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Walt Disney’s
Aristocats is not one of their better productions, but it still
has its entertaining moments. Popular during its original release,
and the first animated feature produced after Walt’s death,
Aristocats is noticeably dated. Still, a few catchy tunes, superb
animation, and one or two delightful characters make this lesser
known animation relatively tolerable. Even when Disney doesn’t
hit a home run, it’s a company known for choosing celebrated
stories and family friendly material that can be enjoyed by more
than just the very young – here however, it seems to forget
that parents must usually watch this stuff as well.
The bubbly plot finds Duchess (Eva Gabor, who also voiced Bianca from The Rescuers) and her three young kittens being the sole heirs to a fortune and an enormous estate via the will of Madame, their elderly and naïve owner. When the jealous butler Edgar overhears of Madame’s plans for her wealth, he catnaps Duchess and her kittens and abandons them in the French countryside. Although they don’t meet any conspicuously rough customers in their cozy Paris environment, Thomas J. O’Malley (Phil Harris, who also voiced Baloo from The Jungle Book) the alley cat comes to their rescue to guide them back home. Meeting up with his jazzy friend Scat Cat (Scatman Crothers, who also voiced Jazz from the Transformers TV show), the group must again rescue the helpless kittens when their reappearance at the mansion forces Edgar to plot to ship them off to Timbuktu. Aristocats is clearly aimed primarily for a younger audience
than the later Disney animated features, although there are elements
in the film that can humor adults. The most trying aspect are
the numerous ideas that we must take for granted and engrain into
our mindsets in order to comfortably drift into Aristocats’
suspension of disbelief. It is a children’s film, so overanalyzation
is perhaps completely inappropriate, but with the mindset that
animated films like Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid
exist, Aristocats has strict competition for critics. |
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The kittens paint, sing,
play the piano and frolic with a mouse named Roquefort (Sterling
Holloway, who also voiced Winnie the Pooh), and Duchess raises them
to be proper ladies and gentlemen. Scat Cat and his group of grossly
politically incorrect cats all play instruments and crone gaily
into the wee hours of the morning. But that’s all in the name
of childish fun. The most annoyingly hard-to-swallow aspect of Aristocats
is the bumbling Edgar, who is developed to be little more than a
supporting character henchman, except that there is no evil leader
for him to accompany. He tussles with the comedic dog duo of Lafayette
and Napoleon, who snag his possessions during his first attempt
to rid himself of the spoiled kittens. A Pink Panther-styled clumsy
scoundrel, Edgar poses little threat, even though he is intended
to be the main conflict. The other obstacles come from angry truck
drivers and lumbering trains, both of which add little dramatic
value.
The comedy in Aristocats is most worthwhile, with hilarious turns from the twin geese Amelia and Abigail and their drunken uncle Waldo, who stumbles about in a curious inebriated waddle. When one goose turns to the other and whispers “how scandalous” at the realization that O’Malley and Duchess are not married, the real humor that children won’t recognize is introduced. What is most scandalous is why Duchess’ kitten Toulouse looks exactly like O’Malley, and why Berlioz matches Scat Cat’s rugged looks, right down to identical red bowties. By the end of the film it is unconditionally proven that cats are smarter than humans and that happy endings don’t elude cartoons. And since the animation is masterful, despite a relatively generic family storyline, that’s quite all right. - Mike Massie |
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