Disney has long been one of the more conservative studios when it comes to releasing catalog titles on Blu-ray, especially its classic (and even its not-so-classic) animated films. The reasons are many -- some noble, others shrewd -- but chief among them is the sheer amount of time and level of care the studio invests in the restoration and remastering of its most treasured animated features. There's another big reason, of course; one that requires a healthy dose of corporate cynicism to discuss. You and I know it as the Disney Vault, that vacuous and abstract netherworld designed to drive demand, increase perceived value, provide marketing muscle, and bolster a film's legacy. It's a practice that has continued well into Blu-ray's life cycle, with only a small number of animated films being issued in high definition each year.
Apparently someone left the Vault door cracked open this month. August 21st sees the release of not one but seven animated films spread across five different Blu-ray releases. Included in the sudden, generous deluge: five theatrical features -- The Aristocats (1970), The Rescuers (1977), The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Pocahontas (1995), and The Tigger Movie (2000) -- and two direct-to-video sequels, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998) and Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2001). Of Disney's forty-six hand-drawn animated features, though, The Aristocats has one of the smallest followings, not because it's one of the studio's worst films but rather one of its most inconsequential. More a nimble-footed, jazz-infused excursion than a full-fledged animated adventure, it's been lost in the crowd, upstaged by Golden Age masterpieces that came before it and Disney Renaissance showstoppers that came years after it had already been largely forgotten.
Scales and arpeggios...
When famed opera star and wealthy socialite Adelaide Bonfamille (voiced by Hermione Baddeley) decides to leave her immense fortune to her spoiled cats -- Duchess (Eva Gabor), Toulouse (Gary Dubin), Berlioz (Dean Clark), and Marie (Liz English) -- her butler Edgar (Roddy Maude-Roxby) makes a decision of his own: to get rid of the pesky felines so he can collect the money himself. Before you can say "villain in the making," the murderous butler kidnaps the kitties, bound and determined to throw them in the river. Fortunately, fate intervenes and frees the cats from Edgar's clutches... albeit miles from their Parisian villa. Lost in the French countryside with only the barest of survival instincts, Duchess, Toulouse, Berlioz and Marie have to find their way back home, a daunting challenge only made possible with the help of a few new companions.
Alright, so the well-to-do-fish-out-of-water story is a bit light and the villain is hackneyed at best. No matter. The Aristocats gets it right where it counts: the cats, their hip-cat swing and their long, toe-tappin' road home. Pampered as Duchess and her litter may be, none of them wear out their welcome or grow annoying, settling in nicely next to Lady as Disney's most endering silver-spooned pets. Gabor, who would go on to lend her vocal talents to The Rescuers and its sequel, makes a smooth transition from princess to realist; Dubin, Clark and English earn laughs, cheers and awwws; and Phil Harris, as the cats' streetwise guide Thomas O'Malley, makes his wily tomcat as cool a customer as his Baloo the Bear in The Jungle Book. There's little doubt Adelaide's cats will learn all they need to learn from their new street-smart, alley cat friends, and even less doubt that a happy ending awaits; one that doesn't involve four cats spending their inheritance into the ground. The whole film is so laid back, so effortless, that it almost feels spontaneous and improvisational, even though it's anything but.
That said, that same breezy, blithely paced ease and playfulness saturates the entire film, rendering most of its mounting conflict and implied tension moot. Even The Aristocats' French setting seems arbitrary at times. The supporting cast of cats, the songs and the underground jazz clubs are more New Orleans than Paris, placing the brunt of the burden on the Sherman brothers' Parisian score. Why not set the film in Louisiana? New York? Chicago? The split doesn't ruin anything, mind you. It doesn't even slow things down. It just adds yet another asterisk to a Disney animated feature that never quite clicks as well as it could. There are so many memorable scenes that are just that: individual scenes. Even now, hours after watching The Aristocats for what must be the fifth or sixth time in the last ten years, I'm having trouble conjuring up the bits and pieces that bridge the film's upbeats and downbeats. Which is a shame. Disney's twentieth animated feature deserves to be remembered; treasured even. The chances of that happening, though, are about as good as the chances of a new generation of knee-high moviegoers finally, at long last embracing one of Disney's more obscure classics.
The Aristocats doesn't look as if it were animated yesterday, but I seriously doubt its restoration or faithful 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer could be too much more impressive. The kittens' bright bows, the watercolor greens and blues of the French countryside, the painterly decadence of Adelaide's mansion, and the vivid flashes of reds, oranges and purples in "Everybody Wants to Be Cat" fare beautifully, without sacrificing the brushed, blanched hues of its forty-two-year old animation and hand-painted backgrounds. The animators' line art is sketchy and scratchy, just as it was intended, and every flick of the pen and uncleaned pencil mark is present and accounted for. Look closely and you'll see the strokes of the artists' brushes, the mild variations in the color fills, and the imperfections in the original animation cels. There also isn't any serious print damage or blemishes to speak of, at least none that could have been addressed without a more drastic overhaul. I'll take fit and faithful, though, any day of the week. There isn't any artifacting, banding or aliasing either, bumping The Aristocats' high definition presentation nearer and nearer to Disney's best.
Everyone is picking up on that feline beat, 'cause everything else is obsolete! Disney's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track sings, strums and slides with jazzy ease, movin' and groovin' like a mix half its age. Voices are surprisingly clean and clear, with only the tiniest bit of hiss from the original audio elements, and sound effects are bright and lively. It's the music, though, that steals the show. The boom boom boom of foot-stomping bass runs, the dizzying prance of piano keys, the trip dap dee dop dow of a bristling snare, and the rising, climbing cat call of a trumpet sound fantastic and make each song a showstopper unto itself. Even the Sherman brothers' Parisian score is delicate and disarming enough to keep the lossless track singing, all with perfectly prioritized, smartly spread precision. Not too shabby for a forty-two-year old animated feature.
The Lost Open (HD, 10 minutes): Aristocats songwriter Richard M. Sherman introduces a storyboarded deleted scene that features a cut character and song. The demo included has temp voices -- Sherman as Edgar and his brother Robert as a maid named Elvira -- making it particularly amusing.
The Sherman Brothers: The Aristocats of Disney Songs (SD, 4 minutes): An overview of the Shermans' contributions to The Aristocats and the process behind writing and storyboarding for an animated feature.
Deleted Song (SD, 8 minutes): A second deleted song, "She Never Felt Alone."
Movie with On-Screen Lyrics (HD): Sing along with The Aristocats with this on-screen track.
Classic Song Selection (HD, 11 minutes): Four sing-along songs from the film.
Music Video (HD, 2 minutes): "Oui Oui Marie," a skipping-record Aristocats remix by D!tto.
1956 Animated Special Excerpt (SD, 13 minutes): "The Great Cat Family," hosted by Walt Disney.
Bonus Short (HD, 7 minutes): "Bath Day," a Walt Disney animated short featuring Minnie Mouse and Figaro.
The last animated film to be granted the late Walt Disney's blessing, The Aristocats is a non-traditional Disney classic; it isn't necessarily an essential animated feature but its relative obscurity should sadden anyone who's had the pleasure of dancing, tapping and singing their way across Paris with Duchess and her kittens. Disney's restoration and Blu-ray release is the real treat, though, with a rejuvenated video presentation, a snazzy DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track and a handful of features worth watching (even if more extras and behind-the-scenes material would have gone a long way). The Aristocats has largely been forgotten, but there's no time like the present to remedy the situation.
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