Billy the Cat, dans la peau d'un chat

Billy the Cat, dans la peau d'un chat turns the Franco-Belgian comic's characters into short, self-contained animated episodes set in a crowded urban world of animals. Rather than following the strip's continuity exactly, the TV show reworks familiar figures into standalone stories that center on everyday routines, secret pastimes and neighborhood disputes. Billy is the focal character, and episodes hinge on his friendships, rivalries and offbeat mishaps. The tone stays child-friendly, combining light humor, discreet suspense and small moral lessons so viewers can enjoy single episodes without background knowledge.

First released in 1996, the series was developed in a Franco-Belgian collaboration by Les Orton, Jean-François Laguionie and Stéphan Colman, featuring voices by Iylas Mettioui, Robert Guilmard, Alain Louis and Géraldine Frippiat, adapted from the comic by Colman and Desberg.

No major international awards are recorded for the televised adaptation. It did not receive prominent prizes like Emmys or major film festival honors, though it occasionally received mentions in regional TV guides and festival listings, and shows up in retrospective catalogs of 1990s European children's animation.

While not a global hit, the show reached francophone audiences and cultivated a small, nostalgic fanbase. Its portrayal of animal neighborhoods and playful moral dilemmas left traces in local children programming memories and occasional comic-to-screen discussions among fans of the original strip. References still pop up in francophone fan forums.

Critical reaction was modest, reflected by a small online vote average of about 6.0 out of 10 from a handful of ratings. The series leans on themes of community, identity within crowded streets, secrecy among neighbors and gentle lessons delivered with humor, and its tone suits preschool to early elementary viewers nicely.