The Most Unique of All Love Stories At The Time
In the mid 50s, Walt’s attention was split between three things, his animated films, the newly - successful llive - action films, and the construction of what would later become Disneyland. After Peter Pan had put Disney back on top, Walt needed another sure - fire winner to keep up the streak and the answer was right there for him. Disney was becoming known for cute animated animals characters who always managed to steal the movie, whether they were the star or no. Jiminy Cricket, Timothy the Mouse, Thumper, Jaq & Gus to name but a few. But Disney needed a dog added to the menagerie; plus it hadn’t had an animated romance film to date. As the saying goes, two birds, one stone.
The idea for this one was born way back in ’37, when the guys were all throwing around concepts for potential future films. Disney story artist Joe Grant approached Walt with an idea and sketches inspired by the adorable jealousy of his English Springer Spaniel Lady, who had taken an unceremonius backseat when Joe brought home his new baby daughter. Walt loved the way Lady’s fur resembled a dress and thought the rivalry between a dog and a human baby could make for some great comedy, so he commissioned Grant to do story development on what was now tenatively called Lady. But after several years of Joe and the animators coming up with different designs and concepts, Walt felt the story was still lacking something and that Lady was too sickly sweet. But in 1945, the film would finally begin to take shape after Walt read “Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog” by Ward Green in Cosmo magazine, which back then, was more focused on publshing fiction than beauty tips. The story revolves around a stray dog who revels in his ability to manipulate humans in to feeding him. Walt felt that Joe Grant’s story would do better as a canine love story, except the canines were each from a different world and bought the rights to the book just so that character could be added to his film.
Initially, it was going to be filmed and screened in the typical full - frame, Academy aspect ratio that Disney was known for, but then, 20th Century Fox released The Robe and with it, their new invention, CinemaScope, or WideScreen, as we call it now. The Robe was a huge critical and commercial success, and Walt saw the technology, and the future possibilities it presented to his animated works, as the future of cinema, not to mention the groundbreaking use of Stereo sound.
So, Walt became determined to see his new film in widescreen, despite the fact that most of it had already been donein full - frame ratio. Which meant that everyone had to completely redefine the scope of the film and the technique of layout art. Plus, backgrounds had to be redesigned to be wider, the animators had to move characters across a background where before the background could pass behind them, movement sequences had to tae larger spaces into account, characters, spread out more evenly across the screen to avoid sparse - looking scenes; the entire film had to be completely reworked from the top. Only to find out, a year before the films release, that not all theatres in the USA had the capacity to screen widescreen films yet. So, these poor, tired heroes ended up having to construct two versions of the movie, one for Academy - ratio and one for CinemaScope. To do this as cheaply and quickly as possible, the animators reconstructed any scene with charavters on the edge of the screen and move them to within the confines of full - frame ratio. This allowed for a cohese final product for any cinema unable to offer the widescreen experience, while meaning that portions of the background and set design would be lopped at the sides for full - frame.
THE STORY
On Christmas Night 1909, in a quaint Midwestern town, Jim and Elizabeth Brown are opening their presents. And one of Elizabeth’s turns out to be a Spaniel puppy, who she immediately names Lady. For the next six months, Lady and her new owners live a positively idyllic life together, she get her collar and license, which she shows off to her neighbours; Scotty Terrier Jock and bloodhound Trusty, who is without question the coolest character in this film. But then, a few weeks later, the humans start acting differently, colder to Lady. At first Lady thinks it’s something she’s done, but then Jock & Trusty reassure her that the humans’ change in behaviour is due to Elizabeth expecting a baby. At which point, their conversation is interrupted by a mongrel calling himself the Tramp, who tells them that “when a baby moves in, the dog moves out”. Eventually the baby arrives, turning out to be a boy, and Lady becomes very fond and very protective of him the moment she’s introduced to him. But, when Jim and Elizabeth leave for a vacation, and for some reason, don’t take the baby with them, they leave the house, the boy, and Lady, in the care of Jim’s dog - hating Aunt Sarah, who has brought along her two Siamese cats. The cats immediately raise utter hell and trash the house, but they make it look like Lady attacked them, as was their plan. From there, I won’t say anymore.
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Something that stayed with Walt all his life is his love of nostalgia. Especially for his childhood hometown of Marceline, Missouri, which would heavily influence the production of this film, and be the inspiration for the design of Main Street in Disneyland. It’s never made very clear in what time period this film is set, but people are running around in horse - drawn wagons and very nice dresses and suits, so being the son of a history teacher, I’m pointing towards 1910, possibly a little earlier, but it makes perfect sense, since this is the period in which Walt grew up and this movie is pretty much an ode to his childhood.
MY VERDICT
So, this only occurred to me quite recently, but Lady & the Tramp is, in fact, the first Disney film with a love story as the crux of the plot. There were love story elements in the two princess films we’ve had thus far, but they were not the focus of the whole narrative. And nor did those two films focus on burgeouning romance of its two lovers. Whereas this specifically follows the traditional path of a romance film with two characters from different backgrounds coming together and falling in love espite a multitude of obstacles. Going deeper, it’s the first film to acknowledge that love is love, no matter what form it takes. It’s almost unbelievable that two such different dogs would be soulmates, but they meet, and they teach each other valuable life lessons and become better animals through those lessons, so it works. The film doesn’t even have a real villain, allowing the narrative to focus on the love story. It would have been better if it were slightly less gushy, but sometimes love IS gushy, so I suppose I can’t fault that.
Is Lady & the Tramp A Disney Classic? For a first shot at a romance, it’s definitely a Disney Classic.
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