The Aristocats (1970)
Written by Larry Clemmons, et al.
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman
It’s been about 15 years or so since I’ve seen The Aristocats (my first exposure to it was a preview for a home video release of the film on my VHS copy of Fantasia 2000...yes, VHS. It was that long ago)...I remember thinking it didn’t look very interesting. And guess what? It’s not.
AHAHA WE’RE SO RICH AHAHAHA
That’s not fair, actually. It’s an okay movie. It’s a typical “road movie”: a main character (or five) spends the movie getting from one place to another. It’s a very common plot in film (not just Disney, although the idea does pop up frequently). The characters here are cats, Aristo-cats, so named because these cats, and their owner, are among the bougie-est characters I’ve ever seen on screen. Seriously, it felt like I was watching an episode of “The Real Housecats of Paris”.
Look at how messy this is!!!
Technically, the film has a lot stacked against it, in my opinion. It is (so far) the worst offender of the messy animation that has plagued this group of films (trace lines and guide marks ABOUND in the animation, which is only highlighted in the Blu Ray release). There also is a lack of characterization, with most of the characters being very one-dimensional, and, in what was probably a conscious creative choice, but distracting for me, in a film set in Paris, the accents were from everywhere else. British, southern hicks, bayou, generic American...the closest to a French accent was Eva Gabor as Dutchess, whose one-note delivery grew to be grating.
Calm down, Edgar…
Also, the McGuffin that sets this whole thing into motion is that the owner (the Original Crazy Cat Lady (tm), as we soon discover) decides to leave her entire fortune to her CATS? Listen, I don’t think one should hear that and jump immediately to “let’s kill the cats”, but I guess I understand Edgar’s frustration? The whole thing is just bizarre.
Mostly, I’m just glad there wasn’t a lot of emotion in the film, because as we’ve discussed, sad animals and I don’t get along well. And, coming soon is Fox and the Hound and we ALL know that’s gonna mess me up real good.
FINAL GRADE: C-
