Review of The Aristocats (1970) by Stuart K — 30 Dec 2012
After Walt Disney died in 1966, the future of his company was in doubt, but they were thrown a lifeline when The Jungle Book (1967) was a huge world success. For their next animated film, this had started life as a 2 part episode on the TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, but it grew from there.
It's beautifully made, and it has a hip late-60's/early 70's feel to it in places, but it's not perfect, and it has it's imperfections. In Paris in 1910, former opera singer Madame Adelaide Bonfamille (Hermione Baddeley) lives in a grand house with butler Edgar (Roddy Maude-Roxby ), and her cat Duchess (Eve Gabor) and her 3 kittens Toulouse (Gary Dubin), Marie (Liz English) and Berlioz (Dean Clark).
After Madame Adelaide announces her plans to leave her fortune to her cats, Edgar is distraught and jealous, and hatches a plan to kidnap them and dump them in the country so he can inherit the fortune, which he does.
Lost in the country, Duchess and the kittens find help from streetwise alley cat Thomas O'Malley (Phil Harris), who helps them get back to Paris and stop Edgar from inheriting the money. It's beautifully made, and there's some good songs along the way.
But, the production was troubled, and it shows. It went through 7 screenwriters before the script was deemed satisfactory, but it ends up that too many cooks spoiled the broth. Something's missing, the heart that The Jungle Book had is absent, but the animation is beautiful.
It looks sketchy, and rough round the edges, but that's the point. It could have benefited from a better script though.
This review of The Aristocats (1970) was written by Stuart K on 30 Dec 2012.
The Aristocats has generally received positive reviews.
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