December 24 - The Aristocats

Image copyright Disney

On this day, in 1970, Walt Disney Productions 20th animated feature, The Aristocats, is generally released to theaters. The Aristocats began life as an idea for a two part episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. It was also going to be a live action production. The project spent a couple of years being rewritten and reshaped until Walt suggested it could be the studio’s next animated feature. And so, in the Fall of 1966, as production on The Jungle Book wound down, development of The Aristocats started in earnest, making this film the studio’s last movie to bear the personal seal of approval from its founder.

Unlike many of its predecessors, The Aristocats is an original script developed by staff writers, most of the work being done by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe. The original concept centered on two servants who stood to inherit a fortune once the family brood of cats was disposed of and their ill-conceived antics to try to make that happen. As time went on, one of the servants, the maid, was dropped and the focus of the story shifted to the cats themselves. Following Walt’s death, the emotional parts of the tale were pared down even more and the picture became more of an adventurous caper, similar to One Hundred and One Dalmatians (which is why The Aristocats is often described as Dalmatians except with cats).

Image copyright Disney

Casting the voice roles for the film followed a pattern that had been established with The Jungle Book and would continue with films like Robin Hood: a few splashy big names along with some tried and true Disney stalwarts. While the part of the villainous butler, Edgar, had been written with Boris Karloff in mind when the project was going to be live action, the role ended up going to veteran English actor Roddy Maude-Roxby. Walt had personally asked Phil Harris to play Thomas O’Malley the alley cat. This would be the second of three roles Phil would play in quick succession for the studio. Eva Gabor was tapped as Duchess, the mother cat and unlikely love interest of Thomas O’Malley. The cast was rounded out by Sterling Holloway, Pat Buttram, George Lindsay, Thurl Ravenscroft and Paul Winchell to drop just a few more names.

Image copyright Disney

The Aristocats also marks another last for the studio. It is the final animated picture that the Sherman Brothers worked on as staff songwriters for the Walt Disney Studio. Robert and Richard had been getting increasingly frustrated with how things were being run after Walt’s death and this movie would represent the last straw for them. Only two of their songs made it into the final product, The Aristocats (which enticed Maurice Chevalier to come out of retirement to sing) and Scales and Arpeggios, sung by Marie. The rest of the songs were written by various folks and include classics like Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat and Thomas O’Malley Cat.

The Aristocats was a financial success upon its release, grossing over $17 million worldwide on a budget of only $4 million. The reviews were generally favorable with many critics giving it three out of four stars. My only complaint about the movie is that some of its portrayals of foreign cultures have not aged well at all (I’m talking to you Paul Winchell). Otherwise, The Aristocats is a fun way to spend an hour and half, even if you might not remember too many of the specifics the next day.

November 16 - The Rescuers Down Under

Photo lifted from imbd.com

On this day, in 1990, Walt Disney Pictures' 29th animated feature, The Rescuers Down Under, opened in theaters. The movie was the second film released during the so called Disney Renaissance, but is rarely seen as being on par with the pictures surrounding it. The Rescuers Down Under is notable for a number of reasons, though. It was the first time a sequel to a Disney animated movie had been produced. It was the first film to be done entirely using the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS). This means it was the first completely digital Disney animated feature. Everything was still hand drawn, but it was scanned into a computer to be inked, painted and sequenced. No cameras were used in the production. Down Under was also the first Disney movie since Bambi to promote the environment and advocate for animal rights.

The Rescuers Down Under faced an uphill battle from its conception. America went crazy for movies either set in Australia or featuring Australians after the success of Crocodile Dundee in 1986. Unfortunately, by the time this movie opened, the craze had pretty much disappeared. Couple that with the fact that it premiered the same weekend as Home Alone and it's not hard to see why it had to fight for every dollar of 3.5 million it opened with. The studio was so disappointed, Jeffrey Katzenberg killed all further advertising and let the movie limp along to a 27.9 million dollar finish. The fact that Down Under was also a non-musical (and not just in that characters didn't sing songs but that there were no songs period) didn't help, especially coming after The Little Mermaid.

Photo courtesy of villains.wikia.com

The critical reception wasn't actually too bad. Most reviewers agreed that the story was nothing special but was still an improvement over the original film. They generally liked the production values, especially the action sequences and thought the voice talent was good. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor, in her final film role, reprised their roles. George C. Scott was brought in as the villain McLeach and John Candy replaced the late Jim Jordan as the flying albatross.

The company's disappointment with The Rescuers Down Under, however, has continued in the handling of the film in the home video market. The first release on VHS saw the original film being included in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, but not Down Under. It did make it into the Gold Classic Collection for the DVD release, but by the time Blu-ray came along, Down Under would get tacked on to the same box as its older sibling.  It apparently wasn't worth getting its own packaging. The lasting legacy of this, like it or not, mostly forgotten movie, is that sequels can be economically viable.