Roly(son)
Hello. I recently watched one of my favorite Disney movies, the ‘Aristocats.’ This movie follows four cats, who are stolen from their rich owner by her evil butler, Edgar. The first cat is the mother, named Duchess. The kittens go as follows, Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz. The butler stole them and ditched them on a farm. He did this after finding out that the rich old woman who owned the cats was leaving all her possessions to them, not him. The cats seek to find their way home. On the way they meet an alley cat, whose name is very long; so I will call him Thomas O’Malley. The man who voices O’malley also voiced Little John from Robin Hood (see previous articles about movie), and Baloo from Jungle Book.
It seems strange to me that the only one of the cats at WDW meet and greets is Marie. It also seems strange that for a movie as popular as Aristocats, Edgar is not recognized as a Disney villain. Edgar is up there in evilness with Cruella Deville for trying to kill kittens. First, to get the cats out of the picture, he puts sleeping powder in their food. A mouse friend of theirs, Roquefort (who is voiced by Sterling Holloway, whom we posted on this week) also eats some. The cats all go to sleep, and then Edgar dumps them in a field. In the field Edgar has a run-in with two dogs. Later in the film, when Edgar sees the cats again, he tries to kill them.
The dogs offer great comic relief and are to me, the best part of the movie. They are voiced with the thick Southern accents of Pat Buttram and George Lindsey (Goober Pyle from the Andy Griffith Show). Lines like, “Where’s my beddy-by basket!?” and “That’s just a little ‘ol cricket bug” never fail to make me laugh. I am sure that they don’t sound very funny out of context, but in the movie they are hilarious.
The music for this movie is fun and memorable. It has one of my favorite songs, “O’Malley the Alley Cat.” It is sung by my favorite Disney singer, Phil Harris (the voice of Thomas O’Malley). Another great song is “Scales and Arpeggios,” sung by all the kitties. The other main song in this movie is “Everybody Wants to be a Cat” sung by famous jazz musician Scatman Crothers.
Aristocats is from my favorite era of Disney movies. The era from 101 Dalmations to The Fox and the Hound. Over all, this movie is a great Disney movie. It is for sure a classic!
**A bit of trivia about this movie: It was the first movie to be made after Walt Disney‘s death. I personally can’t tell any difference.
Roly, teen son
Second Star to the Right Disney Blog 
The Aristocats isn’t really all that popular to warrant having more characters appear in Disney Parks. But, I too love this movie and O’Malley the Alley Cat is an awesome song!
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You may be right, but maybe they should rotate the cats. The three kittens were all good characters.
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It’s so long since I have seen it that I hardly even remember it. The music I could sing along to in a heartbeat though – funny how that stays with you.
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We watched it a couple of weeks ago again. It is worth a re-watch I think.
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