55 Years Ago, Disney Released One Its Most Underrated Animated Features

Everyone has a favorite Disney movie. With nearly a century’s worth films to their credit, Walt Disney Studios has made many beloved and even iconic movies that have helped define childhoods and even revolutionize filmmaking, putting out something for every moviegoer over the years. But when you ask the question of what the best Disney movie is, that’s where things get a little trickier. Many will call up films like The Little Mermaid or The Lion King, or even Frozen or go all the way back to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But there is one film that rarely comes up when people talk about Disney’s best and it’s a shame because it’s a true classic — and it’s celebrating its 55th anniversary.

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The Aristocats opened in theaters on Christmas Eve 1970 and is one of most unique animated films. One of the studio’s first completely original films. The Aristocats told the story of a family of aristocratic cats meant to inherit their mistress’s wealth, but who are thrown out into the countryside by the greedy butler. In their efforts to return home, they are aided by a feral cat and learn some much larger life lessons in the process. The film was a surprising box office success, but despite this, the film continues to be underrated to this day.

The Aristocats Was a True Original — And It Came At Just the Right Time

While most Disney movies before The Aristocats were based on some sort of existing media — think fairy tales or other books and stories — The Aristocats was an original story that began as a script for a two-part live-action episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color back in 1962. However, after years of rewrites, it was decided that it might work better in animation and the project was shelved. During that time, The Jungle Book went into production but The Aristocrats received Walt Disney’s approval — and was the final film project he personally approved prior to his death. When the film was released at last in 1970, The Aristocats marked the first post-Walt animated Disney film.

Disney’s death had a major impact on the company. The company started to abandon animation more broadly, shifting its focus to live-action. But The Aristocats ended up being something special. While the film received a mostly positive response from critics, some felt like it was only “middling” for the company, though it was praised for its music and its voice cast. Audiences, however, felt differently. The film was a huge box office hit and was particularly popular overseas. It would be years before The Aristocats’ success was replicated.

So, what makes The Aristocats so special? The characters and the story. The Aristocats is a movie that is just full of standout characters. While Marie, the kitten, is to this day perhaps the most recognizable character from the film, nearly all of the cats in the film are standouts in their own way. O’Malley the Alley Cat is classic and Scat Cat and his gang are just iconic. And of course, there’s the story. In a very real sense, The Aristocats is about found family, with Duchess and her kittens finding their way with O’Malley and, in turn, O’Malley finding a place to belong with them. There’s this beautiful sense of community that forms as Duchess and the kittens make their way back home and everyone has to come together to defeat the evil butler, Edgar.

Music Is A Key Component of Why The Aristocats is Supreme

It also really helps that The Aristocats has just an absolute banger of a soundtrack. The film draws on jazz for its inspiration. The song features notable tunes such as the title track, “The Aristocats” and “Scales and Arpeggios”, but the real showstopper is “Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat” It’s catchy, it’s fun, and it goes off into full jazz improvisation at some point, offering up a bit of glorious cacophony that is perfectly reflected in the scene it’s used in. It, quite literally, brings down the house in the movie and is one of the more iconic moments in Disney movie history. It’s super fun and it really does make you want to be a cat (or at least a cat in a cool jazz band.)

When you put it all together — the characters, the charming story, and the music — you get a movie that is a lot of fun and full of energy and that simply feels like a ray of light during a difficult time in Disney’s history. The Aristocats is certainly not perfect; even at the time of its release there were some valid critiques of its animation as it recycled some elements within the film and it was noticeable even to the untrained eye. There’s also the matter of a cat named Shun Gon who is a fairly problematic Asian stereotype (the film has a content warning on Disney+ as a result). But even with those issues, The Aristocats is still one of Disney’s greatest animated hits and deserves a place in its overall hall of fame — and if you haven’t seen it, now is a perfect time. After all, ev’rybody wants to be a cat.

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