The AristocatsPeople love their pets. Some people love their pets so much that they'd give them anything...even their fortune after they've passed on. Such is the case for Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, whose pets include a Turkish Angora cat named Duchess and her three kittens: Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz. The wealthy Madame intends to leave her fortune to the cats until their death, to be followed by her faithful butler, Edgar. (The inheritance, not necessarily the death.) Overhearing the intentions for her will, the resentful Edgar schemes that if he can dispose of the cats in advance, that he will inherit the fortune directly. His repeated blunders to this end result in Duchess and her children lost in the French countryside, needing to enlist the help of a rough and tumble tomcat named "Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley" (Thomas O'Malley for short) to guide them home.
|
|
Walt Disney and animation are inexorably intertwined, and The Aristocats is a solid representation of this at the time it was made in 1970. Featuring gorgeous, hand-drawn animation and plenty of musical numbers with popular voice actors (including Eva Gabor as Duchess and Phil Harris as Thomas), The Aristocats could be called standard fare for a Disney animated movie; but this overlooks the magic that made these movies so special. At the risk of turning into an unrelated history lesson, Disney defined animation as we know it today by way of the "twelve basic principles of animation", employed by Disney's famed "Nine Old Men" and others from the 1930s onward. One has but to look to see these principles (such as "squash and stretch") employed in The Aristocats, adding a larger-than-life quality that infuses the animation with energy and excitement. These simple yet effective strategies helped form the Disney empire today, and clearly it worked. As with many beloved animated Disney classics, The Aristocats was designed to be enjoyed by audiences of all ages, but primarily by children. This isn't to say that the film is altogether juvenile (although there are a few scenes which feel as though their inclusion is solely to offer up more animated antics). But it's important to note that this film is also intended for cat lovers especially. The behavior of Duchess, Thomas, and the kittens is charming and fun, and they display a wide array of emotions and facial micro-expressions that make it evident that the animators paid close attention to the behavior and movement of cats before transforming these images into an animated counterpart.
It's a lot of fun watching The Aristocats, from the humorous and exaggerated characters to the music. Time has been a little less gentle to the film, largely due to the addition of a member of a jazz band (buddies of Thomas') comprised entirely of cats, including a stereotypically Chinese cat whose placement feels jarring by today's perspective. Nevertheless, it's a throwaway moment, so it shouldn't distract audiences unreasonably from the tone of the rest of the picture. To be honest, there is a more jarring pair of inconsequential characters in the form of a pair of hound dogs called "Napoleon" and "Lafayette", who repeatedly antagonize Edgar, and anachronistically speak in a southern United States drawl. (Note that the film is set in France, circa 1910.) Edgar is a complete boob of an antagonist, and since he's essentially trying to dispose of the pets of his sweet, elderly employer, he's unlikable by default, even if he seems too stupid to be truly villainous. Consider that if he merely waited until his employer's passing, and then disposed of the cats, he'd have gotten away with it. (Not condoning it, but just saying...) As is commonly the case with many Disney animated movies, the animals all talk (albeit only to each other), and generally are the embodiments of assorted ethnicities and nationalities that suit their character design and the animal they represent. For inscance, there are a pair of English geese, as well as the Madame's horse, humorously named "Frou-Frou", and an equally humorously named mouse named "Roquefort". (Yes, like the French cheese.) The Aristocats is a brief animated film, clocking in at just shy of eighty minutes, further reinforcing the suggestion that it was intended for children (with short attention spans, it would seem). But that shouldn't suggest that this isn't a complete story; it's just that there isn't too much to say beyond the events of the plot. Cats stand to inherit a fortune, butler tries to dispose of cats, fails, and cats are reunited with owner (alongside Duchess' new beau, Thomas). The butler gets his comeuppance, and they live happily ever after--the Disney version of all good fairy tales; and what's wrong with that here?
Recommended for: Fans of a simple, yet charming, animated children's film, featuring an adorable batch of kitties to capture your feline-enthused attention. The Aristocats was briefly pulled proactively by Disney (owing to the Chinese cat), but is now available to watch again (albeit with an puzzlingly aggressive disclaimer at the start of the movie). That said, the film is enjoyable, if burdened with a pedestrian plot, saved by the virtue of its stellar animation and the charm of its music and voice actors.
It's a lot of fun watching The Aristocats, from the humorous and exaggerated characters to the music. Time has been a little less gentle to the film, largely due to the addition of a member of a jazz band (buddies of Thomas') comprised entirely of cats, including a stereotypically Chinese cat whose placement feels jarring by today's perspective. Nevertheless, it's a throwaway moment, so it shouldn't distract audiences unreasonably from the tone of the rest of the picture. To be honest, there is a more jarring pair of inconsequential characters in the form of a pair of hound dogs called "Napoleon" and "Lafayette", who repeatedly antagonize Edgar, and anachronistically speak in a southern United States drawl. (Note that the film is set in France, circa 1910.) Edgar is a complete boob of an antagonist, and since he's essentially trying to dispose of the pets of his sweet, elderly employer, he's unlikable by default, even if he seems too stupid to be truly villainous. Consider that if he merely waited until his employer's passing, and then disposed of the cats, he'd have gotten away with it. (Not condoning it, but just saying...) As is commonly the case with many Disney animated movies, the animals all talk (albeit only to each other), and generally are the embodiments of assorted ethnicities and nationalities that suit their character design and the animal they represent. For inscance, there are a pair of English geese, as well as the Madame's horse, humorously named "Frou-Frou", and an equally humorously named mouse named "Roquefort". (Yes, like the French cheese.) The Aristocats is a brief animated film, clocking in at just shy of eighty minutes, further reinforcing the suggestion that it was intended for children (with short attention spans, it would seem). But that shouldn't suggest that this isn't a complete story; it's just that there isn't too much to say beyond the events of the plot. Cats stand to inherit a fortune, butler tries to dispose of cats, fails, and cats are reunited with owner (alongside Duchess' new beau, Thomas). The butler gets his comeuppance, and they live happily ever after--the Disney version of all good fairy tales; and what's wrong with that here?
Recommended for: Fans of a simple, yet charming, animated children's film, featuring an adorable batch of kitties to capture your feline-enthused attention. The Aristocats was briefly pulled proactively by Disney (owing to the Chinese cat), but is now available to watch again (albeit with an puzzlingly aggressive disclaimer at the start of the movie). That said, the film is enjoyable, if burdened with a pedestrian plot, saved by the virtue of its stellar animation and the charm of its music and voice actors.