The Aristocats

Originally released in 1970, I first saw The Aristocats during one of its re-releases in theaters. The last film to be personally approved by Walt Disney, the last film to be released during co-founder Roy O. Disney's tenure as CEO, and notably worked on by five of Disney's core animators, the film is an interesting mix of classic Disney animation with splashes of French styling and jazz thrown into the mix as well. Much like Disney's next feature Robin Hood, released three years later, you can feel a change in the studio's continued direction away (at least temporarily) from the classic princess films that built so much of the magic kingdom.

Set in Paris, the film centers around a family of cats beloved by their owner (Hermione Baddeley). After she decides to leave her wealth to the cats, to be looked over by her jealous butler Edgar (Roddy Maude-Roxby), Edgar decides to remove them from the equation by drugging them and leaving them in the countryside miles from home. 

The bulk of the film follows Duchess (Eva Gabor) and her three kittens Toulouse (Gary Dubin), Marie (Liz English), and Berlioz (Dean Clark) on their way home where the are aided by the alley cat Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley (Phil Harris) who comes across the family during their distress. We get a few other fun characters thrown in as well including hound dogs Napoleon and Lafayette (Pat Buttram and George Lindsey), the mouse Roquefort (Sterling Holloway), sisters Abigail and Amelia Gabble (Monica Evans and Carole Shelley), and O'Malley's friends responsible for the film's most notable music number "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat."

There are plenty of memorable moments to the film including cat-like actions and mannerisms of the main characters, the dogs torturing Edgar, the cocksure O'Malley falling for Duchess and her kittens, the Gabble sisters' interactions with the group, and the kittens playing with their "Scales and Arpeggios." While The Aristocats isn't likely to show up on many best of Disney lists, I'll admit always having a fondness for the film that, while very much a product of its time, still works wonderfully today as a second-tier Disney film I'd compare favorably to films like 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, or Robin Hood.