The Aristocats

The Aristocats is a hilarious and heartwarming Disney delight that gets a bad wrap. Maybe I'm bias because I watched this movie so much as a kid, but even as I re-watch it not, I realize just how care-free and fun this movie is. The plot of the movie shows just that. This movie is about an aristocrat who puts her cats as her inherits in her will before her butler. Right off the bat, we see how hilariously odd this occurrence is, which makes the audience digest the movie in a lighter-tone. What I'm trying to say is that the movie knew exactly what tone to set and how to. I find this movie much more entertaining than many older Disney movies, most likely because it nailed its comedy. It seemed to focus on using random occurrences and out of the ordinary situations to make the audience laugh ie: the dogs attacking Edgar, O Mally jumping on the "Magic Carpet", and the entirety of the 'Everybody Wants to be a Cat' sequence. The two dogs attacking Edgar seems to be the highlight of the comedy, not even because they are attacking him, but because they are 2 great characters put together. Their dialogue leaves you on edge and will make you to laugh out loud numerous times. Finally, one of the greatest things about this movie is the music! The soundtrack is so catchy, and entertaining to listen to. It is defiantly a step up from Disney's older slower songs. Everybody Wants to be a Cat is by far one of the greatest Disney songs ever. It is long, catchy, exciting, and layered with sections that give the song dynamics. The lyrics are both funny, and interesting as a cat's perspective on life. To conclude this quite possibly contriversial review, The Aristocats is a funny, delightful, and care-free Disney film that is criminally underrated.

The first Disney animated film without the strong involvement of Disney himself, this film suffers from the fact that the story is not particularly original or interesting (this is, I believe, the only animated Disney film since the 1940's which is NOT based on an earlier book or other work, but is rather an original story). As others have noted, the plot is essentially a cross between the romance in Lady and the Tramp and the kidnapping/journey home story in 101 Dalmatians.

But to overcome this flaw, the filmmakers have successfully used many of the better features of most of the Disney animated films of the previous 10-15 years: Phil Harris (from The Jungle Book) voicing one of the main characters, follows his duet with Louis Prima in the previous film with another here with Scatman Crothers. The quality visual look of this film is virtually carried over from "Dalmatians" (with some nice nods to French Impressionism, it appears), and the villain here (the butler) is strongly reminiscent of the henchmen in that film as well. (This is probably one of Disney's least memorable villains.) The main story goes back and forth between the cats, and the butler's ongoing difficulties with two rural hound dogs (with great voice work by Pat Buttram and George "Goober" Lindsey"). The various animal characters are similarly familiar to those who have seen "Tramp" and "Dalmatians." The cats' owner, while bearing a striking visual resemblance to the wicked stepmother in Sleeping Beauty, bears none of that character's nasty traits and comes across as very warm and generous.

The real strength of the film is the voice work; after first going toward the use of mostly familiar actors in The Jungle Book, the tactic is continued strongly here with Disney veterans Harris and Sterling Holloway from The Jungle Book, and Eva Gabor (who would do a very similar character in the later film The Rescuers), as well as Crothers and Nancy Kulp. All are excellent here, particularly Harris and Gabor in the leads. The character animation is as excellent as one would expect, showing a variety of emotions well.

Smaller children may be upset by a few brief episodes (an escape from the path of a speeding train, a near-drowning by one of the children), but these are not presented in a particularly frightening or dark manner and are over very quickly. Overall, there's very little of the type of more frightening scenes found in many other Disney classics.

One minor oddity is the way some visual aspects of 60's culture are depicted among the jazz-performing cats in supposedly 1910 Paris; one can't help but wonder why the story wasn't set solidly in the present, other than the great deal Paris had changed much of its appearance in the intervening time. It really would have made more sense that way.

The songs, while being pleasant and sometimes very enjoyably performed, are not particularly memorable. Nonetheless, the general energy applied here, the excellent voice work and fine animation all contribute to overcome the relatively few and minor weaknesses. Far from the greatness of classic "10"s such as Pinocchio or Aladdin, and not quite up to the "9"s one might give to Sleeping Beauty or 101 Dalmatians, this is probably a rather marginal 8 of 10; perhaps a 7.

The 20th animated Disney classic is often criticized by many people as "mediocre" or poor in quality, but it is a good movie.

Despite being extremely underrated, it is one of the funniest Disney classics. It is full of hilarious (some of them, hysterical) moments.

Edgar, the greedy butler, is the villain but a perfect comic relief. He's one of my favorite Disney villains because he is so funny.

Every scene with Edgar and the two stupid hound dogs Napoleon and Lafayette chasing him are among the most hilarious you'll ever see, especially the one when Edgar drives his motorcycle into the river and around the bridge, with the dogs chasing him. That is hysterical!

But the classic humor doesn't just come from Edgar or the hound dogs. Other characters have their moments as well.

About the quality subject, it isn't perfect, but remains on a high level. Even after Walt Disney's death those artists knew how to keep faithful to Walt's spirit and "The Aristocats" is one of those examples. They no longer make them like this!

As usual, legendary Disney actors voice the characters. In this case, we have Phil Harris, Sterling Holloway, Paul Winchell, Eva Gabor and Pat Buttram.

The characters are generally cool: Thomas O'Malley, Duchess and her 3 kittens, the mouse Roquefort, the alley cats, the English geese, the hound dogs and the horse. The human characters are included as well: the eccentric and kind retired Opera singer Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, the comic Madame's old lawyer Georges Hautecourt and Edgar himself!

About the soundtrack, it has some nice and catchy songs such as Thomas O'Malley's theme (but I can't remember its name), "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" and "The Aristocats" (sung by Maurice Chevalier), for example.

This movie takes place in Paris (France), in the year of 1910. A classic, often underestimated and forgotten, but worthy.

The Aristocats is really quite charming, and is rated far too low on IMDb. The songs aren't as memorable as the ones in the Jungle Book, but they weren't bad at all, Everybody wants to be a Cat is a classic and the title song is brilliantly sung by Gigi's Maurice Chavelier. The animation is really lovely, the best sequence being the landscape of Paris in general. It looked beautiful. This is probably Disney's most relaxing animation I think, and as another reviewer quite rightly said, who doesn't love cats? Another great piece of animation was O' Malley looking into Duchess's eyes, as their romance was so believable while not obvious.(a good thing)The plot(about a greedy butler and a fortune, reminds me of Bailey's Billions) was a little unoriginal, but worked very well, and the script was really funny, especially the fights between the kittens. They remind me of me and my brother and 3 sisters, always fighting. My favourite scene was the chase of Edgar with the two dogs, who were always fighting about who was the leader. The voice talents were a delight, most notably Phil Harris, whom I recognised from the Jungle Book, and Eva Gabor, from the Rescuers. The supporting characters, namely Scat Cat, were also well done. In conclusion, a really pleasant film, that is definitely underrated. 8.5/10 Bethany Cox

The Aristocats is one of my favorite animated movies, but the comparisons between this movie and past Disney classics are reasonable. The dog napping plot of One Hundred and One Dalmatians is adapted to fit the catnapping plot of The Aristocats. O'Malley and Duchess are reconstructions of Lady and the Tramp at heart. But, as long as the end result is just as enjoyable as the past movies, why complain? No matter how the success was achieved, as long as it was achieved.

The plot is simple. Madame Adelaide Bonfamille is an old millionaires spinster in Paris, 1910. The only other people in her lonely life are her cat, Duchess, and her kittens, Toulouse, Marie and Berlioz, as well as the faithful butler, Edgar. When Madame's lawyer, Georges, comes over to make Madame's will, Edgar overhears her plans. She wants to leave all her belongings to her cats, and at the end of their lifespan, the vast sums of money will go to Edgar. Quite unreasonably, Edgar is infuriated, and drugs and catnaps the kittens and dumps them in the French countryside, miles from home. There they find Thomas O'Malley, an alley cat who helps them back home, mainly because of Duchess.

The characterization of O'Malley certainly doesn't seem to have been a problem. Voiced by Phil Harris (Baloo from The Jungle Book), he also acts like the lovable bear and even looks just like you would imagine Baloo to look like, were he transmogrified into a cat. His bunch of jazz cats, led by Scat Cat, are some of the more effective Disney cameo-players. My favorite was the long-haired, blonde English Cat (besides Scat Cat, the rest have no names but clearly distinct nationalities). Roquefort the house-mouse and Frou-Frou the horse have brief roles, but shine in these glimpses. Edgar isn't really the real Disney villain in that he is not evil...he is simply impatient. He is not cruel from the start--his only sin is impatience. If he hadn't known about the will, he would've taken care of the cats as if nothing had happened. One sees his point in a way--what would those cats DO with the money? Madame could have given her estate to Edgar, and the butler would never have abandoned the cats had they not been privileged more than himself. So I like Edgar, in some ways.

The story is a mix of other Disney classics. Besides Fantasia--which had NO plot--this was Disney's first shot at writing an original story for an animated feature, and even so they had to take shortcuts. Here are the main plot elements repeated: 1) Villain-pet naps-animals-for-personal-gain from One Hundred and One Dalmatians. 2) Pampered-pet-learns-of-life-on-streets-through-streetwise-friend from Lady and the Tramp. It also borrows a little bit from Chuck Jones and Abe Levitow's Gay Purr-ee (1962). The plot is berated for being too shallow, but I don't see how it can be with so many elements of faultless classics. Again, as in the first paragraph: If the audience enjoys a story, it doesn't matter how the story developed.

The animation, so often blasted for being lazy and flawed, can never be seen the same way by everyone. It's solely a matter of opinion. The animation isn't bad, like television cartoons: it's a different style, radically different from, say, Sleeping Beauty. If that great fairy tale were portrayed by such animation, it would be the greatest failure in history; the same way, the sketchy, loose, carefree style of The Aristocats is perfect to tell that kind of story with those characters. Sleeping Beauty needed to be immaculate, as near to photography as could be; The Aristocats is the most cartoony of Disney animated features.

The Aristocats will always have an advantage over many films in my book. It was one of the few movies my dad saw in theater, so I was exposed to it more than several other movies. Besides that, it has always been one of Disney's more enjoyable features, more fun than most. It doesn't aim for the realism and drama of Bambi. It's just wholesome entertainment.

9/10