Enjoyable for what it is, "The AristoCrats" simply for me brings back memories of seeing it when it first came out. I recalled the rather pretentious butler, Edgar, the kindly madame (who still looked like Cinderella's step-mother even if she was sweet), the fatherless kittens of "Duchess" and all the other assorted animals who came in and out of the slight story-two pranksterish country hounds, two overly helpful but ultimately bossy geese, a suspicious horse, a lovable mouse, and of course the various alley cats of all backgrounds who had a penchant for Le Jazz Hot. Seen 46 years later, it took me back to the small neighborhood theater that my parents dropped my siblings and I off at for 90 minutes while they went grocery shopping, and the line-up of Disney re-releases, this one being in first run and the others accompanying it as part of a children's matinée theater festival.
Sweet sounding Eva Gabor is the lovable and classy Duchess whose three kittens look as if they could all have had different dads. Where the father is never is explained, and when Phil Harris joins their group after nasty Edgar dumps the cat family in the French countryside, it is obvious that Gabor has romance on her mind with this new potential Popsicle. Edgar has overheard Madame indicate that her money will go to her cats with him as executor, and in order to get his hands on her money faster decides to dispose of the cat family. With his tiny little hat popping off his huge, fat head every time his motorcycle has a back-fire, Edgar takes them out of Paris, looses them thanks to the chasing of the hound dogs, and must return when he realizes that there is evidence which could expose his plot. By this time, the cats are on their way back to Paris with the help of the very Irish Harris, and they meet up with his pals, led by Scatman Crothers' "Scat Cat" who leads a bunch of alley cats in the big musical number "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat".
Going from pooh bear to tiny house mouse, Sterling Holloway is a lovable little rodent who is good friends with the classy felines and goes out of his way to find them and expose the nasty Edgar. He even risks being eaten, and that makes him perhaps the most endearing of all the non-cat animals. "Beverly Hillbillies" co-star Nancy Kulp's voice is recognizable as the horse whom Edgar naively confesses his scheme to, and there are other familiar voices as well. Disney as a studio would continue to make animated films over the next decade, and other than just being moderate hits, nothing of great importance would come along until they decided to musicalize some children's classics. But as Disney's last personally supervised animated film, "The AristoCats" was a footnote after 33 years of feature films that the master had his finger on.
Every great Disney film needs a great villain, and in the case of the pompous Edgar, he's more of a comic buffoon than a truly evil human. He certainly gets his come-uppance, but he's basically just a gay version of Cruella de Vil from "101 Dalmations" and not really all that threatening when compared to the Wicked Queen, Wicked Stepmother, Malificent or later scary villains like Ursula, Jafar and Hades. This probably plays better for children than it does adults, being rather silly and juvenile in spots, but does have a few adult references that might go over the heads of pre-teen children yet be picked up instantly by grown-ups. It was great going down memory lane again with one of the few Disney animated films that I saw during its initial run, but I believe that this won't be on my repeat viewing list.
Sweet sounding Eva Gabor is the lovable and classy Duchess whose three kittens look as if they could all have had different dads. Where the father is never is explained, and when Phil Harris joins their group after nasty Edgar dumps the cat family in the French countryside, it is obvious that Gabor has romance on her mind with this new potential Popsicle. Edgar has overheard Madame indicate that her money will go to her cats with him as executor, and in order to get his hands on her money faster decides to dispose of the cat family. With his tiny little hat popping off his huge, fat head every time his motorcycle has a back-fire, Edgar takes them out of Paris, looses them thanks to the chasing of the hound dogs, and must return when he realizes that there is evidence which could expose his plot. By this time, the cats are on their way back to Paris with the help of the very Irish Harris, and they meet up with his pals, led by Scatman Crothers' "Scat Cat" who leads a bunch of alley cats in the big musical number "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat".
Going from pooh bear to tiny house mouse, Sterling Holloway is a lovable little rodent who is good friends with the classy felines and goes out of his way to find them and expose the nasty Edgar. He even risks being eaten, and that makes him perhaps the most endearing of all the non-cat animals. "Beverly Hillbillies" co-star Nancy Kulp's voice is recognizable as the horse whom Edgar naively confesses his scheme to, and there are other familiar voices as well. Disney as a studio would continue to make animated films over the next decade, and other than just being moderate hits, nothing of great importance would come along until they decided to musicalize some children's classics. But as Disney's last personally supervised animated film, "The AristoCats" was a footnote after 33 years of feature films that the master had his finger on.
Every great Disney film needs a great villain, and in the case of the pompous Edgar, he's more of a comic buffoon than a truly evil human. He certainly gets his come-uppance, but he's basically just a gay version of Cruella de Vil from "101 Dalmations" and not really all that threatening when compared to the Wicked Queen, Wicked Stepmother, Malificent or later scary villains like Ursula, Jafar and Hades. This probably plays better for children than it does adults, being rather silly and juvenile in spots, but does have a few adult references that might go over the heads of pre-teen children yet be picked up instantly by grown-ups. It was great going down memory lane again with one of the few Disney animated films that I saw during its initial run, but I believe that this won't be on my repeat viewing list.