The Aristocats is a 1970 American-French animated musical adventure-romantic comedy movie. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution. It is the 20th Disney animated movie. The movie is based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe. It is about a family of aristocratic cats. They are kidnapped by their greedy butler, Edgar. Edgar wants to gain the fortune that the cats' owner has left to them in her will. An alley cat named Thomas O'Malley helps them make their way back home. O'Malley also helps them defeat Edgar. In the end, O'Malley becomes a part of the family. The movie was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman. It features the voices of Eva Gabor, Hermione Baddeley, Phil Harris, Dean Clark, Sterling Holloway, Scatman Crothers, and Roddy Maude-Roxby.
In 1962, The Aristocats began as an original script for a two-part live-action episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. It was developed by writers Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe and producer Harry Tytle. Following two years of re-writes, Walt Disney said that the project would be better made as an animated movie. The project was placed in turnaround as The Jungle Book continued production. When The Jungle Book was nearly complete, Disney appointed Ken Anderson to develop preliminary work on The Aristocats. It was the last movie project to be approved by Walt Disney before his death on December 15, 1966.
The Aristocats was released on December 11, 1970. It received positive reception and was a box office success.
Plot
The movie takes place in Paris in 1910. A mother cat named Duchess (Eva Gabor) and her three kittens, Marie (Liz English), Berlioz (Dean Clark) and Toulouse (Gary Dubin), are going to receive their owner's (Hermione Baddeley) fortune when she dies. But Edgar (Roddy Maude-Roxby), their English butler, does not like this and plans to send the cats away.
He places sleeping tablets in their dinner. At night, he plans on dropping them off in the countryside. Two hound dogs, Napoleon (Pat Buttram) and Lafayette (George Lindsey), attack him, and the cats are now stranded.
In the morning, they meet an alley cat named Thomas O'Malley (Phil Harris). He helps them on their way back home. He even lets them stay at his "pad" (the place where he and his "gang", or friends, stay).
They finally make their way back home, but Edgar re-catches them in a sack and plans to send them to Timbuktu, Africa. O'Malley, Scat Cat (Scatman Crothers) and his gang, Roquefort the Mouse (Sterling Holloway), and Frou-Frou the Horse (Nancy Kulp) all fight Edgar. Roquefort frees Duchess and the kittens. In the end, Edgar is kicked into the trunk, locked inside, and sent to Timbuktu himself. Madame Adelaide's will is re-written to not include Edgar and instead include O'Malley. She also starts a charity foundation. This foundation gives a home to all the cats in Paris.