THE ARISTOCATS (Special Edition)

Written by Senora Bicho

The Aristocats has always been one of my favorite Disney cartoons, so when given the chance to review this new special edition DVD, I pounced! The film was originally released in 1970 and then re-released in 1980 and 1987. It was first made available on VHS in 1996 and then on DVD in 2000, which was then discontinued in 2006. This new special edition set was originally announced as a 2-disc set but upon release is actually only 1-disc.

The story takes place in Paris in 1910 and revolves around a high society cat, Duchess, and her three kittens: Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz. They are owned by Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, a retired opera singer. Since she is getting up there in age, she asks her lawyer to draw up her will leaving everything to her cats with her butler, Edgar, to inherit once the cats have all passed. After overhearing this information, Edgar decides to get rid of the kittens to clear the way to his inheritance. He drugs the cats and heads out into the country to drop them off. A run-in with some country dogs causes Edgar to lose the cats and go running back into town. The cats, now lost, are on their own. Luckily, they run into a friendly alley cat, Thomas O'Malley, who rescues them and takes them on the adventure of their lives. This wouldn’t be a true Disney animated film if there wasn’t some romance thrown in too.

The Aristocats offers a host of well-known and beloved Disney voiceover regulars along with some new ones. Thomas O’ Malley is voiced by Phil Harris who voiced Baloo in The Jungle Book and Little John in Robin Hood. Pat Buttram perfectly plays the hound dog, Napoleon, and can also be found in Robin Hood, The Rescuers, and The Fox and the Hound. Paul Winchell, the famous voice of Tigger from the Winnie the Pooh movies, makes a brief appearance as a Siamese cat. The newcomers include Eva Gabor, who beautifully plays Duchess as an extension of her character on Green Acres, and Scatman Crothers as Scat Cat, the leader of an alley cat band.

The music in The Aristocats is definitely not as strong as other Disney films. The best song by far is “Everybody Wants to be a Cat”. It is a great jazz number and while the song is great on its own, the scene accompanying it is the best part of the film. The colors look fantastic and it is fun to watch. The only other song worth mentioning is the title song sung by Maurice Chevalier. This was his last performance and the songwriters were able to talk him into coming out of retirement to sing it. He is perfect in setting the tone and atmosphere during the opening credits.

The new Special Edition looks great. While the animation is older and rougher, the visuals work to create the look of Paris 1910, more specifically the paintings of the time. The extras are not overly exciting unless you have small children. There is a deleted scene, which one of the songwriters discusses, and the original sketches and storyboards are shown during the song. It was a good decision to cut it from the film as it didn’t really add anything. A cartoon featuring Figaro, the cat from Pinocchio, is also included, it is a weak choice and I would never watch it again.

“Music and More” provides the ability to jump to any song and play that scene. You can also add lyrics to the bottom of the screen during all of the songs while watching the movie to make your own karaoke.

“Backstage Disney” includes “The Sherman Brothers” which provides interviews with them and additional information on the film’s music. The Sherman brothers were staff songwriters at Disney for many years and their additional credits include Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and many more. There is also a scrapbook and an excerpt from an old show entitled The Great Cat Family hosted by Walt Disney.

“Games and Activities” allows viewers to adopt their own kitten and care for it while playing “Disney Virtual Kitten,” and kids can play along and learn the names of musical instruments in “The Aristocats Fun with Language Game”.

The Aristocats is not as good as lot of the other Disney films released around the same time such as The Jungle Book, Robin Hood, and The Rescuers, but it is still fun and entertaining for the whole family.

THE ARISTOCARTS Screening

Written by Hombre Divertido

In anticipation of the release of The Aristocats - Special Edition on February 5th, Disney recently held a special showing of the film at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. The Aristocats marks a time of simple elegance for the filmmakers at Disney. The story is simple but fun, and the animation is elegant. Set in Paris, the animators capture not only the environment but the era as well by keeping it simple and allowing each cel to serve as an artistic impression. This is most noticeable in the scenes of the city. The story is quite simple and bares some similarities to Lady and the Tramp which Disney released fifteen years earlier.

In The Aristocats we meet Duchess, voiced wonderfully by Eva Gabor, and her three kittens (Marie-Liz Kitchen, Toulouse-Gary Dubin, and Berlioz-Gary Clark) that live quite well in a beautiful mansion that they have the run of. When their owner; Madame Adelaide Bonfamille (Hermione Baddley) makes out her will, she leaves her fortune to the cats, and nothing to her butler Edgar (Roddy Maude-Roxby) who has served both her and the cats faithfully for many years. Upon finding out the contents of the will, Edgar decides to foil the feline fortune by disposing of the Aristocats. Edgar kitty-naps them in the middle of the night and abandons them in the middle of the countryside. Being the rich spoiled cats that they are, they are completely out of their element and unable to find their way home. Luckily they are discovered by O’Malley the Alley Cat voiced by the always enjoyable Phil Harris. With the help of O’Malley, and their friend from home Roquefort the Mouse, voiced by the legendary Sterling Holloway, the Aristocats manage to survive an adventurous trip home. During the trip, Duchess and O’Malley develop an appreciation for each other that leads to our happy ending.

Though an all-star cast of vocal talent was used on this film, including Scatman Crothers, Paul Winchell, and Pat Buttram, it is the inclusion of some that make for the primary flaw in this Disney effort. The use of Phil Harris and Sterling Holloway proved to be nothing more than distracting. These gentlemen are incredibly talented, but both had been featured prominently in Disney’s far more successful The Jungle Book just three years earlier, and Holloway had established himself as the voice of Winnie the Pooh long before that. Their roles in The Aristocats were not as demanding as previous projects, and certainly could have been handled by actors with less familiar voices.

With that said, the film is fun for the whole family, and a worthy addition to any collection. The animation is classic in its style, and the characters are fun with enough depth to allow each to be endearing to the audience. The new release features a virtual kitten game, a nostalgic behind-the-scenes featurette that showcases the music of the immortal Sherman Brothers, a deleted song, and more.

The special viewing at the El Capitan was attended by Gary Dubin (Toulouse) who was kind enough to answer a few questions. Dubin who continues to act and was most recently seen in a guest-starring role on 24 was only five at the time that he co-starred in The Aristocats, but you can still recognize the voice if you are standing in the theatre with him after just seeing the movie. Dubin, who was seeing the film for the first time since its original release, said that he had fond memories of filming the movie, and that he appreciated the simplicity of it and how that allows it to differ from the special-effects laden and computer-animated films of today. Dubin was accompanied by his wife who commented that he had grown up to be a lot like Toulouse. You’ll have to see the film to appreciate that comment.