BEFORE: Of course, we don't go out on New Year's Eve, last night the missus and I stayed in and re-watched "Big Night" (the first film we saw together) and then something on VH-1 called "40 Champions of Cute", which was sort of a clip show of internet videos about babies and cute animals. Animals are WAY cuter than babies, by the way. So I'm following that up with a movie about more kittens.
This ties in with this year's dedication - to Merlin, who was my cat for 20 years, and still checked out way too soon. The world's best cat, and I'll gladly defend that point - from the way he'd sleep in my arms, to the way he'd sing "the dinner song" for me. Everybody loved him, including all the staff at the vet's office, and it still feels like one day he's just going to walk out of the closet he liked to sleep in, and hop right back up on the bed. Miss ya, buddy.
THE PLOT: With the help of a smooth talking tomcat, a family of Parisian felines set to inherit a fortune from their owner try to make it back home after a jealous butler kidnaps them and leaves them in the country.
AFTER: My mom took me to most of the Disney films when I was a kid, but I think we might have missed this one. I would have been 2 years old at the time this came out, so if I saw it, it didn't register. I know the characters, so I must have read their stories in Disney Comics or something.
Every so often you hear about rich people leaving their fortunes to their pets, most notably Leona Helmsley, and you have to think that means that some people are bound to cash in, provided they're the ones entrusted to care for the lucky dog or cat. But in this film, the butler doesn't see the opportunity, and figures he'll move up the inheritance chain if he can just dispose of the rich lady's cat and kittens. I'm not sure I follow the logic - she might just get another cat, no?
I imagine the Disney marketing department pulling out their hair, trying to figure out how they're going to sell people on a film about killing cats. In fact, it's kind of tough to see where this fits in the Disney pantheon - somehow it's not in the same league as "Bambi" or "Dumbo". I guess they started with the wild animals like deer and elephants, with great dramatic stories, and by the time they worked their way down to cats and dogs, the stories seemed less significant. After the mid-70's, the Disney films weren't all that great ("Black Cauldron", "Oliver & Company", "The Great Mouse Detective") until they pulled out of their dive with "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast".
This film feels like it takes elements of "Lady and the Tramp" (rich dog meets poor dog) and "101 Dalmatians" (evil person tries to kill puppies) and mixes them together, but changes the main characters from dogs to cats.
After the set-up, it's more like "The Incredible Journey", with the cats making their way back to their home in Paris. Which is a simple story, but it still manages to fire off in too many different directions. There's a diversion with a band of jazz-playing cats, but I was bothered by the blatant racism in the portrayal of the Siamese cat. As a matter of fact, the accents in the film are all over the place, with the British geese and a couple of dogs that sound like they're from the southern U.S., despite being named "Napoleon" and "Lafayette". They're in France, shouldn't all the animals sound French?
What's weird is, I just re-watched "The Odd Couple" a few weeks ago, and when I heard the British geese, I thought of the Pigeon Sisters from that film. Well, it turned out to be the voices of those same two actresses, Monica Evans and Carole Shelley! Damn, my voice recognition skills are good! And the Russian cat was voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, who very notably voiced Tony the Tiger in ads for many years, and also sang the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" in the original Dr. Seuss TV special.
Starring the voices of Phil Harris (last seen in "The Patsy"), Eva Gabor, Sterling Holloway, Scatman Crothers (also last seen in "The Patsy"), Pat Buttram (who co-starred with Gabor in "Green Acres"), George Lindsay, Nancy Kulp (yep, was in "The Patsy", but more famous for appearing on "The Beverly Hillbillies").
RATING: 6 out of 10 bowls of creme
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