As a young child, there were a number of Disney films I watched on loop. Amongst them were Oliver & Company, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Robin Hood and The Aristocats. Those four films share the unfortunate distinction of being classified as part of Disney’s “Dark Age.”
Disney films are classified as falling into “eras.” The foundational classics of the 30s and 40s count as the “Golden Age.” The next batch of Disney classics (running from Cinderella to The Jungle Book). came to be known as the Silver Age. The “dreams come true” musicals of the 90s (you the ones that were now being soullessly remade) count as “the Renaissance.” Finally, the years between the Silver and Renaissance ages count as “the Dark Age.”
I recently rewatched Aristocats (1970) and was pleasantly surprised. In some ways, I liked it more than I did as a child. It fascinated me that this children’s cartoon revolved around an absurd plot about estates law, and pulpy sexual tension. O’Malley the Alley Cat audaciously flirts with Duchess the uptown lady. He also introduces her to his jazzy friends, who describe themselves as “swingers.”
The Dark Age epithet is accounted for by various reasons. It was Disney’s first era following the death of Walt. It also saw the introduction of more repetitive animation techniques. Finally, the films were less profitable at the box office than those that come before and after them.
One of the things that makes the Aristocats so intriguing, is how low-stakes its plot is. The film begins as a wealthy Parisian bachelorette draws up her will. She is assisted by her lawyer, George, whose role in the film is quite minimal, but very memorable (“ta, ra, ra boom de-ay”).
As “Madame” draws up her will, her beloved butler Edgar secretly listens in. Edgar is appalled when he learns that she intends on making her cats the sole beneficiaries of her will (though she calls for Edgar to inherit her estate after the cats die). Edgar, a man of indeterminate age, worries that he will never receive his inheritance because cats have “9 lives.” He thus descends to villainy, and catnaps his financial rivals.
Edgar stands in stark contrast to the villains of the Disney renaissance. Ursula kept a vault of imprisoned souls. Scar wanted to be king. Claude Frollo wanted to maintain the tyranny of social-conservative order. All were willing to kill for their ends. Edgar, by contrast, never goes so far as to kill his enemies. His evil ambition, meanwhile, is simply to get a fortune that would otherwise “be used” by a small family of cats.
And, how do the cats defeat this evil Edgar? Do they “man-up” and fight an epic battle like Simba? Do they find a handsome prince to fight an epic battle for them, like Ariel or Belle? Not really. Mostly, they have a fun jaunt across the French countryside, laugh at a drunk goose, and play some jazz. Only as the film winds down do they face off against Edgar in a brief, Looney-Toonish scuffle.
As I write this, I’m reading a book called Back to Our Future by journalist and former Bernie Sanders campaign advisor David Sirota. Sirota observes how 1980s pop culture mirrored the political shifts of the Reagan era. Lesser offenders like E.T. and Back to the Future respectively embodied the vilification of the government and nostalgia for the innocent-50s. More ideological works like Rambo, G.I. Joe, Top Gun and Red Dawn valorized the U.S. military, and blamed government and civilian dissenters for holding back the troops in Vietnam.
Of all of pieces of media Sirota describes, one account stood out to me. In a chapter on the individualistic-branding of Michael Jordan, Sirota describes a movie called Hoosiers, which feature a high-school basketball coach benching a star player for being a ball hog. By Sirota’s account (I haven’t actually seen the movie), Hoosiers story does not follow the student athlete learning to be a team player. Instead, the team is saved when a different star athlete swoops in with his talent (team chemistry be damned, we need great men to save us!).
The Disney Dark Ages ran well in the 80s. But while Disney would never make a film with the jingoism or individualism of the Reagan-Era, the Disney Renaissance which started in 1989, nonetheless represents a pivot to the 80s ethos. Oliver and Company was the last film of the “Dark Ages.” Its villain is a cigar-smoking, businessman named Sykes. Its hero is an orphan kitten, who lives with a rag-tag team of well meaning crooks. And like The Aristocats, it does not feature a grand, hero vs villain climactic standoff. Instead, its ensemble crew somehow fumbles its way to victory.
Oliver and Company was followed by The Little Mermaid, however. And The Little Mermaid embodies everything that Sirota critiques in 80s pop-culture. Firstly, Sirota describes the 80s as a time of nostalgia for the social-conservatism of the 1950s. The Little Mermaid is probably Disney’s worst-offender in the “Princess-needs-to-be-validated-by-marrying-a-prince she just met” department. Secondly, Sirota describes the 80s as a time of hyper militarism and (anti-communist) rhetoric of good and evil. And while The Aristocats features a comic squabble with a bumbling antagonist, The Little Mermaid depicts a prince fighting a sea-witch to the death.
The Disney renaissance undoubtedly produced some great songs and iconic sidekicks. Nonetheless the cultural legacy of the 80s may have distorted our collective sense of what a “Disney movie” looks like. The 80s taught us we must all strive for greatness like Michael Jordan or King Simba. The 80s taught us that being great means fighting battles and making one’s dreams come true.
But the joy of films like The Aristocats is that they remind us that there’s more to life than grandeur, and marrying into royal families. The Aristocats is a relic of a time when Disney was unafraid to prioritize goofiness and groove over glamor. Whether it is for the hapless benevolence of Roquefort the mouse, or the unforgettable dog-duo of Napoleon and Lafayette, you should absolutely revisit this classic. Disney’s marketing team may specialize in convincing girls they all want to be princesses, but the truth is what everybody really wants is “to be a cat.”
© 2021. UniversalCinema Mag.