My Movie Review on The Aristocats · 9:54pm Feb 18th, 2021

Bonjour, everyone.

This is your top-of-the-line film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, for the 5th installment of my "February Festivity", I'm gonna give you guys my take of "The Aristocats".

Here's the rundown of this tale:

Duchess is the pet cat of a wealthy retired opera singer named Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, as well as the mother of three kittens: Toulouse, Marie, and Berlioz. For many years, the family has lived quite the high-life under their owner, and Madame has even decided to leave her fortune and home to them after she dies.

However, when the mansion's butler, Edgar Balthazar, decides to kidnap the cats and somehow get rid of them in order to inherit Madame's fortune himself, Duchess and her kittens find themselves stranded in the countryside. Miraculously, the family meets a smooth-talking but gentle hearted alley cat named Thomas O'Malley, who decides to guide them back to Paris so that they can return home.

As the group travels, though, unexpected developments take place between Thomas and the wealthy family.

Not gonna lie, this movie was something I wanted to review as part of my "February Festivity" from the very beginning. The romance between Thomas O'Malley and Duchess was the biggest reason, of course. But, I also wanted to catch up with reviewing more animated classics by Disney.

Coming from a guy who saw this movie after such a long time, seeing "The Aristocats" again was as delightful as I remembered it being.

For instance, the vocal performances, casting, characters, and character development were tremendous!

Every character brimmed with outstanding personality and life, and the cast members portrayed their parts like they were absolutely born to take them on. In addition to this, the characters themselves had dynamic development, particularly Thomas O'Malley and Duchess, whom Phil Harris and Eva Gabor splendidly portrayed. As an honorable mention, I'd like to say that even though Napoleon and Lafayette didn't interact with the cats at all, they were quite the scene-stealers and still helped the film move forward, and Pat Buttram and George Lindsey portrayed their parts with style. And, despite Edgar not being one of the strongest villains in Disney's antagonist line-up, he was a brilliant representation of greed and ambition and wasn't without development. Roddy Maude-Roxby did a great job voicing Edgar, if I may add.

The direction by Wolfgang Reitherman, and the story by Ken Anderson, Larry Clemons, Eric Cleworth, Vance Gerry, Julius Svendsen, Frank Thomas, and Ralph Wright were splendid too.

In every way, the filmmakers created perhaps one of the most impressively character-driven films around, and they tied everything together like a neatly done knot. Hardly anything in the story felt out of place thanks to how much thought and effort was put into it, and it felt like the characters themselves weren't just featured in a story...but were the story. Plus, the comedy the film had was outstandingly-executed and hysterical, and there was heart and emotion that was strong enough to tug at the soul.

The animation was astonishing, if I may add.

As I watched the film, I couldn't help but find the style to be reminiscent to a canvas painting by a French artist, mainly because of how well it matched the European setting. The animators also managed to make the visualization as expressive as possible, and there was a liveliness and energy to it that was strong enough to get viewers engaged. In my opinion, the most accomplished moments done by the animators were that of the "Ev'rybody Wants to be a Cat" song sequences.

Finally, the music by George Bruns, and the songs that the movie contained, were fabulous.

From the very start of this motion picture, Bruns created a soundtrack that felt purely French, and the melodies reflected the movie's characters, tone, and scenes with an incredible sense of passion. Melody-wise, the jazzy tunes were the particular showstoppers. The songs were likewise fun to listen to, especially "Ev'rybody Wants to be a Cat".

In conclusion, "The Aristocats" is another one of Disney's best animated features. As the very first animated film to be made after the death of Walt Disney himself and the final to be approved by him, I think Reitherman and company definitely proved that they were capable of capturing the spirit originated by the man behind the mouse, as well as honoring both him and his legacy in the best way possible.

So, I rate "The Aristocats" five out of five stars.

Also, this is just my opinion, but sometimes...I can't help but see a lot of potential in the film being expanded into a franchise thanks to its wide variety of characters, although I'm pretty content with what we have now too.