The Aristocats (Special Edition) (DVD)

Aristocats is one of the few animated Disney films that I had never seen, and as it turns out the reason I was avoided it wasn't even applicable. You see, I thought this was a 100% musical feature and even the fact that the box art for this one calls it a "Jazzy Classic" with musical notes led me to believe it was going to be a musical. I am not against musicals; I just wasn't too interested in seeing an animated Disney feature from 1970 told entirely through jazz tunes. Fortunately I was way off. Not only is this not a 100% musical, the music in it is fantastic, especially its classic tune "Everybody Wants to be a Cat".

The story takes place in Paris and centers on a couple a high society cat named Duchess and her three little kittens. When Edgar the butler finds out that the millionairess he works for plans on leaving everything she owns to her cats, and only once they are gone will he get his hands on the fortune, he sets out to solve his problem before it becomes one.

In the middle of nowhere Duchess and her kittens meet up with Thomas O'Malley and have to find their way back home.

It's a typical Disney story, but the combination of 2-D animation and that special something Walt brought to all of his productions it is a worthwhile watch. However, I did have one problem with its voice talent. There are several familiar voices throughout this production most notably you have Phil Harris has Thomas O'Malley, Sterling Holloway as Roquefort the Mouse and Pat Buttram and George Lindsey as the two hound dogs. The reason this is a problem for me is my association of their voices with other classic Disney characters. You see, Harris is best known as Baloo from the Jungle Book and Little John from Robin Hood, two characters that are more suited to the Harris' voice than the alley cat O'Malley.

Holloway is best known as Winnie the Pooh, but I associated his voice more with Kaa from Jungle Book and Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, two roles that hardly compare to a mouse. Then you have Buttram and Lindsey as hound dogs, but I remember them best as the Sherriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood and Trigger the more capable vulture also from Robin Hood. I found these comparisons hard to overlook at first, but as the film went on I became more comfortable with their new bodies.

On a special feature level there isn't anything spectacular here, which is no big surprise since this isn't necessarily considered to be a Disney classic. There is nothing major in the way of behind-the-scenes featurettes, but there is one deleted song, an interesting segment with the Sherman brothers as they discuss the origins of the music in the film and a few DVD games for the kids including a virtual kitten feature.

Overall you are picking this one up for approximately 70 minutes of entertaining Disney animation and that is exactly what you get. Despite my association of the voices with previous Disney characters I got over it and was able to enjoy this one and I am sure I will watch it again.