Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2001) - Fairy Tale Cinderella Returns in this Fine Disney Movie!

Cinderella II: When Dreams Come True - A Tale of Mice and Princesses

Fairy tale Cinderella returns in this Disney movie, "Cinderella II: Dreams Come True" (2002), directed by John Kafka from a script by Jill E. Blotevogel, Tom Rogers and Jule Selbo for Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. This Cinderella movie was a huge financial success as a long-awaited direct-to-video animated sequel to the classic 1950 Disney movie fairy tale "Cinderella." Even though this Cinderella movie was the best-selling of all Disney movies released directly to the home market, it could not satisfy the public's thirst for more fairy tale Cinderella movies, so another fairy tale Disney movie, "Cinderella III: A Twist in Time" followed in 2007 as an odd sort of sequel/prequel.

The artwork on the DVD covers is the best thing about the sequels

As is well known, the fairy tale Cinderella (Jennifer Hale) lived "happily ever after," but that doesn't mean her subsequent life was uneventful. Cinderella's Fairy Godmother (Russi Taylor) loves to tell the tale of Cinderella's discovery, and when the Fairy Godmother is reading it aloud one day, Cinderella's mice friends Gus (Corey Burton) and Jaq (Rob Paulsen) arrive to late. The mice resolve to tell what happened to Cinderella after she married the handsome prince, and three stories in particular come to mind.

Cinderella and the Prince leaving the palace after the wedding

In first fairy tale Disney movie segment "Aim to Please," Cinderella is in charge of planning the palace banquets and parties. She finds that the woman previously in charge, Prudence (Holland Taylor), is mean-spirited and rude. Cinderella decides that the kingdom's parties are too elitist, so she opens up the next one to ordinary folks who can act as they see fit.

Cinderella wearing a dress she hates

In the second fairy tale Disney movie segment "Tall Tail," Jaq the mouse has developed a complex about his size. He thinks that he is useless because of his small stature. The Fairy Godmother turns him into a human so that size is no longer an issue. Pom Pom the Cat (Frank Welker), though, doesn't like the mice, and he still chases them around. Jaq turns out to be in love with a fellow mouse named Mary (Taylor), and after an incident with an elephant at a fair, he accepts and welcomes being a mouse.

The Fairy Godmother loves reading about Cinderella

In final fairy tale Disney movie segment "Uncommon Romance," Cinderella's evil step-sister Anastasia (Tress MacNeille) finds love with a common baker. Lady Tremaine (Susanne Blakeslee) and older sister Drizella (Taylor) do not approve and say unkind things about the nice young man and his bakery. Lucifer, meanwhile, chases Cinderella's mice around and runs into Pom Pom, falling in love. Anastasia has all sorts of problems when she goes to see her boyfriend, getting kicked by a horse and crashing into his shop. Cinderella tries to help the two get together, while the mice decide to help Lucifer win Pom Pom over as long as he agrees to stop chasing them. He strikes the bargain and romances Pom Pom, but she tells him she wants him to bring her the mice for dinner. Lucifer tries to catch them, but they drop a bucket of water on her and she is so upset that she leaves Lucifer. The baker asks Anastasia to the upcoming ball, and she agrees despite her family's disapproval. He is so sweet that she falls in love with him.

A nice shot of the royal couple

The fairy tale mice have various funny adventures unrelated to the Disney movie segments themselves while telling their stories. After the last one, they sing "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" and go to find fairy tale Cinderella to tell her about their stories. Cinderella loves the idea of her mice friends writing a fairy tale Cinderella book about their adventures, and they all go by the fire as she starts to read it. The Disney movie's songs appear on "Disney's Princess Favorites," sung by Brooke Allison.

A magical castle

Viewers tend to have strong feelings about any attempts by fairy tale Disney movies such as this Cinderella movie to tarnish the magical legacy of the classic fairy tale Cinderella story. While a top seller, nobody seemed to like this Cinderella movie, except, perhaps, for the children for whom it was intended. Indeed, the entire product appears aimed squarely at the youngest viewers, with notes on the DVD packaging explaining what a composer does and simple things like that. The new Cinderella characters also are not that interesting. The fatal flaw of this Cinderalla movie is that this entire fairy tale Disney movie is more about others than it is about fairy tale Cinderella herself. This may be one of the reasons why this title was removed form the list of available Disney movies back in 2008, perhaps never to return - but, considering that Disney movie sequel "Cinderella III: A Twist in Time" was withdrawn at the same time, it may just have been Disney doing its usual job of guarding the legacy and keeping the Disney movie currency strong.

The King crowing Cinderella

Fortunately, children don't worry too much about subtle plot points or whether Cinderella gets enough screen time in this Disney movie. For them, this Disney movie is a wonderful addition to the fairy tale Cinderella story. To say that this quality Disney movie is "disappointing" is unfair, because nothing could measure up to everyone's enchanted memories of watching the original Disney movie fairy tale "Cinderella" as a child. This sequel was doomed to be hated by adults while secretly cherished by small children everywhere, and it fulfilled that function extraordinarily well.

The mice make are the best part of this Disney movie

When this fairy tale Disney movie was made, sequels to classic Disney movies were being churned out in large numbers. This particular Disney movie one tends to lose sight of the original fairy tale Cinderella, making her a modern sort of girl who is not as loveable as in the original. Turning the fairy tale on its head and making one of the evil step-sisters sympathetic seems muddled at best. It is almost as if the creators of this fairy tale Disney movie sequel got confused about the characters and took away all their specialness, leaving the fairy tale Disney move characters with modern phrasing and a complete lack of charm and uniqueness.

The royal family

The fairy tale mice are the real stars of this Disney movie Cinderella sequel, so it really isn't about the fairy tale Cinderella story much at all anyway. Simply take this as a cute Cinderella movie with warm, cuddly small mice for kids to delight in and you won't be disappointed (they also might like "The Rescuers"). Everyone over the age of eight should respect the fact that this fairy tale Disney movie is not intended for them and give this particular Disney movie a pass if they think it might tarnish their golden memories of the plucky fairy tale little girl Cinderella who fulfilled every little girl's dream and snagged her very own fairy tale Prince Charming.

Below is the trailer for this fairy tale Cinderella Disney movie, and below that a fan video about the fairy tale Anastasia/baker romance.

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Megamind (2010) - A Witty, Amusing One-Joke Comedy

Megamind: What if A Superhero had an Evil Twin? Or Wait, What If... He Were Ugly? Or No, What If He Walked With a Limp And Needed A Guide Dog? No, I Got A Better One....

The animated films were coming fast and furious in 2010. "Toy Story 3" came out and made a billion dollars, "Shrek Forever After" made $750 million, "Tangled" made $600 million... and then there was "Megamind" (2010), a 3D animated superhero parody directed by Tom McGrath from a script by Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons for DreamWorks Animation. It didn't bomb, but it vastly under-performed. Big Chief Jeffrey Katzenberg couldn't come out fast enough to say that it wasn't going to get a sequel because its "approach and tone and idea of parody" did not play well overseas. It is not a bad film, in fact it is quite enjoyable, but it has a wise-guy sensibility that requires a certain jaded mindset to appreciate fully - or internationally.

DVD

Megamind (Will Ferrell) and Metro Man (Brad Pitt) both arrived on earth as infants. When they grew up, Metro Man took the path of virtue, while Megamind became evil. Despite constant battles between the two which Metro Man routinely wins, there remains rough parity between them, a situation which Megamind is determined to change to his advantage.

Give me five, bro!

One of Megamind's schemes to destroy his nemesis has him and his sidekick Minion (David Cross) kidnap local reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey). Using her as bait, he hopes to lure Metro Man into a trap, which is successful. Using a death ray, he kills Metro Man.

Roxanne is played by Tina Fey

Next on his agenda is to destroy the Metro Man museum, but as he goes about it, he suddenly realizes he misses not having someone to worry about. He gets the idea from Roxanne to inject someone else with Metro Man's DNA so that he has a worthy opponent again. Through an accident, Megamind injects the serum into Roxanne's cameraman, Hal (Jonah Hill). After some training in disguise by Megamind, Hal is so clueless that he mistakenly takes the name "Tighten" rather than the "Titan" Megamind suggests.

Megamind hands outstretched

Both men develop a romantic interest in Roxanne, but eventually, with nobody left to fight, Megamind loses his real relationship when Minion leaves him. Wishing to get Roxanne all to himself, Megamind looks for the serum that would return Hal to his non-superhero state, but he can't find it - it's in his invisible car which is, you know, invisible. At first it looks like another continuing battle for Megamind, but it turns out that Hal doesn't want to fight for good, he'd rather be a villain like Megamind. This horrifies Megamind, so to change his mind he reveals everything to Hal, who gets upset and fights Megamind. Unfortunately for Megamind, Hal wins and chases Megamind out of Metro City. Hal then starts doing villainous things, usurping Megamind's entire identity.

Hal is quite annoying

Roxanne doesn't like the new turn of events either, so she takes Megamind to the late Metro Man's secret lair. To their surprise, Metro Man is there, alive and well. Rather than being killed, Metro Man wanted to retire and become a musician, so he just pretended to be killed. He still has his powers, but has no more interest in fighting Hal or anyone else. He'd rather be a dilettante and play the guitar.

Megamind and Roxanne

Megamind despairs, but rather than fight Hal on the side of virtue as Roxanne suggests, he turns himself into prison. Hal, though, wants a villain to oppose, and kidnaps Roxanne and threatens to kill her if Megamind doesn't become his adversary again. Megamind decides to fight to save Roxanne, and he gets Minion back to help out. A fight ensues, and the fate of Metro City hangs in the balance.

Megamind as a baby

This plot probably looked terrific on paper, and the execution is terrific, but "Megamind" plays out its one-joke premise without any surprises. If you simply think about the initial idea "a villain needs an adversary to be villainous," the rest of the story just plays out almost automatically. The writers probably congratulated themselves during production on such an innovative twist on the superhero genre that had never been tried before, but it hasn't been done before for a reason: it's silly. Not to be mean, but your average high school comics book fan could have come up with this story line without too much trouble. What if Superman wasn't predestined to be a good guy? What if he had a twin? What if he were actually a little more like everyone else and had his own interests (does Superman even know what a hobby is?). How does Superman know he's supposed to be good, and is there some requirement for him to display that goodness? You can almost hear the gears whirring away in the screenwriters' heads: "This vision of a perfect guy without some flaw we can look down upon and feel pity for, it's so, like, 20th Century." It's another chip at ("deconstruction of") the question of whether those types of people that we automatically used to look up to are still worthy of respect (the answer invariably being no, because we no longer automatically respect any entire group). If those are the sorts of comic-book-geek questions or social attitudes that delight you, well, this film will astound and delight, otherwise, it likely won't - the latter seeming to be the general consensus. The chain of though I just described is why there will be a high likelikhood that you will say/think something along the lines of, "Will Ferrell was okay, but the story was kind of stupid" after you watch "Megamind."

"I'm so evil muahahahaha"

Another issue for many veiwers is that the film strongly resembles "Despicable Me," which came out earlier the same year and made almost twice as much money. There are unavoidable parallels with Pixar's "The Incredibles" as well. As Jeffrey Katzenberg himself helpfully pointed out, it resembles earlier DreamWorks misfires "Shark Tale" and "Monsters vs. Aliens," which also attempted to de-mystify the creaking plots and hoary cliches of the animation/superhero genres. There is nothing wrong with that intelllectually, but the conventions and cliches exist for a reason: people are comfortable with them and like them, and they become annoyed if you criticize them.

"I better switch that monitor off before she sees what I was looking at!

The good versus evil paradigm of every successful superhero film works because people want to put themselves in the shoes of the "good guy" and imagine themselves defeating the annoying "bad guys" who are always around in real life. When you fog up the whole question with abstract philosophical points about "what does it mean to be a villain, can the dialectic continue without an opposing value" and tripe like that, people lose patience. Philosophy class is one thing, a good swinging superhero is something completely different.

"Here I come, to save the day"

The film certainly is enjoyable if you want to settle in and watch the puerile plot twists. The 3-D images have a stark clarity that makes the characters stand out. Advances in the art leave old-school techniques in the dust unless you are looking for a distinctive style and a point of view - both of which "Megamind" lacks because it doesn't aim for them. If you are a true fan of animation and compare, say, "Sleeping Beauty" to "Megamind," you will be awed by the flash and sizzle of the images in "Megamind" - and probably wind up watching "Beauty" first because of its human artistry and the soul that breathes in every frame. Computers are wonderful at making images appear startling to the eye, but the mind hungers for a unique and slanted perspective on the world, not a neutral computer recreation.

The three principals

The voice cast couldn't be better. Will Ferrell is brilliant as always, playing his usual flawed-but-lovable good guy who is only imperfect because that is how he was made. His character is as three-dimensional as the animation, and you grow to care for him as your pity for his predicament grows. Brad Pitt is fine also, though he has a much smaller role that does not have enough time to grow on us. Tina Fey plays Tina Fey, with the knowing attitude and the raw intelligence which she goes to great pains to pretend to hide but purposefully doesn't, which only emphasizes it all the more in a very clever back-handed fashion. David Cross plays the usual smarter-than-his-boss sidekick that is a staple of animated films going at least back to Napoleon and Lafayette in "The Aristocats" and King John and Sir Hiss in "Robin Hood." The music by old pro Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe is competent, but nothing you likely will be whistling on the way home.

"Oh, so you like music, how interesting"

Will this pass the time, make you laugh, reach into your heart at times and tug at it whenever Will Farrell becomes frustrated with the conundrums of a superhero's life? Sure, "Megamind" is funny and sharp and clever and well-executed. However, it remains a one-joke premise about a bad guy being pointless without a good guy and vice versa, so your mind may wander after a while. Oh, and make sure you see it in 3D, the film really requires it for the full experience.

Below is the official trailer:

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The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) - Childhood Favorite

The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh: I Think I'll Go See Christopher Robin Today... Again

Films like Walt Disney Productions' "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" (1977) almost never turn up on "Best film" lists unless it is some sort of government historical project. However, you will be hard pressed to find a film as revered and secretly cherished by as many people as this one. You may out-grow it, you may deride it, but at one time in your life, this or a film like it was the center of your world.

Pooh and friends

It's difficult to believe now, but back when the world was young - you know, pre-Pixar - A.A. Milne's classic was not a household name. Walt Disney himself started production on an adaptation, but he felt the public didn't know enough about the story for it to slot in as a feature after "The Jungle Book." Instead, to introduce the characters, he turned the project into a series of shorts, which weren't bad works by themselves: the second of the three, "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day," won the 1968 Academy Award for animated short film.

The three shorts - the other two being "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" (1966) and "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too" (1974) - were strung together by directors Wolfgang Reitherman and Winston Hibler. Animated wrap-arounds were inserted featuring Pooh and Piglet between each section and a conclusion. There also are two brief live-action segments, at the beginning and the end.

Pooh and boy

In the first section, Winnie the Pooh is at home in Hundred Acres Wood doing exercises so that he can work up an appetite. He tears the stitching in his bottom, which he repairs, but then goes to get some honey and finds the jar empty. He goes out to a nearby honey tree to get some honey, but he falls off a branch into a gorse bush. He then goes to Christopher Robin's house, where Eeyore, Owl, Kanga and Roo are visiting. Robin gives him a balloon to help him. Pooh goes back and floats up to the honey, but after eating some, one of the bees stings his bottom. He gets stuck in the tree, but then the bees send him off into the air, and he falls into the hands of Christopher Robin.

"I'm not in the book!"

Pooh then goes to Rabbit's house, and when Rabbit invites him to stay for lunch, Pooh eats all his honey. He can't get out of the house because of all the honey he ate, so Rabbit gets Christopher Robin to help. Eventually, they just have to wait for Pooh to lose the weight so that he can get unstuck. It takes many days, but finally Christopher Robin, Kanga, Eeyore, Owl, Roo Rabbit and Gopher are able to dislodge Pooh, only to wind up stuck in the honey tree again.

Tigger on Pooh

In the second segment, Gopher tells Pooh that it is "Winds-day" because the east and west winds have traded places. Pooh goes to see Piglet, who is blown into the wind, and Pooh grabs him, but they are blown over Kanga, Roo, Eeyore, Rabbit and Owl. Owl's house is knocked down, so Eeyore decides to find him a new home. Tigger then comes to visit Pooh and tells him that there are Heffalumps and Woozles in the forest that steal honey, which frightens Pooh.

Tigger looking in mirror

A storm floods the forest, carrying Piglet away, and Pooh, guarding his honey, gets trapped in a honey pot and floats away. Everybody else goes to Christopher Robin's house, which is above the water, and Christopher Robin arranges a rescue of Piglet from the chair he is riding. Pooh is assumed to have rescued Piglet and becomes a hero. Eeyore then says that he found a new home for Owl, but it turns out to be Piglet's house. Piglet gives his house to Owl and moves in with Pooh.

Tigger with rabbit

In the third section, Tigger has been annoying everyone by bouncing on them, so Pooh, Rabbit and Piglet take him for a walk and leave him alone and lost in the forest. The three then leave, but themselves get lost and keep running into the same sandpit. Rabbit goes off alone, but Pooh and Piglet run into Tigger. Pooh tells Tigger that Rabbit is lost in the forest, and Tigger goes to look for him and finds him, bringing him home.

Roo

Winter comes, and Tigger looks after Roo and they run into Rabbit skating on the ice. Tigger goes skating and collides with Rabbit, sending him into a snowbank and Rabbit flying into his house. Tigger gives up ice skating. Later, Tigger jumps to the top of a tall tree and is scared to come down. Roo makes things worse by using Tigger's tail as a swing. Pooh and Piglet happen along and come to the rescue, followed by Christopher Robin, Rabbit and Kanga. Tigger is still too scared to come down, but when the others tell hm they will have to leave him there, Tigger promises never to jump on anyone ever again if they will just let him down. Tigger then asks the narrator to narrate him down to the ground, and the narrator tilts the book to shake him down, which is quite funny if you are not a purist.

Tigger and Pooh

Tigger starts bouncing in joy, but then stops because of the vow he made. He gets depressed and walks away, and everyone else but Rabbit feels sorry for him. The others remind Rabbit of the good things that came from Tigger bouncing, and Rabbit also starts to feel sorry for him. He goes to Tigger and tells him he can bounce again. Tigger is so happy he starts bouncing and gets the others to bounce, too.

This will pick me up

The final story, "A Day for Eeyore," was added for the 20th Anniversary edition. It has Pooh inventing a new game, "Pooh Sticks." While playing the game, they see Eeyore floating in the river. Eeyore says that Tigger bounced him in, but Tigger denies it. It's Eeyore's birthday, so they give him presents. Pooh, though, eats the honey he was going to give him beforehand. They all then play Pooh Sticks, but Tigger decides he doesn't like it.

Can't have enough carrots!

The characters are all voiced by the same people for each segment, despite the fact they were filmed at widely separated times. Sterling Holloway is Pooh, Paul Winchell is Tigger, Junius Matthews is Rabbit, Dori Whitaker is Roo, John Fiedler is Piglet, Timothy Turner voices Christopher Robin, Barbara Luddy is Kanga, and Sebastian Cabot narrates. A new character, Gopher, is voiced by Howard Morris.

Winnie looking in the mirror

While released at a low point in the studio's fortunes, this film is a classic. It is the perfect family film, since there is absolutely nothing in it that could make anyone uncomfortable, and you can all talk about it afterwards - "What would you have done?" Did Piglet do the right thing?" - in an enjoyable way. There is practically no violence and no mean characters, and the story is told through a "book" that you see as the stories proceed. The illustrations in the book come to life, which is a neat effect and makes the whole thing very accessible for children (and quite trying for many adults). The pacing is very slow, suitable for children.

Pooh with fans

Pooh, let's be honest, is not too bright. However, he more than makes up for that by being cute, adorable and, best of all, funny. If you had to describe him, the words "teddy bear" spring to mind. The animation is decent, if not up to previous feature film standards, and every song is enjoyable. Again, if you were looking for one word, it would be "calming" or perhaps "pleasant." We learn a few things about the characters that we didn't from the books, but more importantly, we get to spend time with our good friends. Everything is related in the way that children would understand and find perfectly logically, even if we just scratch our heads and wonder if the author was smoking dope.

Fan with Tigger

Purists - and there are always those looking for something to cry about - will decry the narrator's intervention now and then, along with the addition of a new hilarious character (who runs around amusingly and pointedly saying "I'm not in the book, you know!") who seems vaguely modeled on an earlier Disney character, the beaver, in "Lady and the Tramp." The changes are minimal, however, and unless you have studied the books intently, you will never know the difference.

Pooh loves his honey

Winnie the Pooh, of course, became big business largely because of the impact of this film. It is almost as big as the Princesses and the "Cars" merchandising, and that, my friend, is quite an achievement.

Off to bed we go

This is a gentle story for toddlers. By the age of ten, they will have long outgrown the magic that is "Winnie the Pooh" (but perhaps reacquire it when they get much older).  However, catch them at the right age, and this film will be on 24/7 as they watch the adventures of Pooh, Christopher Robin and Tigger, too.

Below is a five-minute film about the film that you may find amusing and introduces the characters:



2012

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The Aristocats (1970) - Everybody Wants to be a Cat!

The Aristocats: Yeah, I'm a Cool Cat, Baby, Wanna See Me Meow?

Walt Disney Productions labored over its films, sometimes taking decades to get them done. "The Aristocats" (1970), based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe, already was in production at the time of Walt Disney's untimely passing from lung cancer in 1966. The essential Disney team was still intact for this production, some for the last time - The Sherman Brothers and George Bruns did the songs and soundtrack, Wolfgang Reitherman directed, Phil Harris, Sterling Holloway and Thurl Ravenscroft were on hand for key voices - and, while there are the first, tiny signs of a decline in quality, this is still a worthy entry into the Disney animated feature film canon.

Aren't they cute?

It is Paris, 1910, and cat Duchess (Eva Gabor) and her three kittens Marie (Liz English), Berlioz (Dean Clark) and Toulouse (Gary Dubin) live with retired opera singer Madame Adelaide Donfamille (Hermione Baddeley) and her butler Edgar (Rodd Maude-Roxy). Madame loves her cats, and tells her lawyer she wants her fortune left to Duchess and her kittens until their deaths, then to Edgar.

Edgar just getting himself into trouble

Edgar is impatient and has no intention of waiting for a bunch of kittens to die naturally. He drugs the cats and plans to take them far out into the wild and release them. Two hound dogs, Napoleon (Pat Buttram) and Lafayette (George Lindsey), intervene, and Edgar leaves not only the cats, but the sidecar of his motorcycle with several of his personal items. Edgar later comes back and has a struggle retrieving the items from Napoleon and Lafayette. An alley cat named Thomas O'Malley (Harris) sees Dutchess' plight and volunteers to guide her family back home to Paris.

Edgar had a lot of trouble with Napoleon and Lafayette

The group heads sets out, hitchhiking part of the way and meeting some English geese tourists, Abigail (Monica Evans) and Amelia (Carole Shelley) Gabble, who eventually have to leave to take their drunk uncle Waldo (Bill Thompson) home. They then meet Scat Cat (Scatman Crothers) and his mates at O'Malley's "penthouse pad." They sing the tuneful "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat." O'Malley later asks Dutchess to stay with him and forget about the mansion, but she says she must take her family back because Madame expects it.

Dutchess always seems to be like this around O'Malley

Once they make it back to Madame's mansion, O'Malley sadly leaves. Edgar catches the cats and puts them in the oven, but the cats tell Roquefort (Sterling Holloway), their mouse friend, to run and get O'Malley. O'Malley tells Roquefort to go and get Scat Cat and his band. Egar locks the cats in a trunk that he is going to send to Africa, but O'Malley, Scat Cat and Frou Frou the horse (Nancy Kulp) intervene. A battle ensues between Edgar and the animals.

There's those crazy cats again!

There are unavoidable similarities between "The Aristocats" and previous Disney films, particularly the style and plot of "101 Dalmations." At least they hadn't started copying exact scenes at this point. The animation is controversial, as it has a sketchy look that may or may not have been deliberately used to create the desired carefree effect. The colors are good, there is a lot of humor, and the jazz songs are energetic and fun though not particularly memorable. Maurice Chevalier liked the idea of this film so much that his very last performance was the title song (the fact that the Sherman Brothers' father had written his big hit "Living in the Sunlight, Loving in the Moonlight" probably didn't hurt).

Scat Cat wailing

The voices are perhaps the best thing of all, as Phil Harris has the perfect amiable "with it" tone for the savior O'Malley, while Eva Gabor gives Dutchess just the right upper crust "isn't that interesting" tone. Several voices were done by then-current television stars, such as Gabor, Kulp and Lindsey, which foreshadowed the excesses to which this practice would reach in the 1990s and 2000s. It works well here because the voices really do fit the characters and were distinctive. Throw in slapstick humor in several places and you have a fine film that, if you examine Disney films closely, feels like another winner - and, indeed, it was, scoring well at the box office.

The songs are the film's high points

At heart, the film has a lot of charm. Everybody loves kittens, and the film moves at a relaxed pace that gives you time to enjoy them. Berlioz and Toulouse playing the piano together is lots of fun, and the two squabbling hounds Napoleon and Lafayette are a high point in Disney animation. The story itself is clever, it is all about relying on your friends to survive and the bonds you create while doing so.

Dutchess playing the harp, O'Malley listening

There are a few things that keep the film from being a true classic. The animation was beginning its slide towards being cartoony (see "Robin Hood"), and does not have the pristine look of "Sleeping Beauty" or "Peter Pan." It is not poor, as the animation crew of the '50s was still largely intact and knew what it was doing, but the animation undeniably is not up to earlier standards. Some of the alleycat characters, such as Shun Gon (Paul Winchell) the Chinese cat, are drawn a little too broadly in order to distinguish them and may offend modern sensibilities - but you could also make the case that they are poking fun at stereotypes, though it is easier to criticize. Besides, they are just cats! There also are some anachronistic elements from '60s culture, such as psychedelic lighting, that are fun but do date the film. Some scenes are scary, such as a speeding train, but almost every Disney film has scary aspects.

The Gabble sisters are a great addition

Disney quietly de-emphasized this film for a while, and the reasons are unknown, but Disney never really promoted this much since its release. A sequel was planned for 2007, then cancelled without explanation. The Gold Classic Collection disc was withdrawn around the same time, and a planned 2-disc release for 2008 was cut to one "Special Edition" disc. The current Disney regime is not too into bringing out sequels for the older films, so it may be some time before a sequel ever appears. A 2-disc Blu-ray edition and new single-disc DVD were released in August 2012.

Edgar is in a HEAP of trouble

"The Aristocats" was a worthy send-off for Walt, but the decline had begun. The film is lots of fun and very affecting in places, but not among the true Disney classics. It is probably, though, Disney's best film until the Disney Renaissance began in 1989 with "The Little Mermaid."

Below is the Special Edition trailer:

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