The Aristocats (1970)

It's Mother's Day and I wanted to watch something to help celebrate this very important day and there wasn't really much and I sort of broke my golden rule of Sunday At The Classics. Usually we only view films before 1969, but for today we are watching 1970's The Aristocats which was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman (The Sword In The Stone) and is available on Disney Plus. The film stars Hermione Baddeley (The Secret Of NIMH) as retired opera singer Adelaide Bonfamille who has a fortune, but no benefactors. So one day she decides that she is going to leave her fortune to her beloved cats, but that does not sit well with her butler Edgar (Roddy Maude-Roxby). So one night Edgar decides that he is going to get rid of them, but with the help of an alley cat, they'll make their way home. The film also stars Eva Gabor (Green Acres) as Dutchess, Dean Clark as Berlioz, Gary Dubin (Pump Up The Volume) as Toulouse,  Liz English (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) as Marie, Pat Buttram (The Fox and The Hound) as Phil Harris (The Patsy) as O'Malley the alley cat, Napoleon, George Lindsey (Robin Hood) as Lafayette, Scatman Crothers (The Patsy) as Scat Cat,  Sterling Holloway (The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh) as Roquefort.

If the movie itself doesn't seem old then the animation certainly does because it has that old style animation that we were used to seeing from Disney back in those days. Nonetheless, the film actually has a really good story as weird as the notion of leaving all your money to cats may seem. You have the jealous butler who will do whatever it takes to get rid of them and that sequence when he reaches a duo of tough dogs is absolutely hilarious. As soon as they came back on screen for a second time, I could not stop laughing at what was going on. That was pure comedy gold right there and there were a couple of those moments scattered here and there throughout the film. Are French girls really that easy to impress as in are they really that gullible for romance because someone like Dutchess looks like she would never give an alley cat the time of day if she was English prestige or came from English wealth. They are far too snobby for someone like O'Malley, but not Dutchess. All he had to do was lead her and her kids home and she melted right in his arms and paws. Maybe that is what makes the French such romantics because they can see through all the crap life throws at you or maybe it's just a Disney cartoon. Nonetheless, this was definitely a fantastic choice for today and I was happy that I actually took the time to watch. The scene with Scatman Crothers and all of the other alley cats is awesome and the music was cool especially the song they played. What is there not to like about this film? Well, there always is that dastardly butler named Edgar, but nonetheless I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade.