Walt Disney’s Aristocats is not one of their better productions, but it still has its entertaining moments. Popular during its original release, and the first animated feature produced after Walt’s death, Aristocats is noticeably dated. Still, a few catchy tunes, superb animation, and one or two delightful characters make this lesser known animation relatively tolerable. Even when Disney doesn’t hit a home run, it’s a company known for choosing celebrated stories and family friendly material that can be enjoyed by more than just the very young – here however, it seems to forget that parents must usually watch this stuff as well.

The bubbly plot finds Duchess (Eva Gabor, who also voiced Bianca from The Rescuers) and her three young kittens being the sole heirs to a fortune and an enormous estate via the will of Madame, their elderly and naïve owner. When the jealous butler Edgar overhears of Madame’s plans for her wealth, he catnaps Duchess and her kittens and abandons them in the French countryside. Although they don’t meet any conspicuously rough customers in their cozy Paris environment, Thomas J. O’Malley (Phil Harris, who also voiced Baloo from The Jungle Book) the alley cat comes to their rescue to guide them back home. Meeting up with his jazzy friend Scat Cat (Scatman Crothers, who also voiced Jazz from the Transformers TV show), the group must again rescue the helpless kittens when their reappearance at the mansion forces Edgar to plot to ship them off to Timbuktu.

Aristocats is clearly aimed primarily for a younger audience than the later Disney animated features, although there are elements in the film that can humor adults. The most trying aspect are the numerous ideas that we must take for granted and engrain into our mindsets in order to comfortably drift into Aristocats’ suspension of disbelief. It is a children’s film, so overanalyzation is perhaps completely inappropriate, but with the mindset that animated films like Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid exist, Aristocats has strict competition for critics.

The kittens paint, sing, play the piano and frolic with a mouse named Roquefort (Sterling Holloway, who also voiced Winnie the Pooh), and Duchess raises them to be proper ladies and gentlemen. Scat Cat and his group of grossly politically incorrect cats all play instruments and crone gaily into the wee hours of the morning. But that’s all in the name of childish fun. The most annoyingly hard-to-swallow aspect of Aristocats is the bumbling Edgar, who is developed to be little more than a supporting character henchman, except that there is no evil leader for him to accompany. He tussles with the comedic dog duo of Lafayette and Napoleon, who snag his possessions during his first attempt to rid himself of the spoiled kittens. A Pink Panther-styled clumsy scoundrel, Edgar poses little threat, even though he is intended to be the main conflict. The other obstacles come from angry truck drivers and lumbering trains, both of which add little dramatic value.

The comedy in Aristocats is most worthwhile, with hilarious turns from the twin geese Amelia and Abigail and their drunken uncle Waldo, who stumbles about in a curious inebriated waddle. When one goose turns to the other and whispers “how scandalous” at the realization that O’Malley and Duchess are not married, the real humor that children won’t recognize is introduced. What is most scandalous is why Duchess’ kitten Toulouse looks exactly like O’Malley, and why Berlioz matches Scat Cat’s rugged looks, right down to identical red bowties.

By the end of the film it is unconditionally proven that cats are smarter than humans and that happy endings don’t elude cartoons. And since the animation is masterful, despite a relatively generic family storyline, that’s quite all right.

- Mike Massie