The Aristocats

As the 20^th Disney animated film, The Aristocats marks the start of a new era for Disney.  Some Disney fans refer to it as Disney’s “Dark Age” but, since a lot of beloved films came out during this time period, most Disney lovers refer to it as The Bronze Age.  Despite a lot of the movies not doing as well either critically or financially, most of the films from this age are well-loved by Disney fans today.  The Aristocats was actually the last animated movie to be approved by Walt Disney before his death.  Even though it received positive reviews and was a box-office success as well, some people still didn’t think it matched up to the success of past Disney films.  I hope everyone loves this movie as much as I do! Whatever your thoughts I’d love to hear from you!

The Aristocats is about a wealthy woman named Madame who lives with her cat Duchess, Duchess’s three kittens (Toulouse, Marie, and Berlioz), and her “trusted” butler Edgar.  One day, Madame reveals to her lawyer that she wants to leave her fortune to her cats, who are the only living family members that she has.  Well, Edgar overhears this and is extremely jealous that he will not get in the will; so, he puts sleeping medicine in the cats’ milk and drops them off in the country.  What a greedy grump evil Edgar is!  But with the help of a smooth cat named Thomas O’Malley, Duchess and her kittens go on a quest to get back home.  This movie has some good messages like how it can be important for children to have a father figure in their lives; while Duchess is basically a single mother, O’Malley takes the kittens under his wing and becomes the father that they’ve never had.  His relationship with the kittens (and with Duchess too!) is very sweet.  I also like most of the characters, as a lot of them have very different but fun personalities; and I think Marie is especially adorable!  However, there are some scenes that might scare younger kids (of course they might get startled when the cats are kidnapped at the beginning); and also, during the last twenty minutes of the movie, there is a Siamese cat, Shun Gon, that seems to represent certain stereotypes of Asian people.  He (the cat) plays the piano with chopsticks and sings about Chinese food; and while the scene is brief, it is worth mentioning.  There is a warning at the beginning of the movie for this particular scene.  So, I would caution parents of young kids regarding the scary scenes and the portrayal of the Siamese cat.  I think one of the best messages that is in this film is that we shouldn’t forget cats who don’t have homes.  The cat, O’Malley, and his friends don’t have homes and live on the streets; and someone does get adopted at the end of the movie (but that’s all I’m going to say).

Everybody wants to be cat

Because the cat’s the only cat who knows where it’s at

(Scat Cat’s song from The Aristocats)