The Aristocats
- Review Date: January 12, 2004
- Rated: G
- Genre: Family and Kids
- Release Year: 1970
Common Sense Media says
Jazz and hijinks make this Disney cat tale meow.
- Review Date: January 12, 2004
- Rated: G
- Genre: Family and Kids
- Release Year: 1970
What parents need to know
Positive role models
Violence & scariness
Sexy stuff
Language
Consumerism
Drinking, drugs, & smoking
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that younger and sensitive kids may be upset by the drugging and abandonment of a mom cat and her three kittens. For a brief moment the kittens can't find their mom. In some slapstick chase scenes it looks like animals or people could be injured, especially when Edgar the butler wields a pitch fork. Plus played for laughs are shots of Edgar the butler's underwear and a drunk goose weaving down the street.
User reviews
Parents say
Kids say
What's the story?
Disney's animated story takes an elegant cat named Dutchess (voiced by Eva Gabor) and her three kittens out of their high-brow element when a cantankerous butler dumps them in the country after he hears the cats are to inherit his employer's fortune before him. On their way home the cats encounter O'Malley the Alley Cat who gets them out of a number of scrapes and introduces the brood to his jazz-playing "hep cat" friends. And just like Lady and the Tramp, Dutchess can't resist the charms of the scrappy O'Malley.
Is it any good?
QUALITY
The 2008 DVD re-release calls this a "Jazzy Classic," and sure enough the highlight is the toe-tapping song "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat." There's little plot (cats journey home) and the characters are less memorable than other animated animal capers like Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmations. Phil Harris, who plays Baloo from the original Disney Jungle Book, is fun as O'Malley, but lacks some of the rapscallion antics that would make him stand out.
Kids will love the silly chase scenes with Edgar the butler and the country hounds, Napoleon and Lafayette, especially the one around the windmill. They're choreographed for lots of giggles -- complete with failing-suspenders gags. But once the big jazzy number and madcap running about are over the movie falls flat. In a DVD extra one of the composers reveals a lullaby-like song that was left on the cutting room floor about the owner's love for her cats. That's the kind of sweetness that could have made this movie the cat's pajamas.
Families can talk about...
Families can talk about Edgar the butler. He doesn't seem really mean like Cruella De Vil, but he's still not nice to Madame's cats. How come?
Why does he go back to the country for his hat and umbrella?
Where's Timbuktu?
Movie details
| Theatrical release date: | December 24, 1970 |
| DVD release date: | February 5, 2008 |
| Cast: | Eva Gabor, Liz English, Phil Harris |
| Director: | Wolfgang Reitherman |
| Studio: | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Genre: | Family and Kids |
| Topics: | Adventures, Music and sing-along |
| Run time: | 79 minutes |
| MPAA rating: | G |
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QUALITY
As far as Disney movies go, this one is pretty mild. The negative elements of the movie are too complicated for a toddler - which involve the drugging of kittens so they will go "night night" and can be relocated to the country-side because the man who does this wants to become first inline to inherit his employer's fortune since the kittens precede him in the employer's will. Once this story line is established at the outset of the movie, the majority of the movie is about the cats' funny and quirky adventures in trying to get back home. When they eventually do return home, a physical fight ensues between the animals and the butler and a pitch fork gets thrown at a cat, but besides that there isn't much violence. The evil character is a goofy butler, who is not that scary compared to other Disney antagonists. For small children, this is a cute, relatively harmless movie.
QUALITY
Nothing to scare sensitive toddlers
My daughter is pretty easily frightened by concepts of loss and malice, like Bambi's mother getting shot or the wicked stepmother trying to poison Snow White. She loves this movie and nothing about it upsets her.
QUALITY
A mostly middling effort for Disney. Redeemed by terrific work from its voice cast and some jazzy tunes.
