The Dawning Of A New Era
Walt Disney’s death had left a huge, gaping hole in the studio. After Walt kept his cancer a secret from everyone outside immediate family, some at the studio weren’t prepared for life without him. Many of the animators had worked side by side with him for decades, leaning heavily on his guidance and direction for their own inspiration. Without Walt, there were many who thought the animation division of the company would just curl up and die after thirty years. When Walt stepped back from animated films in the early 60s, those resulting films were lacklustre and, dare I say, almost bad. Though the roaring success of the Jungle Book was attributed by many to Walt taking back control of everything. So, how could they continue without the man who started everything?
Well, after Walt died, his big brother Roy took over as chairman, CEO AND president. He promised to keep Walt’s dream alive, especially the construction of what had, by then, been dubbed Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida. Roy was always aware that animation was Walt’s first love and refused to stop future animated film production. So, the first animated film made without Walt ended up being the last one he personally approved before his departure. Back in December ’61, Walt had the stroy team crafting animal stories for a two-part live-action episode of an NBC program he created called Wald Disney’s Wonderful World of Colour. After Dalmatians became a success, Harry Tytle and Tom McGowan were inspired to write a similar story about cats in 1910 Paris, instead of a pack of dogs in 1960’s London. The project, now called the Aristocats, went through years of developmental hell before being shelved altogether in 1963. In a pitch to save the project, Tytle suggested turning it into an animated film, but the animation department was already occupied with the Jungle Book and Walt was now greenlighting only one project at a time. So, Tytle moved on to other live action projects at the studio. Walt went back to Aristocats in ’66 and assigned Ken Anderson to decide if it would be an OK film to follow Jungle Book. With guidance from perrenial director and Old Man Wolfgang Reitherman, Anderson carved out a simple story and some preliminary sketches to give Walt, who was already very sick and one of his last acts was to look over Anderson’s draft script and artwork and give the film his seal of approval.
THE STORY
In a huge house in Paris in 1910, lives retired opera singer Adelaide Bonfamille, with her family of cats. Duchess and her kitten, Marie, Toulouse and Berlioz, and her butler, Edgar. On the day we meet this family, Adelaide’s attorney, George Hautecourt, comes to help her make her will, in which, she states that, since she has no living relatives, her CATS are going to inherit everything she owns, including her house and all of her money; then at the end of their lifespan, her entire estate will revert to her faithful servant, Edgar. Unfortunately Edgar overhears all of this through an open speaking tube and gets a bit cheesed off, so he comes up with a plan to dispose of the cats and become the sole beneficiary of, as he calls it “all of ‘em dollars”.
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In an effort to bring his brother’s wish into fruition, Roy approved production on The Aristocats just after the Jungle Book was done, eyeing a release date of around Christmas 1970. Roy saw the value of another film with a menagerie of animal characters, hoping to mirror the success of not just One Hundred and One Dalmatians, but also Lady and the Tramp. At that point, Europe strongly embraced Disney’s animated films, so the idea of an adventure based in Paris seemed like a sure hit, especially in France.
After seeing the results of patterning characters on their voice actors, Roy told the animation team to do something similar with this film. Before his death, Walt had already earmarked Phil Harris to voice the male lead, Thomas O’Malley. While the animation again echoed Harris’ persona, he himself based his performance on the suave nature of Clarke Gable to differentiate him from Baloo. Green Acres star Eva Gabor was cast as lead lady cat Duchess, with the glamour of the character matching perfectly with Eva’s sultry, Hungarian accented voice. Louis Armstrong was initially cast to play O’Malley’s best friend, Scat Cat, but Satchmo became very ill and was forced to pull out, so jazz musician Scatman Crothers was cast instead, and in an act of desperation, Wolfgang Reitherman instructed Scatman to imitate Satchmo, which apparently continues to fool people to this day.
Ken Anderson spent almost two years perfecting character designs with help from several of the Nine Old Men. Once again, the Xerox was used to reproduce sketches and cut costs. And, yet again, there are evident pencil marks in several scenes to creat a final visual aesthetic with the sophistication of earlier films. And again, we also see several pieces of animation reused to save time, with occasional moments completely copied from 101 Dalmatians.
MY VERDICT
As with several other Disney films, Aristocats has no really menacing villain. In this case, the villain is just a greedy old man who doesn’t have a very good plan to achieve what he wants. But, what this film lacks in a good villain, it makes up for with one of the best songs in Disney history, and that’s saying a lot. Everybody Wants To Be A Cat is lively, energetic and fun in a movie where that doesn’t happen all that much. It’s a breath of fresh air in a mostly pretty boring film.
Is The Aristocats A Disney Classic? Nothing groundbreaking, but sufficiently entertaining enough for an enjoyable viewing experience. Even if it’s a bit of a stretch to call it a Disney Classic.
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