The Boy who drew cats

United States, 1991

Film
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Episode of Series “We all have tales”.
A scary Japanese tale from this multi-award winning series. It tells the story of the smallest child of a peasant family left in the care of the local priest. “Do not forget” his mother said to him, “avoid large places at night; keep to small”. With only these words to guide him, and his only talent of drawing cats, he sets out into the famine-ravaged countryside that is haunted by the spectre of a mysterious demon. Narrated by William Hurt with music by Mark Isham. Drawings and adaptation by David Johnson.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

director

C W Rogers

producer

Ken Hoin

production company

Rabbit Ears Productions

Duration

00:30:00:00

Production places
United States
Production dates
1991

Appears in

We all have tales

Group of items

We all have tales

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Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

325351

Language

English

Audience classification

G

Subject categories

Adaptations

Childrens Films

Childrens Films → Children 0-6

Literature → Folk literature - Film and video adaptations

Literature → Folk literature, Japanese

Short films

Short films → Short films - United States

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

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If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/82902--the-boy-who-drew-cats/ |title=The Boy who drew cats |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=12 July 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}