The Aristocats  

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The Aristocats is a 1970 American animated romantic musical comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and directed by Wolfgang Reitherman. The 20th Disney animated feature film, the film is based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe, and revolves around a family of aristocratic cats, and how an alley cat acquaintance helps them after a butler has kidnapped them to gain his mistress's fortune which was intended to go to them. The film features the voices of Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Hermione Baddeley, Dean Clark, Sterling Holloway, Scatman Crothers, and Roddy Maude-Roxby.

In 1962, The Aristocats project began as an original script for a two-part live-action episode for Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, developed by writers Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe and producer Harry Tytle. Following two years of re-writes, Walt Disney suggested the project would be more suitable for an animated film, and placed the project in turnaround as The Jungle Book advanced into production. When The Jungle Book was nearly complete, Disney appointed Ken Anderson to develop preliminary work on The Aristocats, making it the last film project to be approved by Disney personally before his death in December 1966. Longtime Disney collaborators Robert and Richard Sherman composed multiple songs for the film, though only two made it in the finished product.

The Aristocats was released on December 24, 1970, to positive reception and was a box office success.

Plot

In 1910, mother cat Duchess and her three kittens (Berlioz, Marie, and Toulouse) live in Paris with retired opera diva Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, and her English butler, Edgar. The cats are pampered pets, as well as very cultured in art and music like their owner.

One day, while preparing her will with lawyer Georges Hautecourt, Madame declares that her vast fortune will be left to her cats, then revert to Edgar. Edgar overhears this through a speaking tube, and plots to eliminate the cats. He sedates them by putting sleeping pills in a dish of cream, then drives them on his motorcycle out to the countryside. There, he is ambushed by two hounds named Napoleon and Lafayette, losing his hat, sidecar, and umbrella before escaping. The cats are left stranded in the countryside, while Madame Adelaide, Roquefort the mouse and Frou-Frou the horse discover their absence.

In the morning, Duchess meets an alley cat named Thomas O'Malley, who offers to guide her and the kittens to Paris. The group briefly hitchhikes in a milk truck before being chased out by the driver. Later, while crossing a railroad trestle, the cats narrowly avoid an oncoming train, and Marie falls into a river. O'Malley immediately dives in and rescues her, and is himself rescued by Amelia and Abigail Gabble, two British geese on holiday. The geese lead the cats to the outskirts of Paris, then depart to deal with their inebriated Uncle Waldo. Meanwhile, Edgar returns to the countryside to retrieve his possessions - the only evidence that can incriminate him - from Napoleon and Lafayette.

Travelling across the rooftops of the city, the cats meet up with O'Malley's friend Scat Cat and his musicians, who perform the song "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat". After the band has departed, O'Malley and Duchess converse on a nearby rooftop while the kittens listen at a windowsill. Duchess' loyalty to Madame prompts her to decline O'Malley's marriage proposal. The next day, Duchess and the kittens return to Madame's mansion. Edgar finds them before Madame does, and places them in a sack, deciding to ship them to Timbuktu.

Roquefort catches up with O'Malley at Duchess’ instruction, and O'Malley returns to the mansion, sending Roquefort to find Scat Cat and his gang. Though he struggles to explain the situation to the alley cats, Roquefort successfully brings them to O'Malley's aid. O'Malley, the alley cats, and Frou-Frou fight Edgar, while Roquefort frees Duchess and the kittens. At the end of the fight, Edgar is locked in his own packing-case and sent to Timbuktu himself, never to be seen again.

The Aristocats return to Madame Adelaide, who, ignorant of the real reason for Edgar's departure, rewrites her will to exclude him. After adopting O’Malley into the family, Madame establishes a charity foundation, housing Paris' stray cats in the mansion. Scat Cat and his gang are the first to move in, and reprise their song so loudly that the two hound dogs can hear it out in the countryside.

Voice cast

• Eva Gabor as Duchess – Madame Adelaide's refined and elegant cat and mother of the three kittens, who believes she is forced to choose between loyalty to Madame and her own attachment to Thomas O'Malley at the end of the film. Robie Lester provided the singing voice for Duchess.

• Phil Harris as Thomas O'Malley (full name: Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley) – a feral cat who befriends Duchess and her kittens, becoming a father figure and a step-father to the kittens and falling in love with Duchess. For cultural reasons, the Italian dubbing of the film changes him to “Romeo, er mejo der Colosseo” (Roman dialect for "The best [cat] of the Colosseum"), an Italian cat from Rome speaking with a strong Roman accent; the reason for this change is that alley cats were well-known for frequenting the Colosseum at the time.

• Gary Dubin as Toulouse – the oldest kitten, who idolizes all alley cats, especially O’Malley. He is also a talented painter and is loosely based on French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

• Liz English as Marie – the middle kitten and the only girl. She is often imperious or snobbish towards her brothers but is her mother's special companion, and like her, she is an accomplished singer. She is named after the last queen of France Marie Antoinette.

• Dean Clark as Berlioz – the youngest kitten. He is somewhat timid and shy and is a talented pianist. He is named after the French composer Hector Berlioz.

• Roddy Maude-Roxby as Edgar Balthazar – Madame Adelaide's dim-witted butler, who tries to get rid of her cats in order to inherit her fortune.

• Scatman Crothers as Scat Cat – O’Malley's best friend and leader of a gang of jazz-playing alley cats. Scat Cat plays the trumpet.

• Paul Winchell as Shun Gon – a Chinese cat in Scat Cat's gang. He plays both the piano and drums made from pots.

• Lord Tim Hudson as Hit Cat – an English cat in Scat Cat's gang. He plays acoustic guitar.

• Vito Scotti as Peppo – an Italian cat in Scat Cat's gang. He plays the accordion.

• Thurl Ravenscroft as Billy Boss – a Russian cat in Scat Cat's gang. He plays the double bass.

• Sterling Holloway as Roquefort – a house mouse and a friend of the cats who assists in the expulsion of Edgar.

• Pat Buttram as Napoleon – a bloodhound who attacks Edgar when he intrudes on the farm where he lives. Whenever his cohort Lafayette makes a suggestion, Napoleon insists that he is in charge, then adopts Lafayette's suggestion as his own.

• George Lindsey as Lafayette – a Basset Hound and Napoleon's companion. He sometimes proves smarter than Napoleon but is also timider.

• Hermione Baddeley as Madame Adelaide Bonfamille – a wealthy former opera singer and the owner of Duchess and her kittens.

• Charles Lane as Georges Hautecourt – Madame Adelaide’s eccentric lawyer, who is also her oldest friend. He is extremely lively, despite his advanced age.

• Nancy Kulp as Frou-Frou – Madame Adelaide’s carriage horse and Roquefort's companion, who subdues Edgar. Ruth Buzzi provided her singing voice.

• Monica Evans as Abigail Gabble – Amelia's twin sister, a goose who befriends the cats.

• Carole Shelley as Amelia Gabble – Abigail's twin sister, a goose who befriends the cats.

• Bill Thompson as Uncle Waldo – the drunken gander uncle of Abigail and Amelia. This was Thompson's final film role.

• Peter Renaday as French Milkman/Le Petit Cafe Cook/Truck Movers (uncredited)