Image © Disney.For the first time in eight years, Disney’s 1970 classic arrives on DVD with a fun story and clear restoration, but the lackluster bonus material questions its overall value.
By Blake
Originally posted February 9, 2008.
Now that I come to think of it, I don’t think one specific country has been the setting for an animated Disney movie more than France. Beauty and the Beast and Ratatouille prominently display the French setting in their respective films, and a touch of France is also subtly seen in Cinderella. Another Disney movie set in France, 1970’s The Aristocats, isn’t on the same grand scale as any of those three films, but still has plenty of charm, innocence, enduring characters, beautiful animation, and heaps of fun.
Originally advertised as a two-disc set to be released in March 2007, the new DVD of The Aristocats was eventually pushed back and degraded to a single-disc version, for reasons that are unknown. So, to say the least, it’s nice to have The Aristocats released again on DVD after an eight-year absence from the shelves.
The Aristocats Special Edition
Total Approx. Disc Running Time: about 122 minutes (about 2 hours, 2 minutes)
Highlight of Disc: Feature Film
Highlight Runner-Up: Deleted Song
The film itself (about 79 minutes) tells the story of a cat named Duchess and her three kittens, who are treated like royalty by their owner and are stolen by their greedy butler Edgar, who wants to take the fortune that their owner has left for the cats in her will. When the cats get lost and meet up with street alley cat Thomas O’Malley, he shows them Paris like they’ve never seen it before, filled with angry humans, wacky geese, and a jazzy bunch of alley cats. The film has lovable characters, catchy songs, and looks great – the new restoration only ups its value higher. The digital transfer is not too scratchy, yet not too gussied up, either.
Image © Disney.
Additionally, if you listen closely, you’ll recognize several Disney character voices from other films. Eva Gabor (Miss Bianca in The Rescuers) voices Duchess, Phil Harris (Baloo in The Jungle Book) voices Thomas O’Malley, Sterling Holloway (Kaa in The Jungle Book, Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, and Winnie the Pooh) voices Roquefort the mouse, Bill Thompson (White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Smee in Peter Pan, Jock in Lady and the Tramp, and King Hubert in Sleeping Beauty) voices Uncle Waldo the goose, Hermione Baddeley (Ellen in Mary Poppins) voices Madame Bonfamille, and Paul Winchell (Tigger) voices the Chinese Cat.
So, the film is superb and the voice cast is great – but does the DVD package as a whole live up to the film? Well . . .
Bonus Features
Deleted Song (about 8 minutes) – Some DVD sets that include deleted scenes or songs would just have excluded portions of the film with no introduction or explanation as to why they weren’t used. Fortunately, that’s not the case here, where songwriter Richard Sherman presents two songs that weren’t used in the final cut of the film. First Sherman plays a rendition of the songs on piano, and then shows us behind-the-scenes footage of the voice-over recordings for the songs. Then the original recording of each song is played, accompanied by storyboard drawing to show us what might have been happening on screen when the songs were being sung in the film.
Disney Song Selection (about 11 minutes) – This feature simply plays the four songs from the movie consecutively with the lyrics on screen.
Disney Virtual Kitten (time varies) – Apparently Disney thought this game would be the definite favorite on this disc, because it’s been the “big draw” they’ve been advertising on the DVD’s commercials. However, I wasn’t expecting too much out of the Virtual Kitten – and my expectations were just about correct. The game is mainly aimed for the toddler/preschool set, but strains to be entertaining. Players simply do various activities to take care of their kitten, and then are rewarded a virtual surprise at the end.
Aristocats Fun with Language Game (time varies) – Another seemingly pointless activity, this game involves a voiceover person (a different one than the Virtual Kitten, though) listing several instrument names and showing the corresponding instrument image on screen. After he’s gone through the entire list of instruments, a name of each instrument is spelled on screen, and players have to match the word with one of the instrument images. Although its intent may be nice, I just don’t see an audience for this feature. It’s probably aimed at kindergarteners and first-graders who are just learning to read, but the instrument names such as “saxophone” and “violin” are simply beyond the kindergarten and first grade level. As for older children who can identify the words, they probably wouldn’t find any entertainment in this feature. So it’s a lose-lose situation here.
The Sherman Brothers: The Aristocrats of Disney Songs (about 4 minutes) – This feature really just guides us through the creation of the two used songs the songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman created for The Aristocats. As fascinating as this feature may be, I got really excited there for a minute only to be misled . . . they honestly could have come up with a better title.
Aristocats Scrapbook (time varies) – This is a very fascinating compilation of concept art, storyboards, sketches, paintings, publicity posters, and many more images (in fact, enough to fill up 18 pages of a virtual “scrapbook”). It’s also nice that, unlike many DVD art galleries, this one actually features captions so that we know what exactly we’re looking at. The only downside to this is that after every virtual “page” of the scrapbook, we have to return to the menu screen, turn the page, and click on an image to continue the slideshow. It does get annoying, but the images’ quality suffices that flaw.
The Great Cat Family (about 13 minutes) – An excerpt from a 1956 episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color television series, this is simply painful to watch and very “un-Disney”-ish. It begins with a brief introduction by Walt Disney, and then delves into the rather boring history of housecats. Having really nothing to do with The Aristocats whatsoever, I really question why this feature was even here in the first place.
Bath Day (about 7 minutes) – A feature to seem more and more common on Disney DVDs these days is a bonus classic cartoon short, and it certainly is nice to see these shorts highlighted once again on various DVD sets. The one featured here, Bath Day, is borrowed from 2006’s Walt Disney Treasures: The Complete Pluto Volume 2 DVD and is one of only three cartoons to have the main star be Figaro, Minnie Mouse’s pet cat (ironic, right?) that originally debuted as Gepetto’s cat in 1940’s Pinocchio. In this short, Figaro is given a bath and gets all gussied up, resulting in ridicule by the street alley cats and a humorous showdown between Figaro and the leader of the alley cats.
Figaro is featured in the short Bath Day. Image © Disney.
Sneak Peeks
The sneak peeks menu features previews for My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Handy Manny: Fixing It Right DVD, Little Einsteins: Race For Space DVD, Twitches Too DVD, 101 Dalmatians Platinum Edition DVD, Wall*E, Snow Buddies DVD, Hannah Montana: One In a Million DVD, and Disney Movie Rewards. Additionally, we’re treated to relatively new previews for Sleeping Beauty Platinum Edition, Tinker Bell, and The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning DVDs. One thing I took notice of in the new trailers was that they seemed very prestigious. I can’t exactly put my finger on what was different than Disney promos in the past, but they seemed to be less cheesy, less knock-off-ish, and more refined. Whatever it was, it worked, because now I’m super pumped for October to be here. ;)
Wrapping It Up
The Aristocats is a charming and often-neglected Disney animated classic that’s pure fun to watch. The new restoration has the film looking better than ever, but the bonus material fails to live up to the standard the movie sets. While the deleted scene and bonus short are nice touches, the games aren’t entertaining, and the 1956 TV excerpt is just boring. Fans that already have the film in their DVD collection have no need to upgrade, but those that don’t own the film will find it a happy addition to their set.
How do I rank The Aristocats Special Edition DVD? (Bolded is my choice.)
Good movie + Not good bonus features =
- Aaah!
- Blech
- Not good
- Good
- Very good
- Brilliant
The Aristocats Special Edition DVD will most likely please: Disney Fans - Toddlers (ages 1-2) - Preschoolers (ages 3-4) - Kids (ages 5-7)
By Blake; posted February 9, 2008. All images © Disney.
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