tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post4451492581730116377..comments2023-11-05T02:01:53.847-06:00Comments on Antagony & Ecstasy: DISNEY ANIMATION: TO WHICH PETS DO THE OTHERS TIP THEIR HATS?Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09491952893581644049noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-12522902461810952842014-03-04T23:18:38.788-06:002014-03-04T23:18:38.788-06:00"O'Malley the Alley Cat" being "..."O'Malley the Alley Cat" being "entirely forgettable" must be why I remembered every lyric while watching it tonight for the first time in 30+ years.Brendthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10887039889675340441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-3796604841025639182013-08-21T17:14:08.868-05:002013-08-21T17:14:08.868-05:00I'm trying to catch up on all of the Disney ca...I'm trying to catch up on all of the Disney canon I've missed, so I just watched <i>The Aristocats</i>, and I agree with the original review. It's perfectly tolerable without being remotely creative or engaging. It's not bad enough to make me dislike it (cf. <i>The Fox and the Hound</i> and its goddamn cavalcade of sap) but it leaves me with a bunch of niggling problems: in addition to the plot holes and unnecessary characters, why go through all the hassle of dumping them miles away from home, then skimping on any sort of journey narrative? Why not have some sort of thrilling countryside adventure instead of ten minutes of annoying geese, followed by "and they safely made it to Paris without incident"? (And why didn't they make the W.C.-Fieldsian uncle the comic relief instead?) If it's gonna be a musical and feature musician characters, why not have more than two diegetic songs? <br /><br />And without great storytelling or likable and well-defined characters, the movie relies on gags and physical comedy, but they rarely seem to occur organically. The movie would suggest a gag, bring the plot to a halt, cut to a close-to-medium shot of the gag playing out, and then start back up again. No madcap energy, no Rube Goldberging, no toying with expectations, just either Thomas or Edgar getting smacked around a bit; the big exception is Roquefort, whose "QUIET!" moment is about the only thing that rose from "harmlessly diverting" to "actually funny" for me.<br /><br />Also, I liked the animation--especially the pencil sketches running under the opening credits--and the backgrounds were fine, but it felt like there were a lot of moments where the characters weren't quite fitting in with the backgrounds properly; the opening scene, with the horse-drawn carriage crossing the bridge looked especially odd, like someone waving a cutout behind a prop. <br /><br />All this bitching, and I didn't think the movie was <i>bad</i>, really: it just wasn't any good, either.Jeremy Diringerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09068008075721636698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-69306852215731614082012-12-22T07:09:02.047-06:002012-12-22T07:09:02.047-06:00In my ongoing attempt to eventually own the entire...In my ongoing attempt to eventually own the entire Disney canon, here comes Aristocats. <br /><br />I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, didn't remember much about it (outside, of course, E'verybody Wants To Be A Cat, because that is literally unforgettable) but I gotta be honest: I liked it. I didn't love it, there is a lot I could do without (oh god, those fucking Geese...) but there is a lot I really like.<br /><br />The story is definitely formulaic, although I think you missed a big chunk of where it was lifted from, story wise. It plays, to me, very much as 101 Dalmatians meets Lady And The Tramp, but with cats. If the kittens weren't there, Duchess and O'Malley would be virtually exact feline stand-ins for Lady and the Tramp. <br /><br />I remembered the movie being, well, jazzy (as Disney advertises it "Disney's Jazzy Classic") and I was actually really shocked that the jazz just kind of drops in out of the blue 2/3s of the way through.<br /><br />Two things drive me nuts about the movie, outside the geese: One is I am incapable of hearing Phil Harris talk and not looking around for Baloo the bear. <br /><br />The other is the complete inconsistency of the anthropomorphism of the animals throughout the film. Duchess, O'Malley, and the kittens all move more or less like cats. The horse (Fau Fau? Something like that) moves like a horse. The geese move like geese. The two pointless dogs are much more humanistic at points, while moving like dogs at others. The mouse wears clothes. Then we get to Scat Cat and the Swingers, and they are completely, 100% anthropomorphized. Then suddenly Duchess and O'Malley are too, while they dance. Then the song ends, Scat Cat and Co leave, and they are back to moving like cats. Then when the Swingers show up to attack Edward, they move like cats again. And... Gah. I don't mind anthropomorphizing animals (clearly, I love animation, and that would be a strangely limiting complaint) but is it too much to ask for a little bit of consistency, Disney?Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04546972990126033036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-10980143447489419712009-12-06T16:07:47.031-06:002009-12-06T16:07:47.031-06:00Totally right! This is a turning point where the ...Totally right! This is a turning point where the animation goes horribly, horribly wrong. Someone needs to stop throwing money at crappy films and start working on how to bring dear Walt back to life!Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05097441437159417314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-72685949406731962102009-11-18T15:57:59.584-06:002009-11-18T15:57:59.584-06:00I connect The Aristocats with some awful memories ...I connect <i>The Aristocats</i> with some awful memories when I was a Substitute Teacher (don't recommend it). I had to play this movie over and over and over...and it was in Spanish! I HATED listening to that first song, but I always knew when to stop it whenever I saw two geese walking up the lane. After that day, I couldn't bring myself to finish it. Too many bad memories...but after reading this, I doubt I'll ever see it.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16611922269342141654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-68831486684000659722009-11-17T22:20:47.030-06:002009-11-17T22:20:47.030-06:00I always detested this movie as a child and you fi...I always detested this movie as a child and you finally pointed out many of the reasons why I had never realised myself. Edgar really is an awful villain, and the whole set-up is preposterous. Why wouldn't he just put the cats in a bag and drown them? Why would he bother before the woman had actually died so that she couldn't edit her will again. It's silly even to a child.Meganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14872907965389104215noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-41375587621749430502009-11-17T20:37:29.819-06:002009-11-17T20:37:29.819-06:00"Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" features t..."Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" features the line "if you want to turn me on," which I *guess* isn't necessarily...actually, it kind of IS, and I'm sort of surprised it made it in. An' I don't care what you say; I LOVE THAT SEQUENCE.GeoX, one of the GeoX boys.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.com