Hi folks! Welcome to my My Own Personal Nerdy Disney and Animation Scrutinizing Analysis blog. A blog where I'm analyzing several Disney films, Disney or Animation in general! These entries are just meant to be my analyses. Not reviews or statements. Just fun analyses! Though I'll make some personal remarks now and then, the content of these entries are meant to be depicted objectively. They're made for entertainment purpose only and the pictures/clips are copyright Disney or other companies.
Make sure to leave a comment if you like this site! And if there's something you think could be improved, please let me know. But in a constructive way, please. And just a note; I'm not a Native English writer, so my incorrect grammar may be notable.
And finally; If you haven't seen the films, beware of spoilers! And the funny lines aren't meant to be nothing than funny. So I hope you won't find them offensive. If so, I apologize
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| Don`t perform a circus number when you`ll have two lovers present :) |
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| And no, we don`t need to fight for our right to party :) Cuz we`re cool :) |
For once I´m going to start an entry with my own personal thoughts about this blog: When I was first planning to do this blog, I had my ideas about which features and subjects that I was or wasn´t going to write about. And if there was a movie that I was certain that would belong into the latter category, it was The Aristocats. It wasn´t because of having anything against that movie. On the contrary, I happen to like it a
lot. But frankly it was because of the movie being too innocuous, harmless and
unsubstantial that there was hardly nothing to write about. However, as
previously mentioned, I´ve learned to expand my horizons and having written
about movies or subjects that I never thought I was going to write about. So when I realized that there was something about The Aristocats to write about, I eventually decided to make this entry at last.
The Aristocats` Position in Disney History and Behind the Scenes Information
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| This is my way of being bootylicious :) |
happens to have an important, yet non-cherished position in Disney´s history. Being the 20th in Disney`s animated canon, it was the very first animated feature which was released after Walt´s death.
While technically it´s predecessor The Jungle Book
would fill that bill (since it was after all released the following
year after Walt´s demise), it still had much of Walt´s input. So Aristocats
truly fills the bill of being the first feature after Walt. Yet it was the last idea Walt approved (he spent time working on The Rescuers when Jungle Book entered production). But Aristocats` fate was crucial to the studio: If it flopped, the studio was forced to shut down.
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| It may not be Monet, but it`s close enough :) |
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| I`m proud that I`m standing above the Eiffel Tower :) |
However,
we Disney buffs knows that the time betweeen post-Walt and the
Renaissance haven´t been really looked fondly upon by Disney
historians. So it´s needless to say that most Disney historians don´t happen to look fondly at The Aristocats.
Even Disney-writer Jim Hill have said that "it's somewhat schizophrenic production history often makes it difficult for Disneyphiles & Animation Historians to decide how to categorize Aristocats.  |
| Yes, I did it on purpose :) It wasn`t just an accident :) |
particular argument about the first post-Walt movies that they were just
shaped for kids. Whether they truly are, is up to you to decide. But still there`s been many claims that Walt`s version of the story (which the studio didn`t went for) was better (with the Parisian atmosphere and characters, all the French charm). Nor is Aristocats among one of Disney´s most
exposed features, as it rarely is among the most promoted properties in the
Disney canon. But it still doesn´t seem to
be one of Disney´s most hated entities, either. It has a 7,1 rating on IMDb
and it´s general rating of fans seem to be favorable. But for some reason, Marie is a huge Japanese favorite, with a ton of merchandise (yet one theory has been the lack of female characters that appeal to girls).  |
| This is how I usually do the laundry :) |
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| We`re cats, so we`re supposed to walk on the piano :) |
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Tom
Rowe, who also wrote the screenplay, sued Disney for his rights to the
characters. But the claim wasn’t supported by the studio. The bugdet for Aristocats was about $4 million. And while the beginning phase of the production was slow, i still took four years to make. It included more than 325,000 drawings by 35 animators and 900 painted backgrounds. The project employed 250 people. It was a challenge for the background artists was to
create a color scheme for the kittens for the nighttime action.
Aristocats` Innovations and Trademarks
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| I took the letter r away because it appeals to my species :) |
The Aristocats (a
clever pun title, still the name is a printer's error when the "r" was accidentally left off a chapter in David Duff's study called Albert and the Aristocats) is remarkable for a couple of reasons:
First, it was Disney´s true entry into a French premise (while Cinderella has been confirmed to take place in France, it was never confirmed in the movie). Which is rugged
art style does truly suits it´s setting. Secondly, it was Disney´s
first feature centered around felines. Legend says that Walt hated cats, so that´s probably why they were often the antagonists (yet we´ll have to
remember that Figaro from Pinocchio managed to live his short
life outside the movie). Whether that statement is taken out of porportions, it´s still noteworthy that there haven`t been any
feature from Disney which truly starred cats during his time.  |
| We`re doing this all day long :) |
However, The Aristocats feels like an amalgam of Walt´s two prior movies about domesticated, household animals; Lady and The Tramp and 101 Dalmatians (which starred canines). As with Lady, it has a household female (Duchess, voiced by Eva Gabor, who "was just about the freshest femme voice the studio ever had". And played a mother for the first time, and would later on voice Bianca in The Rescuers). Who`s
reluctantly leaving her sheltered, wealthy home and falling in love
with a vagabond who doesn´t want to bind himself
to a home. As with Dalmatians,
it involves the protagonists being taken away from their home and
having their homeward bound. Even Disney historians have stated this and
while the similarites are obvious, it doesn`t feel as
derivative as it could`ve.  |
| I`ll never think when I`ll paint again :) |
Yet the storyline was a part from the get-go, as the original outline was about a female cat who wanted to find a good home for her kittens (with humans who possessed typical French talents). To save them from two servants. Toulouse
and Berlioz were named after two famous French artists: Painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and composer Hector Berlioz. And
the dogs Napoleon (Pat Buttram) and Lafayette (George Lindsey) were both
named after Napoléon Bonaparte and Marquis de
Lafayette. Aristocats` Similarities To It`s Counterparts of Its` Period & Music
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| Yes, canines and felines can imitate each other :) At least for a while :) |
Regardless
of Disney´s everlasting staple of being derivative, it would be fair to
label the movies between post-Walt and the Renaissance as similar.
In fact, most of them were animal-movies with the rugged
Xerox style. And had various similar components But since The Aristocats was sandwhiched between The Jungle Book and the less regarded Robin Hood, it just happens to resemble especially those movies a lot.
As both of them, Aristocats is light-weight, gag-filled, gung-ho and breezy. And all three of them have Phil Harris in a major gung-ho role
(while he`s been accused for playing a similar character, they happen to be different (as Thomas O`Malley was based on Clark Gable. Walt told Harris to change the script to suit him. But funny enough, Harris enjoyed playing the part because of the similarities to Baloo. And both Harris and Eva Gabor passed away in 1995, only a month and week apart. Still they never recorded together). |
| We`re not the Aristocats. We`re just having that name to fool people, as we`re really wildcats :) |
All three of them have lots of recycled animation. And all of them happens to share
George Burns as composer. But just as Jungle Book, it has songs from the Sherman Brothers. But only two of them surivied; Scala and Appergios and The Aristocats. The latter was sung by Maurice Chevalier, who had recently retired, but came out of retirement for recording the song. Chevalier was chosen for the timeline the movie was set in. Richard
was asked by Reitherman if he would do some imitation of Chevalier. And when Richard
met Chevalier, he apologized for the
phony French accent. Which Chevalier answered that “I heard no accent!” And the song was recorded in Paris. And the Sherman`s worked on the film until their contract was up.  |
| Yes, this is not a mirage :) Cats can actually be a band :) |
Regarding how songs are usually perceived as the main
attraction for Disney features, it´s fair to say that the songs from Aristocats aren´t regarded for being the most famous ones in Disney´s pantheon. Yet the most remembered is without doubt Ev`rybody Wants to Be a Cat by Scat Cat. Who was voiced by Scatman Crothers and even named after him. But Scat Cat
was initially modeled after Louis Armstrong, who was a fan of the
Sherman`s heritage and was originally going to do the voice, but got
sick. And
yes, that song was modeled after Jungle Book`s I Wanna Be Like You (yet the brief Chinese part