The poor guy is a farmer after all, and has every right to be upset when his working life is disrupted by the antics of Henry's Cat.
- King Kong Copy: In the episode "The Lost World", Henry's Cat imagines himself as a Tarzan-esque Nature Hero defending the eponymous Lost World's denizens, the largest and fiercest of which is a gigantic blue gorilla that the narrator calls "King Kongo" (though when the name appears on screen, it's spelled as "King Konga" instead). Rum Baa Baa plays a Carl Denham-esque role in the episode, trying to capture King Kongo to exhibit him in a theatre. In the climax of the episode, King Kongo climbs a giant inflatable skyscraper while Rum Baa Baa fights him in a plane.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Henry's Cat is a cheerful, friendly and good-natured character. His only vice is his insatiable appetite,
- Real After All: Rum-Baa-Baa is usually a villain of Henry's Cat's many daydreams, though sometimes appears in real life misadventures as well.
- Replaced the Theme Tune: The first two series used different synth instrumentals each, with the fourth series onwards settling for a vocal theme.
- Same Language Dub: In the US, HBO aired a version of this series with the narration dubbed by Dom De Luise.
- Verbal Tic:
- Henry's Cat often precedes his sentences with a nasal "Owwww". In the US dub he uses more feline-esque purrs and mews.
- Rum Baa-Baa often finishes his with a sheep bleat.
- You Are Fat: The main character.
