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The Aristocats
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The Aristocats is an animated feature produced and released by Walt Disney Productions in 1970. The twentieth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe, and revolves around a family of aristocratic cats, and how an alley cat acquaintance helps them after a butler has kidnapped them to gain his mistress' fortune which was meant to go to them.
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The Aristocats is an animated feature produced and released by Walt Disney Productions in 1970. The twentieth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe, and revolves around a family of aristocratic cats, and how an alley cat acquaintance helps them after a butler has kidnapped them to gain his mistress' fortune which was meant to go to them. It was originally released to theaters by Buena Vista Distribution on December 11, 1970. The title is a pun on the word aristocrats.
The film's basic idea — an animated romantic musical comedy about talking cats in France — had previously been used in the UPA animated feature Gay Purr-ee.
Disney planned to release a sequel, The Aristocats II, in December 2005, set to release in 2007, but production was canceled in early 2006.
Plot
The film is set in Paris, France, in 1910, and centers around a mother cat named Duchess and her three kittens Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse. The cats live in the mansion of retired opera singer Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, along with her English butler Edgar.
Madame Adelaide, early on, settles her will with her lawyer Georges Hautecourt, an aged, eccentric old friend of hers, stating that she wishes Edgar to look after her beloved cats until they die and then inherit the fortune himself. Edgar hears this from his own room and believes (based on the fable that cats have nine lives) that he will be dead before he inherits Madame Adelaide's fortune, and plots to remove the cats from a position of inheritance. He sedates the cats by putting an entire bottle of sleeping pills into the cat's food and then heads out into the country side to dispose of them. However, two hound dogs named Napoleon and Lafayette, ambush Edgar, biting his rear and his leg. After the conflict, Edgar escapes leaving behind his umbrella, bowler hat, the cats' bed-basket, and the sidecar of his motorcycle. The cats are left in the country side, while Madame Adelaide, the mouse Roquefort, and Edgar's horse Frou-Frou discover their absence.
In the morning, Duchess meets an alley cat named Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley, who ultimately offers to guide her and the kittens to Paris. From their meeting onward, Duchess is enamored of the handsome Thomas O'Malley (as he is most frequently called) and he with her; the kittens, too, are enraptured though he takes a moment to be fond of them.
The cats have a struggle returning to the city, briefly hitchhiking on the back of a milk cart before being chased off by the driver. Marie subsequently falls into a river and is saved by O'Malley. O'Malley himself is then rescued from the river by a pair of English geese, Amelia and Abigail Gabble, who are traveling for Paris. Assuming he is learning to swim, the two geese attempt to help him, nearly drowning him in the process. Upon their return to dry land, Amelia and Abigail join the cat group on their way back to Paris, all of them marching like geese.
Traveling across the rooftops of the city and exhausted, O'Malley offers his "pad" for them to spend the night. In doing so, the cats meet Scat Cat and his band, close friends to O'Malley, who perform "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat". After the band has departed and the kittens in bed, O'Malley and Duchess spend the evening on a nearby rooftop and talk, while the kittens listen at a windowsill. Though it is obvious they both have feelings for each other, Duchess ultimately turns him down, out of loyalty to Madame Adelaide. Edgar, meanwhile, retrieves his sidecar, umbrella, and hat from Napoleon and Layafette (who had made beds out of them) with some difficulty.
In the morning, the cats make it back to the mansion, and O'Malley sadly departs. Edgar recaptures the cats in a sack and briefly hides them in an oven. Roquefort is dispatched to pursue O'Malley for his help. He does so, whereupon O'Malley races back to the mansion, ordering Roquefort to find Scat Cat and his gang. Peppo the Itailan cat scares Roquefort. He tries to escape but ends up getting caught by Scat Cat. Roquefort tells him that he was sent by O'Malley and that Duchess, Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse are in need of help.
Edgar places the cats in a trunk which he plans to send to Timbuktu, Africa. O'Malley, Scat Cat and his gang, Roquefort and Frou-Frou all fight Edgar, while Roquefort frees Duchess and kittens. In the end, Edgar is booted into the trunk, locked inside, and sent to Timbuktu himself. Madame Adelaide's will is rewritten to exclude Edgar and include O'Malley; simultaneously, Madame Adelaide starts a charity foundation providing a home for all of Paris' stray cats. The grand opening thereof, to which most of the major characters come, features Scat Cat's band, who perform a reprise of "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat".
Cast
Crew
- Story adaptation: Ken Anderson, Larry Clemmons, Eric Cleworth, Vance Gerry, Julius Svendsen, Frank Thomas, Ralph Wright
- Based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe
- Supervising animators: Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, John Lounsbery
- Animators: Hal King, Eric Cleworth, Fred Hellmich, Eric Larson, Julius Svendsen, Walt Stanchfield, David Michener
- Effects animators: Dan MacManus, Dick Lucas
- Layout: Don Griffith, Basil Davidovich, Sylvia Roemer
- Backgrounds: Al Dempster, Bill Layne, Ralph Hulett
- Production manager: Don Duckwall
- Assistant directors: Ed Hansen, Dan Alguire
- Supervising sound editor: Robert O. Cook
- Film editor: Tom Acosta
- Music editor: Evelyn Kennedy
- Music composed and conducted by George Bruns
- Score orchestrated by Walter Sheets
- Produced by Wolfgang Reitherman and Winston Hibler
- Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman
Characters
The Aristocats uses the funny animals convention of talking animals who are understood by all other species except humans. Species featured include cat, dog, mouse, frog, horse, goose, and rooster. Specific characters are as follows:
- Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley - an alley cat who befriends Duchess and the kittens and becomes Duchess's mate and stepfather to Toulouse, Marie and Berlioz. He goes by the shorter name of "Thomas O'Malley".
- Duchess - a white-furred "aristocat" that lives with Madame Bonfamille. She is very adherent to her own codes of right and wrong.
- Marie - Duchess's white-furred, somewhat prissy daughter. She is a meetable character at Walt Disney World, the Tokyo Disney Resort, and Hong Kong Disneyland. Marie also makes a cameo appearance in Hong Kong Disneyland's version of It's a Small World.
- Berlioz - Duchess's black-furred son. He is mischievous and prone to sibling rivalry.
- Toulouse - Duchess's ginger-furred son. He is prone to self-aggrandizing shows of bravura, and also the only one of the Aristocats to deduce that Edgar was trying to do away them. Not surprisingly, he hero worships O'Malley and is the first to embrace him among his family.
- Edgar Balthazar - Madame Bonfamille's greedy, but comic butler.
- Roquefort - a grey house mouse who lives with Duchess and her kittens.
- Scat Cat - a leader of an alley cat band and a friend of O'Malley's.
- Madame Adelaide Bonfamille - the owner of Duchess and her kittens.
- Napoleon and Lafayette - Two hound dogs who attack Edgar. Napoleon (not to be confused with Napoleon Bonaparte), is a Bloodhound, while Lafayette is a Basset Hound. The two organize themselves to act as a hierarchy of soldiers, of which Napoleon insists himself to be the one more highly ranked. A running joke appears wherein Lafayette makes a suggestion, only to have Napoleon pull rank by insisting that, as leader, he will decide what action the two shall take – only to do exactly what Lafayette suggested.
- Frou-Frou - Madame Bonfamille's horse. A loyal friend to Roquefort, Duchess, and the kittens.
- Amelia and Abigail Gabble - Two English geese (twin sisters) who "save" O'Malley from drowning - Monica Evans and Carole Shelley, who voiced them, also voiced together in Disney's Robin Hood.
- Uncle Waldo - Amelia and Abigail's Uncle. He was nearly served as a meal at the La Petite Cafe in Paris. Before escaping, he was marinated in white wine, which made him drunk while meeting the other characters.
- Georges Hautecourt - Madame Bonfamille's elderly lawyer. Madame tells her lawyer her will (also heard by Edgar). Georges is brash and lively for his age, though he describes himself as "not as spry as I was when I was 80 eh?", indicating that he is older than 80, and possibly even older than Madame Bonfamille. Madame refers to him as her "oldest and dearest friend".
- Shun Gon - a Chinese Siamese cat, who plays the drums and the piano using chopsticks. This is why he is sometimes accused of racial stereotyping.
- Hit Cat - an English cat, having wild blonde hair.
- Peppo - an Italian cat, wearing a look-alike Robin Hood hat and a red scarf.
- Billy Bass - a grey, longhaired Russian cat, who plays the double bass in Scat Cat's band.
- The Milkman - Milkman who chases O'Malley and Aristocats out of his milk truck, in which they had been hitchhiking.
Release
The Aristocats was re-released to theaters on December 19, 1981 and April 10, 1987. It was released on VHS in Europe on January 1, 1990.
It was first released on VHS in North America in the Classics series on April 10, 1986 and January 1, 1992 and Masterpiece Collection series on April 24, 1996 and DVD on April 4, 2000 in the Gold Classic Collection line. The Aristocats had its Gold Collection disc quietly discontinued in 2006.
A new single-disc Special Edition DVD (previously announced as a 2-Disc set) was released on February 5, 2008.
International release dates
- Brazil: February 20, 1971
- Argentina: May 14, 1971
- Australia: August 5, 1971
- Italy: November 13, 1971
- United Kingdom: November 22, 1971
- Sweden: December 4, 1971
- Spain: December 6, 1971
- France: December 8, 1971
- West Germany: December 16, 1971
- Finland: December 17, 1971
- Trinidad and Tobago: December 20, 1971
- Denmark: December 26, 1971
- Norway: December 26, 1971
- Iceland: December 29, 1971
- Hong Kong: January 20, 1972
- Japan: March 11, 1972
- Portugal: October 25-27, 1977, February 6, 1978, February 10, 1978, February 14-16, 1978
- Mexico: December 6, 1978
- Pakistan: April 20, 1981
- Russia: March 27, 2008
- Romania: March 27, 2008
- Bulgaria: March 27, 2008
Soundtrack
- "The Aristocats" - Maurice Chevalier "The Aristocats" is the title song from the film. It was written by Robert & Richard Sherman at the end of the eight year tenure working for Walt Disney Productions. Actor and singer Maurice Chevalier came out of retirement to sing this song for the motion picture's soundtrack. He recorded it in English as well as in French translation ("Naturellement - les Aristocats!").
- "Scales and Arpeggios" - Liz English, Gary Dubin, Dean Clark, Robie Lester
- "Thomas O'Malley Cat" - Phil Harris
- "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" - Phil Harris, Scatman Crothers, Thurl Ravenscroft, Vito Scotti, Paul Winchell This song is sung by Scatman Crothers as Scat Cat, Phil Harris as Thomas O'Malley Cat, and Thurl Ravenscroft as Billy Boss the Russian Cat. It was also released as a now rare 45 rpm single, in a version sung only by Phil Harris, which lacks the cartoon voices of the common release. The soundtrack CD released in 1996 contains an edited version of the song. The now politically incorrect lines sung by "Chinese Cat" voiced by Paul Winchell are removed.
- "She Never Felt Alone" - Robie Lester
- "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat (reprise)" - Phil Harris, Scatman Crothers, Thurl Ravenscroft, Vito Scotti, Paul Winchell, Ruth Buzzi, Bill Thompson
On Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, this includes "Thomas O'Malley Cat" on the purple disc and "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" on the orange disc. On Disney's Greatest Hits, this includes "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat" on the red disc.
The Aristocats II
The Aristocats II was supposed to be a direct-to-video sequel to this film. It was scheduled to be released in 2007, but the production was canceled in early 2006 after Disney acquired Pixar and canceled all projects not related to a consumer product line. It is still unknown if the sequel is now in production again. Future DIsney DVD Releases will let us know if it is.
Cast
See also
External links
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