In May 2017, the NFB and Canadian publisher Firefly Books adapted the film as a children's book.[1]
Plot
The film portrays the increasingly desperate efforts of the elderly Mr. Johnson to rid himself of a small yet extremely troublesome yellow cat that will not leave his home. He first tries to leave the cat in the woods only to get lost himself. An attempt to drown it at sea ends in him nearly drowning. He then tries to send the cat away in a hot air balloon, but winds up getting dragged into the sky himself when he cuts the balloon free. For his fourth attempt, Mr. Johnson tries to take it away on a pump trolley, running over many damsels in distress and even a cow tied to the train tracks until he hits a bug crossing the railroad track, causing the trolley to jump the rails and send him plummeting into an abandoned mine where he is attacked by rats, snakes and bats. Not only does the cat find its way back each time, but it becomes increasingly destructive after each attempt until Mr. Johnson finally has enough and tries to blow up the cat with a large pile of dynamite only to blow himself up instead when he accidentally lights his hair on fire. Thinking himself finally rid of the cat, Mr. Johnson's spirit proceeds to tease his foe when his human remains fall on top of it, killing it and releasing all nine of its lives to bedevil Mr. Johnson for all eternity.
^"The Cat Came Back". Collection. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 22 October 2007.
^Cuthbert, Pamela (2003). "Cordell Barker". Canadian Film Encyclopedia. The Film Reference Library. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 22 October 2007.
1 These two films were given honorable mentions rather than officially winning the award, but are included here as no other winner was named above them.