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The Aristocats

“Everybody, everybody, everybody wants to be a cat!”
 
Disney’s first animated feature after Walt’s death was a musicalromp through Paris and the French countryside with a group of talkingfelines. The Aristocats kept the Disney tradition alive, mixingdangerous (but still kid-friendly) adventure with rousing tunes anddoses of comic relief, topped off by the voice talents of Phil Harris,Eva Gabor, Sterling Holloway, Scatman Crothers and more.

High society feline Duchess lives with her three kittens—Berloiz,Toulouse and Marie—in the home of Madame Adelaide Bonfamille. When thewealthy human makes out her will, her dastardly butler Edgar discoversshe has left her fortune to the cats...but Edgar gets the money ifthey're gone. The butler kidnaps (catnaps?) Duchess and her children,leaving them alone in the open country.

The lost and hungry cats are befriended by charming alley cat rogueThomas O’Malley and his jazzman partner, Scat Cat. The group sets outto reclaim the cats’ lost home, aided along the way by slow-witted dogsLafayette and Napoleon, goose sisters Abigail and Amelia Gabble (“Thinkgoose!”) and adorable little mouse Roquefort.

With its jazzy score, peppy songs and wild colors, The Aristocatswas clearly influenced by its freewheeling time period, distilling thepsychedelia of the late 1960's down to junior-sized doses. The film wasan energetic hit, carrying on the legacy of Disney animated magic intoa new decade and a new era.

 

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