Following the death of Walt Disney in 1966, the animation department, which had been the studio's bread and butter since the B&W heyday of Mickey, Donald and Goofy, was faced with a seemingly insurmountable task: to carry on Uncle Walt's legacy. Disney had personally overseen the production of 1967's The Jungle Book before his life was ended by cancer, and had green lit the basic idea for what would become the first animated feature to bear the Disney stamp without his hands-on supervision: 1970's The Aristocats.

Opening in Paris circa 1910, we're introduced to a well-off socialite named Madame Bonfamille (Hermione Baddeley), owner of her beloved cat Duchess (the sophisticated purr of Eva Gabor, later cast as Miss Bianca in 1977's The Rescuers and it's 1990 sequel The Rescuers Down Under) and her three adorable children, Toulouse (Gary Dubin), Berlioz (Dean Clark) and Marie (Liz English). Madame Bonfamille dotes on her feline brood like they were her own children, much to the chagrin of her long-suffering butler, Edgar (Roddy Maude-Roxby). However, Edgar's mild jealousy is fanned into outright outrage when he overhears Madame Bonfamille changing her will to leave her vast fortune to Duchess and her kittens, only to be given over to Edgar himself after they've passed on. Following an initial bout of despair, Edgar concocts a dastardly plot. He whips up a repast of warm milk laced with sleeping pills, and once Duchess and her brood have nodded off, he bundles them into a basket and drives them out into the countryside on his motorcycle, abandoning them there so that he himself can be the sole beneficiary of his distraught employer's fortune.

The following morning, Duchess and her children awaken to a strange and frightening rural environment, but not to worry, kids, because who just happens to be sauntering by at that very moment but one Thomas J. O'Malley Cat (Phil Harris, in his second of three Disney voiceover roles following his wonderful characterization of Baloo the bear in The Jungle Book), who's initially dazzled by Duchess' pretty blue peepers and grows fond of her children as well. Lost and alone, Duchess asks Thomas to help her and her family to find their way back to their home and hearth, and Thomas, a genial and gregarious sort, agrees. Soon, the feline band is striking out cross-country, crossing paths along the way with a pair of daffy, well-intentioned geese samaritans (Monica Evans, Carole Shelley) and a band of swinging hep cats crashing in Thomas' Paris bachelor pad, led by the soulful band leader Scat Cat (Scatman Crothers), who exposes Duchess and her kids to the joys of jazz ("It's not Beethoven, momma, but it's sure got a good beat!") in the film's most memorable musical number, "Ev'rybody Wants To Be A Cat".

Eventually, the story comes to a head with Thomas delivering Duchess (who has grown quite fond of him) and her kids back home... only to have them nabbed by Edgar again and threatened with getting put away for good, causing Thomas and his band of hep cat cronies to come to the rescue in classic Disney slapstick style.

The Aristocats is fine family entertainment that'll keep the ankle-biters happily occupied, but for adult Disney buffs, this really was the beginning of a nearly two-decade creative dry spell (which wouldn't be lifted until the release of 1989's The Little Mermaid). While the characterizations by Gabor and Harris are endearing, the relationship between Duchess and Thomas doesn't have the "wrong side of the tracks" resonance of the romance at the heart of the extremely similar Lady And The Tramp. Plus, while that earlier film climaxed with a genuinely exciting fight between the Tramp and a dangerous rat threatening a helpless baby, The Aristocats ends with some silly, excessively broad action featuring Thomas and and his gang facing off against Edgar, who, I'm sorry to say, is one remarkably bland bad guy. Imagine 101 Dalmatians with those two bungling henchman as the main villains and no Cruella De Vil, and you've got an idea of how little drama the film generates as it unspools. Kids won't mind much, but adult viewers will admire the craftsmanship of the production and mildly bouncy music without getting terribly invested in the characters or narrative.

Presentation
The second DVD release of the film (following a now out-of-print 2000 issue) is the first time on home video that the film has been presented in it's theatrical aspect ratio of 1.75.1. Like the recent Jungle Book DVD, the image appears to have been cropped slightly at the top and bottom of the frame, with little added to the sides, which will probably irritate OAR purists (last year's Secret Of NIMH SE spilt the difference by including both it's 1:33.1 and 1:85.1 ratios on the same 2-disc set). That said, the image seems well-balanced, and the sparkling new transfer is up to the typically excellent quality fans have come to expect from Disney's animated titles. There's only a smattering of speckles and other print irregularities here and there, and the colors pop (especially during the distinctly psychedelic "Ev'rybody Wants To Be A Cat" number). The soundtrack has also been upgraded to a 5.1 English presentation (sadly, no original mono mix has been included), which nicely replicates the film's pleasant (if undistinguished) musical score and fine voice work. Obviously a 1970 animated movie mix isn't going to blow you through the back wall of your living room, but what's here sounds just fine and dandy. Subtitles are presented in English.

Extras
This one-disc affair is obviously not as lavish as recent Disney 2-disc efforts like The Jungle Book or Peter Pan, but, hey, the film doesn't really deserve that kind of "all-time classic" stroking. What is here can likely be consumed in a single sitting, including a deleted song, "She Never Felt Alone", with the film's co-composer, Richard M. Sherman, introducing and performing the tune (to be sung by Madame Bonfamille to her cats early in the film, and reprised by Duchess later when she describes to Thomas the life she's eager to get back to) on piano and describing why it was cut. There's also a completely useless Music & More section that simply offers direct access to all of the film's musical numbers (uh, why not just use the scene selection menu? Oh, that's right, because that would make sense), some Games & Activities for the kiddies, including a Disney Virtual Kitten (remember those Tamagotchi virtual pets? Same basic idea) and Fun With Language Game (eh), and a Backstage Disney section including the following:

-The Sherman Brothers: The Aristocrats Of Disney Songs (4:24) is a too-brief look at the career of the veteran Disney songwriting duo (Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book) and their contribution to The Aristocats.

-Aristocats Scrapbook offers 18 pages worth of still frames featuring early developmental art by Ken Anderson, as well as peeks behind the scenes, reproductions of the covers of some tie-in comic books, the original soundtrack LP and the theatrical poster, and the film's world premiere in December of 1970.

-The Great Cat Family is a 12:50 excerpt from The Wonderful World Of Disney dated Sept. 19th, 1956, with Uncle Walt narrating a history of the domestication of cats in ancient Egypt, their importance in helping battle the Black Plague in medieval Europe by serving as mobile rat traps, and their persecution during the era of the Salem Witch Trials in America for supposedly acting as vessels for evil spirits. This is a pretty nifty piece all around, with some nicely stylized animation.

-Bonus Short "Bath Day" (6:39) is a cute short with Figaro the kitten (introduced in 1940's Pinocchio, and when is that film getting it's long-overdue SE reissue?) getting all spruced up by Minnie Mouse and getting mercilessly teased by a gang of scruffy alley cats, until he ends up turning the tables.

Sneak Peeks offers the obligatory hard-sell trailers for other Disney product, including The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (1:01 - that thing we said about not doing direct-to-DVD sequel/prequels to our animated classics anymore? We lied), Twitches 2 (0:56), Little Einsteins: Race For Space (0:52), Tinkerbell (0:47 - Brittany Murphy alert!), My Friends: Tigger & Pooh (0:32), Handy Manny: Fixing It Right (1:11), 101 Dalmatians: Platinum Edition (1:27), the new Pixar feature Wall-E (1:37 - can we please have a moratorium of the use of the song "Brazil" in movie trailers?), Snow Buddies (2:13), Hannah Montana: One In A Million (1:14) and the Blu-Ray release of Sleeping Beauty (1:57).

There's no audio commentary during the feature itself, but that's okay.

Bottom Line
A minor entry in the Disney cartoon filmography, The Aristocats is certainly fun, wholesome, and enjoyable, but lacks a certain something to distinguish itself from many others of it's "funny animal" ilk (at least no one farts). If you want a superior Disney 'toon about animals in Paris, check out Brad Bird's marvelous Pixar feature Ratatouille.