A farm cat moves to Paris in search of the high life while her wannabe lover from back home tries to reunite.A farm cat moves to Paris in search of the high life while her wannabe lover from back home tries to reunite.A farm cat moves to Paris in search of the high life while her wannabe lover from back home tries to reunite.
- Mewsette
- (voice)
- Jaune-Tom
- (voice)
- Robespierre
- (voice)
- Meowrice
- (voice)
- …
- Narrator
- (voice)
- Singing Hench Cat
- (uncredited)
- Various
- (uncredited)
- Singing Hench Cat
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Singing Hench Cat
- (uncredited)
- Singing Hench Cat
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaChuck Jones had been under an exclusive contract with Warner Bros., and worked on this film in violation of his contract. After Warner Bros. picked up the film from UPA for distribution instead of Columbia, they discovered his work on the film and fired him, resulting in his departure for MGM.
- GoofsJaune-Tom and Robespierre set off from a station in Provence signed "Moustier St Marie". It is a real place but spelled "Moustiers Ste. Marie"; the Virgin Mary is after all always in the feminine.
- Quotes
Jeanette: [to her sister] But darling, think of Paris! Lovely, gay Paris! Have you forgotten the sidewalk cafés and how we sipped champagne?
Mewsette: [thinking] Champagne? That must be what they call catnip in Paris. How nice!
Jeanette: ...the button champignons sautéed in butter with tiny shreds of herbs...
Mewsette: [thinking] Champignons? I know what they are - mushrooms! And delicious, too!
Jeanette: And oh, my dear, the Champs-Elysées!
Mewsette: [thinking] Champs-Elysées? I wonder what they taste like.
- Crazy creditsThe opening credits include colorful drawings of the movie's main stars, which then change into their cartoon characters. Although John Hitesman is credited with the title artwork, the caricatures appear to be the work of Ronald Searle.
- Alternate versionsSome television prints are clumsily edited and have several reels in the wrong order.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Animation Lookback: Walt Disney Animation Studios Part 5 (2009)
Set in France in the 1890s, also known as the Gay '90s as the title implies, the film is about Mewsette (Judy Garland in her only voice role), a country feline living on a farm with the mouser Jaune-Tom (Robert Goulet in his film debut) and his partner, a small blue kitten named Robespierre (Red Buttons). However, tired of her farm life, she hears about the beauty of living in the city of Paris, and decides to run away and catch the train. She is introduced by a black-and-white schemer named Meowrice (I swear, I'm not making that name up), not knowing that he has some rather slimy plans for her. Jaune-Tom learns of Mewsette's departure from Robespierre and they head for Paris to try and find her.
Even though the film is animated, it is, at heart, a musical, on par with many other musical films released before this, including the ones that also star Judy Garland. In fact, all of the songs written for the picture were done by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg, the same duo who wrote the songs for the beloved 1939 MGM classic The Wizard of Oz. Even after 23 years, their songwriting still held water, with songs like the uplifting "Roses Red, Violets Blue", and the slower ballads like "Take My Hand Paris", "Little Drops of Rain", and my favorite one of them all, "Paris is a Lonely Town", to name a few.
For the animation, if you're familiar with the shorts made by UPA, the animation is limited, but visually appealing and influential in terms of design and style, with French expressionism being a large inspiration of how the final film is supposed to look. For an animated film made in the '60s, this is probably the most colorful and very much alive. This is further utilized in a later scene where the film's artists make parody portraits based on the works of Vincent Van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Claude Monet, and, yes, even Pablo Picasso. After watching the scene, you'll know why UPA was known for their unique style that other studios weren't doing in their heyday.
The sad thing about this film is that it is not as well recognized as a lot of other animated classics. Even the 1970 animated Disney film "The Aristocats", which also took place in France and focuses on...well...cats, became more popular. The only people that would remember this film is if they were film and animation historians or if you saw it via Cartoon Network's Cartoon Theatre back in the '90s. Thankfully, however, the film is being re-discovered, with airings on Turner Classic Movies and releases on DVD via the Warner Archive Collection. For me, this is an underrated piece of animated cinema that should've gotten more recognition over the years. If you enjoy classic animation, definitely pick this one up.
- TheOneManBoxOffice
- Aug 11, 2016
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $1,300,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
- 1.85 : 1