While not an bad film, Disney's THE ARISTOCATS is tragically forgettable. Too often the film feels like its 79-minute running time is being padded with plot elements from 101 DALMATIANS and LADY AND THE TRAMP. The look and feel is appeasing, but it lacks the spark of the best Disney animated features. Many of the pieces are beautifully done, but they don't fit together to form a complete picture.
Duchess (Eva Gabor, TV's GREEN ACRES) is a privileged feline living in a mansion in Paris in 1910. Her owner, Madame Bonfamille (Hermione Baddeley, THE SECRET OF NIMH), has willed her fortune to her cats. This upsets her butler Edgar (Roddy Maude-Roxby, SHADOWLANDS), who captures Duchess and her three kittens, dumping them in the country. Desperate to get back to Paree, they gain aid from scruffy alley cat Thomas O'Malley (Phil Harris, THE JUNGLE BOOK).
There is little conflict or tension in this brisk tale. Duchess and O'Malley fall for each other fairly quickly; it's not very difficult for them to get back home; and Edgar isn't the kind of villain that puts fear in the audience. Along the journey the film presents several extraneous characters including two English geese and their drunken uncle, as well as hound dogs Napoleon (Pat Buttram, Disney's ROBIN HOOD) and Lafayette (George Lindsey, TV's THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW) that sound like they turned a corner in Little Rock and ended up in the French countryside.
The cats also have some help from Roquefort, a mouse who from his dress seems to have worked for Scotland Yard for a spell. He's a delight because he's well animated and voiced nicely by Sterling Holloway, who is best known as the voice of Winnie the Pooh. Additionally, freed from star casting, Duchess' kittens are allowed to form their own personalities a bit. These sparks never start a fire, however, because they are dampened by Duchess and O'Malley never becoming more than Gabor and Harris as cats.
This patchworked production never feels fresh. Much of the humor is broad pratfalls with little behind them. The 1910 Paris setting means nothing to the story. With a hippie cat showing up, it might as well be 1970 for all it matters. Originally planned as a two-part live-action special for THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY, this production never shakes its TV origins, feeling like a slapped together, recycled tale meant to fill a timeslot.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
