DVDizzy Forum

I love The Aristocats! I have ever since I was a kid and I got it on tape. It's just a cute movie and the songs are catchy. Plus Thomas O'Malley is the coolest! And for something really random, I was watching Full House today and Joey was wearing a sweater with the two dogs from the movie on it. I thought that was cool.

The film really is one of the very weakest Disney animated classics in my opinion. The "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat" sequence is very good, I admit. I also really think the scene where Edgar first drops the kittens off at night and he seems very afraid of something (probably a build-up of guilt) is masterful. And the ending is pretty exciting, starting from when Edgar realizes the kittens have returned. Oh- and I kind of liked the geese too.

But I think the film fails on all other levels. Not so badly that the film is worthy of scorn or anything ( ). But the story isn't the only thing that's reused / recycled. All the main characters are either boring, underdeveloped (except maybe Edgar), or recycled from other movies or done better by the voice actors elsewhere. Gabor was much better as Bianca in The Rescuers. The Thomas O'Malley voice actor was much better as both Baloo in The Jungle Book and Little John in Robin Hood. And that little mouse, Sterling Holloway I think... well, was better in all his other movies - Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Book, Bambi, and Three Caballeros.

And I don't think the songs measure up, other than the big number, "Ev'rybody..."

After that, I guess a lot of people love to add "the animation" to their complaint list. But I don't think I've ever taken an issue with any of these films' animation. I feel like, well, without the animation, with any / all its' flaws... there would be no movie at all. And except for Fox and the Hound - all of Disney's (feature-length) animated classics 1937-1995 all have marvelous scenes. At least 1 in each movie that really makes it stand out. And even Aristocats, as weak as I think it is, has 1 of those.

NANCY KULP IS IN IT.
♥

Of course, I didn't know this when I was little. At around the ages of four and five, I asked my father to rent this movie whenever we went to video stores. He finally became extremely tired of it. I loved it. Looking back, I don't really know why.

no new news on that 2-disc special edition that they totally lied about giving us, i take it?

toonaspie wrote:no new news on that 2-disc special edition that they totally lied about giving us, i take it?

As we last heard from BVHE-Rep, The Aristocats is expected to arrive on DVD in the Spring of 2008. The movie was originally slated to be released this past spring, but got pushed back, suposedly in order to find more bonus features for the double disc special edition. I was really surprised to learn that The Aristocats would be recieving a 2-disc edition, since it is not one of Disney's most popular titles; however, I would MUCH rather have a 2-disc edition of a film than a lousy single disc any day. As was noted by the advertisement as well as the trailer on the Peter Pan: Platinum Edition the Aristocats was indeed intended to be released as a 2-Disc Special Edition. However, since then all traces of the DVD being double disc have been removed from the DVD's website ([url]www.aristocatsdvd.com[url]). Hopefully, with the extra time, the DVD will still end up being a 2-Disc release. Either way, I believe we can expect an Aristocats DVD to his shelves next spring.

Perhaps the Aristocats DVD release was pushed back to Spring of 2008 to coincide with the platinum edition release of 101 Dalmatians. Maybe a strange dog and cat, kitty and puppy marketing concept. Who knows?

Simba3 wrote:

toonaspie wrote:no new news on that 2-disc special edition that they totally lied about giving us, i take it?

Perhaps the Aristocats DVD release was pushed back to Spring of 2008 to coincide with the platinum edition release of 101 Dalmations. Maybe a strange dog and cat, kitty and puppy marketing concept. Who knows?

I think your onto something! The Jungle Book, then 101 Dalmations, then The Aristocats = Some Animal-Type Advertising, maybe with Donald Duck saying "Crikey, All you animal lovers, Disney DVD has something for you this spring, The Jungle Book Platinum Edition, 101 Dalmations Platinum Edition and The Aristocats Special Edition out now!"

I think its the point that the Aristocats were recyled (I'm not saying that's a bad thing) from other Disney movies and movies in general gets everyone's main attention rather than watching the film that is right in front of them. When you're younger you don't always notice similarties between the movies, like the Aristocats and 101 Dalmations and you liked it then because you didn't notice the parallels. Just because it uses so many things from different movies doesn't mean its not good. All you gotta do is take it away from the rest of the movies out there and enjoy it.

I think The Aristocats is quite enjoyable. But I also think it's possible to say, at the same time, that it's far from a great classic - "objectively" - since it was made during a time when cost-cutting was king and Disney animation could have been put on the shelf for good.

BTW, I hope I don't sound too much like an *******, but you last three posters really ought to learn the spelling of the title of a certain animated feature with a large number of dogs in it...

What do you mean? Dalmation is spelled right. Do you prefer One Hundred and One Dalmations?

SpellWovenNight wrote:What do you mean? Dalmation is spelled right. Do you prefer One Hundred and One Dalmations?

No, it's spelled Dalmatians not Dalmations.

Oh, sorry I didn't notice the a.

The Secret Origin of the Aristocats
http://www.mouseplanet.com/9084/The_Sec ... Aristocats

This article is pretty interesting. Apparently there is another story version out there, but because Walt died, they kind of ignored it. I don't know what I'd think of that, I think that the current version is mildly entertaining, boring as it may be.

I adore this movie. It is one of my favorites. Edgar is one of my favorite villains.

"The Aristocats" is a delight to watch. I know it's considered to be one of the worst Disney animated classics, but I really like it.

I think it's because when I was a kid, I always watched the VHS with my grandfather. Good times.

Looking at it now, I don't consider it a masterpiece of storytelling (Like "Snow White" and "Pinocchio" are). But I like the characters and the music, and the animation is pretty good. I give it about an 8 out of 10.

Stages St. Louis's Production of Disney's The Aristocats
http://www.laughingplace.com/Latest-ID-75160.asp

I didn't know that there was a stage show of this...and just from looking at that little picture, I'm not feeling the costumes, but maybe if I saw a larger picture...but really, besides going the Lion King route, how could they make people in animal suits awesome? Well, the Cowardly Lion in MGM's The Wizard of Oz is better than this...

blackcauldron85 wrote:Stages St. Louis's Production of Disney's The Aristocats
http://www.laughingplace.com/Latest-ID-75160.asp

I didn't know that there was a stage show of this...and just from looking at that little picture, I'm not feeling the costumes, but maybe if I saw a larger picture...but really, besides going the Lion King route, how could they make people in animal suits awesome? Well, the Cowardly Lion in MGM's The Wizard of Oz is better than this...

Must have been a production of this- http://mtishows.com/show_detail.asp?showid=000278

Everybody Wants to be a Cat – One Man Acapella
http://thedisneyblog.com/2010/08/14/eve ... -acapella/

Isn't that awesome?!

I just watched this movie for the first time in my life, or so I thought, because some scenes were awfully familiar to me (especially the scene where Edgar is trying to get his hat back from the dogs).

I wasn't expecting much, since most people complain about it, but I liked it, thought it was sweet. I liked the cats and OMalley and especially Madame. Wish she would have had more scenes (and thankfully there was a deleted scene with her).

At times I was a bit bored, mostly during the Edgar and dogs scenes. Overall enjoyed myself...but wouldn't want to watch it every other week...maybe in a year or two again. Still glad I bought it. Wouldn't have mind more extra's though or just a nice featurette that talk about the movie.

One thing that bothered me a couple of times was the messy/sketchy animation, that I also noticed during The Jungle Book (that I watched a week ago for the first time ever), but I heard that was Disney's style during the 60s (tho Aristocats was released in 1970, it was made during the 60s).

I've seen The Aristocats twice now and both times I had the same reaction. It's a hugely entertaining movie but probably one of Disney's lesser cartoons [though not in the bottom five!]. It seems to imitate both The Lady And The Tramp and 101 Dalmations, and while I'm very fond of the rough, xerox-using animation of the films of this era, at times I think the animation is a little poor-I'm especially talking about the old lady's hair! And doesn't she look just like an older version of the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella? I'm sure they used the same template. The Parisian backgrounds are great though and I do like the slapstick [which some people are not too keen on]-the sequence when the butler tries to drown the cats is superbly inventive, there's so much that happens in a couple of minutes. Great characters throughout and good [if not great] songs. Just like Robin Hood and The Rescuers, I don't consider it any sort of masterpeice but it's an easy going watch that cannot fail to please!