1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. MUSIC
5. PRODUCTION
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

The 1980s were a difficult time for Disney Animation. New management from “outside studios” had come in and didn’t understand the concept of making an animated movie, nor did they particularly understand the animators. This caused a few years of conflict and misunderstandings between the two opposing sides.

On top of that, 1985 brought the Walt Disney Company one of their worst ever financial flops with the release of The Black Cauldron, a movie quite unlike anything that Disney Animation had ever produced before; it took years, and cost a fortune, to make. By pushing the boundaries with this film, they pushed many of their core audience anyway, who were not expecting this mish-mash of fantasy, adventure, and even light horror.

The pressure was on. Disney’s next movie had to change all that, and bring those families back to the theatres to experience a charming movie, reminiscent of those made during Walt Disney’s time in charge of the Disney Studios. It also had to be convincing enough for new management to believe animation was still worth it.  

Luckily, The Great Mouse Detective, released in 1986, just a year after The Black Cauldron, did make positive steps towards a renewed animation department. It is yet another adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories to sit alongside those movies and television series of earlier decades, like Basil Rathbone’s series of films, released between 1939 and 1946, and those of more contemporary times, like the BBC series Sherlock (2010-17), starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the man himself, and the 2009 movie Sherlock Holmes and its 2011 sequel, with Robert Downey Jr. portraying the famous detective.

The Great Mouse Detective wasn’t a huge hit, nor was it a particularly smooth process getting the movie made, but overall, it was certainly a move in the right direction, getting back to Disney’s basics of good story-telling, likeable characters, and being progressive with their use of technology.

Sadly, The Great Mouse Detective has not been referenced at the Disney Parks for many years, and it isn’t generally remembered even amongst Disney fans, unless they had a love for the film as a child. It’s been surpassed by the amazing movies of the “Disney Renaissance”, as well as some of the more contemporary blockbuster hits like Frozen (2013) and Encanto (2021), which seem to have more “star quality” than poor Basil.

I personally really like The Great Mouse Detective. My family never owned it on VHS for some reason, but I remember always watching it at friends’ houses, or borrowing their VHS tape, so this was a film that I did not grow up with, like many of the “Disney Renaissance” films, but one that I gradually came to enjoy.  It has an easy-to-follow plot, unlike some adaptations of Sherlock Holmes that can be difficult to keep up with. The Great Mouse Detective also benefits from strong characters and good music, in my opinion.

PLOT

The story of The Great Mouse Detective follows Basil, a mouse detective – funny about that – who is basically the Sherlock Holmes of the mouse world, living underneath that famous apartment, 221B Baker Street in London in 1897. He is asked to investigate a case brought to him by a young mouse, Olivia, whose father has been captured. Olivia was brought to Basil by Dr David Q. Dawson, a surgeon who has returned to England after being in Afghanistan for military service. Basil cleverly deduces this purely from the clothes Dawson is wearing – how very “Sherlock” of him. Basil is initially reluctant to help Olivia, not caring much that she has lost her father. But when she mentions that he was taken by a bat with a pegleg, Basil is immediately intrigued, as this bat is the henchman of Basil’s most troublesome nemesis, the evil Professor Ratigan.

Ratigan has ordered the capture of Olivia’s father, Hiram, as he is an accomplished toy maker. Ratigan wants a model robot of the current Queen, Queen Moustoria – like Queen Victoria, get it? – and he expects Hiram to do it. Ratigan plans to use this robot so that it looks like Queen Moustoria herself is giving the order for Ratigan to be the “Supreme Ruler of all Mousedom”, because naturally, a Disney villain’s ultimate goal is always for world domination. Under the threat of his daughter being kidnapped, Hiram gets to work.

Meanwhile, Basil, Dawson, and Olivia set out to find her father, with the help of Basil’s dog Toby, who can get them to places much quicker than a little mouse can, after seeing Fidget, the bat with the pegleg appear at his window. Basil orders Toby to follow his scent and they find themselves at a toy store. Here, Fidget has been told by Ratigan to collect gears, uniforms, and Olivia, so that the plan can be carried out correctly. He takes gears and uniforms from the toys in the shop, and then proceeds to take Olivia whilst Basil and Dawson are distracted by all the toys coming alive.

Basil is annoyed at himself for letting this happen. But Dawson finds a clue – Fidget’s checklist. Back at his apartment, Basil uses his lab equipment and discovers that this piece of paper came from the “Rat Trap”, a tavern by the sewers. Disguised as sailors, Basil and Dawson head over there to try and get some information on the whereabouts of Ratigan. On mentioning Ratigan’s name, the bar maid and locals become suspicious of the two, and Dawson accidentally drinks the drugged beer that was served to them. After he starts a bar fight, during the performance of a bar singer, Basil ushers Dawson out of the tavern, as he has seen Fidget heading to supposedly Ratigan’s headquarters; they follow the bat.

But when they reach the headquarters, they discover it was all a trap and they have been captured too. They also see Olivia is there, trapped inside a bottle. Ratigan believes he’s won, and ties Basil and Dawson to a mouse trap. And, much like the board game Mouse Trap, he has rigged the mouse trap to be squashed after a series of contraptions have been set off, which will all begin once Ratigan’s song, saying farewell to Basil, finishes on the record player. Basil seems to have lost all hope, but Dawson inspires him to work out how to escape this trap. He manages to do so with some quick-thinking, simultaneously freeing Olivia from her bottle prison. The three quickly head to Buckingham Palace.

At Buckingham Palace, Ratigan and his henchmen have successfully supplanted the Queen with their robotic figure, and the real Queen is set to be fed to Ratigan’s Persian cat, Felicia. However, Basil and the others arrive just in time to save her. Toby chases Felicia away, and Basil ties up Fidget and the henchmen. Meanwhile, Ratigan has been named the Supreme Ruler and is detailing his list of rules to those in the palace. Basil manages to take control of the robot and announces that this was all a ruse by Ratigan.

Angry at Basil for ruining yet another of his great plans, Ratigan and Fidget escape on his dirigible, and take Olivia hostage. With Olivia’s father, Basil and Dawson create a rudimentary airship, using a matchbox, balloons, and a flag, and set off after Ratigan. Basil jumps onto Ratigan’s ship, and the ship crashes into Big Ben. Ratigan, Basil, and Olivia are thrown into the clock. Inside, Basil tries to rescue Olivia from being squished by one of the mechanisms, whilst also dodging Ratigan’s pursuit of him. Basil manages to hand over Olivia to her father on the makeshift airship, but Basil is attacked by Ratigan on the hands of Big Ben. Soon, the clock strikes 10, with the noise causing Ratigan to fall seemingly to his death – but not before he grabs Basil to take him down with him. Dawson, Hiram, and Olivia look on helplessly, believing their friend to be gone for good.

However, this is Basil we’re talking about, and we soon see that in the process of him falling, he grabbed some of Ratigan’s broken airship and managed to create some contraption that brings him back up to Big Ben. He boards the airship and they head home.

Olivia and her father leave for their home, thanking Basil and Dawson for all their help. Despite Basil’s initial dislike for Olivia, and children in general, it is quite a tearful goodbye for him. Dawson is about to leave Basil as well, when a new client arrives needing Basil’s help. Basil introduces Dawson as his investigative partner, so Dawson decides not to leave, and the two continue to work together solving further cases for the mice of London.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Though The Great Mouse Detective may appear to just be a loose adaptation of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in actual fact, the movie is inspired by a children’s book series, a five-part series titled Basil of Baker Street, written by Eve Titus. The books were published between 1971 and 1982. This series was clearly based on the Sherlock Holmes stories, with the characters of Basil and Dawson being based on Sherlock and Dr. Watson, and Ratigan being inspired by Moriarity. The Disney film bears little resemblance to Titus’ books though, except for the location and time setting of Victorian England, and the three main characters of Basil, Dawson, and Ratigan, with some differences. Dawson, for one thing, is actually an intelligent resource in the books, whereas in The Great Mouse Detective, Dawson is a bit of a bumbler. Ratigan in the books is meant to be a big mouse who is frequently mistaken for a rat, whereas in the film, Ratigan is actually a rat, who insists on being referred to as a mouse. Only, one of his henchmen forgets this rule when he gets drunk and ends up being eaten by Ratigan’s cat, Felicia… “Oh, my dear Bartholomew. I’m afraid that you have gone and upset me.”

But Basil of Baker Street still remains as the key figure of the story, the professional detective who never gets anything wrong. Most of the time. Originally, Basil was going to be like the Sherlock Holmes of the novel world; a cold, detached man, albeit one of unmatched intelligence, who reacts abnormally to social situations. In the BBC series, Sherlock (2010-17), Holmes even refers to himself as “a high-functioning sociopath”, rightly or wrongly. When Disney tried this approach with the character of Basil, it didn’t work, nor did their attempts to make him more like Bing Crosby. In the end, the basis for Basil’s character actually came from actor Leslie Howard’s portrayal of the strict, arrogant Professor Henry Higgins in the film Pygmalion (1938), along with the voice performance of Barrie Ingham[1]. Basil of Baker Street is quite egocentric and unfeeling at the start of the movie, ignoring Olivia’s pleas for help, being too busy with his deductions and experiments to notice that this young girl is completely lost without her father. As the story progresses though, Basil becomes more caring. He saves Olivia’s life in the clockwork of Big Ben; is visibly pleased to see her returned to her father and heading home, even though he still doesn’t know or can’t pronounce her surname, a recurring joke in the movie; and he clearly values the friendship of Dawson because he quickly gives him a job as his assistant to stop him from leaving. Basil goes through a lot of character development and personal growth in the film.

As I’ve just mentioned, Basil was voiced by English actor Barrie Ingham. Before The Great Mouse Detective, Ingham had performed on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, as well as performing in musicals, such as in the 1973 London production of Gypsy alongside Angela Lansbury, and in the 1981 revival of Camelot with Richard Harris as King Arthur; Ingham played King Pellinore. After The Great Mouse Detective, Ingham starred in the Josh Kirby… Time Warrior! Series of films from 1995 to 1996, and in Jekyll & Hyde – The Musical (2001) as Sir Danvers Carew, after appearing in the Broadway musical of the show from 1997 to the 2001 closing. Ingham was also in the final cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Aspects of Love on Broadway, from 1990 to 1991, as Sir George Dillingham, alongside Sarah Brightman. Ingham passed away in January 2015, with his final screen role being in the sci-fi miniseries The Triangle (2005).

Despite Basil not being quite like Sherlock Holmes, you will hear Sherlock Holmes in this movie. He is seen in his apartment, 221B, and the lines are from an actual recording of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes in a 1966 telling of “The Red-Headed League”. Rathbone was most known for playing the character of Sherlock Holmes in film. There were originally financial disagreements over using the recording in the movie but a last-minute deal was made to keep it in. Basil of Baker Street is named after Basil Rathbone[2].

You can’t have Sherlock Holmes without Dr. Watson, so in this case, you can’t have Basil without Dr. Dawson. Major Dr. David Q. Dawson has returned to England after serving in the Queen’s 66^th Regiment in Afghanistan, something that Basil deduces immediately on seeing Dawson for the first time. Although Dawson can be a bit of a fool, getting him and Basil into more scrapes than necessary by being clumsy and overly trusting, he is very warm and caring, being very protective of young Olivia when Basil gets too caught up in the thrill of the chase. Dawson is very different to Dr. Watson, who generally doesn’t cause Sherlock problems by tripping over things, or drinking drugged beer! He is a good opposite to Basil though, and the two complement each other more so than they disrupt each other. The appearance of Dawson was modelled, in both appearance and behaviour, after animator Eric Larson, one of Disney’s “Nine Old Men”, who worked at the studios from 1933 until his retirement in 1986. Larson had trained many of the animators working on The Great Mouse Detective, and was the animation consultant on this film, his final role with the company before his retirement. Larson died two years later in 1988[3].

Val Bettin provided the voice for Dawson. After appearing in a few movies in the 1980s and voicing Dawson for The Great Mouse Detective, Bettin became a voice actor, taking over the voice role of the Sultan from Douglas Seale for the direct-to-video sequels Aladdin: The Return of Jafar (1994) and Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996), as well as the television series Aladdin (1994-95). Bettin also voiced characters in the television series’ Mighty Ducks (1996-97) and Hercules (1998-99), as well as voicing Professor Porter in the 1999 Tarzan video game. Despite being American, Bettin was adept at British accents.

We also have the two Flavershams: Olivia and Hiram; the ones whose case the whole plot revolves around. Hiram is an only parent after the death of Olivia’s mother and he clearly adores his daughter, and working as a toymaker, he makes her numerous special gifts, like a dancing ballerina mouse. The opening of The Great Mouse Detective is similar to Pinocchio (1940) in that he has a workshop just like Geppetto, filled with puppets, which I don’t like much… There’s also that scene in the toy store, which I do not like either – though there is a short Dumbo cameo, which is nice. Hiram is kidnapped in quite a violent fashion from his shop by Ratigan’s bat henchman, Fidget, as Olivia hides in a cupboard. She is found wandering the streets by Dawson as she tries to find Basil of Baker Street to help her. Olivia is quite sweet as a character, and it is very sad seeing her so distraught at losing her father. It’s great that she is reunited with him and all that, but I can’t ignore just how annoying she can be at times, not doing as she’s told and then getting kidnapped herself as a result. Why can’t anyone just do as they’re told in the movies? I would. Basil is not overly kind or sympathetic to Olivia at times, but she either isn’t bothered or doesn’t seem to notice, as she has Dawson, as well as Basil’s faithful sidekick Toby, the lovable, energetic Basset Hound.

There were hundreds of applicants for the role of Olivia, but in the end, Susanne Pollatschek, was chosen; a girl from Glasgow who had no formal training. Olivia’s father Hiram is voiced by the same actor who voiced Scrooge McDuck for over 40 years, Alan Young. He was chosen for the specific Scottish accent that he could replicate. Young began voicing Scrooge in the 1974 Disneyland Records album An Adaptation of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, and voiced the character again for the short film Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983), which was nominated for Best Short Film at the Academy Awards, reprising the role for Disney until his death in 2016.  Before this, Young had his own sketch show The Alan Young Show during the 1940s and 50s, and appeared in movies like The Time Machine (1960). 

Moving on to easily the best character in the whole movie, the villain Professor Ratigan. Although he is not referenced often within the Disney Villain franchise, I think Ratigan is one of Disney’s best villains. He’s a completely over-the-top, charismatic showman, yet he’s also evil and ruthless at the same time, not caring one bit about feeding someone to his big white Persian cat, Felicia – reminiscent of Bond villain Blofeld’s cat – or about taking someone hostage. He has a group of loyal henchmen, which includes Felicia, and a crew of mice – and one lizard, which is a bit odd. It also includes Fidget, the bat with a peg leg, voiced by Candy Candido in his final role, and supposedly his favourite one. Candido had also voiced the Indian Chief in Peter Pan (1953), one of Maleficent’s goons in Sleeping Beauty (1959), and the Captain of the Guard in Robin Hood (1973) for Disney Animation. He was known for his deep bass voice.

Animator Glen Keane, who would go on to animate characters like Ariel and Beast, designed Ratigan. Originally, Ratigan was going to be a very skinny, weaselly-looking rat, but that made him look too similar to Basil, so they had to make him bigger. The character just wasn’t working, until Keane heard the actor Vincent Price in the 1950 film Champagne for Caeser, where Price played corporate chieftain Burnbridge Waters. Keane loved the sharp speed of his lines. Suddenly, Ratigan became a huge rat instead. Supposedly, the stature of Ratigan was based on that of then-Disney president Ron Miller, Walt’s son-in-law, who was 6ft 6in, an ex-football player, and physically intimidating. Luckily, Ron Miller did not recognise anything of himself in the character when the designs were shown to him and he allowed them to go ahead! Vincent Price was 75 years old when he was cast for the film and he generally enjoyed recording for the character, saying in interviews that he “adored” Ratigan. Price made sure to be larger-than-life in his sessions and wanted to put some fun into the evil. He also noticed that his expressive eyebrow movements were put into the character[4]. Ratigan is just an overall great character; devious but also funny.

Vincent Price was an incredible character actor, with numerous credits to his name. Just some of these include appearing in adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe works, such as The House of Usher (1960) and The Haunted Palace (1963). Price also appeared in The Three Musketeers (1948) as Richelieu, and as Baka in the religious epic The Ten Commandments (1956). In popular culture, Price is the voice speaking at the end of the Michael Jackson song “Thriller” and is The Inventor in Tim Burton’s movie Edward Scissorhands (1990). It just so happened that Tim Burton’s lifelong idol was Vincent Price; therefore, Price also narrated the short film Vincent (1982) by Burton. Price died in October 1993, with one of his final film credits being the voice of Zigzag the Grand Vizier in the unfinished animated film The Thief and the Cobbler; a version of which was released in September 1993. Price has received many lifetime achievement awards for his contributions to cinema from organisations such as the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films; the Bram Stoker Awards; and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Comedic actor Bill Hader used to impersonate Vincent Price during his tenure on Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2013, as did actors Dan Aykroyd and Michael McKean during their stints on the show. Well, they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

MUSIC

In what was surely not what he was most known for, Vincent Price actually sings two of the three original songs that were written for The Great Mouse Detective. Yes, the villain got two songs in this Disney movie! And they are both great, in my opinion. The first is “The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind” and this is Ratigan’s big showpiece that reveals his devious plan to supplant the Queen and make himself “The Supreme Ruler of All Mousedom”. It’s incredibly flashy, full of champagne and jewels, that I can only assume were stolen. Ratigan even has a top hat, cane, and huge cape to fully ensure he is the centre of attention. He even plays the harp at one point as he goes through his sad backstory of being hounded by Basil. The song is briefly halted by Felicia the cat being called, but the rest of the mice soon get back in line and sing about how wonderful Ratigan is again. It’s a very funny, camp song.

His other song is called “Goodbye, So Soon”. It’s such an upbeat song, considering it is telling Basil that he and his friends are about to be eliminated for good. It shows Ratigan’s extreme over-confidence, as it is playing on a record to Basil and Dawson as they are tied to a mouse trap, awaiting their death, because once the record stops playing, there is a very elaborate trigger of mechanisms to eventually release an iron to squish them. Getting this carried away with the overall performance proves to be Ratigan’s undoing, as the song’s length gives Basil enough time to calculate a plan to free all of them, but it’s hilarious. “Goodbye, So Soon” also reappears during the End Credits, as a goodbye to the audience, but don’t worry; this version sounds a lot less threatening than Ratigan’s. You wouldn’t want to traumatise the kids at this stage.

Both songs were written by Henry Mancini, Larry Grossman and Ellen Fitzhugh. Grossman and Fitzhugh had written the 1985 musical Grind together, with their score being nominated for Best Original Score at the Tony Awards that years. Grossman later composed the scores for Disney’s movies such as Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998) and The Princess Diaries 2 (2004) for Disney. Fitzhugh wrote the lyrics for the songs in The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue (1997).

Henry Mancini won numerous accolades during his career as a composer, winning four Academy Awards, two of which were for his work on Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) and another for his score for Victor/Victoria (1982). Mancini is also known for composing “The Pink Panther Theme”; “Theme from Love Story”, the 1970 film; and the theme for the Peter Gunn television series (1958-61), just to name a few. Mancini died in June 1994; he received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. As well as writing the music for the two songs, Mancini composed the score for The Great Mouse Detective, with this being his first time working on an animated feature. I particularly like the “Main Title” of the film, especially its opening section, which sets you up for a high-paced adventure. “Big Ben Chase” is also a good piece of music, especially as the Big Ben fight scene has barely any dialogue, so the music has to tell the story, and increase the sense of peril, which it does.

The other song in the movie is “Let Me Be Good to You”, which is performed by a mouse bar dancer, which Basil and Dawson hear when they are trying to find their way to Ratigan’s lair. After a quiet introduction, the song changes tone quite quickly, moving into a full-on showgirl number, even down to the point where the mouse pulls off her skirt and starts dancing in a leotard with a feathery tail…And the mice men sure are loving it… I mean, it’s not really risqué, but it is a bit surprising to see in a Disney film.

There was always going to be a song at this point in the film, but it wasn’t that easy for the team to settle on what the song should sound like. Very early on in production, then-CEO of the Walt Disney Company Michael Eisner suggested that perhaps Michael Jackson or Madonna could perform the song here. Henry Mancini had written a song for the scene, called “Are You the One Who Loves Me?”, which was a parody of a Victorian Music Hall tune. It was even recorded by Shani Wallis, who played Nancy in the movie Oliver! (1968). Jeffrey Katzenberg, then-Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios said the tune wasn’t contemporary enough and wanted to bring in Melissa Manchester. She was a Grammy award winner in 1982 for her recording of the song “You Should Hear How She Talks About You”, and two movie themes that she had performed were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1980; “Through the Eyes of Love” from Ice Castles (1978) and “I’ll Never Say Goodbye” from The Promise (1979)[5]. Manchester was a big name at the time, so you can see why Katzenberg hired her. She wrote and performed “Let Me Be Good To You” for the film. Manchester would return to Disney to write the songs for Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure (2001).

PRODUCTION

The Great Mouse Detective gets the honour of being the first Disney animated film to be officially approved by the new Disney management of Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner, President and Chief Operating Officer Frank Wells, and Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios Jeffrey Katzenberg, who came into the company in 1984. However, the first time that an animal version of Sherlock Holmes had been considered at Disney Animation was actually during production on The Rescuers (1977). Eve Titus’ books Basil of Baker Street were mentioned as a possible basis for this Sherlock Holmes-inspired movie. Since this animal detective movie would end up being quite similar to The Rescuers, it was decided the project would have to wait a while.

It’s a good thing too, because Disney’s story for Basil of Baker Street took years to figure out, as it was discussed in the early 1980s with former CEO Ron Miller. Originally, Olivia was going to be older and a potential love interest for Basil, however, Miller suggested making her a little girl instead to gain audience sympathy. Other ideas such as a seedy informant of Basil’s were removed, and a whole instrumental scene around lamplighters, written by Henry Mancini, was also cut. Burny Mattinson and John Musker were named as the directors of the film, but when Ron Miller was ousted from the Walt Disney Company in 1984, Roy E. Disney wanted Mattinson to be both producer and director. Eventually, it was decided this was too much work, and another director, Ron Clements, was brought in; Clements had always been a fan of Sherlock Holmes. Over three years of work had been done on the movie by the time the new management came in, yet in order to proceed, the entire film had to be re-pitched.

So, the storyboards were laid out and the team went through the whole movie. The pitch took around three hours, and by the end of it, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg were very confused and couldn’t even remember most of what they’d been told. It was decided that as the animators were being paid whether they made this particular movie or not, the movie was indeed approved – but with two caveats. The first was that the movie’s release date was being brought forward to July 1986, instead of the original date of Christmas 1987, giving the animators only a year and a half to animate the full movie. The second caveat was that the budget was going to be less than half of the budget of The Black Cauldron (1985), which ended up at around $44 million when it was released in July 1985.

The Black Cauldron was a huge failure at the box-office, something that would not be forgotten quickly by the new management, who did not have sufficient time to “fix” the movie before its release date. To make matters worse, in Christmas 1985, One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) was re-released in theatres and made $33 million, making it the most successful re-release in Disney history. Disney Animation were already concerned for their jobs, as they had been moved out of the original animation building in Burbank, over to a building in Glendale, which was an uninspiring place to say the least. The whole department were just waiting to be fired, as rumours had also been circulating that management planned to simply re-issue all the previous Disney animated films as there were plenty “in the vault”, and didn’t want to make any more. To celebrate what they believed to be “the end of Disney Animation”, the animators acted out a full-scale re-enactment of Apocalypse Now (1979) in their dingy office space. Finally, the two warring sides of Jeffrey Katzenberg and the animators had to settle their differences; Katzenberg told them he wanted to learn about animation, as he had never worked on animated movies before, having come from Paramount with Michael Eisner, but that they had to make good movies that were financially viable. It was decided by the animators that it was best to get on board and see where this wild ride took them, so work on Basil of Baker Street continued[6].

The animators were inexperienced and unproven, although some of these did become very big names in the Disney world: Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, Rob Minkoff, Mark Dindal, and Ruben Aquino. The directing team of Musker and Clements were also inexperienced, and they were not given much time to animate the movie. The runtime was cut from 90 minutes to around 75 minutes to save money, using a smaller cast of characters and a tight, fast-paced story. However, a lower budget didn’t mean that the team wanted to forget about technological innovation.

Although The Black Cauldron contains the first ever use of computer-assisted animation in a Disney film, it was never marketed that way, whereas the two-minute computer-assisted scene in what became known as The Great Mouse Detective was; this was the first time hand-drawn characters had been added to a computer-generated background and it can all be seen in the final battle between Ratigan and Basil. The finale was first going to be a fight scene on the hands of Big Ben’s clock, but layout artist Mike Pereza asked if it could be restaged inside the clock, because he had been inspired by a similar scene in Hayao Miyazaki’s animated movie Castle of Cagliostro (1979)[7]. Peraza was even allowed inside Big Ben for research purposes, even though public tours were not allowed. He noticed how the entire tower would vibrate every time the bells chimed, which I think is recreated well in the movie. Peraza also made sure to capture any photographs from ground height so they were at “mouse level” to replicate how the mice characters would see and interact with everything. Whilst in London, other popular sites were photographed in this way, such as Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge[8]. Having the mice navigate the perilous clockwork and gears made for an exciting finale, and the scene recreates 54 moving gears, winches, ratchets, beams and pulleys. I particularly like the part where Olivia is trapped within a cog about to be squashed by its counterpart, when Basil grabs a rope which takes him up to pull her out of there just in time. The computer allowed Disney to play about with camera angles to suit the action of the scene, instead of being limited to panning into artwork. This paved the way for further use of computer animated sequences within animated films, for example, the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast (1991)[9].

Although the movie was originally titled Basil of Baker Street, as per the book series, the marketing department changed the movie to The Great Mouse Detective, which angered some of those who’d worked on the film. Disney said that test audiences did not like how “British” the title sounded, but to others, it felt that they were “dumbing down” the title for no good reason. One artist even sent out a fake memo, in the name of Peter Schneider, then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, saying that all previous titles of Disney animated movies were to be renamed. Some examples of these included “Seven Little Men Help a Girl” for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and “The Girl with the See-Through Shoes” for Cinderella (1950). This was another case of animators clashing with the new management team, and the joke soon spiralled out of control to the point where Peter Schneider called all of the animators to a meeting. But instead of telling everyone who wasn’t happy to get out, Schneider said he wanted to make great movies here and that settled the animators down to some extent. The memo was so infamous that it even ended up as a category on Jeopardy! in January 1987[10]. It is worth noting though that in some countries, including the UK, the film was released under the name Basil the Great Mouse Detective, so this title is kind of the best of both names.

RECEPTION

The Great Mouse Detective was released on 2^nd July 1986, and brought in a total of $24 million against a budget of $12 million. The film was accompanied by the short Clock Cleaners (1937) which starred Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. The Great Mouse Detective received fairly positive reviews from critics and audiences. Some said that this was Disney Animation being as creative and free as they had been in the earliest days of Disney Animation. The use of computer animation was praised, as well as the interesting backgrounds. Many enjoyed the villain of Ratigan and the quick pacing. It was seen as a fun, enjoyable Disney movie, though some do not feel it ranked highly against others in the Disney catalogue. This was all very positive and a good step forward for Disney Animation.

However, the shine of their success faded four months later in November 1986, when the movie An American Tail (1986), another “mouse movie”, which was a collaboration between Universal Studios, Steven Spielberg, and Don Bluth – the animator who had worked at the Disney Studios up until 1979 when he left the Studios taking half the animators with him – would do even better at the box-office, beating out The Great Mouse Detective by $22 million. At the time, An American Tail became the highest-grossing non-Disney animated movie in history. This was a bit of a blow to the Disney Studios, but it is worth noting that many critics felt An American Tail was depressing, and compared it less favourably to The Great Mouse Detective. The Great Mouse Detective was later re-released in theatres in 1992 under the name The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective, before being brought out on VHS and Laserdisc.

LEGACY

Even with this legacy of setting Disney Animation back on the path to greatness, The Great Mouse Detective is not generally remembered by a large proportion of Disney fans, nor is it referenced at the Disney Parks. After that fake memo by an unnamed Disney animator, as retaliation, marketing funds were apparently pulled from the movie prior to its release. Roy E. Disney personally funded the creation of “meet-and-greet” characters for the parks, which is why costumes for only Basil and Ratigan existed[11]. These two were seen at the Disney Parks, at least the two US parks – it is unclear if they were ever at Tokyo Disneyland, the only other Disney Park to be open in 1986 – around the time of the film’s release but gradually became rarer and rarer to see, before apparently being officially retired in 2004. I have not been able to find evidence of Basil or Ratigan being seen since then, even at Special Events, but perhaps their time to return will come. But with all Disney animated movies, including the forgotten ones, you can see a tiny clip of The Great Mouse Detective within the finale of the Wonderful World of Disney Animation nighttime show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

Around the movie’s milestone anniversaries, you are most likely to find merchandise, though you might be lucky and be able to find a pin or two of the characters. In 2021, for the film’s 35^th anniversary, a MagicBand and Christmas ornament were released. As part of the Disney100, different decade collections were released. Disappointingly, The Great Mouse Detective was not included in the 80s Decade Collection line, which instead chose to focus on Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers (1989-90), Oliver & Company (1988), and Roger Rabbit. Even The Black Cauldron (1985) got a new MagicBand+ here!

The animated characters did make appearances in some episodes of House of Mouse (2001-03) and in the short film Once Upon a Studio (2023) alongside pretty much every character in Disney Animation history. In recent years, there have also been Funko Pop’s in the form of Ratigan and Basil, and Ratigan was included in the Disney Villainous board game, alongside Scar from The Lion King (1994) and Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) in the Evil Comes Prepared expansion pack.

Another thing to mention is that in 2002, there was going to be a Mickey Mouse short in honour of his 75^th anniversary that would have featured Basil of Baker Street helping Minnie Mouse find Mickey who has been “mousenapped”. It was to be called The Search for Mickey Mouse and would’ve featured multiple cameos from Disney characters, but was cancelled due to struggles writing an interesting story idea. A live-action remake of The Great Mouse Detective was also rumoured in 2019, however, it was never announced by Disney as being in development, and no progress has been made on it.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If it weren’t for The Great Mouse Detective, it’s possible the Disney Animation department would have ceased to exist. After all, it’s not like Disney weren’t aware that they had a huge list of titles that could simply be re-released over and over again, especially as the VHS tape was becoming popular in the 1980s. The directors had a huge part to play in saving Disney animation as Ron Clements and John Musker would be the two to pitch the story and then direct The Little Mermaid (1989), the film that began Disney’s “Renaissance”.

I really like The Great Mouse Detective. It’s one of those Disney films that I watch over and over again, and never tire of. It shows a big turning point in Disney animation after several years of trouble, and it’s a good watch. It’s definitely one of those underrated classics that deserves more attention than it gets. It will always be one of my favourites regardless.

---

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 3 (2014), ‘The Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street’, pp. 55-65.

[2] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Films (2015), ‘The Great Mouse Detective (1986)’, pp. 76-78.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 3 (2014), ‘The Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street’, pp. 55-65.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘In Their Own Words: Glen Keane and Vincent Price on Ratigan’, CartoonResearch.com, 22^nd October 2021.

[5] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 3 (2014), ‘The Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street’, pp. 55-65.

[6] Credit: Don Hahn, Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009).

[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Films (2015), ‘The Great Mouse Detective (1986)’, pp. 76-78.

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 3 (2014), ‘The Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street’, pp. 55-65.

[9] Credit: Jim Fanning, ‘Did You Know? Unravel 8 Sneaky Facts from The Great Mouse Detective’, D23 (online), 30th June 2016.

[10] Credit: Don Hahn, Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009).

[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 3 (2014), ‘The Great Mouse Detective: Basil of Baker Street’, pp. 55-65.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

The 1970s saw Disney Animation go into a bit of a slump.

Though The Jungle Book (1967) was praised by the majority of critics and viewers, this was at least partly down to the fact that Walt Disney himself ensured his full involvement in the story and development of the animated feature. The popularity of The Jungle Book was likely not because of a growing interest and appreciation for Disney animated films, since the 1960s were not a great time for Disney Animation either.

Sadly, after Walt Disney’s death in 1966, it was clear that the Disney Animation department was struggling and declining at the beginning of the 1970s. Their following two releases of The Aristocats (1970) and Robin Hood (1973) were considered to be “mediocre” and “low-quality” by many.

However, in 1977, the release of The Rescuers would change the direction of Disney’s Animation department. With its touching story and easy-to-follow plot, not to mention its humour and great voice cast, it was received very well by audiences.

Yet, although The Rescuers has been labelled one of the movies that “saved” Disney Animation – something that seems to have been needed every decade or so ever since Disney Animation began – The Rescuers is not a film that many people speak highly of, or speak about at all. It’s one of those Disney films that doesn’t have a huge fan base and is therefore forgotten about by those who don’t love it, becoming just one in a long list of Disney movies, good or bad.

I quite like The Rescuers. It’s not one of my favourites, but it is one that I revisit fairly often, although if The Rescuers was a full hour-and-a-half feature, as became Disney’s standard from their “Renaissance Era” in the 1990s, I probably wouldn’t like it as much. It’s a film that is good partly because it’s not particularly long, only about 75 minutes in total. I could say this about many other Disney films that I like, for example, Cinderella (1950), Fantasia 2000 (1999), and Alice in Wonderland (1951). In this case, it was a good idea for The Rescuers’ storyline not be pushed to fit a standard viewing time, otherwise I think it would’ve been tedious to sit through.

The Rescuers is not the most artistically spectacular or the most clever Disney animated film, but it has charming characters, a fantastically flamboyant villain, and some pretty background scenes, as well as a soundtrack of melancholic but enchanting music.

PLOT

The Rescuers starts with a brief opening scene of a little girl on a riverboat in the bayou, dropping a bottle into a lake. We see this bottle’s journey through the lake and the sea during the opening credits. The bottle is found with a message inside by a group of mice, who take it to the Rescue Aid Society, a team of international mice delegates who answer children’s cries for help. The Rescue Aid Society headquarters is based within the United Nations headquarters in New York City, and the mice delegates travel to the meetings in the bags of the human UN delegates.  The Rescue Aid Society has set up an emergency meeting in order to read the message and discuss which mouse or mice should take the assignment should someone need rescuing. There, they find that a girl called Penny, missing from Morningside Orphanage, needs help, however, her message is water-damaged, so that’s all the information they have. Bianca, the beautiful delegate from Hungary, begs to take the assignment, with the Chairman allowing her to choose a co-agent to go with her. She surprisingly chooses Bernard, the nervous janitor, and they set off to find out where Penny may have gone.

After taking some wrong turns on the way to Morningside Orphanage, where Bernard manages to upset a lion at the zoo, Bernard and Bianca make it to Penny’s orphanage. They speak to the resident cat, Rufus, who tells them that Penny would not run away, but that a strange woman who owns a nearby pawn shop had offered her a ride a few weeks before.

Bianca and Bernard go to the pawn shop to look for clues. They find Madame Medusa, a sharp-tongued, easily irritated, gaudily dressed woman. They overhear a phone call: Medusa is complaining that her partner, Snoops, hasn’t managed to get “the girl” to find the diamond, and that she’ll be coming to Devil’s Bayou tonight to remedy that. Realising this girl must be Penny, Bianca and Bernard try and follow her in her car, but she drives like such a maniac that they lose her. The next day, they book a flight to Devil’s Bayou with Fly Albatross Air Service, where they literally fly on the back of an albatross called Orville in a sardine tin – not the safest way to travel, and Bernard, a safety freak, is not happy about that! After a dodgy take-off through the streets of New York, and with some convincing from Bianca, he settles into the journey.

On arrival at Devil’s Bayou, Orville is spooked by fireworks coming from a nearby riverboat and they crash-land into the swamp. They are spotted by Ellie Mae, a muskrat living the swamp, and some of the other swamp creatures who help get Bernard and Bianca to safety. Orville flies off home. Evinrude, a dragonfly and “boat captain”, takes Bernard and Bianca over to the riverboat in his leaf boat. It turns out the fireworks were set off by Snoops and Medusa as Penny has tried to run away again. She is brought back by Medusa’s alligators, Nero and Brutus.  As Penny is returned to her room, and just about to give up hope of getting home, Bianca and Bernard finally find her room, and get to talk to her, after some mishaps with Brutus and Nero; Penny’s “guards”.

Penny tells them she’s being forced into a cave to find a diamond, the “Devil’s Eye”, by Medusa, and that she won’t let her go home until she gets it. The three come up with a plan to escape, however, their plan is delayed by the low tide coming in and Penny being forced into the cave again. This time, though, the two mice work with Penny to finally get the diamond for Medusa. Medusa is thrilled but back at the riverboat, she holds Snoops and Penny at gunpoint, telling them she is about to leave with Penny’s teddy bear, much to Penny’s dismay, because the bear is concealing the diamond.

However, Bernard and Bianca trip Medusa with a wire, giving Penny the chance to grab her teddy bear and run. Ellie Mae, Luke, and the rest of the animals come to help, trapping Nero and Brutus in a disused elevator, and Penny runs to Medusa’s swamp boat to escape. It won’t start though, so Luke is told to tip his alcohol concoction into the engine to get it running. Instead of destroying the engine as you’d expect, the boat starts running! Fireworks are set off inside the boat as a further distraction to stop Medusa and Snoops coming after Penny and she rushes away. The riverboat blows up, freeing Nero and Brutus, who Medusa tries to use as water-skis to follow Penny in the boat. Snoops paddles down the bayou slowly, and laughs as Medusa slams into a pipe and is trapped up it, and her alligators start snapping at her. Her plan has well and truly failed.

Back home in New York, Bernard and Bianca, and the rest of the Rescue Aid Society, watch a news report showing that Penny has handed in the diamond to the police, and it is going to the Smithsonian Museum. She also has finally been adopted by a nice couple. Bernard and Bianca are pleased with the result of the case, but Bianca quickly volunteers them for a new case, even though Bernard just wants a break! The movie ends with the two flying away, again on Orville, in a terrible snowstorm, seemingly to start work.

CHARACTERS & CAST

These two mice detectives, Bernard and Bianca, couldn’t be more different from each other. The Rescuers has strong female leads, with the female characters having, frankly, quite incompetent male counterparts. This is true of Bianca and Bernard to some extent, as Bianca is the Hungarian delegate of the Rescue Aid Society, and she is the strong, solid one within her partnership with Bernard. Bianca isn’t afraid of what may happen to them during the course of this assignment, and is just willing to go with the flow and keep going because rescuing Penny is the most important goal for them. She takes curveballs in her stride, and has the ability to just go with it. Bianca is also incredibly glamourous, not even wanting to buckle her seatbelt tightly on their “plane” so that it doesn’t wrinkle her dress. Bianca is voiced by Hungarian-American actress Eva Gabor. Gabor appeared in stage productions, television series, and films throughout her career from the 1940s until her death in 1995. Some of her credits include portraying Liane d’Exelmans in Gigi (1958), which won all nine of its Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, at the Oscars ceremony in 1959, and Lisa Douglas in the sitcom Green Acres (1965-71). She had previously voiced the also glamourous and beautiful Duchess in The Aristocats (1970) for Disney before The Rescuers, which goes to show that you can even be typecast in animation!

Bernard, on the other hand, is the nervous, superstitious janitor of the Rescue Aid Society. He’s not thrilled at having to go on an assignment, though he is pleased to spend time with Miss Bianca. We see he’s superstitious multiple times during the film, mostly related to the number “13”, like there being thirteen steps on ladders, and the final scene of the film, where Bianca volunteers them both for another case, taking place on Friday 13^th January. Bernard is very lovable though, despite being quite anxious and jumpy, wanting to choose the safer route over the riskier, but necessary, ones. Having said that, he isn’t afraid to protect Bianca, and saves her from drowning and from being eaten by one of Medusa’s guard alligators. Bernard is voiced by American actor and comedian Bob Newhart, who starred in his own comedy variety show The Bob Newhart Show (1961-62), for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Male TV Star, and went on to star in the sitcom The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78), a huge hit at the time. He won three Grammy awards in 1961 for his comedy albums. Modern audiences may remember him as Papa Elf in Elf (2003) and as Professor Proton, a recurring guest role, in The Big Bang Theory (2007-19) for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, and its spin-off show Young Sheldon (2017-24).

Then there’s Madame Medusa, a strong female villain, and her clumsy fool of a sidekick, Mr. Snoops, who is so scared of Medusa he tries to do everything she says to keep her happy, which has varying levels of success! I kind of feel bad for Snoops at times when he is constantly being belittled and talked down to. Mr. Snoops was designed as a caricature of animation historian John Culhane, who was given the nickname “Snoops” for his investigative work around the Disney Studios[1]. He was tricked into posing for drawings, and had no idea he was being used as source material until the film was released. Luckily, he was thrilled with the outcome! Joe Flynn provided the voice of Mr. Snoops. In the 1960s, he was well-known for his portrayal of Captain Wallace Binghamton in ABC’s sitcom McHale’s Navy (1962-66), before going on to appear in a long-line of Disney live-action movies: Son of Flubber (1963), The Love Bug (1968), and as Dean Higgins in the Dexter Riley trilogy of films: The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), Now You See Him, Now You Don’t (1972), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975), alongside Kurt Russell. Joe Flynn sadly passed away in July 1974, just after he had completed his voice work on The Rescuers.

If Medusa looks familiar, that’s because she is modelled after Cruella de Vil, at least partly. Even Medusa’s driving and her car look like Cruella de Vil’s. Originally, animator Ken Anderson had sketched Cruella in alligator-inspired clothing as early designs for Cruella to be the villain in The Rescuers, since she is a kidnapper and was already loved by Disney audiences after her appearance in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). In the end though, it was decided that The Rescuers should not look like a sequel to One Hundred and One Dalmatians, so instead Madame Medusa was merely based on Cruella de Vil.

Animator Milt Kahl designed the character, using his wife, Phyllis Bounds, as reference material, alongside Cruella. The two married in 1968 and would divorce in 1978; they had a bit of a tumultuous relationship. Madame Medusa is a good villainess, as she’s a greedy, selfish, vain woman, capable of kidnapping a little girl, telling the girl she’ll never get anywhere in life, forcing her into a cave where she almost drowns, and then threatening her at gunpoint – and with alligators! She’s a character you love-to-hate because she is funny to watch with her overly flamboyant nature and poor taste in clothes. She’s not magical or talented in any way; Medusa is simply truly evil and despicable. Kahl also used inspiration from the vocal performances of Medusa’s voice actor for the character, stage-and-screen actor Geraldine Page[2]. Page had many roles in screen productions, such as Interiors (1978), for which she won a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress, and The Trip to Bountiful (1985), where she won the Oscar for Best Actress. Page also appeared in the live-action Disney musical film The Happiest Millionaire (1967). Geraldine Page performed on stage in numerous productions. At the time of her death in 1987, Page was performing as Madame Arcati in the Noël Coward play Blithe Spirit; she did not appear for her performance on 13^th June that year and was later found dead in her Manhattan townhouse.

The most important character in The Rescuers, though, is little Penny. She has most of the heart-breaking scenes in the film. The first scene of her putting a bottle into the sea as a cry for help is upsetting, even from the outset. We also see her at her orphanage, talking to Rufus, the cat, about how she wasn’t picked for adoption that day and that she never thinks she will be, but Rufus tells her to have faith. Penny must have been terrified, being ripped away from her home by Medusa and being taken to some rundown boat in the middle of the bayou. She is then forced to search for a diamond in a tiny, dark cave, where the tide can rush in. Despite her terror, she continues to do it against her will, and tries her hardest to get free from her captivity and get home. I think she would’ve eventually been able to escape on her own, because Penny is very smart, but it’s good that Bianca and Bernard were able to help her get out quickly. Penny was voiced by child actor Michelle Stacy.

After all that, you need a bit of comic relief! There are a few characters who provide this: firstly, Orville, the albatross, who provides a flight service for small animals. He’s a bit absent-minded, not a particularly good flyer, especially around take-offs, but he’s an, albeit brief, bit of comedy for the audience amongst the darker themes. I do like the scenes we get of him and the mice on their journey to Devil’s Bayou though, as the sunset and landscapes in particular look magical. Orville was voiced by Jim Jordan, who passed away in 1988.

Husband and wife, John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan, both voiced characters in The Rescuers: Rufus and Ellie Mae. Rufus is a very kind, cute cat, who is Penny’s friend when she needs one most, and helps Bernard and Bianca find her by telling them about Medusa and her pawn shop. Ellie Mae is the muskrat who is forever nagging Luke – her muskrat husband, I think? – to be useful. McIntire and Nolan would go on to voice characters for Disney’s next animation film, The Fox and the Hound (1981), where Nolan voiced Widow Tweed, and McIntire voiced the Badger.

The rest of the creatures in the swamp who help Bernard, Bianca, and Penny escape at the end are another element of comic relief, as they come to help in full force, not with much of a plan, hitting Medusa with various things, pulling her hair – they might not know how to help, but they definitely give it a go! Luke and Ellie Mae are funny too as they are constantly arguing because Luke is only really interested in his bottle of strong liquor, getting characters to drink it to boost their energy. Luke’s voice may sound familiar to Disney animated film fans as his voice actor was Pat Buttram. Buttram voiced the characters of Napoleon in The Aristocats (1970) and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood (1973) previous to The Rescuers. There is also Evinrude, the dragonfly, who drives a “leafboat” and even goes with Bernard and Bianca on their next assignment, having to right Orville’s failed take-off right at the end of the film. He is very much overworked, the poor fly. In an early draft of the film, the swamp critters were going to be part of the Rescue Aid Society, with their leader being a singing bullfrog voiced by Phil Harris, voice of Baloo in The Jungle Book (1967) and Little John in Robin Hood (1973), but this idea was cut.

PRODUCTION

Disney’s The Rescuers is loosely based on the novels The Rescuers and Miss Bianca by Margery Sharp, two of a nine book series, published between 1959 and 1978. Walt Disney optioned the two books that had been published in 1962, with development beginning shortly after. Originally, the first story idea was of two mice rescuing a Norwegian poet from an Eastern European prison after being wrongfully imprisoned, a similar plot to the first of Sharp’s books. The storyline was adapted again and would have followed the mice saving a poet from a Cuban prison, with their escape back to the United States involving an action-packed boat chase through the Bahamas in a hurricane. Walt did not like the political suggestions in either storyline, saying they were dark anyway, so the project was shelved.

A few years after Walt’s death, the idea was picked up again, but this time, it would have involved a penguin and a bear. A penguin ended up coming from the South Pole and being dumped in a zoo. At the zoo, the penguin would have met a performing bear named Willie. The penguin conned the bear out of escaping the zoo with him and going back to the South Pole. But back in the South Pole, the penguin set up a run-down entertainment venue and began to force the bear to perform for his paying penguin customers. The bear became unhappy and sent a message in a bottle, which was found by the mice and discovered to be a cry for help. There were a few issues with this story idea, with one being that a penguin doesn’t make an evil, believable villain. Trying telling that to Wallace and Gromit, and Aardman Animations! The Disney team struggled on this story for a year or two, changing the location back to America and just having it set in a zoo with this same bear, but according to animator Burny Mattinson, they couldn’t get the story to work.

Director Woolie Reitherman became exasperated with the issues around coming up with a decent story for The Rescuers, saying he just wanted a simple kidnap story like in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), so he looked at another of Margery Sharp’s books in the same series, Miss Bianca. There he discovered a new story idea, around an old lady who had kidnapped this young girl. The villain was the Diamond Duchess. The Disney team tried to keep the same bear character from earlier ideas, now naming him Louie with the aim to have Louis Prima voice him. The connection to the story would’ve been that the girl, named Patience in the book, had “befriended” the bear during her visits to the zoo, as it was to be near to her orphanage, and the bear would be able to give clues as to the girl’s whereabouts[3]. Louis Prima had recorded most of his dialogue for the film, as well as some songs, however, he became ill and never regained consciousness from brain surgery in 1975. Though the character of Louie the Bear did end up being scrapped, there is still a reference to the zoo in the final film, when Bernard and Bianca are trying to walk through it as a shortcut, but come across a “grumpy lion”, who scares them away.

One difference between the books and Disney’s The Rescuers is that the book series followed the organisation, the Prisoners’ Aid Society, not the Rescue Aid Society. Character names were changed as well, such as Patience becoming Penny, and Madame Medusa being the new name for the Diamond Duchess. Diamond Duchess also has an evil sidekick called Mandrake in the book, and Patience does not have to search for a diamond, instead being used as a slave. The alligators are bloodhounds called Tyrant and Torment in the novel, and Bernard and Bianca are not, and do not become, a couple in the novels, as they do in the movie. But even their relationship during the development of the film came out differently than planned. It was first thought that they had to be skilled sleuths, and that they would be married. It was soon discovered that with this idea, there would be little conflict and growth, so it was decided to make them unknown to each other before the case, and that they would also be amateurs. The setting is also different between the novel and film, as the novel is set within the “Diamond Palace”, a marvellous and majestic space, unlike the rundown bayou riverboat that Medusa occupies. For Medusa’s hideout, the Disney team thought of making it a pirate fortress, and then an Art Deco mansion, which would’ve more closely matched the story of Diamond Duchess and her palace. But in the end, the choice was for the hideout to be on a riverboat on the bayou[4].

The xerography process, where animators copied their drawings onto cels directly using a Xerox camera instead of having their work “cleaned up” and inked in by other artists, was used again in The Rescuers, despite being criticised by some for making the Disney movies of the 1960s and 70s look “cheap”, even by Walt Disney who was not a fan of the process. However, previously it had only been able to produce black outlines on characters. The Rescuers was the first Disney feature to use colour xerox, where the outlines could be grey instead. The xerography process gave the film a classic look, and looked less sketchy than some of the previous uses of this technology at Disney Animation.

Some animation sequences were reused from previous features, as was quite standard for Disney around this time. For example, the scene of Penny trying to escape through the swamp was reused from The Jungle Book (1967), where Mowgli is running through the forest[5]. Both these animation process choices would’ve kept the budget low, as was necessary to make a profit.

The Rescuers was the last Disney film to be worked on by the “Nine Old Men”, the term for Walt Disney’s original key team of artists, including Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Eric Larson, and Milt Kahl. They spent much of their time on this movie training newer animators, like Glen Keane. Keane was assigned to Ollie Johnston, who had him work on Penny and her small scene at the start of the film. Johnston helped show Keane how to simplify his work and make it look cleaner. The structure for the Animation Department at this time was for there to be an “A Team”, and a “B Team”, with the “A Team” being the more seasoned artists, working on a more prestigious project, and for the “B Team” to work on a simpler film, to train up newer animators. After Robin Hood (1973), the “A Team” were starting work on adapting a book called Scruffy by Paul Gallico, about the monkeys of Gibraltar, set during World War II, and the ancient legend that if the apes die out, the British Empire will lose Gibraltar. When production failed to move this story forward, both teams combined to work on The Rescuers instead, and the newer artists were mentored by the veterans. The Rescuers ended up being considered as the film that changed Disney’s approach to animation and was a transition from the Old Guard to the New Guard[6].

MUSIC

The music in The Rescuers is quite different to the majority of animated films that came before it, and that is because it is quite sombre. There are no songs that have been included for comic relief purposes, and none that could be described as “cheerful”. Nevertheless, I like the soundtrack for The Rescuers, despite its melancholy. Only one song is performed by the movie’s characters.

Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins contributed to all four of the soundtrack’s original songs. The two had previously co-written the lyrics for the song “Gonna Fly Now” from the movie Rocky (1976) before working on the music for The Rescuers. Connors was also known as the lead singer of the pop trio The Teddy Bears in the late 1950s and sang their only major hit “To Know Him Is To Love Him”.

Connors and Robbins co-composed three of the songs here. The first one to mention is “The Journey”, which appears during the Opening Credits. It accompanies the scene of the bottle making its way across the ocean to make it to New York and the headquarters of the Rescue Aid Society. It is a very sad song as it continuously asks “who will rescue me?”, and sets up the tone of the events that follow. It was performed by singer Shelby Flint, whose biggest hits were in the 1960s with “Angel on My Shoulder” and “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”. She also sang on the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood’s film Breezy (1973).

Another song is “Tomorrow Is Another Day”, my favourite song in the soundtrack, because, although it is not a bright and breezy kind of song, it does feel quite calming and almost dream-like. It plays during the scene of Bianca and Bernard flying on Orville the albatross over to Devil’s Bayou. After a panic-inducing take-off, the journey settles into a nice journey over pretty landscapes and a beautiful sunset. It also sees Bernard and Bianca begin to fall in love with each other; it’s a cute song. “Tomorrow Is Another Day” was again performed by Shelby Flint. There is also a brief reprise of the song at the end of the film.

The third song to mention is the theme song of the Rescue Aid Society, aptly named “Rescue Aid Society”. It is performed as a group number by the delegates of the society, but most notably we hear Bob Newhart singing as Bernard, and Robie Lester singing as Bianca, the only delegate running late for the meeting! Robie Lester had previously provided the singing voice for Duchess in The Aristocats (1970), another character that Eva Gabor had voiced for Disney. It’s quite an upbeat song and is also a song that will randomly get stuck in my head from time to time!

The fourth and final song is “Someone’s Waiting for You”. This time, the lyrics were written by Connors and Robbins but the music was composed by Sammy Fain. Sammy Fain had been hired as a lyricist on The Rescuers early on, and had written a couple of songs, but director Woolie Reitherman was looking for a more contemporary sound, so Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins were also approached. Fain had previously contributed to the music for Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). He also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song twice, once for “Secret Love” from Calamity Jane (1953) and again for “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing” from the 1956 film of the same name. “Someone’s Waiting for You” is not completely sad and depressing, because it is meant to be giving Penny hope that she will be rescued soon and that she can be happy again. It’s very sweet and made even better by the fact that shortly after, Penny meets Bernard and Bianca who help her escape. This song was again performed by Shelby Flint.

The Rescuers received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song, with “Someone’s Waiting for You”, but did not win, losing out to “You Light Up My Life” from the 1977 film of the same name. It was also up against “Candle on the Water” from Pete’s Dragon (1977), a live-action/animated hybrid film from Disney. This was the last time Disney would be nominated for any Oscar until the release of The Little Mermaid (1989).

The score was composed by Artie Butler. Within the score, I specifically like the instrumental pieces “The Swamp/Escape”, which plays when Penny has run away again and Medusa and Snoops are trying to bring her back; “In the Black Hole/It’s the Devil’s Eye”, because this is a particularly great moment in the film, as the mice and Penny search for this infamous huge diamond; and “Faster, Evinrude, Faster!”, the catchy theme for Evinrude the dragonfly as he is told to drive his leaf boat faster – over and over again…I did say he was overworked.

RECEPTION

The Rescuers was released widely in June 1977 in the United States, before being distributed out to other countries. It was received well by critics, who stated that The Rescuers seemed to signal a turning of the tide in Disney’s animation department, and felt that it was much more like the movies that Walt Disney had first produced in Disney’s “Golden Age”, in the late-1930s and early 1940s, unlike the animated movies that had preceded The Rescuers in the 1970s. Viewers liked its touching moments, simple story, and charming animation.

The Rescuers was also successful at the box office, despite being released just a month after the first Star Wars (1977) movie. It made around $48 million worldwide, against a budget of about $12 million, making it the first Disney animated success since 1967’s The Jungle Book. In some countries, such as France and Germany, The Rescuers actually outperformed Star Wars! The Rescuers even won a Special Citation Award in 1977 at the National Board of Review Awards for “restoring and upgrading the art of animation”.

The Rescuers would be re-released in theatres in both 1983 and 1989, before being released on video in 1992 – with an infamous VHS recall happening in 1999. Despite The Rescuers seeming to be a yet another harmless Disney movie, surprisingly, back in January 1999, it was discovered that 3.4 million copies of The Rescuers home video were recalled from the 1999 video re-release, due to two frames of footage containing an “objectionable background image”. This turned out to be a brief, blurry glimpse of a topless woman, which appears in the scene where Bianca and Bernard are flying through the streets of New York on the back of Orville the albatross; she appears in one of the windows. Disney made it clear that in ordinary viewing, these frames cannot be seen as the film runs too fast, however, with video allowing pausing, re-winding and fast-forwarding, this image was then discovered by viewers. Disney insisted on the recall to keep its promise to families of being a family entertainment brand that people can trust[7]. Clearly, some of these VHS tapes were not handed in by parents as part of the recall, as this unfortunate story has been revived again and again over the years, including in 2020.

This led to the Huffington Post interviewing former Disney animator, Tom Sito, to discuss some of these Disney “sexual messages”. The majority of these were hoaxes, or misheard dialogue, however, Sito was asked to discuss the “objectionable image” in The Rescuers. He claimed that all the animators knew about this image and that it had been added into the original 1977 cut as a joke. The executives who had been at Disney around the time of the first release of The Rescuers had left the company by the time the VHS re-release was planned. The new executives had no idea about the image, so used the 1977 negative for that, which is what caused the embarrassing error. Sito ended his comments by stating that the animators were not asked if there was anything in the original footage, otherwise they would have said[8].

LEGACY

But before all that happened, The Rescuers almost had a TV legacy, with a television series being proposed, however, the idea was replaced with Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers (1989-90) because The Rescuers already had a sequel in production, The Rescuers Down Under (1990), which was the first Disney animated feature to get a theatrical sequel. There was brief talk of there being a live-action adaptation of the film around the late-2010s, however, this was quietly dropped from the Disney slate[9].

In terms of a franchise, the sequel is really the biggest thing to have come from The Rescuers, as there is very little reference to the film in the Disney theme parks, and in the media. Bernard and Bianca were available as walkaround characters in the Disney theme parks a few years after the film’s release, but they are much rarer to see now. For example, Bernard and Bianca have only been spotted at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland within the last few years. Bernard and Bianca appeared at the Disneyland after Dark: Sweethearts’ Nite in both 2022 and 2023, but did not return in 2024. Surprisingly, I have also seen pictures online of Orville the albatross and Evinrude the dragonfly as walkaround characters at Walt Disney World and at Disneyland, but these pictures must have been from just after the movie’s release and the two clearly did not last long. In 2022, The Rescuers celebrated its 45^th anniversary so new merchandise lines, such as pins and ornaments were released too.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Rescuers was a bright light within a difficult period for the Disney Animation department. Its success may not have lasted into the present day, but it still had a purpose and helped Disney eventually get to their “Renaissance Era”.

I like The Rescuers, and I know there are others out there who do too. This was Disney trying something a bit newer, an action-adventure film, and it did well, even with competition from the likes of Star Wars. It’s a bit darker and more melancholy than other Disney features, but it has a good message: that anyone, big or small, is capable of doing great things – as well as a lesson to not go near strange women!

But the biggest message is about having hope, even in the most difficult and dark situations. As Rufus, the Morningside Orphanage cat, says: “Faith is a bluebird, you see from afar. It’s for real, and as sure as the first evening star. You can’t touch it, or buy it, or wrap it up tight, but it’s there just the same, making things turn out right.”

---

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Rescuers (1977)’, pp. 67-69.

[2] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Remembering the Rescuers’, MousePlanet.com, 19^th January 2022.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘“The Rescuers” That Almost Was’, CartoonResearch.com, 20^th May 2022.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Remembering the Rescuers’, MousePlanet.com,19^th January 2022.

[5] Credit: Mari Ness, ‘Rescuing More than Just Small Girls and Teddy Bears: Disney’s The Rescuers’, Tor (online), 17^th September 2015.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Remembering the Rescuers’, MousePlanet.com, 19^th January 2022.

[7] Credit: BBC, ‘Disney recalls video over ‘nude image’, BBC.co.uk/news, 9^th January 1999.

[8] Credit: Bill Bradley, ‘Finally, The Truth About Disney’s ‘Hidden Sexual Messages’ Revealed’, HuffPost.com, 17^th December 2020.

[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Remembering the Rescuers’, MousePlanet.com, 19^th January 2022.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

The Fox and the Hound was the first Disney animated feature of the 1980s, and is the official moment that the “Nine Old Men”, Walt Disney’s original team of animators, retired from the Disney Studios, thus leaving the Studios’ legacy to a new crop of animators.

The 1980s in general were a transitional period for everyone involved, because after the new animators began to go it alone on new animated feature films, a major change to management would cause upheaval and tensions between the artists and the executives. But that wasn’t a problem during The Fox and the Hound, and yet it isn’t considered one of Disney’s best movies, with many stating that it was missing some of that charm and magic of their earlier films. It was a safe film to make, especially with this “changing of the guard”, but followed a similar pattern to those Disney films of the 1970s; they were nice enough, and entertaining for children, but they just weren’t exciting or anything new.

To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to watching The Fox and the Hound. I hadn’t seen it in at least ten years, probably more than that. I don’t like nature particularly, and, like Bambi (1942), The Fox and the Hound was always a film I tended to avoid for that reason. I didn’t think I liked it; I thought I’d find it very boring, but in actual fact, it wasn’t so bad.

I agree that The Fox and the Hound is not ground-breaking, and some of the movie is quite dark. I hadn’t watched it in quite a few years, so I thought the bit where Chief fell off the train tracks was the ending, and I didn’t remember the bear fight scene at all. Whether I used to walk out of the room at that point when I was younger and hadn’t seen it before, I don’t know. But as someone who struggles to watch nature documentaries because nature is just horrible sometimes, this will never be one of my favourites. But I didn’t mind it as much as I thought I would, and the animation was more realistic and much less cartoony than some of the features that would follow in the 1980s. 

Some parts of it were not particularly exciting for me though. I like the beginning, when Tod and Copper are young because they’re so cute, but I found the parts of them growing up to be a bit slow. The ending was good, in that it was dramatic, although it was perhaps too realistic to nature for me, but I think I am in the minority here as The Fox and the Hound seems to have a large number of loyal fans. I’m not as interested in other Disney films about animals like The Lion King (1994), and that’s because I connect more to stories about people than the animal kingdom, but, like I said, I didn’t really mind watching The Fox and the Hound; it was alright.

PLOT

As is clear from the title, this film is about a fox and a hound. The opening scene shows a fox carrying her young cub as she is being pursued by hunters and their hound dogs. The fox leaves her cub in some tall grass, near a fence by a farmhouse, before running away, only to be, presumably, shot dead. The fox cub is left alone. Luckily, a nearby owl, Big Mama, a woodpecker, Boomer, and a finch called Dinky, make sure that the farmer widow, Widow Tweed, takes the cub home to raise. At the same time, the farm next door, owned by hunter Amos Slade, brings home a hound puppy, telling his current dog, Chief, to train him to become a hunting dog. We find the fox has been named Tod, and the dog, Copper.

After Tod becomes bored one day, looking for someone to play with, he comes across Copper, and the two become unlikely friends, playing hide and seek together, and swimming in the nearby lake, neither aware of their natural rivalry to each other. However, Slade, annoyed at Copper constantly running off, places him on a leash, so when Tod comes over to play, he is unable to. Instead, Tod wakes up Chief accidentally and a chase ensues.

Slade, annoyed at this fox, tries to shoot him dead, however, Widow Tweed intervenes, with Slade warning her that if the fox comes on to his property again, he’ll kill it. Soon, Slade takes Copper and Chief away on a months-long hunt, while Tod waits patiently for his friend to return. Big Mama, Boomer, and Dinky try to tell Tod that when Copper returns, he’ll be a fully trained hunting dog and that they won’t be able to be friends anymore, but Tod doesn’t believe them. Sure enough, when Copper returns the next spring, both of them now adults, he warns Tod away from him, saying they can’t be friends now. During this conversation, Chief and Slade awaken and the two, plus Copper, chase after Tod, finally ending up near a railway track. Copper initially lets Tod escape, however, Chief does not, with both Tod and Chief getting on to the tracks, only for Chief to be hit by an incoming train, falling to the stream below, but, fortunately, only suffering a broken leg. But this is enough for Slade and Copper to decide to dedicate their time to solely hunting Tod.

Widow Tweed, realising she can no longer keep Tod safe, regretfully leaves him at a game reserve to live out the rest of his life. Tod has no idea how to look after himself and has a terrible first day there in the pouring rain, upsetting numerous other animals, including a very grouchy badger. The next morning, Tod is introduced to a young female fox, Vixey, by Big Mama. Vixey helps Tod learn how to live in the forest. However, soon the peace is ruined, as Slade and Copper trespass onto the reserve to hunt for Tod.

Tod and Vixey somehow escape Slade’s various traps and tricks, and get away. Slade and Copper encounter a bear, who attacks Slade, with him falling down the cliff, getting his foot caught in one of his own traps. Copper starts to attack the bear, but is quickly overpowered. Tod goes back to help him by attacking the bear himself. Tod and the bear continue their fight near to a waterfall, and both fall to the ground below. Tod is injured but alive – I presume the bear is killed; it’s not clear. As Slade comes up to Tod to finally shoot him dead, Copper stands in his way, wanting to protect Tod for saving them both. Slade accepts this and returns home with Copper, with Copper and Tod reconciling, at least briefly. The final scene shows Slade having to be nursed by Widow Tweed for his injured foot; Copper and Chief carrying on as normal with Chief having recovered; and Tod and Vixey are happy in the wild together, overlooking the farmhouses from the top of a nearby hill.

CHARACTERS & CAST

In the movie, Tod is quite a mischievous fox. He doesn’t initially warm to Widow Tweed but as soon as he gets inside the house and she starts doting on him, he becomes a bit spoilt. She can’t bear to stay angry at him, even after he upsets her cow by playing around in the barn because he’s bored. When he gets older, Tod still doesn’t seem to have learnt from his mistakes, continuing to push his luck with Slade and Chief, ultimately causing him to be given up by Widow Tweed and left at the reserve to fend for himself. If it weren’t for Vixey and Big Mama, I don’t know how long he would’ve survived because he’s never had to do anything for himself up until that point; it’s all just been having fun and playing around. We do see, though, that Tod is a very loyal friend. He’s not the one to turn his back on the friendship with Copper. Even when he’s being chased down and it’s quite clear Copper does not see them as friends anymore, Tod still risks his life to save Copper by going after the bear that’s attacking them, even though he’s unlikely to win that fight. References to Robin Hood and Maid Marian from Disney’s Robin Hood (1973) were made for the overall designs of Tod and Vixey. With both couples being foxes it made sense to do this, with Tod and Vixey obviously being made to look like real foxes that walk on four legs, instead of two.

Keith Coogan, credited here as Keith Mitchell, voices Young Tod, this being his first acting job. Coogan is the grandson of actor Jackie Coogan, who portrayed Uncle Fester in The Addams Family television series (1964-66), amongst other things. Adult Tod was voiced by acting legend Mickey Rooney, who appeared on stage and screen from the 1920s, as a child actor, into the 2010s. For Disney, he appeared in Pete’s Dragon in 1977 as the character Lampie, before voicing Tod here. He also made a brief cameo appearance in The Muppets (2011), during the song “Life’s a Happy Song”. Rooney was nominated for two Academy Awards during his career: in 1939 for his role in Babes in Arms (1939) with Judy Garland, and in 1980 for his part in The Black Stallion (1979). He won an Emmy and a Golden Globe in 1981 as the lead actor in the made-for-television film Bill (1981), alongside Dennis Quaid. In the 2000s and 2010s, Rooney reached a new audience playing the part of Gus, a retiring security guard, alongside Dick Van Dyke and Ben Stiller in the Night at the Museum trilogy of films (2006-14). Rooney passed away in April 2014 at the age of 93.

Tod’s love interest, Vixey was voiced by Sandy Duncan. She had appeared in Disney-produced comedy films, like The Million Dollar Duck (1971) and The Cat from Outer Space (1978), and later voiced the character of Queen Uberta in The Swan Princess (1994); that series of films was created by Richard Rich, co-director of The Fox and the Hound.

Copper, on the other hand, is torn as a puppy between being loyal to his Master, Amos Slade, and Chief, as well as wanting to be friends with Tod, his natural enemy. He has a relatively good balance between the two sides, I think, though he is forced to be more loyal to Slade and Chief when he gets put on a leash to stop him wandering off all the time. When Copper is grown, he realises that he can no longer be friends with Tod as his aim is to hunt now. He tries to let Tod down gently, but Tod won’t listen to him. Even when Copper lets Tod escape that night on the railway line, Tod’s stubbornness is basically what leads to Chief’s injury and Copper’s hatred towards him for injuring his mentor. Copper has to follow Slade’s orders as his Number 1 hunting dog, and a dog is always loyal to its human. Copper does value Tod’s friendship in the end, and is thankful to Tod for saving his life. They reconcile, but by this point, both of them know that things can’t go back to the way they were. Copper has fond memories of their childhood friendship, but knows it won’t happen again. I think both Copper and Tod are incredibly cute when they’re puppies, especially Copper when he’s trying to bark and howl! But I prefer Copper to Tod as adults, because he’s well aware of how the world is. Even though it’s not fair, he accepts it.

Kurt Russell provides the voice for Adult Copper. Russell has a long history with the Walt Disney Company, having first been cast by Walt Disney himself for a role in the film Follow Me, Boys! (1966) at the age of 14. He continued to appear in other Disney movies throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including in the Dexter Riley trilogy of movies. Russell would return to the Disney studios again in the 2000s to star in Miracle (2004) and Sky High (2005), and as Ego in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 2010s. Outside of Disney, Kurt Russell is known for many movie roles, such as appearing alongside his wife Goldie Hawn in the comedy Overboard (1987), Mr. Nobody in some of the Fast and Furious films, and as Santa Claus in the Netflix film The Christmas Chronicles (2018) and its 2020 sequel. Young Copper also has a famous voice actor, this being Corey Feldman. As a child actor, he would appear in the likes of Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985), and Stand by Me (1986).

Chief is Copper’s mentor, essentially. He is Slade’s aging hunting dog, and knowing that he won’t be around for ever, Slade gets Copper as a puppy to take his place eventually. Chief is told to look after Copper and teach him how to act. At first, Chief is annoyed by this puppy, taking over his space, getting in the way, but soon enough, Chief grows to like Copper. I think the relationship between the two is quite sweet, and it’s clear that both of them are protective of each other – Chief, by telling Copper not to run off and to stay focused on what Slade’s orders and rules are, and Copper, by vowing to not let Tod get away with injuring Chief. Which is a bit dark, but still, it’s a nice sentiment! Pat Buttram voices Chief. Buttram was cast in Disney animated films through the 1970s, as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood (1973), Luke in The Rescuers (1977), and Napoleon in The Aristocats (1970).

Then, there is Big Mama the owl, Boomer the woodpecker, and Dinky the finch. Big Mama is kind of like the conscience of the film, like Jiminy Cricket in a way. She finds someone to adopt Tod, when he’s left alone in the thick grass, telling him everything is going to be fine when he must be quite scared to be separated from his mother. She also encourages the friendship with Copper, at least initially when they are small, thinking it’s extraordinary that two natural enemies could ever be friends at any point in their lives. But then Big Mama is also the one who tries to tell Tod that when Copper returns from the hunting trip in the spring that he will be a different dog, and won’t be able to be friends with Tod anymore; that they are both rivals in nature and nothing can change that – not that Tod listens, of course! Big Mama also introduces Tod to Vixey, knowing that he needs someone to help him figure out how to live in the natural world. She’s a very important character in the film, helping to lead Tod to a good life, with or without the safety of Widow Tweed. Pearl Bailey voices Big Mama, as well as sings three of the movie’s five songs. Bailey was an American actress and singer, having appeared on stage in productions such as Hello, Dolly! in 1975 as the titular role, and on screen in films such as the musical Porgy and Bess (1959) and her own variety show, The Pearl Bailey Show, in 1971. The Disney animators liked how expressive Bailey was when performing her role as Big Mama and made sure to incorporate her movements into the character[1].

Boomer and Dinky aren’t overly relevant to the main storyline. They have their own sub-plot where they are constantly trying to catch a very sneaky and lucky caterpillar, Squeaks, by tricking it, coercing it, harassing it. Poor thing. The two birds are the comic relief in the movie, and I remember their scenes more vividly from childhood than the scenes of Adult Tod and Copper, so I must’ve wanted to focus on them and their silly antics more than the hunting storyline, unsurprisingly. In the end, though, Boomer and Dinky find that the caterpillar has become a brightly coloured butterfly, and they are entranced by it. The butterfly flies off, free from them at last. It’s a bit of a random subplot but I think it’s necessary for small children watching, to distract them from the horrors of nature. The voice of Dinky, Dick Bakalyan was Russell’s co-star in the Dexter Riley films, playing Cookie to Russell’s Dexter Riley. Boomer is voiced by Paul Winchell, perhaps most remembered for being the original voice of Tigger in the Winnie the Pooh shorts.

Amos Slade and Widow Tweed are the only two human characters in the film. They both have quite a lot in common. They are both older, single people; they are next door neighbours, both living on farmland – though Widow Tweed actually farms, and Slade uses his land for hunting purposes. They are both raising animals, though in different ways, with Slade being quite clear that Copper is going to become a hunting dog, and not a pet, and Widow Tweed almost using Tod as a substitute child. I’m reluctant to call Slade a villain. He’s a hunter and I don’t agree with hunting, but he’s not really the villain of the piece. He doesn’t shoot Tod at the end, when he could do; although Copper doesn’t want him to, that isn’t going to affect Slade’s decision making, so he must have accepted at that point that Tod did save his life and he should be spared. He’s also caring towards his dogs, so he’s not a bad guy, really. Widow Tweed is much more caring towards everyone though, even Slade. The relationship between the pair is quite tense at times, with Widow Tweed having to come to Tod’s defence often and protecting him against Slade. Slade is almost a bit fearful of Tweed, I think, as she can give it back as good as she gets it! I like them both as characters and the best part is at the end of the movie, when Tweed is bandaging Slade’s foot, being his nurse, even though he clearly wants to be left alone! They have a funny relationship. I wonder if they secretly like each other…  

Amos Slade’s voice is Jack Albertson, Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971). Not that that’s all his known for, of course, but it’s what I know the voice from. Before this, he had won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the drama The Subject Was Roses (1968), having already won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in the stage version in 1965. Albertson was also known for his role in the sitcom Chico and the Man (1974-78), for which he won a Primetime Emmy in 1976. The Fox and the Hound was Albertson’s final theatrical film role before his death in November 1981. Jeanette Nolan voices Widow Tweed. She is the voice of the character Ellie Mae in The Rescuers (1977). Her husband, John McIntire, also voiced a character in both The Fox and the Hound and The Rescuers. In The Fox and the Hound, he is the voice of the badger, and in The Rescuers he is Rufus, the orphanage cat. Another small voice appearance here is John Fielder as the voice of Porcupine. Fiedler is best known for being the original voice of Piglet in the Winnie the Pooh franchise.

PRODUCTION

There are a few intense scenes in The Fox and the Hound, with all that hunting, but the book this movie is based on is much worse. The book of the same name, written by Daniel P. Mannix, and published in 1967, is much more realistic to real-life, with more gruesome events. The book starts off with Copper and Chief fighting for rank in Master’s pack, with Copper not being a new addition to the hunting pack but being the favourite dog, until Master is attacked by a bear on a hunt and Chief fights back to save his life, thus becoming the new favourite. Tod has actually been spared by a different hunter who killed all of Tod’s family. The hunter, for some reason, decides to raise Tod for a few months. Unlike the movie, Tod returns to the wild, not for a safety reason, but purely because he’s older now and should live in the forest. Tod then starts to taunt Master’s hunting dogs, and the chase with Chief ensues, where he is actually killed by the train, and doesn’t just break his leg. Copper and Master decide to make it their mission to hunt the fox that killed Chief.  

Tod’s life in the woods is explored in more detail in the book, with him having two litters of pups, both being killed by Master: one set are gassed to death, and the other are shot. The book then follows the change from rural to more urbanised settings, explaining that hunting is more difficult now, and that many foxes have become scavengers, with rabies rife among them. Every winter, Master and Copper continue to hunt Tod, but to no avail. After a rabies-ridden fox attacks a group of children, Master organises a hunt. This time, they do get Tod, with Copper relentlessly pursing him until he dies of exhaustion. Copper is close to death but is nursed back to health by Master. Eventually, Master gives in to his family and decides to go to a nursing home. The end of the book alludes to the fact that Copper is shot dead by Master as he wouldn’t be allowed to go with him to the home[2]…So, although the majority of the story was kept into Disney’s movie, at least in some form with some plot points being modified, it was toned down to be less dark and horrifying! I feel like the book was written to state the dangers of hunting, and the problems of destroying natural animal habitats, whereas the Disney movie’s message is about not conforming to stereotypes and tells us that friendships have no boundaries; they don’t need to be hindered by society.

The Fox and the Hound was the last film to be released during the time of the old management, when Ron Miller, son-in-law to Walt Disney, was the President of the Studios. It missed out on the cultural shift and clashes that would come from this change, especially when “outsiders” from other studios, became the ones in top management positions, however, The Fox and the Hound did not avoid all company politics.

The Fox and the Hound was always going to be a learning opportunity for the new crop of animators that were coming through, as the “Nine Old Men”, Walt Disney’s original team of animators and story men, would be retiring partway through production so the newer animators would have to finish it on their own. The likes of Woolie Reitherman, Eric Larson, Frank Thomas, and Ollie Johnston began the film by setting some of the characters and completing some animation before passing it over to the new animators, who had only been at the Disney Studios for a few years at this point and were eager to get started. It was also being used as a teaching opportunity before Ron Miller would let these animators loose on the production of The Black Cauldron (1985), which was being continuously delayed until Miller felt these new, young animators were ready to do the story justice[3].

This was a problem for some animators, who had already been working at the Disney Studios for a number of years, but were now not even the newest crop of animators nor were they the oldest – they were somewhere in the middle. Don Bluth, who had worked for Disney Animation in the 1950s for a few years, and then returned in 1971, had many creative differences with the team during production on The Fox and the Hound, and resigned from the Disney company in 1979 to set up his own company, taking fifteen other animators with him; this was around 17% of the total animation workforce. Naturally, this caused the release date of The Fox and the Hound to be pushed back by six months from Christmas 1980 to Summer 1981. Some of Don Bluth’s work, and that of the other departing animators, was used in the final film, such as Bluth’s animation of Widow Tweed and her cow, Abigail[4].

 Wolfgang Reitherman, one of the “Nine Old Men”, was the person who advocated for the making of the film, after reading the original story by Daniel P. Mannix. He’d connected to the story as it made him think about the friendship his son had with the fox he was raising[5]. Reitherman would be the only one of the “Nine Old Men” to stay for the full production of the film. This may’ve been considered a good thing, however, Reitherman and Art Stevens, one of the co-directors, clashed numerous times on story issues, including over whether Chief would die or not. Stevens was against killing off Chief, going against Mannix’s original story, and upper management agreed, so he only suffered a broken leg. Woolie Reitherman felt that although the young animators made a good start with the animation for The Fox and the Hound, proving they were capable of replicating the “Disney style”, the approach to the film wasn’t unique or fantastical enough[6].

But this was a turning point in the history of Disney animation where “the baton was passed” to the younger animators, who would later be known for their involvement in the huge successes of Disney’s Renaissance Era, including names like Ron Clements, John Musker, and Glen Keane, with Keane animating the final bear fight. His staging of the scene was apparently inspired by Tramp battling the dogs in Lady and the Tramp (1955), that scene having been animated by Woolie Reitherman. Tim Burton even did some uncredited inbetweening animation on the character of Vixey, having been teamed up with Glen Keane to try and conform to the Disney style of animation. John Lasseter was also involved in his first animation for a Disney film on The Fox and the Hound, doing inbetweening work on the introduction of Copper and doing some work on Keane’s bear sequence[7].  

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two of the “Nine Old Men” worked on many scenes of Copper and Tod, wanting to get across their own lifelong friendship into these characters and their relationship. They were both confident in leaving the legacy of the animation department to the younger animators, having taught them, many one-to-one, on the mechanics of animating, and the importance of developing strong personalities for characters. The older animators knew they would be retiring before the film was finished, and they felt it was almost reminiscent of the story between Copper and Chief in the movie, of the young pup effectively being trained to take over from the veteran hunting dog. The younger animators took every last opportunity they could to learn from these artists and story men, with them applying lessons like the importance of character to later films[8].  

MUSIC

The Fox and the Hound does not benefit from an amazing soundtrack. There are five songs in the movie, but for me, these are not particularly exciting or memorable, and nothing compared to the music of later Disney films in the 1980s, going into the 1990s and beyond. Three of the soundtrack’s songs are sung by Pearl Bailey as Big Mama. The two least memorable are “Lack of Education” and “Appreciate the Lady”, both written by singer-songwriter Jim Stafford. I didn’t particularly enjoy either song. “Appreciate the Lady” was a bit too flirty for a Disney film, with Big Mama encouraging Vixey and Tod to become an item as she watches over them, singing from above. It is a bit of a weird scene, I think! But I don’t mind “Best of Friends”, the other song Big Mama sings. The song plays over scenes of Tod and Copper playing when they are young. It’s a sweet song, and is the most remembered song in the film. “Best of Friends” was written by Stan Fidel and Richard O. Johnston, son of the legendary Disney animator Ollie Johnston.

There is also the song “Goodbye May Seem Forever”, performed by Jeanette Nolan, mostly dialogue with a chorus coming in at the end. It’s a sad song for an equally sad scene, of Widow Tweed dropping Tod off at the reserve. It was written by Richard Rich, co-director of the film, and Jeffrey Patch. It shows how emotional both characters are by this ending to their relationship. This song wasn’t too bad either. The other “song” is “A Huntin’ Man”, written by Jim Stafford and performed by Jack Albertson as Slade. It’s just a short tune that Slade sings on his way back from hunts, and isn’t much of a song. I guess it’s more for atmosphere than anything else!

Buddy Baker composed the score for The Fox and the Hound. Baker was hugely involved in many of the musical compositions for Walt Disney Productions, having joined the studio in 1954 to work on some new TV productions that Walt Disney was planning. Baker arranged much of the music for the Winnie the Pooh shorts, and multiple live-action films by Disney. Baker was also involved in composing the scores for Disney theme park attractions such as The Haunted Mansion and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.

RECEPTION

The Fox and the Hound grossed more than $60 million worldwide against a $12 million budget on its release in July 1981, however, it divided critics. Some criticised the movie for its darker plot elements, feeling it was unsuitable for young children, but there were also those who felt the story was shielding the audience from the reality of the natural world, and that they could’ve gone further. Others said the movie was not ground-breaking, and was another cartoony feature from Disney, after a string of mostly disappointing animated films in the 1970s. The characters and the music felt familiar, and the message of the movie around how society determines our behaviour was satisfactory, but it was only deemed “good enough”. The only real accolade The Fox and the Hound received was to be nominated at the 9th Saturn Awards in 1982 for Best Fantasy Film. It did not win, losing to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), however, this was before animated features received their own categories at awards ceremonies. Later reviews would be more favourable towards the Disney movie. It has since been re-released in theatres, and on VHS, DVD, and Blu-Ray over the years, usually for milestone anniversaries.

LEGACY

Although The Fox and the Hound is not a particularly popular Disney animated movie, it did receive a direct-to-video sequel: The Fox and the Hound 2. This sequel was released in 2006, and is set during the childhood of Tod and Copper, so around the first half of the original film. It follows Copper as he longs to join a band of singing stray dogs, called “The Singin’ Strays”, who he sees at the County Fair with Tod. Meanwhile, Tod struggles to accept that his friend might want to join a travelling band instead of play with him. Since The Fox and the Hound 2 came out 25 years after the original film, the voice cast is different. Young Tod and Young Copper were obviously not going to have the same voice actors, so this time they are voiced by Jonah Bobo, who appeared as Steve Carell’s son, Robbie, in Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), and Harrison Fahn respectively. Interestingly, Patrick Swayze voices Cash, one of the strays in the band, in what is apparently his only voice role. Country music singer and actress Reba McEntire voices another dog, Dixie. Unsurprisingly, this sequel received mostly negative reviews, as many others have.

Not letting the initial reaction to the original film or the sequel put Disney off the franchise, in 2019, a live-action remake of The Fox and the Hound was announced, however, there has been no further news on this since then, so it looks uncertain whether this will be going ahead. Disney announced in 2025 that many of their live-action remakes had been put on hold, so this is probably what has happened here.

At the Disney theme parks, there is very little recognition for The Fox and the Hound, however, thanks to the 40^th anniversary of the film in 2021, and the Disney100 celebrations that went on in 2023, there has been more merchandising available in recent years. For example, two plush toys, one of Young Tod and another of Young Copper, have been available to purchase recently, along with a Loungefly backpack, mugs, and various Christmas ornaments. A Disney Traditions figurine of Tod and Copper playing on a log also exists, though new ones don’t seem to be currently being made.

A very small reference to The Fox and the Hound has been spotted at the Disney theme parks, this time at Walt Disney World Resort, but seemingly only comes out during the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. Starting in 2022, Squeaks the Caterpillar was first seen on Sneezy’s nose, as part of the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs topiary display. There is likely to be some reference to The Fox and the Hound, and other Disney nature-based films, at a new Walt Disney World resort, named Disney Lakeshore Lodge, set to open in 2027. This is basically a revamp of the original plans for Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge, with construction initially beginning in 2020. It was later put on hold.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Though The Fox and the Hound may not be Disney’s most well-known story, it came with an important message: that strong friendships do not have to be separated by circumstances or societal norms. Tod and Copper overcome prejudice and stereotyping over the years to reassert their friendship, with Tod, a fox, risking his life against a huge bear, with the odds not being in his favour, to save his friend, Copper, a hound dog. This lesson is still relevant and will remain relevant forever, so it is a shame that more people don’t look at The Fox and the Hound as a “worthy” Disney film.

The Fox and the Hound, after the surprise success of The Rescuers (1977), unfortunately did not kick-off a new era of brilliant Disney movies. In fact, the 1980s would become one of the most troubling times for Disney animation and the Walt Disney Company as a whole, but it was still important for other reasons, signifying some endings, as well as some new beginnings.   

It signalled a new era at the Disney Studios, allowing the newer, young animators their chance to break free from the constraints of Walt Disney’s era, and be able to go forward with their own ideas, eventually giving the world the brilliant movies of the Disney Renaissance Era.

---

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, Passing the Baton: The Making of The Fox and the Hound (2003).

[2] Credit: Mari Ness, ‘Well, I’m Traumatized: The Fox and the Hound’, Tor.com (online), 24^th September 2015.

[3] Credit: Don Hahn, Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009).

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Fox and the Hound (1981)’, pp. 70-72.

[5] Credit: Brittany DiCologero, ‘Today in Disney History, 1981: The Fox and the Hound Theatrical Debut’, WDW Magazine (online), 10^th July 2021.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Animation Anecdotes #147’, CartoonResearch.com, 31^st January 2014.

[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Fox and the Hound (1981)’, pp. 70-72.

[8] Credit: Disney, Passing the Baton: The Making of The Fox and the Hound (2003).

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

After Walt Disney’s death in 1966, the Disney Studios struggled to find their feet.

The Aristocats was the first film to be produced after Walt’s death, and began what came to be known as the Bronze Age of Disney Animation. Not a great name considering there had already been a Silver Age and a Golden Age. This just shows how much difficulty there was in recreating some of their more magical, charming movies of the decades before.

Though The Jungle Book (1967) was the first animated film to be released after Walt Disney’s passing, Walt’s involvement in The Jungle Book is evident and this contributed to the good box-office and critical results. Unfortunately, The Aristocats did not have this luxury, and was not able to benefit much from Walt Disney’s expertise, something that was plain to see at the time.

That’s not to say The Aristocats is awful and should never see the light of day ever again. In fact, though reviews were lukewarm, The Aristocats did perform well financially, both at the time and in its theatrical re-releases. It’s just that The Aristocats sits within the decade of the 1970s, a time where many of those Disney animated films are remembered for their “problems”, and not their good points.

Before this week, I hadn’t watched The Aristocats in years. I think the last time I watched it was probably when it was last shown on Channel 5 in the UK, where, for a time, a while ago, they used to show a Disney animated film on a Sunday afternoon. This was before Disney+ came out, so there’s no need to do this now, but anyway, the point is I’ve spent years believing that The Aristocats is terrible and that I don’t like, probably because no-one else really talks about it and no-one seems to reference it, so if no-one is mentioning it, then it can’t be good, can it?

Well, once again, I was wrong about this film – and therefore, myself. Though I hadn’t seen The Aristocats for a while, many of the scenes were very familiar to me, which suggests, like The Rescuers Down Under (1990), I must have watched it a lot on VHS when I was younger, and, as I grew up, decided it wasn’t worth my time to go back to. Although I can’t claim that The Aristocats is my new favourite film and regret all the years I spent not watching it, it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it was. The cats are cute, for the most part, the music is catchy and jazzy, and the story is quick and more entertaining than I remembered. There were some funny moments too, though a few did border on the line of ridiculous and almost “too silly”!

PLOT

The Aristocats begins with the standard, for this time, Opening Credits, which show pencil sketches of the cats from the movie, and sequences of animation that will be shown later in the film. Then, we get into the story, and see Paris in 1910. A lady with her cats is being driven in a horse and carriage by her butler, Edgar. The lady is a former opera singer named Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, and she has named her fluffy white cat, Duchess. Duchess has three kittens, a white kitten named Marie, a grey one named Berlioz, and a ginger one named Toulouse. It is clear Madame adores her cats as they are treated like royalty, with butler Edgar having to carry out specific instructions when taking care of them.

On this day, Madame Bonfamille says her attorney, the old but sprightly, Georges Hautecourt is coming round to discuss her will. Little do they know that as they are discussing this, Edgar is listening through a speaking tube from the servants’ quarters. Edgar is expecting to be left the whole of Bonfamille’s estate as he has looked after her for many years, and she apparently has no living relatives, however, this is not the case, and Edgar listens in horror as Madame says that her fortune will go to the cats, and only once all the cats have passed, will Edgar receive anything. Edgar believes that he will not be able to outlive the cats, as he thinks cats have nine lives so does his calculations all wrong, and plans to get rid of them. Meanwhile, the cats go through their day as usual, with Duchess telling her kittens they must work on their “self-improvement”. This is done through their different artistic talents: Marie likes to sing, Berlioz plays the piano, and Toulouse is a painter. Soon, Edgar comes in with the cats’ cream. The cats even share it with resident mouse, Roquefort. But what they don’t know is that Edgar has spiked the cream with sleeping tablets – and a fair few of them, probably enough to kill them…

But the cats aren’t dead, luckily, though whilst they are sleeping, Edgar bundles them into a basket and drives them out into the countryside on his motorbike. As he approaches a windmill somewhere in a field, two dogs attack him, because they like to chase vehicles that drive on to their turf. They chase Edgar around the lake, and up and over the under side of a bridge. Somehow, the bike separates from its sidecar, and the dogs claim that as their own, but Edgar quickly drives back home on his bike – even driving straight through the windmill. That can’t be structurally sound with a huge hole in it now… We see that the basket with the cats in it must have been thrown out of the sidecar and ended up under the bridge. Duchess was thrown from it and wakes up. She soon finds Marie in a tree, and Berlioz in the lake, being terrorised by a frog. They look for Toulouse, only to find he was still in the basket. He says he dreamt that Edgar did this to them, but Duchess doesn’t believe him. They get spooked by the thunderstorm and take shelter in the basket to wait for daylight.

The next day, it is bright and sunny. Duchess is woken up by singing and looks for the noise. It is a ginger cat, singing his own theme song. How pretentious. This cat is called Thomas O’Malley, and he starts flirting with Duchess, telling her about taking a ride on a magic carpet or something. The three kittens hear this and want to go too. Thomas is surprised to find that Duchess has children, but nevertheless, he tells the kittens to wait for the “carpet”. Thomas then jumps onto the windscreen of a van, scaring the driver so he stops the van. Thomas tells the others to get into the back, but as he waves them goodbye, Marie falls out and Thomas must retrieve her, so he ends up in the van too, going along for the ride. Thomas tells Duchess that she could stay with him, but Duchess knows it’s important they get back home, back to Madame, who will be missing them terribly.

Back at home, Madame is certainly upset by the disappearance of her cats, as are Roquefort, the mouse, and Frou-Frou, the horse. The two discuss the situation in the stables, until Edgar comes in. He starts bragging to them about how he was the one who took the cats away, even showing the front page of the newspaper, telling them that the police believe it was a criminal mastermind who did the job. Edgar is proud of himself, believing that there is nothing that could possibly link him to the crime – but he remembers, his umbrella and his hat, and the sidecar, are all still in the country. He sets out to get them.

Back with Duchess, Thomas, and the kittens, the van driver soon notices the cats in the back of the van, and shoos them away, quite aggressively. They get walking towards Paris, on the edge of a train track. Because that’s a safe way to travel! Sure enough, a train rushes towards them, and the cats duck underneath the rails, onto the wooden frame below. However, Marie falls into the river. Thomas dives in to get her. He successfully saves her, and passes her to Duchess who is waiting on the riverbank, but Thomas can’t get himself out. He keeps himself afloat on a log, but as he can’t swim, he tries to get himself to the edge by using tree branches and vines. This would probably have worked for him, if it weren’t for British geese, Abigail and Amelia Gabble. They see Thomas and think he’s trying to learn to swim. They swim over to him and tell him the best way to practise is to strike out on his own and let go of the vine. The geese cut the vine, leaving Thomas floundering in the river, grabbing on to anything he can to keep him afloat, even the Gabble’s tails, basically “goosing” them. The geese soon notice that Thomas is actually drowning, so they rescue him and swim him back to solid land. They meet up with Duchess and the kittens, where the Gabble sisters introduce themselves, saying they are on their summer holiday, and going to Paris to meet their Uncle Waldo at Le Petit Café. They all walk like geese to Paris together. Once in the city, they soon find Uncle Waldo, being chased out of the kitchen of Le Petit Café. It turns out he’s drunk – no, wait – “basted” in white wine, as per the café’s menu listing. The three geese all leave together, giggling, and go on their way.

In the meantime, Roquefort tries to follow Edgar on his journey back into the countryside, but falls off the bike, so cannot help find the cats. Edgar does get back to the windmill though, and after some difficulty, retrieves his umbrella, hat, and sidecar from the two dogs, Napoleon and Lafayette.

In the city, the kittens are too tired to make it all the way back home that day, but being in Paris is good progress. Thomas leads them to his apartment, only to find that the Scat Cats are there, a group of musical swingers, a literal band of cats. They sing, dance and party through the night, encouraging Duchess and the kittens to join in, which they do, with Marie singing, Berlioz playing piano, and Duchess singing and playing the harp at one point. Somehow, the noise causes part of the floor of Thomas’ “penthouse apartment” to give way, dropping all the Scat Cats through various floors of the building, into the streets. They dance away. Duchess puts her kittens to bed, and her and Thomas go out onto the rooftops to talk. Duchess says the area Thomas lives in is nice but needs a bit of tidying up. Thomas thinks this is Duchess saying she wants to stay with him. The kittens, who haven’t gone to sleep as they were told to, listen in. Thomas says he wants to be a father to the kittens and that they should all stay together right here, but Duchess says they must return to Madame. Thomas is hurt that she’d rather be a house pet, but he understands. He says he’ll miss her. The kittens are sad that Thomas isn’t going to be with them too.

The next day, the cats return home, with the kittens meowing at the door as they realise their cat flap appears to be locked. Roquefort ties Edgar’s shoes together to stall him, and goes to the window and tries to tell the cats to leave, but they don’t understand. At the door, Edgar puts them all in a sack. Thomas has already left so he doesn’t realise this has happened. Madame believes she’s heard the cats and rushes downstairs, but Edgar tells her she was mistaken, putting the sack of cats in the oven to hide them. The cats tell Roquefort to get Thomas to help and runs down the street to get him. Thomas rushes back to the house, telling Roquefort to find the Scat Cats and to mention his name so he doesn’t run into any trouble with them, since he is a mouse after all. But Roquefort struggles to remember the name, failing all three chances to tell it to the Scat Cats. Just as they are about to scratch him, Roquefort finally remembers the name and they rush to the house.

In the stables, Edgar has locked all the cats in a trunk, which will be sent to Timbuktu. Thomas attacks Edgar, who in turn tries to stab Thomas with a gardening fork, but he is slim enough to get through the spikes. The Scat Cats then attack Edgar as he opens the stables to take the trunk to the driveway. Roquefort works on breaking the padlock, even asking for a quiet, at which point all action stops, until they hear the click of the padlock unlocking, when it then resumes! Edgar shuts the lid closed again, but the animals manage to trap him in a saddle, giving Duchess and the kittens time to get out of the trunk. Edgar is then kicked into the truck by Frou-Frou and sent off to Timbuktu, which is a bit concerning since there don’t seem to be any air holes, so I don’t know if he’ll survive the journey. Bit grim…

The movie ends with Thomas now a member of the family, and a group photograph of the cats being taken by Madame. Georges removes Edgar from the will, as Madame says he has left, thinking perhaps he wouldn’t have if he’d heard about the will. Little does she know, right? Madame is pleased that her fortune will be able to provide for all of them now, for many years to come. The cats are told to run downstairs, and they see, and hear, that the Scat Cats are now at Madame’s home, as she has started a new foundation to give a home to all the alley cats of Paris. The three geese and the two dogs appear in this finale as well, seemingly suggesting that the Scat Cats’ music is so loud, it can be heard all across Paris, even the outskirts. I don’t know for certain, but that’s the end anyway! 

CHARACTERS & CAST

So, let’s begin by talking about Duchess and her three kittens. Duchess is a regal, elegant, and well-spoken white, fluffy cat, apparently a Turkish Angora. She encourages her kittens to practise their artistic talents, and to behave properly, reprimanding them when the three kittens fight or argue. Duchess is a good mother to the kittens, and she is also very loyal to Madame, much more so than most cats would be, both fictional and real! Because of this, she is torn over her affection for Thomas O’Malley, choosing instead to go back to Madame. But in the end, Duchess doesn’t have to choose because Thomas is adopted into the family, and becomes her “husband” anyway. Duchess is voiced by Hungarian-American actress Eva Gabor. Gabor appeared in stage productions, television series, and films throughout her career from the 1940s until her death in 1995. Some of her credits include portraying Liane d’Exelmans in Gigi (1958), which won all nine of its Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, at the Oscars ceremony in 1959, and Lisa Douglas in the sitcom Green Acres (1965-71). After The Aristocats, Gabor would also voice Bianca in The Rescuers (1977) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990).

For the three kittens, the oldest one is ginger kitten, Toulouse. He likes to behave like an alley cat, hissing and spitting at his enemies, despite Duchess trying to turn him into a well-behaved gentleman. Toulouse is a painter, and is encouraged to practise his talent often. Toulouse is named after French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Gary Dubin provides the voice for Toulouse. Dubin continued to act and voice act from the 1960s into the 2010s. He was best known for playing Punky, a friend of Danny Partridge, in The Partridge Family (1971-74), and for his role in Jaws 2 (1978), as Eddie Marchand, who is apparently mauled by the shark at one point in the film! Dubin passed away in 2016.

Marie is the middle kitten and the only girl, making her quite bossy and precocious. She wants the best and excepts everywhere to treat her as a queen, hence why she is named after Marie Antoinette, the queen of France from 1774 to 1792. She has two brothers though, so that’s not likely! Marie refers to herself as a lady, saying that “ladies don’t start fights, but they can finish them”, showing that, although she is elegant and graceful, like her mother, and they both enjoy singing, Marie is perhaps more outspoken and more feisty than Duchess! Marie is voiced by Liz English. Berlioz is the youngest kitten, who is a skilled pianist. I think he’s the most talented of the three. Berlioz is named after French composer Hector Berlioz. Dean Clark voiced Berlioz here. Clark and English did not seem to pursue further acting roles after voicing their characters in The Aristocats.

Thomas O’Malley is the love interest for Duchess. He seems a bit arrogant and full of himself when Duchess first meets him. Despite Duchess being a pure breed cat, and O’Malley being an alley cat, he is very confident and enjoys flirting with her. When he discovers that she has children, Thomas is not put off by this, and grows to love them like they are his own by the end of the film. Unfortunately, Duchess is unable to forget about Madame and start a new life with him, but, although Thomas is upset by this, he ultimately respects Duchess’ decision and helps her get home, which shows how much he loves her. And then they end up together anyway, so it ends well for everyone! Thomas O’Malley is voiced by Phil Harris. Disney fans will recognise Harris as the voice of Baloo in The Jungle Book (1967), and as Little John in Robin Hood (1973). Before these credits, Harris was known for his work on radio and as a band leader.

Moving on to the human characters, the villain of The Aristocats is Edgar Balthazar, Madame Bonfamille’s butler. At the start of the film, he seems to be a dignified butler, serving Madame and her cats well. But that all changes when he gets greedy and believes that Madame’s fortune, built up over a long career as a singer, should be his after she dies. By Madame passing the fortune to the cats first, it means Edgar would be expected to wait on the cats for the rest of their days, which would naturally be embarrassing for him. However, to choose to kidnap the cats and leave them in the middle of nowhere, instead of either sucking it up, or leaving his job, is a stupid decision, especially as he would’ve been likely to outlive the cats, and Edgar would have been aware of this had he been in his right mind to do the maths correctly. Frankly, he should have been thankful that Madame put his name in her will at all, because it’s not like she had to do it. Many feel that Edgar is one of the weakest Disney villains. I guess that’s accurate, but to even call him a villain is a stretch, because he doesn’t do anything particularly evil. He doesn’t actually try to kill the cats, and he is so dim and bumbling that it’s hard to take him seriously as a person, let alone a villain! Edgar may or may not survive his journey to Timbuktu, which is a harsh ending for him. Let’s hope the delivery men heard him crying for help, or he would’ve been in big trouble…Actor Roddy Maude-Roxby voices the role of Edgar, in his only voice role. He appeared in movies such as Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) and White Hunter Black Heart (1990). Maude-Roxby was also one of the UK’s first performance artists and was a student at the Royal College of Art in the 1950s.

Then there are long-time friends, Madame Adelaide Bonfamille and Georges Hautecourt. Georges Hautecourt might be an elderly man, but he is certainly energetic, and doesn’t want anyone to think he is frail or infirm, as we see when Georges is trying to walk up the stairs to meet Madame. This is one of those silly-funny scenes that I mentioned earlier. Georges is about to fall down the stairs, having refused to take the elevator, so he uses his cane to hang onto Edgar’s braces, pulling back so much that Georges is able to spring onto Edgar’s back and get a piggy-back ride up the stairs. It’s such a ridiculous scene! Georges also sings a strange tune throughout all of this, and don’t even get me started on the glasses he puts on to do the paperwork! Georges also kisses Duchess’ tail believing it to be Madame’s hand, and Madame and Georges dance an odd tango to a song from the opera, Carmen. He’s so strange, but he’s the best character in The Aristocats for me. Charles Lane voices Georges Hautecourt. He had a long career in acting, having appeared in films such as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and The Music Man (1962), and frequently appeared in Lucille Ball’s television series. His final role was as the narrator of The Night Before Christmas 2006 short, which he did at the age of 101. He died the next year.

Madame Bonfamille is a kind and generous owner to her cats, and employer to Edgar. She is well-spoken, elegant, graceful, just as Duchess is, and she sees the good in everyone, even willing to open up her home to the alley cats at the end of the film. She dotes on her cats, and she is not ashamed to admit that her world revolves around them, and that she would struggle without them in her life. In fact, Madame is distraught when her cats are seemingly stolen and seems so relieved when they are returned to her. Hermoine Baddeley voices Madame, having already appeared in Mary Poppins (1964) for Disney as Ellen, one of the household staff for the Banks family. She also appeared in well-known British comedy films such as Passport to Pimlico (1949) and The Belles of St. Trinian’s (1954).

Those are the characters that make sense in the film. Now for a few familiar names that voiced characters that were strange additions to the story of The Aristocats! Firstly, Roquefort the mouse is voiced by Sterling Holloway, original voice of Winnie-the-Pooh, voice of Kaa in The Jungle Book (1967), the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (1951), and many more for Disney. Roquefort is kind and willing to help, even risking his life with the Scat Cats to save Duchess and the kittens. Though he is a cute character, probably more for his voice than anything else, it is an odd choice to have a mouse be such a permanent resident of Madame’s mansion, and for Roquefort to be friends with Madame’s cats.

The Scat Cats are a band of alley cats that like to play jazz. Their leader is Scat Cat, who was designed to look and sound like Louis Armstrong, all the way from his physique, to the way he played his trumpet, to the gap between his teeth. Sadly, Armstrong was not well enough to voice the role himself at the time, so Benjamin Sherman “Scatman” Crothers, an actor and musician, came in to voice the characters. The other Scat Cats all come from outside France, such as an Italian cat, an English cat, and a Russian cat, named Billy Boss and voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, voice of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s as well as being part of The Mellomen singing group who performed in numerous Disney projects. These are all quite stereotypical portrayals of natives of these countries, however, the most offensive of all is Shun Gon, the Chinese cat. At the time, in the 1970s, although still wrong, it was unlikely to have been considered a problem by audiences of that time period. Now, it is embarrassing to sit through at best, and horrifying to watch at worst. It’s really not good, and even worse, the original voice of Tigger, Paul Winchell, voices this character. Naturally, because of this character, many versions of “Ev’rybody Wants to be a Cat”, the Scat Cats’ signature song, that have been released since have edited out Shun Gon’s chorus, and on Disney+, a warning is played stating the film contains negative depictions and harmful stereotypes.

Moving on to the British geese, who don’t really need to be in this film. Carole Shelley and Monica Evans voice Amelia and Abigail Gabble respectively. Both starred as sisters Gwendolyn and Cecily Pigeon in the Broadway play of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, as well as the subsequent 1968 film and 1970s television series[1]. The two also voiced characters again for Disney, as Lady Kluck and Maid Marian in Robin Hood (1973). Uncle Waldo is voiced by Bill Thompson, who was known for his voice roles in other Disney animated films, such as White Rabbit and Dodo in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Mr. Smee in Peter Pan (1953), and King Hubert in Sleeping Beauty (1959). Uncle Waldo was Thompson’s final film role as he died in 1971.

Finally, the two dogs, Lafayette the basset hound and Napoleon the bloodhound, who are named after one of the leaders of the French Revolution, just watch Hamilton if you’re not sure who this is, and Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. Lafayette is the more timid of the two, with Napoleon the leader, thinking his ideas are best even though that is not always the case. The two fights they have with Edgar are very comedic, but again, bordering on being too silly. They are an interesting addition to the story as they are not really needed; Edgar could have still carried out his plan without them, and they must have been included to give more comedic, action scenes to the film, so I guess the dogs are good for that, but that’s about it! Pat Buttram voices Napoleon and George Lindsey voices Lafayette. Buttram went on to voice the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood (1973), alongside Lindsey as Trigger, one of the vulture sidekicks, and then Luke in The Rescuers (1977), alongside Lindsey as Deadeye, the Rabbit. Buttram would also later voice Chief in The Fox and the Hound (1981). The two French dogs have very strong Southern US accents, since both voice actors were from Alabama. I guess audiences like to hear familiar voices, even if they make no sense to the story!

PRODUCTION

The Aristocats was first planned to be a two-part live-action show to be aired as part of Walt Disney’s television series. In December 1961, Harry Tytle, who had worked at the Disney Studios for decades at this point and produced many of their live-action films, was asked by Walt Disney to find animal stories that the Studios could use in their features. Tytle was asked to work with Tom McGowan, who was a director, whilst they were both in London. By the New Year in 1962, Tytle and McGowen had found many of these “animal stories” that the Disney Studios would be able to adapt into films or television spots. Supposedly, one of these was a children’s book about a mother cat and her kittens that was set in New York City, however, I have not been able to find the name or author of this book, and some say that The Aristocats was based on a true story, of a wealthy owner giving their fortune to their pet cats, but again, specifics of this story are hard to come by.

Regardless, it was decided that this story, wherever the inspiration had come from, would benefit from being based in the real-life location of Paris. So, Tytle and McGowen began planning out the story to fit this two-part television show format, with the aim being for the two shows to be combined and realised theatrically after airing on television. Tom Rowe, an American writer who lived in Paris and had been a film reviewer for Variety and would go on to write the script for Tarzan the Ape Man (1981), was brought in to write the script for this version of The Aristocats. The story written was based on the idea that a maid and butler were due to inherit their mistress’ fortune after the death of her cats. This not being enough for the maid and butler, they would try to get rid of the cats but found themselves unsuccessful as the mother cat continued to move her kittens throughout Paris to keep them safe. The original opening sequence was later added to a home release of the film, which included the original maid character, Elvira, and a deleted song. This version of the film still opened in Paris in 1910, but began at The Louvre Museum, where Duchess is telling her kittens about their ancestors at Le Galerie des Chats, as portraits of famous felines hang on the walls. They then go home to Madame Bonfamille’s mansion, where the attorney comes to talk about Madame’s will. Elvira and Edgar, still the butler, are curious about the details of the will, so Edgar listens in. Edgar hears that the two will inherit the estate and will share it between the two of them. Edgar wants it all though and decides to “propose” to Elvira, who is ecstatic at this point but says he’ll have to court her and give her time to plan the big wedding. Madame continues with the will and Edgar hears that actually, him and Elvira will not even benefit from the estate until the end of her cats’ lifespans[2]. Though this version of The Aristocats was meant to be live-action, Walt agreed that the animals could talk, in order to develop their personalities, but only when humans weren’t around.

This script was sent to the Burbank studios where it was rejected. However, as it was not rejected by Walt Disney personally, McGowan decided to send the story treatment to Walt who was in London at the time. Walt liked it, and asked Tytle to buy the story and make the live-action feature, with McGowan directing, and Tytle producing. Having said that, Walt did ask for some changes to the script, such as reducing the number of kittens, and editing out the family history of the cats, which he said was interesting but unnecessary to the overall story. Tytle made the changes and preparations to start filming began. However, Rowe was unhappy with the changes that were made to his script and felt that Tytle was simply being Walt’s “minion”. Tytle responded by saying that it was just a difference of opinion and that Walt had asked for the changes and was now happy to go ahead, so they would stick with it. Soon after, the story was shelved for various reasons.

Later, Tytle suggested that The Aristocats should become an animated feature film instead. Walt ran this by Woolie Reitherman, the supervising director for animation at the time, along with some of the animators, who agreed that animation would work for the story. In August 1963, The Aristocats was formally announced as Disney’s next animated feature, though work did not start on it until May 1964. Yet still, the project kept running into delays, which only worsened after Walt Disney’s death in December 1966.

Tytle was then told to focus only on live-action films, and was removed from the animated project, with Winston Hibler taking over. Hibler struggled with the film so he was removed, and Woolie Reitherman took over. The story was then changed again, with many of these changes annoying Tytle. In particular, he did not like the fact a mouse had been added to the feline story as he had deliberately avoided this, and Tytle felt the movie as a whole had lost its French charm because of the changes. The voice cast was changed, the maid role was cut, and additional odd characters, like the geese and dogs, were added to make up for the edits. Tytle stated that his version of the film would have worked much better. Rowe and McGowan did receive story credit for the final film[3].

Unfortunately, the resulting film is not as beautifully animated as previous Disney animated films, probably due to budgetary reasons, and the story is not as entertaining or as interesting as other movies from the Studios, potentially because of the huge changes made to the story, and the loss of Walt Disney. The Aristocats was animated using the xerography technique, which made animation cheaper as hand-painting was no longer required, but did give the imagery a sketched look to it. Xerography had been used since the 1960s, starting with One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and some say that it cheapens the look of the film, however, I don’t believe this is the case with The Aristocats.

What can be off-putting in The Aristocats though is the amount of borrowed story ideas and animation that appears in the film. One of the biggest story ideas, of Duchess, a pure breed cat, meeting Thomas O’Malley, an alley cat, is very much the whole storyline of Lady and the Tramp (1955), with Thomas also being adopted into the well-to-do family at the end of the film, as was the case with Tramp. Also, there are some discussions around whether Edgar’s fights with the animals are just like those that Horace and Jasper experience in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). I’m not sure I see all much that seems to be an exact copy, but I’m sure some of the scenes were used as inspiration. But for me, one of the most annoying reusage of animation in The Aristocats is one section of Toulouse, hissing and spitting like an alley cat. This is replayed at least three times in the film, and I just don’t think it was necessary! Some of the choreography within “Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat” could be seen as being quite similar to “I Wanna Be Like You” from The Jungle Book (1967), but if you really want to see excessive “borrowing” of animation, Robin Hood (1973) is the one to watch for that, not The Aristocats.

MUSIC

Speaking of “Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat”, this song was written by Floyd Huddleston and Al Rinker. The two had collaborated together on hundreds of songs whilst under contract with Decca Records. For Disney, Huddleston would go on to co-write the song “Love” from Robin Hood (1973), alongside Disney Studios composer George Bruns. This song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song. “Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat” is the most well-known song from The Aristocats and has been included on Disney compilation albums for years, though as mentioned earlier, certain offensive lyrics have since been edited out. This song is performed by the Scat Cats and Thomas O’Malley, as well as Marie and Duchess providing some singing. Robie Lester provides the singing voice for Duchess throughout The Aristocats, not Eva Gabor. Lester also sang for Bianca in The Rescuers (1977); Eva Gabor voiced Bianca. The song is reprised at the end of the film.

Another song called “Thomas O’Malley Cat”, basically Thomas’ theme song, performed by Phil Harris as Thomas, obviously, and was written by Terry Gilkyson. Gilkyson had previously written the song “The Bare Necessities” for The Jungle Book (1967), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song. He also wrote songs for live-action Disney television series and movies. Little did I know that “Thomas O’Malley Cat” actually states Thomas’ full name within it. It is Abraham DeLacey Giuseppe Casey Thomas O’Malley. I never had any idea what he was saying until this week, but I’ve always liked this song. It’s my favourite in the whole movie, because it’s so catchy and smooth. Duchess says that Thomas’ name covers all of Europe, because it is a mixture of names from different European countries, yet we don’t know where he actually comes from. Interestingly, in the Italian dub, Thomas’ name is Romeo and he is stated as being “the best cat in the Colosseum”. This is because, at the time, the Colosseum was home to many alley cats.

Outside of these songs, the other two that feature in the film were written by Richard and Robert Sherman, also known as the Sherman Brothers. The duo had worked with Walt Disney for years, including for movies such as The Parent Trap (1961), Mary Poppins (1964), and The Jungle Book (1967), and for themes for some of Disney’s longest-running theme park attractions like “It’s a Small World (After All)” from the boat ride of the same name, and “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” for Carousel of Progress.

For The Aristocats, they knew that the music would need to fit the location and time period of 1900s Paris. This is reflected in the title song, “The Aristocats”, which is the other song in the movie that I most enjoy. The Sherman Brothers wanted French singer Maurice Chevalier to sing the song for them, however, Chevalier had already retired. Richard had the idea to impersonate the singer for the demo and to play it to him to try and convince Chevalier to come out of retirement. It worked! This was Chevalier’s last professional recording before his death in 1972. It is performed in English to begin with, before moving into French just as the animation of the story begins, however, on some versions of this song, I don’t think the French verses are always included. The song “The Aristocats” does evoke the feeling of being in France and even uses that quintessentially French, iconic instrument the accordion frequently.

Another factor that the Sherman Brothers knew had to be in the film was a song to introduce the kittens. This is done through “Scales and Arpeggios”, which shows Marie singing and Berlioz playing the piano, with Toulouse coming in to make a mess on the piano with his paint-covered paws! Duchess also sings alongside Marie at one point. As this song mentions the musical tools of scales and arpeggios, these make up the majority of the melody[4]. Though I’m not a huge fan of the song, I do like when Berlioz interrupts Marie’s singing with his piano solo. I would prefer to watch the animated sequence instead of just listening to the song.

This makes up the entirety of the songs in the final film of The Aristocats, however, the Sherman Brothers wrote many more that were not used. One of these was a song sung between Elvira, the maid, and Edgar, the butler, as part of that original opening sequence. This deleted song was called “How Much You Mean to Me/Court Me Slowly”, and details Edgar trying to convince Elvira to marry him, so he doesn’t have to share Madame’s fortune. The demo song was recorded by both Richard and Robert Sherman. It is apparently one of the few times the two sang together on a demo recording.

A two-part song was also written by the Sherman Brothers, but was also cut. The first sung was to be performed by Hermoine Baddeley as Madame Bonfamille and was called “Pourquoi?”. It was storyboarded to be included at the beginning of the film as Madame uses her new gramophone. She sings about how the cats are her family, with the kittens chiming in, meowing “pourquoi?” or “why?”. The second-part was called “She Never Felt Alone”, to be sung by Robie Lester as Duchess. It would’ve taken place at the point when Thomas is asking Duchess to go away with him, as they are sat in the milk truck heading to Paris. Duchess says she can’t as they can’t leave Madame alone because she adores them, and they adore her. Though the song was cut, the opening lines of the song were used as dialogue for Duchess in the final film instead[5]. The Sherman Brothers had also written a song to be the big show-stopping number of The Aristocats called “Le Jazz Hot”, however, it was decided that “Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat” should be used instead. Some of these deleted songs were re-recorded and included on re-releases of The Aristocats soundtrack.

The instrumental music was composed by George Bruns, who composed scores for multiple Disney animated films, such as Sleeping Beauty (1959), The Sword in the Stone (1963) and The Jungle Book (1967), as well as many live-action Disney movies, such as The Love Bug (1968). He also co-wrote the song “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)” with Xavier Atencio for the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park attraction.

RECEPTION

The Aristocats was first released on 24^th December 1970. It took four years to produce and cost over $4 million dollars to make according to Disney publicity. It was a box-office success, however, critically it was compared negatively to The Jungle Book (1967), which was the last animated film that Walt Disney had been specifically involved in[6]. For many critics, they felt his influence was sorely missed in The Aristocats, specifically in relation to the story elements and the character choices. Though others did say it was entertaining enough, and that the voice cast in particular were a highlight. The Aristocats was later re-released in theatres in 1980 and 1987, continuing to bring in audiences and higher box-office profits. It also benefited from multiple home releases over the years. 

LEGACY

In January 2022, a live-action remake of The Aristocats was announced. It was presumed at the time that this would be a live-action/animation hybrid, much like the remake of Lady and the Tramp (2019). In March 2023, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson was named as the director of this remake. He is perhaps most known for appearing with the band The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, becoming the official house band of the show in 2009, and then moving to The Tonight Show when Jimmy Fallon became the host in 2014. Questlove also won numerous awards, including the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2022, when he directed the 2021 film Summer of Soul, focusing on the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival[7]. After this announcement, there was no further news or details on The Aristocats remake – until 2025. This is when Disney seemed to be pausing development on many of their previously announced live-action remakes. It was later confirmed in August 2025, by Questlove himself on a podcast, that the live-action remake had been scrapped. It was stated that this was partly down to constant management shake-ups making the development process difficult, however, Questlove did have some hope the project may still happen in the future[8].

Back in 2005, a direct-to-video sequel was proposed by the Disney Studios, however, it was swiftly cancelled in 2006, along with many others, when John Lasseter came on as Chief Creative Officer of the Walt Disney Animation Studios after the Walt Disney Company acquired Pixar. It was probably for the best that this sequel was cancelled, given how little praise is given to all those direct-to-video sequels of the 90s and 00s! In 2003, the Disney Channel considered making a television series focused on Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz as teenagers, but again, this never happened[9]. There is, however, a series of graphic novels called The Aristokittens, which began in 2022. A fourth book was released in August 2023. The series follows the three kittens reopening an abandoned café for animals in Paris.

Generally, you can find merchandise lines based on The Aristocats and its characters, though Marie is the most popular of all of them, especially in Japan. Marie will likely feature the most on anything that can be bought. At the D23 Expo in 2022, a home accessories collection by Ann Shen debuted, which included images of Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz on things like plate sets, teapots, and of course, pet accessories.

Specifically, at the Disney Parks, there are few references to The Aristocats, with no rides or attractions based on the movie. At Walt Disney World’s Riviera Resort, you can find Le Petit Café, which is named after the restaurant in the film. Apart from being themed as a French café, there is nothing specific linking it to The Aristocats in its theming or décor. At the France pavilion in Epcot, there may be The Aristocats merchandise and at certain times of the year, you can see a painting of the three kittens on the wall next to La Maison du Vin. These images of Disney characters used to be put in place at the Epcot World Showcase pavilions during Epcot Festivals, but I’m unsure if they are now permanent fixtures or are only around at limited times. Only at Hong Kong Disneyland, a small figure of Marie is visible towards the start of the it’s a small world attraction here.

For character meet-and-greets, Marie is the most popular one, although her brothers Toulouse and Berlioz have been spotted before. At Walt Disney World, Marie used to meet guests both at Magic Kingdom and at the France Pavilion in Epcot but this was years ago. She has been seen in the Adventure Friends Cavalcade at Magic Kingdom though, without her brothers. You’ll probably have more luck seeing all three kittens at Disneyland if you’re in the US, as they have appeared at Disneyland during seasonal events before, and were at Grad Nite in 2022. Outside of the US parks, Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse were spotted at Tokyo Disneyland in 2022, which makes sense seeing as Marie has quite a following in Japan. Marie has been seen on the finale float of the Mickey’s Storybook Express parade at Shanghai Disneyland before, but it seems that the characters on this float are changed up fairly regularly, and it seems that she is not currently featuring here. At Disneyland Paris, they have been sighted in recent years, including at a character breakfast in 2016, and at Halloween and Christmas events until around 2018. At the Disney Loves Jazz event at the park in September 2018, the three kittens were available to meet once again, and for the first time, Edgar was a character meet-and-greet! It seems that the kittens are getting rarer to see and it is more likely that they will only show up at Special Events now.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The 1970s was another difficult decade for the Disney Studios after the loss of their visionary leader. Many of the other animated releases of the 1970s could be seen as “middling efforts”, but none of them are terribly bad; they just lack direction and charm. The Aristocats is not one of Disney animation’s best films, and seemingly, it is remembered for the character of Marie these days or for the song “Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat”, more so than its full story. These few elements of The Aristocats have kept it relevant enough that is not a film that is easily forgotten, yet not favoured by many.

But as I’ve said before, everyone has a favourite Disney film, and every Disney film is a favourite to someone. We can’t all enjoy the same movies or life would be boring, so whether or not The Aristocats is your favourite, like all the others, it has a history to it, and deserves to be remembered both for the things it got wrong, and for the things it got right. 

---

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Aristocats (1970)’, pp. 58-60.

[2] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scene: “The Lost Open””, from The Aristocats (1970) Special Edition Blu-Ray (2012).

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Revised Vault of Walt: Volume 1 (2012), ‘Secret Origins of The Aristocats’, pp. 113-118.

[4] Credit: Disney, “The Sherman Brothers: The Aristocrats of Disney Songs”, from The Aristocats (1970) Special Edition Blu-Ray (2012).

[5] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Song: “She Never Felt Alone”, from The Aristocats (1970) Special Edition Blu-Ray (2012).

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Revised Vault of Walt: Volume 1 (2012), ‘Secret Origins of The Aristocats’, pp. 113-118.

[7] Credit: Justin Kroll, ‘Questlove To Direct Live-Action/Hybrid Adaptation of ‘The Aristocats’ For Disney’, Deadline.com, 27^th March 2023.

[8] Credit: Armando Tinoco, ‘Questlove Says ‘The Aristocats’ Live-Action Adaptation Has Been Scrapped At Disney: “Just Wasn’t Meant To Happen’, Deadline.com, 29^th August 2025.

[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Revised Vault of Walt: Volume 1 (2012), ‘Secret Origins of The Aristocats’, pp. 113-118.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. MUSIC
5. PRODUCTION
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

The 1980s were a troublesome time at Disney, particularly for the Animation Department. 

Although The Black Cauldron (1985) was the “problem child” of Disney Animation during this decade, it was not the only issue the department faced. As well as dealing with an art form that was continuing to be expensive and received little respect from audiences, there was also a major upheaval in the form of new management, namely that of new Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner, new Chief Financial Officer Frank Wells, new Chairman of Walt Disney Studios Jeffrey Katzenberg, who all arrived in 1984, coming from different film studios, and new president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, Peter Schneider in 1985.

It was a hard time. The dismal failure of The Black Cauldron (1985) and the mediocre success of The Great Mouse Detective (1986) meant there was a lot of pressure piling on to those animators working on Oliver & Company, a strange adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, but with dogs and a cat. It was at least a unique adaptation of the novel, which had already become a musical, its subsequent 1968 film, as well as television series and other film and stage productions. But the animators weren’t excited, instead feeling anxious about their job security, and the new management mostly just wanted to make money. Audiences weren’t expecting much, having almost given up on seeing something spectacular from Disney Animation ever again, with the releases since Walt Disney’s death rarely living up to the spectacle and enchantment of the Studios’ early years.

But despite the incredibly mixed reviews and a lack of enthusiasm, Oliver & Company did in fact do well financially, and has managed to garner a cult following. I personally like Oliver & Company. I used to watch it a lot after school while I did my homework; it had a short enough runtime at just over an hour that it fit perfectly into the time I had between getting home from school and eating dinner! I also watched other shorter Disney animated films, like The Sword in the Stone (1963) and Robin Hood (1973) at this time too, and because I used to watch them so frequently, I guess I found an appreciation for them that perhaps the average person does not have.

PLOT

Oliver & Company begins with an aerial shot of Manhattan Island, before moving to the streets of New York City, where a box of kittens has been left. The box states “Kitties Need Home 5.00”. There must be some sort of honesty box, because although, one by one, the kittens are taken away, we never see anyone pay for them! After a couple of days, just one remains – a little ginger kitty – with the box now stating that the kitten is free to a good home, however, the last kitten is not taken away, but left in the box in the middle of a rainstorm. The kitten meows at passers-by but they either ignore him, or don’t hear him. After the kitten is almost flushed down into the sewer by rushing rainwater, almost killed by feral dogs, who chase him down an alley, and almost scared to death by thunder and lightning, it eventually settles down to sleep on top of a stationary truck’s wheel.

The next morning, the kitten is woken up by the truck moving and quickly jumps off. It begins searching for people to presumably either take him away from this horrible place or feed him, but, except for one toddler who is quickly dragged away by its mother, the kitten is largely ignored again. He stumbles upon a hot dog cart, and tries to beg for food but is shooed away by the miserable seller, Louie. A dog comes over to the kitten; his name is Dodger. He tells the cat that they need to team up to steal the hot dogs. Dodger barks at Oliver, scaring him so that he will run up Louie and distract him. This does the job, with Dodger taking the sausages. He walks away, leaving the kitten to fend for itself, but the kitten follows Dodger to a construction site, and all over New York City, telling him that half of those hot dogs are his, as per their deal.

Eventually, after Dodger’s big song-and-dance number where he shows off about how cool he is, they arrive at the docks, with Dodger unaware that the cat has been following him all along. On a rundown boat, a ragtag team of dogs live: the hyperactive Chihuahua, Tito, the high-class bulldog, Francis, the no-nonsense Saluki, Rita, and the nice but dim Great Dane, Einstein. They spend their time trying to find treasures that their owner, Fagin, can pawn to pay back a debt he currently has. Unfortunately, since they are only dogs, these “treasures” mostly amount to shredded wallets and random broken items; not enough to pay back debt. As Dodger is recounting his “terrifying” tale of how he outsmarted a “psychotic” monster to bring them food for dinner, something crashes through the roof of the boot – it’s that cat. Soon, Fagin arrives home, and is greeted by his dogs. He looks at their loot from the day and is disappointed by what he finds, saying Sykes won’t be happy with that. But really, what did he expect? How can dogs know what will and won’t pay off his ridiculous debts? Give them a break, man.

Anyway, Fagin goes up to see Sykes, the loan shark he needs to pay back. He tells Fagin he has one last chance; he has three days to pay back what he owes – or else. At the same time, Sykes’ Dobermans, Roscoe and DeSoto, stay with Fagin’s dogs, to keep them in line, and flirt with Rita, who rebuffs them every time. They soon smell the cat, with the cat scratching DeSoto’s nose as a warning. Fagin’s dogs surround and protect the kitten, and Sykes’ dogs are soon called away. Fagin returns to the room, feeling down and hopeless, with no idea how to pay back the money. The dogs rally around him, and Fagin is introduced to the cat, who is dubbed an official member of the gang. After a quick bedtime story, everyone settles down to sleep. The kitten moves off Fagin’s lap at one point and snuggles up next to Dodger. Cute.

The next day, Fagin and his dogs head into the city once more, with Fagin driving his three-wheeled scooter and the dogs sitting in the shopping trolley that is attached to it – very inventive. Fagin sends the dogs out to either find some way of making money or to steal something expensive, whilst he attempts to pawn items he’s “found”. The dogs teach the cat the tricks of their trade by seeing firsthand their plan to steal a limousine. Einstein hits the car, making the driver stop, with Francis putting on a theatrical display in front of the car, pretending to have been hit. Tito and the cat are sent inside the limo to hot-wire it. Except something goes wrong, because as Tito is working with the electrics, the cat gets scared by movement in the back of the car and falls onto the keys, which are in the ignition. The car goes haywire and Tito is electrocuted, and shot out the window. The cat gets stuck in wires, and is rescued by the passenger, a little girl called Jenny. The other dogs run away and meet up in an alley, only to find the cat was left behind. Tito and Dodger follow the car to find him.

The limo pulls up to a house on Fifth Avenue. The dogs make a plan to retrieve the kitten later on. Meanwhile, Jenny convinces her driver and butler, Winston, that her parents, who are away on a conference, wouldn’t mind her keeping the cat. Sure enough, they call soon after and say she can keep it. She names him Oliver – this is the first time the kitten’s name is mentioned in the film. Winston knows this will annoy their pampered, prize-winning poodle, Georgette. Sure enough, when Georgette comes downstairs and finds the cat eating “Oeufs á la Jenny, avec Cocoa Krispies” out of her bowl, no less, she is furious and tries to get the cat thrown out of the house. Speaking of Jenny’s strange cat food concoction, I’m sure most kids thought whatever it was she made looking amazing, because it’s basically a chocolate pudding or mousse, with chocolate cereal and whipped cream on top, which sounds great to me, but little Oliver shouldn’t be eating it because chocolate is toxic to cats, and most cats are actually lactose intolerant so shouldn’t have dairy. So, if you are looking for recipes for this amazing “cat food” online, and surprisingly, there are many of them, then please only give it to humans, not to your pets! Georgette is also seen eating a box of chocolates later on; don’t feed your dogs chocolate either.

Back to the story. Jenny and Oliver spend lots of time together, where she takes him to Central Park, to eat ice cream and sit in a rowboat and carriage; Oliver even “helps” her as she practises the piano. Jenny also gets Oliver a collar and tag, with his new name and new address. Oliver is very happy in his new home. But the next day, whilst Jenny is out at school, Fagin’s dogs break into the house. They find Georgette first who is furious to have strange dogs near her, but is only too pleased to hear that they want to take Oliver. Georgette is delighted to have the house all to herself again. When Oliver is returned to Fagin’s boat, he is upset at the others for taking him back because he was happy. Dodger is annoyed and tells Oliver to just leave then. As Oliver is about to leave, Fagin comes home, with his three days almost up and picks up Oliver. He sees Oliver’s tag and, believing that Oliver belongs to some rich person, writes a letter to the owner, asking for a ransom to get their cat back. Fagin posts it through the door.

Jenny sees the letter and is devastated to find that Oliver has been stolen. Her and Georgette head off in the rain over to the docks following Fagin’s terribly drawn map. At the docks, Fagin meets with Sykes. Sykes is expecting his money and when he finds that Fagin doesn’t have it, he orders his dogs to attack Dodger. Fagin babbles out his plan to use Oliver as a ransom, at which point Sykes calls off his dogs and tells Fagin it’s not a bad plan and gives him a few more hours. As Fagin waits for the rich cat owner, he sees Jenny and her dog looking very lost and upset. He realises that Jenny is the owner of Oliver and that there is no point trying to extort money from her, since she hasn’t got much, only what’s in her piggy bank. He returns Oliver to her, but little does he know that Sykes has been watching this exchange. Sykes drives towards them and grabs Jenny, throwing her into the car. He tells Fagin his debt is repaid.

The dogs and Oliver go to Sykes’ office and see Jenny tied up there; Sykes is on the phone to her parents, telling them to pay up. Tito is told to cut the security cameras, whilst the others dress up as a pizza delivery man to trick Sykes into coming out of the room; the dogs get inside and hook Jenny up to a wire above. Tito uses his electrical skills to get it to move upwards, but Sykes sees and jams the box, sending them down a slide. They are cornered with Sykes’ dogs about to attack. Jenny and the gang are soon rescued by Fagin in his scooter, and they rush off. Sykes and his two dogs follow behind in his car. Fagin thinks he can lose Sykes by going into the subway in Times Square, and yet, Sykes drives his car down into the tunnel and follows Fagin onto the train tracks. Sykes bumps the scooter, throwing Jenny onto his car. As Sykes tries to grab her from the roof, Oliver jumps over and bites his hand; Oliver is tossed into the back of the car, with DeSoto and Roscoe ready to attack. Dodger jumps into the car to save Oliver, but is himself attacked by Sykes’ dogs and thrown out of the back window, with one dog hitting the tracks. Oliver scratches the other dog who also hits the electrified tracks. Ouch.

Jenny reaches out to Fagin to save her, but Sykes pulls her back, so now Tito is driving the scooter, and no-one is driving Sykes’ car. Oliver and Dodger jump onto Sykes, giving Jenny the chance to jump towards Fagin. At the same time, Tito is driving the scooter directly into the path of an oncoming train, leaving Georgette to completely freak out on him. At the final moment, Tito pulls the scooter on to the railings of the Brooklyn Bridge and Sykes throws Dodger and Oliver off him – but is then struck by the train…Once the train has gone, Tito gently reverses the scooter off the railings and back on to the pavement, where Dodger comes out of the shadows carrying a seemingly lifeless Oliver. Jenny rushes to him, and he suddenly comes alive again.

A day or so later, it is Jenny’s birthday. At her fancy house, Oliver, Jenny, Winston, Fagin, Dodger and the rest of the dogs are having a party to celebrate. Winston gets a phone call from Jenny’s father saying that they will be home tomorrow – finally! Fagin watches wrestling on TV with Winston, only to lose a bet and have to make a swift getaway since obviously he has no money. Jenny receives gifts from all the dogs, like a lovely fish bone, broken tennis racket, and a beaten-up shoe, and says goodbye to Fagin, and the other dogs. Georgette decides to give Tito, or Alonso as she calls him, a makeover to meet her “grooming standards”. Tito rushes out of the house, dressed as a sailor, saying that Georgette is crazy and he doesn’t want to see her again! The dogs say goodbye to Oliver, with Dodger and Oliver having a particular moment, before he catches up with Fagin and his scooter by jumping all over cars and garbage trucks, like he does. The rest of the gang sing “Why Should I Worry?” with him, and the film ends with a final aerial view of NYC.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Oliver is the little ginger kitten that seemingly nobody wants to adopt. He has a very difficult start in life, with everyone ignoring him or not noticing him. When Oliver becomes a part of Fagin’s gang of dogs, though they accept him and protect him, more or less, it’s clear that he doesn’t really fit in and isn’t sure this is where he wants to be. It’s not until Jenny takes him in that Oliver starts to be happy with his life, as she clearly adores Oliver and I bet he ended up being a very spoilt little kitty! Oliver is very tough, by scratching and biting dogs and humans much larger than himself to either protect himself or save someone else. He’s also cute so you can’t help but root for him, especially after the New York streets seem to be too much for him to handle.

Oliver is voiced by an eleven or twelve-year-old Joey Lawrence. As a child star, he appeared in series such as Gimme a Break! (1983-87) and Blossom (1990-95). He also starred alongside his two brothers in the series Brotherly Love from 1995 to 1997. Oliver & Company was the first time one of the Lawrence brothers was cast in a Disney project. Later, Matthew Lawrence would be chosen for a voice part in the Disney English dub of Kiki’s Delivery Service (1998), and Andrew Lawrence would voice T.J. Dettweiler in the series Recess and its spin-offs. Nowadays, Joey Lawrence is probably best known for starring alongside Melissa Joan Hart in the ABC sitcom Melissa & Joey (2010-15).

Dodger starts off being quite arrogant and overly confident in the film. When he meets Oliver, he clearly just wants to use him to get food for himself and has no intentions of sharing. He talks a good game, but some of his stories are very much exaggerated, and made to make him look cooler and braver than he actually is. But Dodger is a very loyal dog, protecting Fagin, the rest of the dogs, and eventually Oliver, from harm, usually from Sykes and his Dobermans. Dodger is also carefree and relaxed, letting worries wash over him, which is good for me to see because I am the complete opposite, though I’d much rather be like Dodger. But then life is easier for dogs generally, isn’t it?

Singer-songwriter and six-time Grammy Award winner Billy Joel both voices and provides the singing voice for Dodger. This was an incredibly big name to have in the cast of a Disney animated film at the time, and they certainly used his name a lot in the marketing of the film’s release to get as many people to see it as possible! At the time, Billy Joel was famous for releasing hits such as “Piano Man” in 1973 and “Uptown Girl” in 1983. Oliver & Company was Joel’s acting debut. Director George Scribner was initially sceptical about whether Joel would be right for the role, but after an audition over the phone, Scribner thought he was great[1]. After this role, Joel continued to focus on his music. In June 2023, Joel announced that his residency at Madison Square Garden will end in July 2024.

Then, there’s Fagin. Though the novel Oliver Twist shows Fagin to be an outright crook, teaching his boys to steal from others and not caring much about their welfare, the Fagin in Oliver & Company has been humanised somewhat. I don’t see him as a thief, although I know he tells his dogs to go out and steal items for him, so that in itself is morally wrong, even if he doesn’t personally steal himself. To me, he seems to be someone who is down-on-his-luck, who had to take money from Sykes and is now struggling to pay it back. Fagin is threatened with violence or even death by Sykes, so how can you not feel bad for him? I think Fagin seems like a nice guy really, who cares for his dogs, but struggles to hold down a job and make money.

Maybe it’s just his voice that makes Fagin seem so lovable, and that is the work of actor and comedian Dom DeLuise. DeLuise starred alongside his friend Burt Reynolds in various films such as The Cannonball Run (1981) and Smokey and the Bandit II (1980). He also appeared in Mel Brooks movies, like Blazing Saddles (1974). Outside of this, DeLuise had much experience in voice acting, having voiced the characters of Jeremy in The Secret of NIMH (1982) and Tiger in An American Tail (1986). Disney were pleased to get DeLuise to voice a character for one of their films, as these two previous films he had voice acted in were for Don Bluth[2]. Bluth had been an animator at the Disney Studios but left in 1979 to set up his own animation studio, taking many animators with him. Disney felt they had “poached” DeLuise, however, DeLuise reprised his roles as Jeremy and Tiger in their subsequent spin-offs throughout the 80s and 90s. But for me, I know Dom DeLuise from only Oliver & Company and just one episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1996-2003), where he played Cousin Mortimer in Season 3 Episode 4 in 1998. DeLuise passed away in 2009 at the age of 75.  

Sykes is the evil and scary loan shark who Fagin must owe a lot of money to warrant this kind of attention from an obviously very busy and successful man, judging by his shiny Cadillac. Sykes is willing to resort to violence to get what’s owed him, but he can be charming, albeit in a menacing way, when he’s trying to get someone to listen to him, like Fagin in their first encounter in the film, or when he’s talking to Jenny after kidnapping her. He’s a Disney villain that nobody really talks about, despite having quite a brutal death, which is disappointing because I think he’s a good one.

The role of Sykes was initially offered by Michael Eisner to Marlon Brando; however, Brando declined the role as he thought the film would bomb[3]. Instead, they cast Robert Loggia, who had starred in films such as three films in the Pink Panther series and Scarface (1983) by the time he was cast by Disney. The same year as Oliver & Company’s release in 1988, Loggia also starred as Mr. MacMillan, the owner of MacMillan Toy Company, in Big (1988), a massively successful movie, where Loggia won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. I had no idea Mr. MacMillan was Sykes until just now, and I am surprised, in a good way! Loggia passed away in 2015 at the age of 85.

Finally, for the primary characters, we have the kind and caring seven-year-old Jenny. Though she has a nice house and rich parents, Jenny is actually very lonely before she meets Oliver as her parents seem to be very busy with their jobs and fly out of the country often for work. Jenny is even told that they won’t be home for her birthday, which upsets her a lot. They do come home the very next day, apparently, but that’s besides the point. She doesn’t have her parents around, their poodle Georgette is pretentious and not very cuddly, and Winston is their highly professional butler, so Jenny has no-one she can really talk to. She needed Oliver to give her some sort of stability and friendship in life, outside of school, where I assume she has friends, but we don’t get to find out. Her birthday party consists of just Oliver, Fagin, and his dogs, so maybe she doesn’t! Jenny is a sweet girl, and a very deserving and devoted owner to Oliver.

Former child actress Natalie Gregory provides the speaking voice for Jenny. In 1985, she starred as Alice in the 1985 made-for-television film Alice in Wonderland, which aired on CBS in two parts. After the release of Oliver & Company, Gregory then played the part of Annie in the former Epcot attraction Cranium Command, which opened at the Wonders of Life pavilion in October 1989 before closing in January 2007. I miss that attraction so much…

For the more minor characters, there are still so many impressive names in the voice cast. Firstly, actress and singer Bette Midler voices poodle Georgette. Georgette is quite vain and bossy, thinking herself better than Fagin’s dogs because she is a show dog, having won numerous awards. She hates the spotlight being taken away from her by Oliver, but when they have to set out to save Jenny, she gets on board with the dogs’ plans, though she isn’t much use! Bette Midler has released numerous albums, performed in many Broadway productions such as Fiddler on the Roof as Tzeitel in 1967 and Hello, Dolly! as Dolly from 2017 to 2018, and starred in various screen roles, like Big Business (1988) and The First Wives Club (1996). For Disney, she introduced “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” segment of Fantasia 2000 (1999) and most famously, starred as Winifred Sanderson in the Halloween movies Hocus Pocus (1993) and its sequel Hocus Pocus 2 (2022).

Cheech Marin provides the voice of the energetic and highly flirtatious Tito the Chihuahua. Tito is quite fiery and easy to anger, but because of Tito’s small stature, nobody takes him seriously when he wants to fight. Tito is tasked with biting through lots of electrical wires, which seems very unfair, but apparently being electrocuted is his top skill! He’s the funniest of all the characters, and has some great lines, “If this is torture, chain me to the wall” and “Get off my back woman, I’m driving”, being his best. Marin was well-known for his comedy act Cheech & Chong alongside Tommy Chong during the 1970s and 1980s. Since his role in Oliver & Company, Marin has returned to Disney to voice other characters such as Banzai in The Lion King (1994) and Ramone in the Cars franchise (2006-present). Other roles he may be known for are: “Uncle” Felix in the first three Spy Kids films (2001-2003) and Officer Salino in the under-appreciated movie Christmas with the Kranks (2004).

The last three names to mention are the dogs Rita, Einstein, and Francis, who are the three with the least amount of screen time. Rita is streetwise and feisty. She tries to care for Oliver by teaching him the way of the streets. Looking at the source material, I presume Rita is meant to be like Nancy in Oliver Twist, a maternal figure of some sort to Oliver before he meets his forever family. Rita’s voice is provided by Sheryl Lee Ralph. At the time, she was best known for performing as Deena Jones in the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls in 1981. She later returned to Broadway to play the role of Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2002. Presently, she stars as Barbara Howard in the critically acclaimed ABC comedy series Abbott Elementary (2021-present). Sheryl Lee Ralph won a Primetime Emmy Award for this role in 2022. She is amazing. But, like Dom DeLuise, I also know her from an episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1996-2003)! This time it is Cousin Zsa Zsa, who appears in Season 4 Episode 13, which aired in 1999.

Richard Mulligan is the voice of Einstein, the slow but kind Great Dane. His big skill is banging into things, and somehow not getting too injured! Mulligan won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1980 for his recurring role as Burt Campbell in the sitcom Soap (1977-81), a parody about daytime soap operas. Mulligan was also known for playing Dr. Harry Weston in the sitcom Empty Nest (1988-95), where he once again won the Primetime Emmy for Lead Actor in 1989. Mulligan died in 2000. Roscoe Lee Browne provides the voice of the highly cultured and posh bulldog Francis, who can be seen watching a production of Macbeth on television during our first introduction to Fagin’s dogs. He has some fun lines, like Tito, such as: “Isn’t it rather dangerous to use one’s entire vocabulary in a single sentence?”. Like Richard Mulligan, Roscoe Lee Browne also appeared in the sitcom Soap (1977-81) as Saunders. He also won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performer for his role as Dr. Barnabus Foster, which he performed from 1986 to 1987 in The Cosby Show (1984-92). Throughout his career, he also performed in numerous productions of Shakespeare plays. Roscoe Lee Brown passed away in 2007.

MUSIC

That’s the voice cast, but the artists on the soundtrack are just as impressive. Huey Lewis, lead singer of the band Huey Lewis and the News, whose hit song “The Power of Love” was written for and played within the blockbuster film Back to the Future (1985), performs the opening number “Once Upon a Time in New York City”. The song says to hang on to your dreams, even when times get tough, which is fitting since New York City is named the City of Dreams. It’s a lovely song, my favourite on the soundtrack. It’s kind of melancholy to begin with and then more hopeful by the end. I also like how it references Oliver in the lyrics, despite the fact he has no name at this point in the film! The song itself was written by Barry Mann and Howard Ashman. This was the first song that Ashman wrote for a Disney animated feature, before going on to collaborate with Alan Menken on music for The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991)[4]. Barry Mann has had success writing both his own songs and alongside his wife Cynthia Weil. Weil and Mann wrote the song “Christmas Vacation” for the film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989).

The next song is performed by Billy Joel as Dodger and is called “Why Should I Worry?”. It’s an upbeat pop song that Dodger performs as he tries to outrun Oliver across the streets of NYC, over a construction site, on to cars, even on to a piano dangling in mid-air! He really doesn’t worry about anything. It suited Disney to give Joel a big number in the film, since singing is what he is best known for. I like the song and its sequence; it’s good fun. In this scene, you can see cameos of Peg, Trusty and Jock from Lady and the Tramp (1955), as well as Pongo from One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), when all the dogs in the city rush to follow Dodger as he sashays down the street. The song is also reprised at the end of the film by all Fagin’s dogs. This song was written by Dan Hartman and Charlie Midnight. The two were a longtime songwriting duo. Separately, Hartman wrote and released the disco song “Relight My Fire” amongst others, and Charlie Midnight has worked with numerous artists and on movie soundtracks, including on The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003), and songs for the Nickelodeon band Big Time Rush.

The third song, “Streets of Gold”, is performed by Rita, but not by Sheryl Lee Ralph. Instead, Ruth Pointer, of The Pointer Sisters who had hits with the songs “I’m So Excited” and “Jump (For My Love)”, sings the song. It’s not clear why the two performers are different. It’s possible that Ruth Pointer agreed to sing for the soundtrack, but did not want the full voice part, or couldn’t do it due to previous commitments. Either way, it’s a great song, with Rita telling Oliver how to survive on the streets, although it’s short, stopping just as it’s about to get going. The soundtrack version is much longer than the film version though. It was written by Dean Pitchford and Tom Snow. Pitchford wrote the lyrics for three songs for the 1980 film Fame, including the title song “Fame”, which won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song. As well as writing the screenplay, Pitchford also collaborated on the music for Footloose (1984), with some of the songs, including “Let’s Hear It for the Boy”, being co-written with Tom Snow. Tom Snow wrote songs for numerous artists and movies, but most interestingly for me he co-wrote three songs for The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (1998): “One of Us”, “We Are One”, and “Love Will Find a Way”.

“Perfect Isn’t Easy” is Georgette’s big theatrical number. It sounds Broadway, it looks Broadway, and it’s performed by a Broadway star: Bette Midler. She’s amazing from start to finish here, even having to do a huge yawn at the start of the song, and then she’s barking by the end of it! At this point in the film, Georgette does not know about Oliver so she’s basically just singing about how wonderful she is and how everyone, even birds and squirrels, not just dogs, are in love with her; it’s brilliant. This was the song I used to rewind the VHS for all the time, but as I’ve gotten older, “Once Upon a Time in New York City” became my favourite song and this is now my second. The winding staircase Georgette walks down at the end of her number was actually created using computer-animation. The song was co-written by Barry Manilow, Jack Feldman, and Bruce Sussman, who regularly worked together, for example on Don Bluth’s film Thumbelina (1994), the highlights of their career, I’m sure, and on the Grammy Award-winning song “Copacabana”.  Feldman also collaborated with Alan Menken on songs for the musical Newsies, and co-wrote with Tom Snow on those three songs from The Lion King II (1998). We all know Manilow as both a singer and songwriter, specifically for his hit songs like “Copacabana”, “I Write the Songs” and “Mandy”.

The final song, “Good Company”, was not sung by Jenny’s voice actor but by Myhanh Tran. It is likely that Natalie Gregory’s voice was not strong enough to handle the song here. “Good Company” is a sweet song, played over a sweet scene, of Oliver and Jenny going all over New York together and having the best day ever. It’s probably not the most exciting film in the soundtrack, and the only one not to have some big name attached to it, either as the performer or in the songwriting team, but it matches the sentiment of the sequence. I particularly enjoy the instrumental bit in the middle of the song. The song was written by Ron Rocha and Robert Minkoff, whose name you may recognise for his work at Disney. Minkoff co-directed The Lion King (1994) with Roger Allers, and was supervising animator for Olivia in The Great Mouse Detective (1986) and provided early designs for Ursula in The Little Mermaid (1989). He later left the Disney Studios and instead directed live-action films like Stuart Little (1999) and its 2002 sequel, and then Disney’s The Haunted Mansion (2003). He returned to animation to direct Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014).

The last thing I will say about the soundtrack is that the score was composed by J.A.C Redford, and I really like the piece titled “Pursuit Through the Subway”; it’s pretty obvious where in the film this plays! For some reason, this always gets me. I think it’s because it’s the first real bit of peril you see in this film, which has mostly just been funny, fluffy entertainment, but to be chased by a madman through the subway and almost get hit by an upcoming train, whilst said madman is trying to kidnap a little girl is a lot to take in! The music feeds in to the feeling of threat and it is kind of stressful! And then it’s all really sad, because we think Oliver’s dead, and then it’s all happy again when it turns out he’s not. That one piece of music sends you on a total emotional rollercoaster.

PRODUCTION

The new management at The Walt Disney Company decided that to get fresh, new ideas for movies, they should organise meetings where animators were free to pitch their ideas; they called it “The Gong Show”, after the televised talent contest of the same name that ran through the 1970s and 1980s. In a similar fashion to the buzzers that the judges use on the …Got Talent series, an act would be gonged if they were particularly bad and had to leave the stage. In this case, the animators’ ideas were the acts and either they were gonged or greenlit. Pete Young was the Disney employee to suggest making Oliver & Company, simply stating it would be Oliver Twist, but with dogs; Katzenberg approved the idea.

Other than the basic premise of an orphan being found by a group of pickpockets before finding a home with a rich family, and then being pursued by a villain, and the use of some character names, Oliver & Company is clearly very different to Dickens’ novel. Instead of setting it in 19^th Century London, Disney’s film takes place in 1980s New York, and feels very contemporary. I think it was best for Disney to take this approach in moving the adaptation far away from the often-depressing work of Dickens and make it more relatable to a contemporary audience. It gives you the basic idea of the novel, without having to deal with any of the difficult, grim, problematic, and sometimes quite violent, themes!

However, this was still not a simple story to adapt. The team chose to set their Oliver Twist in America and in present day, yet there were many creative discussions that went on during the film around the plot, leading to rewrites and many wasted drawings. There was a whole different plot idea about the dogs stealing a panda from the zoo that was developed, but obviously was not continued, and an initial idea for this to be some sort of sequel to The Rescuers (1977). Richard Rich, who had directed the infamous The Black Cauldron (1985), and George Scribner were named as the directors of Oliver & Company, but halfway through production, Rich was removed from the project, leaving Scribner as the sole director.

Not only were story and personnel changes causing problems for the film, but there was an overall lack of morale within the Animation Department at the time. This was partly due to audience reactions and financial results of The Black Cauldron (1985), and to some extent, The Great Mouse Detective (1986), which was considered a huge step forward for Disney Animation, but had been outperformed by Don Bluth’s An American Tail (1986), which coincidentally was also about a mouse. The animators had been moved from their dedicated animation building at the Burbank Studios, as ordered by the new management team. The artists were forced to move to Glendale, which was an uninspiring place to work to say the least. By the summer of 1985, the whole animation department had been moved there. The crew working on The Great Mouse Detective (1986) were some of the first to move to Glendale, with the team working on Oliver & Company being the last.

Roy E. Disney stated at this time that he wanted a new animated film to be released every year, putting even more pressure on the already stressed animators, though this is something that Disney have managed to do ever since, with few exceptions. The new management of Eisner, Wells, Katzenberg, and Schneider were firmly settled in their new positions by the time Oliver & Company was being created and steaming ahead with their ideas of working, but at the same time another big film, a hybrid of animation and live-action was being developed: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), directed by Robert Zemeckis, with executive producer Steven Spielberg. The animated portion of this film was not completed in California, but in London. Peter Schneider, president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, was flying back and forth between the two studios, boasting about the success of one to the other, building up some sort of rivalry between the two, perhaps to boost both sides’ work. In the end, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), released in June 1988, was hugely successful at the box office and with critics, boosting the morale of all the Disney animators[5].

After much discussion over the story, and with the shocking passing of screenwriter Pete Young who originally pitched the idea, the final screenplay for Oliver & Company was co-written by James Mangold, who went on to direct movies such as The Wolverine (2013), Logan (2017), and Ford v Ferrari (2019). Other big Disney names who worked on the story included Mike Gabriel, who went on to co-direct Pocahontas (1995); Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, who went on to co-direct Beauty and the Beast (1991), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and Atlantis: The Lost Empire; and Kevin Lima, who went on to direct Tarzan (1999) and Enchanted (2007). Animators Mark Henn, Glen Keane and Ruben A. Aquino also worked on Oliver & Company as Supervising Animators. They would go on to design and animate characters like Princess Jasmine, the Beast, Ariel, and Simba[6].

Despite being predominately hand-drawn, Oliver & Company was actually the first Disney animated feature to have a specific department solely for computer animation. Computer animation was used for things like buildings, trains, cars, including Sykes’ car, and Fagin’s weird scooter. This was a leap forward for Disney in using this technology, which had only been used in small sequences for previous movies The Black Cauldron (1985) and The Great Mouse Detective (1986). Pixar had only just made their fully CG-created short Tin Toy in August 1988, so it was still a technology in its infancy[7].

The location for Oliver & Company is New York City. Animators shot photos of NYC streets as reference material, shooting photos from 18 inches off the ground to represent a dog’s perspective. It is also worth mentioning that famous landmarks such as Manhattan Island, Times Square, Central Park, and Fifth Avenue all feature in the movie. The World Trade Center is another one. To represent New York City authentically, Oliver & Company is the first Disney animated feature to use product placements. Brands seen include Coca-Cola, Sony and USA Today. It’s worth noting that this advertisement was unpaid and was added purely to give a sense of reality to the setting[8].

RECEPTION

Oliver & Company was theatrically released on 18th November 1988, the exact same day as The Land Before Time (1988), another Don Bluth film, with Spielberg and George Lucas as two of the executive producers. The Land Before Time topped the box office during its opening weekend, however in the end, Oliver & Company beat out The Land Before Time, raking in $53 million compared with $46 million. This showed to the Disney animators that their effort was finally paying off[9]. Having said that, it is likely that some of this success would have been boosted by a huge marketing push from Disney, with their links to McDonald’s and the names of their all-star cast being just two elements that were helpful to them.  

However, box office figures aren’t everything, because critically Oliver & Company did not do well. Many reviews said that the movie was predictable, the animation was basic, and that it did not compare to the heights of Disney Animation. Some did like the music and characters, others did not, saying this movie was only going to be popular with children. Oliver & Company was then not seen again for eight years, when it was re-released theatrically in 1996, before finally being released on VHS. DVD and Blu-Ray editions have since been released in the years that followed and it is also available to view on Disney+.

LEGACY

So how does Oliver & Company do at the theme parks? Well, it’s probably not much of a surprise, but not well. It doesn’t look like the characters ever did traditional meet-and-greets, but they were seen on a pre-parade float at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World around the time of the movie’s initial release. These floats were more or less the same at both parks, featuring costumed Dodger, Oliver, Georgette, Tito, and Francis, with an actress playing Jenny. The song “Why Should I Worry?” played as it went past. During the broadcast of Walt Disney World’s Christmas Day Parade in 1988 there was also a featurette about the making of the movie. At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, there used to be a castle show called Disney Mania, which ran from 1989 until 2001. It involved a costumed Dodger “singing” “Why Should I Worry?” for a time, but only from 1989 to 1992.

After that, there is very little else to say. I have seen one photo of Francis, Tito, Dodger, and probably Georgette and Oliver, in a car together during a parade at Tokyo Disneyland sometime between 1988 and 1990. Supposedly the film was popular in France, but I cannot find anything showing Oliver & Company being represented at Disneyland Paris. Perhaps there were some characters involved in the park’s opening in 1992, but I am not sure. As Oliver & Company was not popular with audiences, and Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland opened much later than these other parks, in 2005 and 2016 respectively, it is no surprise that nothing referencing Oliver & Company has appeared there.

As part of the celebrations for Disney100, collections called Disney100 Decades were being released throughout the event. The collection for the 1980s included a plush of Oliver and a plush of Dodger, which were available in 2023. Other than that, you will be lucky to find anything else celebrating the film, outside of the occasional pin or anniversary ornament. It unfortunately just didn’t do well enough with the general public to warrant a whole line of constant merchandising, unlike other prominent animated films.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It is disappointing that more people don’t enjoy Oliver & Company. It has many good points, like its amazing cast of vocal and musical talent, its lovable characters, and its moments of heart. It really isn’t a bad film, it’s just underappreciated. It launched the Disney Renaissance Era, with those involved going on to do amazing things just a year later.

The nostalgia of the 1980s continues to be referenced, through fashion and screen, with it interesting the younger generations in particular. As Oliver & Company is most definitely an 80s movie, who knows, maybe there will be a whole new appreciation for this film so that others can correct the mistake of the older viewers who have since forgotten it.  

---

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, “The Making of Oliver & Company”, from Oliver & Company (1988) 20^th Anniversary Edition DVD (2009).

[2] Credit: Sam Scott, ‘Things Only Adults Notice In Oliver and Company’, Looper.com, 16^th October 2022.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Oliver & Company (1988)’, pp. 79-81.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Oliver & Company (1988)’, pp. 79-81.

[5] Credit: Don Hahn, Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009).

[6] Credit: Kiki Evans, ’10 Things You Didn’t Know About Oliver & Company’, CBR.com, 29^th March 2021.

[7] Credit: Sam Scott, ‘Things Only Adults Notice In Oliver And Company’, Looper.com, 16^th October 2022.

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Oliver & Company (1988)’, pp. 79-81.

[9] Credit: Don Hahn, Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009).

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

I’m sure for many people, Disney’s Robin Hood was their first introduction to the stories and legend of Robin Hood, the English outlaw who stole from the rich to give to the poor.

It may not be Disney’s best animated feature, in fact, criticisms have been harsh towards the movie, most notably for its reuse of previous animation, but it has a special place in the hearts of many.

I love this version of Robin Hood. It probably helps that I like the overall legend, though I have only watched a couple of other adaptations of the stories, with BBC’s television series Robin Hood (2006-09) being my personal favourite. But I still enjoy Disney’s Robin Hood. I’m not wowed by the animation or by the story, but it has charm and heart, with some good action sequences, funny characters, and catchy music. Who hasn’t spent their time whistling the opening tune at times, or singing “Oo-de-Lally”? I know I have!

The legend of Robin Hood has been told in many ways, with the consensus being that he was a skilled archer, loyal to King Richard, and had his love Maid Marian and his band of “merry men” around him. When the Sheriff of Nottingham, loyal to Prince John, started to harshly tax the people, Robin became an outlaw, fighting against this new rule and trying to help those who were suffering at the hands of it. The reign of Richard I is the usual time setting for the legend, so from 1189 to 1199, with the Crusades, the religious wars that took place around the 1100-1200s in and around the Holy Land, being another time-specific marker, with some adaptations stating that Robin fought in the Crusades, with others saying Robin was of noble birth.

As Robin Hood was only the second animated release after Walt Disney’s death in 1966, and within the Disney’s “Bronze Age”, it was likely that the quality may have suffered since many of the animators knew Walt personally and were incredibly affected by his death, not to mention the fact that Walt Disney was generally quite involved in the production of his animated movies.

PLOT

Disney’s Robin Hood starts off with a singing rooster, Allan-A-Dale, very different to most other adaptations! He sings during the opening credits, where each character is introduced briefly during the sequence, after a typical “storybook opening”. After this, we are led into Sherwood Forest, and see that there is a reward for the capture of Robin Hood. Robin and his friend, Little John, are being targeted by the Sheriff of Nottingham’s men whilst out in the forest, going about their day, but, as usual, they successfully escape. Soon, they see a golden carriage going through the woods, and follow it, hoping to find a rich person whose riches they can take to give to the poor, Robin’s noble mantra in life.

But this isn’t just any carriage, this is Prince John’s royal carriage. Prince John, it turns out, is the current ruler of England as his brother, King Richard, is fighting in the Crusades. Something that Sir Hiss, Prince John’s advisor, hypnotised him to do so Prince John could take the throne. Prince John is sat merrily in his carriage, counting all the taxes that he’s collected over England. They are on their way to Nottingham, when Robin Hood and Little John, dressed as female fortune-tellers, get the carriage to stop so Prince John can have his fortune read. Sir Hiss warns him they could be bandits, but Prince John doesn’t believe women can be bandits! Yet, they certainly rob him – of his money, his carriage’s golden hub caps, his jewels, and even his robe! The two get away with Prince John falling out of his carriage, into the mud, where he comforts himself, as he will do throughout the movie, by sucking his thumb!

After this, we see the Sheriff of Nottingham taxing all the people there, finding coins that are hidden, taking children’s birthday farthings, and stealing from a “blind beggar”. But it’s ok, because the beggar is Robin Hood and he’s come to give the villagers a bag of coins each to help them survive. Robin even gives a child, little Skippy, a bow and arrow as a birthday present, along with his hat. Skippy excitedly goes out to play with it, along with his friends, but he shoots the arrow into Prince John’s castle grounds. Luckily, Maid Marian and her lady-in-waiting Lady Kluck are playing badminton and tell Skippy not to be frightened as he sneaks in to retrieve the arrow. It turns out they are very nice and happy to speak to all the children, even the girls who are trying to get Marian to admit she’s in love with Robin Hood. The two were sweethearts, but Marian went off to London and Robin stayed behind, so each is sure the other has forgotten all about them.

This is not true, as Marian keeps Robin’s reward poster in her wardrobe, and Robin spends so much of his time daydreaming about her that he can’t focus on anything else. Friar Tuck comes by their camp in Sherwood Forest to tell them about an upcoming archery tournament, where one of the prizes is a kiss from Maid Marian; the other is a golden arrow, much less important! Robin Hood decides he must enter, and goes in disguise as a stork, with Little John disguising himself as “Sir Reginald, Duke of Chutney”, sitting himself beside Prince John. Sir Hiss is told to go off and search for Robin Hood. He finds that Robin is the Stork, who is winning the contest, with the only other serious competition being the Sheriff of Nottingham. As Sir Hiss is about to tell Prince John, luckily, he is stopped by Friar Tuck and Allan-A-Dale and put into an ale barrel. The tournament continues and the Stork, or Robin Hood, wins easily despite the Sheriff’s attempts to cheat. Prince John assumes that the Stork is Robin Hood and when dubbing him the winner, reveals his true identity. He is captured by the guards and about to be sentenced to “sudden, instant, and even immediate death”. However, Little John threatens Prince John with a dagger, pressing it against his back, until he releases Robin Hood. Confused, he is let go, but the Sheriff has seen that Robin Hood was only released under threat, and fights Little John, with Prince John, now not at risk of death, ordering the re-capture of Robin Hood. A chase ensues, involving pretty much the whole of Nottingham! Maid Marian and Robin Hood manage to get away together, with Little John and Lady Kluck distracting many of the guards. They all get away and escape into the forest.

Here, Robin Hood and Maid Marian say that they still love each other, and get engaged with a little flower ring, in a romantic scene with a waterfall and lots of fireflies. The schmaltzy stuff is quickly ended by a surprise party, to celebrate Robin Hood’s freedom, where everyone dances, has a laugh, and sings an entire song, purely at the expense of Prince John, dubbing him “The Phony King of England”. The next day, even the Sheriff and Sir Hiss are singing it at the castle. This doesn’t end well, and Prince John, furious, decides to triple the taxes, with anyone not being able to pay being thrown in jail. It’s a sad day for Nottingham as many of the people lose their houses and are thrown in prison, even Allan-A-Dale, the singing rooster, who can’t come up with anything hopeful to sing about…

Friar Tuck, nevertheless, as a member of the church tries to remain positive. The sexton and his wife have saved a farthing and offer it to go in “the poor box”. Friar Tuck takes it gratefully and deposits it there. Soon, the Sheriff arrives, saying that even the church is behind on its taxes, and removes the farthing from the box. Friar Tuck is furious and insults him and Prince John. The Sheriff warns him that if he continues, he’ll be hanged. Friar Tuck gets even more angry and starts to battle the Sheriff – he’s a surprisingly good swordsman! But it’s not enough, and Friar Tuck is arrested on the grounds of high treason.

Though Prince John is surrounded with piles of money, he’s angry that Robin Hood has still not be found. He states that Friar Tuck will be hanged at dawn, hoping that will bring Robin Hood out of hiding. It works, and him and Little John set about planning a jail break. Robin Hood disguises himself as Nutsy, one of the Sheriff’s vulture henchmen, and sings the Sheriff to sleep, before stealing the keys and passing them over to Little John, who goes in and frees everyone. At the same time, Robin goes into Prince John’s room and sets up a conveyor belt with ropes between there and the jail, passing bags of coins along it, over to Little John, who collects them, and gets everyone to head for the castle exit. However, Sir Hiss has woken up to see what’s going on, and grabs hold of a bag, but the makeshift conveyor is too strong, and Prince John is pulled out of bed, landing in the castle forecourt. He sees everyone escaping prison with his gold and calls the guards. Another chase ensues, with them all getting away – except Robin, who stops to save one of the young rabbits. Robin climbs up the castle towers, making it inside, but the Sheriff sets the whole place on fire. Robin climbs right to the top of the highest tower, but the fire consumes everything. He has no choice – he jumps down into the moat. Prince John’s archers continue to shoot at him. Robin does not reappear, with just his hat bobbing in the water. Little John and Skippy wait for him at the water’s edge, but lose hope.

As they are about to leave, they see a reed swimming towards them – it’s Robin Hood; he’s alive! The movie then skips forward to find that Robin Hood and Maid Marian are getting married, and that King Richard has returned, putting his brother, Prince John, Sir Hiss, the Sheriff, and Trigger and Nutsy, the vulture henchmen, in prison. All is well in Sherwood Forest and Nottingham, with King Richard now having “an outlaw for an in-law”.

This wasn’t the first time that Disney had tackled the same source material. The Disney Studios made a live-action retelling of Robin Hood titled The Story of Robin Hood (1952), which was filmed in Buckinghamshire in the UK. It is a slighter darker story, as it is the murder of Robin’s father by King John’s men that leads him to become an outlaw, however, it does include the same story elements of the archery tournament, his love interest Maid Marian, and helping the people who are being taxed harshly by King John – which feature in the animated version, as well as in pretty much every other Robin Hood adaptation, so it’s not much different to any other version of the legend!

CHARACTERS & CAST

Robin Hood is a fox in Disney’s animated film. He is an outlaw, though not particularly roguish. Robin is very clear of his purpose: to take from the rich and give to the poor. He doesn’t use the term “steal”; he likes to say they borrow from those who can afford it. All the people of Nottingham love him and are grateful for all the help he gives them, whether that is giving them money, or breaking them out of jail. Robin is generally quite relaxed; though he knows he is constantly under threat of capture by Prince John or the Sheriff’s men, he believes he can escape them the majority of the time. He’s an optimistic character, with him saying that “there will be happiness again in Nottingham”, even when things look dire. Because of this, Robin is able to continue on his mission to defeat the evil forces at play, and sure enough, his hopefulness turns out to be well-founded as King Richard does return and resolves everything, leaving him to marry his true love, Maid Marian. Robin is also helped by his best friend, Little John, who manages to get Robin out of a few scrapes all on his own, such as at the archery tournament!

Robin Hood was originally going to be voiced by singer Tommy Steele, but it was decided that his voice was too exuberant and lacked the leadership quality that Robin has as a character. Other actors who were considered were Davy Jones from The Monkees, Terry Jones from Monty Python, and Rob Reiner. Eventually, some of the team saw Brian Bedford on stage in Los Angeles and brought him in for a test in 1971. He gave the part charm, heroism and some self-mocking humour, which was perfect for Robin[1]. Brian Bedford was an English actor who was nominated for seven Tony Awards during his theatre career, and featured in many performances of Shakespeare plays.

Little John is Robin Hood’s “right-hand bear”, as that is the animal he is portrayed as! Little John tends to voice the more practical issues with Robin’s plans, being a bit more risk-averse, not wanting to barrel in to places without a plan so they don’t end up captured! He’s very funny as a character, and is confident in his abilities, especially when it comes to disguises. When he walks right up to Prince John as “Sir Reginald” during the archery tournament, he is not afraid of Prince John discovering who he is, and keeps up the pretence without hesitation. Little John would do anything to help Robin, and is genuinely concerned for his safety at times, like at the end of the movie when he believes Robin has been shot and drowned in the castle moat; he’s a good friend to Robin, and loyal to him.

Little John is voiced by Phil Harris, who voiced Baloo in The Jungle Book (1967), which makes sense as the design of Baloo is basically the exact same design for Little John! He also voiced Thomas O’Malley in The Aristocats (1970), the Disney release between these two movies.

Then, there is Maid Marian. She is a fox, like Robin. The two were childhood sweethearts, until Marian went to London, leaving Robin behind. Each of them believes they have been forgotten by the other, only to find that is not the case and they both still love each other as much as they did back in the day. Marian is sweet and caring to others, despite being part of the “royal circle” with Prince John. This is because Marian is King Richard’s niece, though the family connections are not clear, as she is not referred to as Prince John’s niece. Unfortunately, Marian doesn’t have much of a role in the movie, just being Robin Hood’s love interest and eventually his wife. She doesn’t have much to do with the story, although she has a good aim when she’s throwing pies! She gets one of the vultures good with one of those when they’re all trying to escape the guards after the archery tournament! Still, Marian has had a stronger role in other non-Disney Robin Hood adaptations, especially in more modern ones.

Maid Marian is voiced by English actress Monica Evans, who played the role of Cecily Pigeon in The Odd Couple on screen and on stage. She also voiced Abigail Gabble, one of the geese, in The Aristocats (1970).

Lady Kluck is Marian’s lady-in-waiting, who is portrayed as a hen, naturally, and a Scottish one at that! Lady Kluck is not prim and proper as many ladies-in-waiting are presented on screen; she is prepared to fight if she needs to, which seems to impress Little John. This is particularly apparent during the post-archery tournament chase where she shows off her American football moves. In this scene, song arrangements including “Fight On” and “On, Wisconsin”, the fight songs of University of Southern California and University of Wisconsin, are even used to reinforce this[2]. She is loyal to Marian, like Little John is to Robin Hood, but again, does not feature too much in the movie.

Actress Carole Shelley voices the role of Lady Kluck. She portrayed the role of Gwendolyn Pigeon, Cecily’s sister, in the original production of The Odd Couple, as well as in the 1968 film movie and 1970s television series, alongside Monica Evans. Also, alongside Evans, she voiced Amelia Gabble, Abigail’s sister, in The Aristocats (1970). More recently, Shelley originated the role of Madame Morrible in the original Broadway cast of Wicked.

Prince John is potentially the funniest Disney animated villain. He’s meant to be a menacing “king”, he is a lion after all, yet most of the time, he just sounds whiny and whimpering! I think this is why he is a popular Disney villain then, because he’s just hilarious to watch. The fact he clearly has “mummy issues”, leading to him sucking his thumb at random intervals, is a great detail to have included in the character! Prince John is clearly a very greedy individual, not wanting to prove he can be a good king, but just to say he’s been one. It turns out that, with the help of his snake advisor, Sir Hiss, the two tricked King Richard I into going to fight in the Crusades, purely so Prince John could take the thrown. Nobody likes Prince John, not even Sir Hiss, I don’t think, but he has a prominent role in the movie, wanting to tax the people as punishment for not loving him, and desperately trying to capture Robin Hood at any cost, because, without Robin Hood, he can be free to rule as he wishes without anyone trying to stop him. Of course, it doesn’t turn out like that and his brother, King Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart, returns and straightens the whole mess out, ultimately placing his brother and his comrades in prison for their disgraceful behaviour.

British actor Peter Ustinov voices the roles of Prince John and King Richard. He had a prolific acting career, winning two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964). He also starred as Hercule Poirot in Death on the Nile (1978). For Disney, Ustinov played the part of Captain Blackbeard in the live-action film Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968). A few months before Robin Hood was due to be released, the team needed Ustinov to come back to re-record some lines. They searched all over the world for him, only to find that he was working at the NBC Studios in Burbank just half a mile away[3]!

As I mentioned, Sir Hiss is Prince John’s loyal snake advisor, though he is always doing or saying the wrong thing and annoying him! I feel sorry for Sir Hiss at times, because he just wants to do a good job, and get some praise from Prince John, but sadly, it never comes, no matter how hard he tries! Sir Hiss is voiced by English actor and comedian Terry-Thomas, who had performed on radio, stage and screen numerous times during his career. He was considered for the role of George Banks in Disney’s Mary Poppins (1964); he was particularly known for portraying upper-class characters.

The other “bad guy” is the Sheriff of Nottingham. He’s the one who has to carry out Prince John’s wishes, like collecting the taxes and arresting anyone who cannot pay. The Sheriff even steals money from children and beggars, as well as hunting for any hidden coins that he can collect. He is portrayed as a big wolf, though he can fight if he needs to. Him and Friar Tuck certainly have a good duel between the two of them! The Sheriff is wicked and hated by the people of Nottingham, who refer to him as “Bushel-Britches” quite a lot of the time! He gets his comeuppance in the end though, by ending up in jail with the other villains! Pat Buttram voices the Sheriff of Nottingham, who, in contrast to many of the other characters, has a strong Southern American accent. Buttram featured in other Disney animations, such as Napoleon in The Aristocats (1970) and Luke in The Rescuers (1977).

The Sheriff also has two vulture “henchmen”, Nutsy and Trigger, who aren’t particularly smart, with Trigger accidentally releasing his crossbow multiple times, sending it ricocheting about the place with everyone ducking for cover! They try their best, but it’s just not good enough for the Sheriff, who is quite dismissive and rude to them. They are voiced by Ken Curtis and George Lindsey, respectively, with Curtis having roles in many westerns such as Gunsmoke (1955-75), and Lindsey being known for his role as Goober Pyle on shows like The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68). They also have American accents in the film.

Finally, we have Friar Tuck, a badger, and Allan-A-Dale, a rooster. Friar Tuck is a part of the church, so naturally, he tries to help out all the people of Nottingham alongside Robin Hood. He even tries to keep their spirits up when many are in jail by ringing the church bells, and sacrifices himself to the Sheriff when money is stolen from the “poor box”. Friar Tuck fights for what is right. He puts up a surprisingly good fight with the Sheriff, but unfortunately almost gets himself hanged for it! Luckily, he is freed by Little John and goes on to help free the others. Friar Tuck was originally planned to be a pig, however, as he is part of the church, it was thought this may be offensive, which is why he ended up as a badger[4].Allan-A-Dale is the singing narrator, telling us what we are seeing at times, as well as telling us how the town is feeling. He generally remains hopefully, up until the point he is thrown in jail for not being able to pay his taxes. Allan-A-Dale doesn’t feature much in the action of Robin Hood, though he does team up with Friar Tuck at the archery tournament, by putting Sir Hiss in a barrel of ale so he cannot tell Prince John that Robin Hood is there, disguised as a stork.

Friar Tuck is voiced by American actor Andy Devine, who performed in many Western films, such as Stagecoach (1939) and How the West Was Won (1962). Country singer-songwriter Roger Miller voices, and sings, the role of Allan-A-Dale.

Some other interesting voice parts in smaller roles are: J. Pat O’Malley as Otto the blacksmith, who voices Colonel Hathi in The Jungle Book (1967); Candy Candido as the crocodile Captain of the Royal Guard, who voices Fidget in The Great Mouse Detective (1986), and John Fiedler, original voice of Piglet, and Barbara Luddy, Lady in Lady and the Tramp (1955) and Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty (1959), voice the mouse church sexton and his wife. Luddy also voices Mrs. Rabbit in Robin Hood.

PRODUCTION

Choosing to make an animated film around the legend of Robin Hood would seem like a no-brainer for the Disney Studios, seeing as so many of their films are based around stories such as this. It’s a similar concept to The Sword in the Stone (1963) after all. Yet that was not the original idea.

The original plan was for Disney to make an animated movie around foxes, with a concept based on the stories of Reynard the Fox, a trickster fox, being heavily considered around 1937. These fables were popular in areas such as the Netherlands, France and Germany. Since these stories were in the public domain, no discussions around purchasing the rights to adapt them would’ve been necessary, however, the stories were incredibly bleak, especially by Disney standards.

Dorothy Blank, who had worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Al Perkins were assigned by Walt Disney to come up with a script based around Reynard. The sequences would’ve been around scenes of various disguises and escaping danger. The final plot point would have seen Reynard captured, to be executed by hanging. Reynard would say in prison that his father had hidden his wealth in a volcano, with the King and others going to look for it. All would die when the volcano erupted – except for the King, who would challenge the Wolf, Reynard’s uncle, and Reynard to duel. Reynard would win through trickery, stealing the royal treasures, during a party thrown in his honour. Again, Reynard would be captured, this time being exiled to the volcano, where he finds his father’s treasure, happy to have tricked everyone into completing his ultimate goal. Walt Disney thought the story was perhaps too sophisticated and that with Reynard being just a crook, with very few redeeming features, that he was not the best protagonist for a Disney movie, not befitting of their “family brand” image[5]. The idea was shelved.

After this, Reynard the Fox was considered as part of a new idea based on Chantecler, a story about a rooster who thinks his crowing makes the sun rise; Reynard was going to be the villain. However, though many animators were working on this concept in the 1960s, Walt Disney decided to go with The Sword in the Stone (1963) instead, leaving Chantecler as another unfulfilled story idea.

Whilst The Aristocats (1970) was in development, the idea of basing the next animated feature on the legend of Robin Hood, but with animals, was discussed. Ken Anderson wanted to “Americanise” the story of Robin Hood, with a plan to set the movie in the Deep South, using Song of the South (1946) as a model, but the reputation towards that movie was not good, even in the 1970s, so it was decided to go all in on Robin Hood with its traditional English setting. Woolie Reitherman greenlit the story idea, with Robin Hood being the first animated film to not have been approved by Walt Disney himself[6].

The final story for Robin Hood was written by Larry Clemmons, who started his career at Disney as Ward Kimball’s assistant and went into the story department as he accepted that he was not going to be one of the best animators there! Clemmons was let go from the studio in 1941 due to the strikes at the time, but returned in 1954 to write for the Mickey Mouse Club and Disneyland television series. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Clemmons became the principal writer for Disney animation, contributing to other movies such as The Jungle Book (1967) and The Aristocats (1970), along with Robin Hood.

Ken Anderson was responsible for the character designs, and it is believed he was influenced by early work on Reynard the Fox. Anderson created characters whose bodies were basically human bodies, moving and looking the same, but being covered in animal fur, feathers etc., with an animal head on top. Anderson did have plans to create a whole band of characters, to fit in with the traditional idea of Robin’s band of “merry men”, however Woolie Reitherman wanted the picture to be a “buddy picture”, with just two main characters. This did annoy Anderson somewhat as many of his interesting character plans had to be tossed aside[7]. Still, the story came together eventually, and, though it may not be the strongest story within Disney Animation’s history, it does a good job of telling a simple, family-friendly retelling of the legend of Robin Hood.

However, many people criticise the movie for its quick cuts, and loose connecting material between scenes. Though I can see this critique, it doesn’t bother me at all. Another factor that seems to annoy people is the recycling of animation from previous movies and repeats of scenes within Robin Hood. An example of a repeated scene here is where one of Skippy the Rabbit’s siblings is laughing. She does this after Marian kisses Skippy on the cheek, and then again, during “The Phony King of England”. Little John and Sir Hiss also bear quite the resemblance to two characters from The Jungle Book (1967), with Little John being Baloo with brown fur instead of grey, and even Phil Harris returning to Disney to voice Little John, and Sir Hiss being similar to Kaa. Nutsy and Trigger also look like two of the vultures in The Jungle Book.  

But the biggest, most obvious, recycling of animation appears within “The Phony King of England” scene. Yes, many of the dance moves come from other Disney animated films. Maid Marian’s dancing sequences are “copied” from Snow White, and Duchess in The Aristocats. Some of the other cats from The Aristocats also feature in this scene, as well as Lady Kluck and Little John dancing in the exact same fashion as Baloo and King Louie during “I Wanna Be Like You” in The Jungle Book.

The need to reuse animation came from a need to fit within a tight budget and tight production schedule. It’s just one of those things that businesses have to do to make as much profit as they can. It’s not like Robin Hood was the first and only Disney film to do this either, you can spot this in many others. For example, something I noticed is that some of Maid Marian’s poses and expressions reminded me of Madame Medusa in The Rescuers (1977). Perhaps Robin Hood is just the most obvious example of this, but again, this does not bother me in the slightest or take away my enjoyment of the film.

MUSIC

Probably my favourite part of Robin Hood is the soundtrack. It’s super catchy, with both children and adults alike, with everyone knowing at least the first two songs if nothing else! The soundtrack consists of many country and western elements, which separates the film from other traditional Disney animated features, and even between other Robin Hood adaptations[8]. This probably has a lot to do with Roger Miller, who wrote and performs three of the five songs: “Whistle Stop”, “Oo-De-Lally”, and “Not in Nottingham”. Miller was one of the most popular country-western singers of the 1960s. “Oo-De-Lally” is played during the opening scene of Robin Hood and Little John in the forest, dodging the Sheriff’s archers. It literally narrates what you are seeing before you, yet it’s still a popular song and sets the right feeling up for the rest of the film. “Whistle Stop” is probably the catchiest song, as it has absolutely no dialogue, but it’s so easy to remember. This is the song that plays during the opening credits and is easily recognisable as coming from Disney’s Robin Hood. Both songs have been used in commercials and advertising, such as “Oo-De-Lally” for Android in 2015, and “Whistle Stop” for the T-Mobile commercial within the 2014 Super Bowl. A sped-up version of “Whistle Stop” was also used in the Hampster Dance, one of the earliest Internet memes, created in 1998 by Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte. “Not in Nottingham” is sung during the scene where most of Nottingham is being arrested for not paying their taxes. It’s melancholy, fitting the scene well, and being different to the rest of the music, which are generally cheery and positive.

For the other songs, my personal favourite is “The Phony King of England”, written by Johnny Mercer and performed by Phil Harris as Little John. It’s just such a silly song, but the lyrics are memorable: “Too late to be known as John the First, he’s sure to be known as John the Worst”. This is true; King John has gone down in history as one of the worst Kings of England, ruling from 1199 until 1216. There has been no other King John since! I like the scene too, even though it does feature so much re-used animation! It also fits in with that country and western feel of the soundtrack. “The Phony King of England” is similar to a folk song called “The Bastard King of England”, which first appeared around 1927 in England, but obviously has more family-friendly lyrics!

Then there is “Love”, obviously sung whilst Maid Marian and Robin Hood walk through the forest together at night-time. It was written by Floyd Huddleston (lyrics) and George Bruns (music), being performed by Nancy Adams. To be honest, this is my least favourite song of the whole soundtrack, because it’s got that whispery choir sound that I don’t like much which has featured in other Disney animations, such as Lady and the Tramp (1955), and it’s a bit of a random lovey-dovey scene, which doesn’t fit most of the movie! It was nominated for “Best Song” at the 46^th Academy Awards in 1974, losing out to “The Way We Were”, from the movie of the same name. “Love” also features in Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009).

I particularly like the score too, which is composed by George Bruns. It sounds similar to Sleeping Beauty (1959) in places, such as my favourite piece called “Lower the Bridge”, where Robin is trying to escape Prince John’s castle, which sounds like when Prince Phillip is battling Maleficent, but that’s fine because Bruns also composed Sleeping Beauty! The “Main Title” sounds similar to The Sword in the Stone (1963) soundtrack, that Medieval kind of sound, but again, Bruns composed the score for that film! George Bruns composed for many Disney films from the 1950s to 1970s. His Oscar nomination for “Love” would be his fourth and final nomination. The soundtrack as a whole was nominated for a Grammy for “Best Recording for Children”, losing to Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974).

RECEPTION

Robin Hood premiered in November 1973 and was successful financially, making around $9.5 million, the biggest box office total for Disney at the time[9]. But critically, it received mixed reviews. Some felt that the film was entertaining and that the characters were charming, with a lot of personality and a good voice cast. Others commented saying that the animation quality was subpar and that the movie was not memorable enough or did not connect with the audience. It still continues to be either forgettable or a favourite, dividing audiences, however amongst all the other Robin Hood film adaptations, it comes out as being one of the better ones. In a 2022 ranking by Entertainment Weekly, Disney’s animated Robin Hood came third on this type of list, with it being considered charming, with great songs and thrilling action sequences, though admittedly not one of Disney’s best. Disney’s live-action film The Story of Robin Hood (1952) only came second from bottom in the list, stating that it was bland and was a rip-off of the 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood, which topped the list, and starred Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland[10].

Robin Hood has been released onto VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray over the years, with extra production details being added in recent years. An alternate ending was released on the 2007 Special Edition DVD. This ending would’ve featured a darker, more vicious Prince John, who would threaten to kill the already-wounded Robin Hood within Friar Tuck’s church before being stopped by the sudden return of King Richard[11]. For the 40^th anniversary of Robin Hood in 2013, the Blu-Ray release featured a deleted storyline titled “Love Letters”, where Prince John had a plan to write letters to Maid Marian and Robin Hood, pretending to be from each other, to get them in one place so that he can capture them[12].

LEGACY

Unfortunately, as Robin Hood is not considered one of the “good” Disney Animated Features, the characters and the movie are not generally mentioned within the Disney Theme Parks. There is a quick-service food location at Fantasyland within Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom called “Friar’s Nook”, but it is not overly themed to Robin Hood, with only a picture of Friar Tuck appearing on the signage.

The characters used to be present around the 1970s and 1980s, but nowadays are considered to be very rare finds. I believe I have met Prince John and Friar Tuck previously, at a character breakfast in Disneyland Paris, but that was way back in the early-2000s. Robin Hood and The Sheriff of Nottingham, along with Prince John and Friar Tuck, appeared as part of the “Long Lost Friends” weeks in 2013 at Walt Disney World Resort. Little John did also appear with the others for meet-and-greets as part of “Mickey and Minnie’s Surprise Celebration” for Mickey’s 90^th birthday in 2019. You may also see the Sheriff of Nottingham or Prince John at one of the US Parks’ Halloween parties or parades, but generally, these characters seem to only pop up for special events and parades within the US and Paris Disney Parks; they seem much less likely to appear in Tokyo, Hong Kong or Shanghai. Sometimes rare characters just appear at the parks or at Special Events, so there is always a small shred of hope. You may be lucky and find some Robin Hood-themed merchandise, but this is more likely around an anniversary of the movie.

Back in April 2020, a live-action remake of Robin Hood was announced, to be directed by Carlos López Estrada, director of Blindspotting (2018), with the script to be adapted by Kari Granlund, who worked on the live-action Lady and the Tramp (2019)[13]. There has been no further news since this date and in 2025, Disney seemed to suggest that many of their previously announced live-action remakes were no longer happening. Fingers crossed this is one of those that will not progress; it’ll look really freaky if it does!

FINAL THOUGHTS

I think Robin Hood has a lot going for it, with its delightful characters and brilliant music. It was one of the first movies to be released after the Disney Studios had suffered the loss of their great leader. It was always going to be difficult for them to move forward after that, but I think this was one step forward for the company, and I believe over the years, it has gained more fans. Byron Howard, co-director of Zootopia (2016) has said that his love of Robin Hood was a major inspiration for that movie.

It is a shame that more people don’t love Robin Hood, but I can understand that it is not Disney animation at its finest. Yet I find plenty that I love about this film, and have watched it many times throughout my life; it really makes me smile.

---

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Fox Carney, ‘Must See Rare Robin Hood Artwork from Disney’s ARL’, D23.com, 9^th November 2018.

[2] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Films (2015), ‘Robin Hood (1973)’, pp. 61-63.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Films (2015), ‘Robin Hood (1973)’, pp. 61-63.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘In His Own Words: Ken Anderson on Disney’s “Robin Hood” (1973)’, CartoonResearch.com, 24^th January 2020.

[5] Credit: BJ Colangelo, ‘Disney’s Robin Hood Started As A Different, Darker Movie’, SlashFilm.com, 9^th February 2022.

[6] Credit: William Fischer, ‘Disney’s ‘Robin Hood’ Was the Last Gasp For a Generation of Animators’, Collider.com, 12^th January 2023.

[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘In His Own Words: Ken Anderson on Disney’s “Robin Hood” (1973)’, CartoonResearch.com, 24^th January 2020.

[8] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016), ‘Cache of Classics’, p. 73.

[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘In His Own Words: Ken Anderson on Disney’s “Robin Hood” (1973)’, CartoonResearch.com, 24^th January 2020.

[10] Credit: Mary Sollosi, ’11 big-screen Robin Hoods, ranked’, Entertainment Weekly (online), 18^th June 2022.

[11] Credit: Disney, “Alternate Ending”, from Robin Hood (1973) DVD Special Edition (2007).

[12] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Storyline “Love Letters””, from Robin Hood (1973) Blu-Ray 40^th Anniversary Edition (2013).

[13] Credit: Will Richards, ‘A ‘Robin Hood’ live-action remake is set to come to Disney+’, NME.com, 11^th April 2020.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Winnie the Pooh and his friends are now undoubtedly quintessentially Disney – but they didn’t start out that way.

Walt Disney took inspiration for his animated movie slate from children’s literature for the most part, with A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories being favourites of his daughters’. It was only natural that Disney would want to take these beloved literature characters and “Disneyfy” them, making them mainstream and able to reach a wider audience.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is not like a regular animated feature, as it could potentially be called another “package film”, like the ones of the 1940s, because it consists of three separate stories, though these are connected together with the help of the Narrator and the storybook approach.

These three sections are:

1. Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree
2. Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
3. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too

PLOT

The movie begins in a bedroom, presumably Christopher Robin’s, but it is a bedroom in live-action, with toys resembling the Hundred Acre Wood characters being dotted about the room. We then go over to a storybook which opens up to a map of the Hundred Acre Wood, where we are introduced to the characters in an animated format, as the theme tune plays. As we meet Winnie the Pooh for the first time, we move into the first story of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.

This story begins with Pooh Bear waking up feeling hungry for honey, as he normally does, except today, he has run out of honey. He sees a bee near him and follows it to its hive, as he knows where bees are, honey can’t be far away. He first tries to climb up the tree to get into the beehive to collect some honey, but falls out of it. Pooh Bear goes to find Christopher Robin for advice. Christopher Robin has just nailed Eeyore’s tail back on him when Pooh Bear arrives asking for a balloon. He plans to cover himself in mud and fly up to the beehive, pretending to be a “little black rain cloud” to fool the bees into letting him get close. Christopher Robin isn’t convinced by this plan so goes with him in case he gets himself into trouble. The bees sure enough are not taken in by this, and start to swarm around him, though Pooh Bear does get his hand in the honey first, and ends up almost swallowing some of the bees, which makes them angrier. The bees chase Pooh, where his balloon’s air is released, causing him to tumble to the ground. Christopher Robin catches him and they hide in the mud until the bees have gone.

But Pooh is still hungry, so he goes to Rabbit’s house for lunch. Rabbit doesn’t want to let him in, but begrudgingly does, where Pooh eats all the honey around him. As he is about to leave, he gets stuck in the entrance way to Rabbit’s house because he’s eaten so much! Rabbit is not amused and wants Pooh Bear out now, but it can’t be done. Owl hires Gopher to try to dig him out but he would take too long, and Christopher Robin and the others are unable to pull him out. They must wait for Pooh Bear to get thin again; imagine the view Rabbit has for that whole time! Days pass, and Gopher returns for his “nightshift”; he offers Pooh Bear some food, but Rabbit stops him quickly. One day, Pooh Bear budges slightly, so the others are called over, where they successfully pull him out, but don’t get enough grip on him, so he flies over the Hundred Acre Wood – straight into the beehive. The story ends with the others saying they’ll get him out, with Pooh telling them not to hurry as he finally gets to sit and eat all this honey!

We then move into Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, where, sure enough, the Hundred Acre Wood is dealing with some very strong, windy weather. Pooh Bear wanders around greeting everyone with the phrase “Happy Windsday”, but not everyone is enjoying it! Piglet is almost blown away in the gales, with Pooh Bear holding onto his scarf thread, trying to pull him down, but just ending up looking like he’s flying a kite! He barrels through Eeyore’s newly built stick house, through Rabbit’s Garden, though he does harvest all the carrots for him by doing so, until they end up at Owl’s treehouse, which is tipping dangerously in the wind. Suddenly, the house comes tumbling down as the tree is uprooted, with Owl, Pooh, and Piglet coming down with it. Christopher Robin says it cannot be fixed; Eeyore volunteers to find Owl a new house.

In the meantime, the windy weather continues overnight, where Pooh Bear, now alone and hearing growling, begins to get frightened. He invites the growling creature into his home, where we meet Tigger for the first time. Tigger is hungry so Pooh offers him some honey, but he hates it. Just as Tigger is about to leave, he tells Pooh Bear that he should be wary of “heffalumps” and “woozles” because they steal honey. Pooh decides to stay up, monitoring his honey all night, but unsurprisingly falls asleep where he has a nightmare about these creatures. He wakes up with a start, to find his house is flooding as the windy weather has turned to rain. Pooh saves his honey pots by storing them up a tree, but falls into one and starts bobbing on the floodwater through the Hundred Acre Wood. Piglet, being so small, is swiftly carried away on one of his chairs, but not before he can send a message in a bottle asking for help. The others manage to get to Christopher Robin’s house, where they find Piglet’s bottle. Owl is ordered to fly over to them, while Christopher Robin sets up a rescue plan. Before they can, Piglet, Pooh, and Owl fall down a waterfall, as Owl becomes distracted telling them yet another long story about his family! Piglet and Pooh swap places in the fall, with Piglet now in the honey pot and Pooh on the chair. Pooh carries Piglet in the pot to the edge of the water, where Christopher Robin declares him a hero for saving Piglet and throws him a party to celebrate. Eeyore interrupts to say he’s found a house for Owl and tells everyone to follow him. In fact, the house he has found is Piglet’s house, but nobody seems to realise. Piglet can’t bring himself to tell Owl as he seems so happy, so gives up his house. Pooh Bear says he can live with him instead, and Christopher Robin now makes the party for two heroes, as Piglet is now a hero for giving up his house for someone else.

Then, the film moves into Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, where everyone is getting irritated by Tigger constantly bouncing on them and generally being too energetic. Rabbit is the most annoyed and arranges a meeting to discuss this problem. Rabbit, Pooh Bear and Piglet decide to try to lose Tigger in the woods. The day they enact the plan, it is misty so they believe it will be even easier. They manage to lose Tigger, but get lost themselves, going round and round in circles, always ending up by the same sandpit. Pooh says that maybe if they try to find this sandpit, then they won’t be able to, as the opposite keeps happening, and then they should be able to get out of the woods. Rabbit says that’s a stupid idea and goes to prove it, but doesn’t return. Pooh Bear and Piglet give up waiting and find their own way home – where they are greeted by Tigger. Tigger goes into the woods to rescue Rabbit, who is not pleased at all that he has returned, but Tiggers don’t get lost.

Soon, winter comes and it begins to snow. Tigger takes Roo out for a day of bouncing, and annoys Rabbit once more by trying to ice skate with him, but crashes into Rabbit instead! Tigger and Roo go further into the woods and find a tall tree, which Tigger bounces up, not realising that he’s scared of heights and is now stuck. Pooh Bear and Piglet are following tracks in the snow, but become startled by the “Hallo” call of a “jagular”. They bravely follow the sound to find Tigger and Roo stuck in a tree, getting Christopher Robin and the others to help rescue them. They make a net out of Christopher Robin’s coat, where Roo jumps down. Tigger can’t do the same though, but is so desperate to get down that he promises to never bounce again if he does get down. The Narrator helpfully turns the storybook on its side, so Tigger can place his feet on the ground and then slide down the paragraphs back into the story with the others. Tigger is so happy he wants to bounce, but Rabbit reminds him of his promise. He sadly walks away. The others see how sad he is, and ask Rabbit if he’d rather have the “old” Tigger back. Rabbit feels guilty and admits that he actually would, so Tigger returns happily and gets everyone bouncing with him, even Rabbit.

The final scene of the film shows Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh talking about how Christopher Robin must go to school soon, and that he won’t be able to play all the time anymore, but he hopes that sometimes Pooh will come and do nothing, with or without him. Pooh Bear says he will. The Narrator ends by saying that Pooh Bear will always be waiting for Christopher Robin no matter what.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Winnie the Pooh doesn’t need any introduction, but still, he is the main character and arguably the favourite toy of Christopher Robin. He is a “tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff”, or that’s how he is described in the theme tune anyway! Pooh Bear is also constantly referenced as being the bear with “very little brain”, and they talk about his weight so much, him being “stout” and “round”, which I think is so mean because Pooh Bear is the best of all the Winnie the Pooh characters! I love his little giggle so much, and how he’s curious and child-like, getting himself into trouble and not even realising half the time! Oh yeah, and his defining feature is that he loves honey, or “hunny” as it’s spelt in the movie, and will do just about anything to get his hands on some! Pooh Bear wears a red t-shirt and lives in a house within the trunk of a tree. His house has a sign above it saying “Mr. Sanders”; that is not Winnie the Pooh’s surname, but just references the fact that clearly a Mr. Sanders lived in that house before Pooh Bear. They talk about it at the start of the film. Pooh Bear is voiced by Sterling Holloway, who had a long history with Disney, making his Disney debut as Mr. Stork in Dumbo (1941), as well as performing the roles of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Kaa in The Jungle Book (1967). Holloway originated the voice of Winnie the Pooh, performing the role until 1977. Sterling Holloway was honoured as a Disney Legend in 1991, the first person to receive the award for voice parts. The Disney team loved working with Holloway calling him a true artist, who performed the part brilliantly. They even said he was just like the human version of Pooh Bear.

Piglet is Pooh Bear’s best friend in the Hundred Acre Wood. He is so tiny and nice, just getting along with everyone, that you have to feel bad for him when he’s scared and panicky, but trying to pretend he isn’t to everyone else! Piglet also stutters a lot when he’s nervous to show just how anxious and frightened he gets. This would be discussed further in Piglet’s very own movie, Piglet’s Big Movie (2003). Within these stories of the film, he has to navigate flood waters in his house, almost being blown away, giving up his home for Owl, and hiding from the “jagular”, which turns out to just be Tigger. Piglet has many difficulties that he overcomes every day, staying as strong as he can, but he’s so much smaller than everyone else that sometimes he can’t handle it as well as them – and that’s ok. Piglet lives, or should that be lived, in a house within a beech tree, with a sign outside that reads “Trespassers Wil”, which Piglet tells us is short for his grandfather’s name “Trespassers William”. Owl would later claim that “Wil” spells Owl, showing that this house is meant to belong to him. At the start of the TV series to follow this movie, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988-91), Owl’s house is repaired so they both go back to their original dwellings. Piglet is voiced by actor John Fiedler, who voiced the character until 2005. Fiedler had also provided voice to other Disney characters such as the Old Man in The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), and Porcupine in The Fox and the Hound (1981).

Tigger is the most fun and carefree character within the Winnie the Pooh world. He does whatever he wants, getting himself into trouble frequently, like getting stuck in a tree, or annoying everyone else by constantly choosing to bounce on them as a greeting instead of just saying “hello”! He’s crazy, but he’s so lovable. He might be a bit irritating at times, especially if you ask Rabbit, but the others wouldn’t want it any other way. I’m glad that they decide at the end of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too that he should be allowed to bounce again, despite his promise, because it makes him who he is. Tigger even gets his own song in the film, “The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers”, which details the fact that he’s fun and likes bouncing, but that the best thing of all is that he’s the only one. This would later be explored in a movie specifically made for Tigger, The Tigger Movie (2000). Paul Winchell provides the voice of Tigger, and made sure to make the voice special for him, full of humour and exuberance to match Tigger’s personality. Winchell even ad-libbed Tigger’s famous line: “TTFN – ta-ta for now”. Paul Winchell voiced Tigger until 1999, when Jim Cummings took over from him in 2000. Cummings has also voiced the role of Pooh Bear since 1988. Winchell also voiced Boomer the Woodpecker in Disney’s The Fox and the Hound (1981).

Then there’s the gloomier character of Eeyore the donkey. He has quite a hard time generally, with his stick house consistently being knocked over, losing his tail multiple times, and even having the gang forget his birthday in the 1983 short Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore, so no wonder he’s down sometimes! Ralph Wright was chosen to voice the role, as he had a naturally deep voice, which worked well for the character. Wright was actually a Disney animator and storyboard writer, not an actor, having worked on multiple Disney projects from 1940 to 1977. His final voice role for Eeyore was in 1983 with the A Day for Eeyore short, as he died in December of that year. The voice role was later given to Peter Cullen, who is notable for voicing Optimus Prime in the Transformers franchise!

Rabbit is the fussy one, who is always frustrated and worrying, wanting things to be just the way he wants them. I do feel sorry for Rabbit though, when Pooh Bear gets stuck in Rabbit’s house, and when Tigger annoys him so much, but he is a bit of a “stick-in-the-mud”, having to be forced to join in with the fun quite a lot of the time! Rabbit is still a good character though, as he is caring towards his friends quite often, probably more so in later movies than in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh though. Rabbit is voiced by Junius Matthews in these shorts, being replaced with Ken Sansom who voiced the part from 1988 to 2010. Matthews died in 1978. Matthews is also well-known for providing the voice of Archimedes in The Sword in the Stone (1963); he had quite a distinctive voice!

Then there’s Kanga and her son, Roo. Kanga is the maternal one, who looks after not just Roo, but the others as well at times. She seems to be a good mother, but unfortunately doesn’t feature all that much in this Winnie the Pooh feature, however, she is more prominent in later ones. Roo was designed to be like a boisterous, typical five-year-old boy, always jumping around, wanting to have fun, insisting that he’s not sleepy when his eyes are already closing; that sort of thing! Tigger gets on very well with Roo, enjoying having someone around who has as much energy as him, and who doesn’t get annoyed with him at all. Kanga is voiced by Barbara Luddy here, known for her role as Lady in Lady and the Tramp (1955), as well as Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty (1959). This was Luddy’s final film role before her death in 1979. Kanga would then be voiced by, predominantly, two other well-known voice actresses, Tress MacNeille and Kath Soucie. Roo is voiced by Clint Howard in the first two shorts of this film, and then by Dori Whitaker in the final story. Howard also voiced the part of Hathi Jr. in The Jungle Book (1967) and is the brother of director Ron Howard. Dori Whitaker voiced one of the rabbits in Robin Hood (1973). Due to the child-like nature of Roo, his voice actors have had to change constantly over the years.

Owl is the talkative one of the group and rivals the top spot for being the “know-it-all” with Rabbit, even though neither of them tend to know what they’re doing most of the time, but wanting to prove themselves as the leader of the group. In The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Owl mostly just talks a lot, telling long-winded stories about his ancestors, not even noticing that his house is about to fall down during the blustery day, with the Narrator saying at one point that “Owl talked from page 41 to page 62”. Hal Smith voiced the role of Owl until his death in 1994 when he was replaced by voice actor Andre Stojka for a time. Hal Smith gained numerous acting credits, with many voice roles, during his career.

Like Roo, the voice of Christopher Robin has changed many times over the years. Each of the short stories within The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh feature a different voice actor: Bruce Reitherman, son of Woolie Reitherman, and voice of Mowgli in The Jungle Book (1967); then English actor Jon Walmsley, who appeared in The Waltons series (1972-81), and finally, Timothy Turner. Christopher Robin is the one that all the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood go to for help, because, even though he is only meant to be about six-years-old, he has the most knowledge of the group and frequently has good ideas on how to solve their problems. He is the glue that holds the group together. The moment at the end of the film with him saying goodbye to Winnie the Pooh is really touching – even though we know that wasn’t their final moment together[1]!

Though many people appreciate the Disney adaptations of Milne’s books and characters, there was actually some controversy linked to the “Americanisation” of the popular British stories, as a predominantly American voice cast was used, with only two British actors being cast. These are Jon Walmsley and Sebastian Cabot, the Narrator, who also voiced the part of Bagheera in The Jungle Book (1967). Disney Animation also decided to introduce the character of Gopher, who did not feature in the books, with gophers being a typically American animal[2]. The fact that Gopher is not an original character is referenced a few times in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree by stating that he is “not in the book”, which is a dual meaning of not being in Milne’s stories, as well as not being in the phonebook, since he runs his own digging business. Gopher is voiced by American actor and comedian Howard Morris, who had to add in that distinctive whistle into his lines, in a similar way to the beaver character in Lady and the Tramp (1955). Howard Morris voiced Gopher until 1977. Morris also had varying voice roles in TV series like The Flintstones (1962-65) and The Jetsons (1962-87).

PRODUCTION

The characters of Winnie the Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood were created by English writer A. A. Milne, who wrote the books for his son, called Christopher Robin Milne, naming the boy in the stories after him. Winnie the Pooh was named after Christopher’s teddy bear, originally called Edward, but then renamed to Winnie, after a Canadian black bear called Winnipeg that was at London Zoo from 1915 to 1934, and a swan, which Christopher had called “Pooh”. Ernest H. Shepard illustrated the original books that Milne wrote, that began with “When We Were Very Young”, a collection of poems published in 1924, where Winne the Pooh first appears as “Mr. Edward Bear”. The first full children’s book written by Milne solely about Winnie the Pooh and friends was titled “Winnie-the-Pooh”, published in 1926, with “The House at Pooh Corner” being the second and final book by Milne about Winnie the Pooh being published in 1928, with the character of Tigger being introduced here. Some say that Milne had become annoyed at being successful only in children’s literature and that he wasn’t being taken seriously as a novelist and playwright, which is what Milne had been writing before the Winnie the Pooh stories. It is likely that he wanted to focus on a more serious genre of writing, so only wrote the two books[3].

The books were incredibly popular in the UK and in Europe but did not have the same reputation in the US at the time. However, Walt Disney had heard his wife reading the tales of Mary Poppins and Winnie the Pooh to his children at bedtime, and remembered hearing them laughing. He decided to make a feature film from both of these, purchasing the rights for both around 1961, though we all now what a struggle it was to get the rights to Mary Poppins from P. L. Travers! The rights to Winnie the Pooh were not as difficult to obtain, probably because Milne had died in 1956, whereas P. L. Travers was still alive even during the production on Disney’s live-action Mary Poppins (1964).

After the rights were obtained, Walt Disney put many of his best workers on it, including Woolie Reitherman to direct and Ken Anderson on story. One of the most interesting things about The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is the prominence of the actual “Winnie the Pooh” storybook within the film. Though plenty of Disney movies, usually the fairy-tale-based ones, use a storybook in their films, such as the opening and closing of the book, with the occasional first or last pages being used, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh constantly goes from the book pages, to moving images of the characters within the pages, to a full-screen view of the action, and then back again. It’s a cool concept that Disney decided to use for two reasons: one being that it’s like we as the viewer are reading the book and seeing it all play out in front of our eyes instead of just in our imagination; and the second reason being that it reminds the viewer that these characters were first created by A. A. Milne for a real-life children’s book that perhaps they can go away and read after watching the movie. At times, the book’s pages are used as part of the story, like characters being blown across multiple pages, some of the words running down the page during the flooding and heavy rain, and being used as a rescue slide for Tigger getting down from the tree.

Not only that but the original illustrations in the books, by E. H. Shepard, were used as the inspiration for Disney’s animation of Milne’s characters. Walt Disney wanted them to be based in the same drawings, but with that added element of Disney animation stylings, where strong facial expressions to convey the emotions of the characters are required. Walt didn’t want these Winnie the Pooh stories to be all charm and no substance[4]. Now the Disney versions of the characters are more well-known that the originals!

MUSIC

The Sherman Brothers were brought in to write the songs for the movie. They were very much associated with Disney Productions, also working on Mary Poppins (1964) and The Jungle Book (1967) around this time. Walt wanted the songs within The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh to be simple, whimsical, original, and sing-able which they achieved. The theme tune was based around the simplicity and innocence of childhood, for example. All the songs they wrote, ten in total, are catchy but my favourites are “Little Black Rain Cloud”, because it’s so cute hearing Pooh sing it; “The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers”, because it can get stuck in your head all day; and “Heffalumps and Woozles”, which I like mostly from the crazy, colourful scene that you encounter on the theme park ride! More on that later.

Buddy Baker was brought in to compose the score. Baker wanted to follow a similar idea to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf by representing each character with a different instrument. For example, serious Rabbit by a clarinet; bumbling Pooh Bear by a baritone hone; and a piccolo for the sweet-natured Kanga. It’s a lovely score that fits well.

RECEPTION

After about two thirds of the full movie had been storyboarded, with some scenes even partially animated, Walt Disney called a big meeting with everyone involved in the production of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Walt was concerned that as the Milne stories were not as popular in the US that perhaps they should slowly introduce the American audience to Winnie the Pooh and his friends, by splitting the originally planned full-length feature into three shorts instead.

So, it was done, with Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree being the first short to be released into theatres in February 1966, along with the live-action-comedy film The Ugly Dachshund (1966). This was the last short to be produced by Walt Disney himself, as he would die in December 1966, never having seen the last two Winnie the Pooh shorts.

After his death and as work was finishing on The Jungle Book (1967), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day was put into production, with Ollie Johnstone, Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl now being able to animate on this short, as they had been busy on The Jungle Book (1967) when the first short was being made. Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day was released in 1968, along with The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit (1968), and was even more successful than the original short, winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, which was awarded posthumously to Walt Disney. It was the only Winnie the Pooh production to ever win an Academy Award.

The third short, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, was released in 1974, this time being directed by John Lounsbery instead of Reitherman. It was released along with The Island at the Top of the World (1974). Again, this short was received well, being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, losing to Closing Mondays (1974), a claymation film. It did, however, win the Grammy Award for Best Album for Children in 1975.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was then created by combining these three shorts, adding in additional linking material, as well as the final scene to close the movie, which was inspired by the final chapter of “The House at Pooh Corner”, where Christopher Robin is saying goodbye to Winnie the Pooh and his childhood, as he must go to school and start to grow up. The movie is considered to be the last film that Walt Disney was personally involved in as it includes the Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree short which was released during Walt’s lifetime. It was always Walt’s intention to make the Winnie the Pooh stories into a feature-length animated film, which finally came to be realised in 1977, becoming the 22^nd Disney Animated Classic

It is considered to be one of the most faithful adaptations that Disney Animation has done, with many praising Disney for making the stories charming and memorable. Winnie the Pooh is potentially still the most popular and beloved character in children’s literature, with him being loved by people all around the world. The stories are about friendship and being curious of the world around you, which are important messages for children growing up. The characters are honest and caring towards each other, all within this safe world where everyone is nice and kind, but also different. Walt Disney is credited with bringing the popularity of the Winnie the Pooh stories to the American public, going on to become a huge franchise for the Disney Company[5].

LEGACY

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was just the first of six theatrically released films based on these characters, with the others being The Tigger Movie (2000); Piglet’s Big Movie (2003); Pooh’s Heffalump Movie (2005); Winnie the Pooh (2011); and Christopher Robin (2018). Of these, my favourite is Pooh’s Heffalump Movie; I’m not really sure why, I just do, but I know many people like The Tigger Movie. I do also like Winnie the Pooh’s scenes within the live-action film, Christopher Robin, but those are the best bits of the film in my opinion. Plus, I found that, although Cummings returned to voice Tigger and Pooh Bear, the other voice artists were all different, and many did not sound good, in my opinion with Brad Garrett as Eeyore being the only exception!

There have also been nine direct-to-video films released as part of this franchise, many of them being compilations of shorts that had previously appeared in some of the Winnie the Pooh television series. The three most recent ones (2007, 2009 and 2010) are based on the series My Friends Tigger & Pooh (2007-10). My favourite direct-to-video film is Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin (1997). I still like watching it, and the songs are particularly good. It follows the characters searching for Christopher Robin who has left them to go to “skull”, actually “school”. I also watch A Very Merry Pooh Year (2002) every Christmas mostly just to see the 1991 Christmas TV special Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too!

As well as that, there have been a few other shorts that were released separately and were not included in any direct-to-video films: Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons (1981); A Valentine For You (1999); and Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (1983). Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore was not originally connected to any of the material within The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh but has since been added to the home releases of the movie. I watched it from a DVD, but it was added as a bonus feature, not as part of the original film. It contains a different voice cast, with some musical changes as well, for example, the theme tune sounds much jazzier, though it does begin within the same bedroom and uses the same concept of switching between the storybook pages and the full- screen action of the characters. Rabbit was also almost green in this short! It follows the story of Eeyore’s birthday being forgotten, before a party is thrown for him, and the game of “Pooh-sticks” is introduced as part of the celebrations. For me, the short wasn’t great.

As I mentioned, there were some television series created around these characters: the live-action/puppetry series Welcome to Pooh Corner (1983-84); the animated series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988-91); another puppetry series called The Book of Pooh (2001-03) which added a new character called Kessie; and My Friends Tigger & Pooh (2007-10), a computer-animated series with Darby and her dog Buster being included.

Within the Disney Parks, the film did inspire a dark ride. It first opened at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom as The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1999, taking over the former Fantasyland home of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. As Winnie the Pooh had become so popular at the time, it was an obvious decision to make a theme park ride based on him. Buddy Baker returned to arrange the attraction music from the film score. Paul Winchell also recorded new lines for his character, Tigger. It became his last performance as Tigger before Winchell retired in 1999. Jim Cummings did the voice for Winnie the Pooh, returning to the character after his debut as Pooh Bear in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988-91). The ride goes through many of the same scenes as the 1977 film, with the Heffalumps and Woozles scene being my favourite, as well as Bouncing with Tigger. It also includes the wind and rainstorm from Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. The scenes follow the story order of the film[6].

The ride exists in every other Disney Park around the world – except for Disneyland Paris, who must just be miserable for not having any ride based on Winnie the Pooh! At Disneyland, the ride replaced Country Bear Jamboree, opening in 2003, with the order of some scenes being rearranged compared with the Magic Kingdom version. At Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland, a very similar ride to the Magic Kingdom version opened on the official opening date of those parks in 2005 and 2016, respectively. At Tokyo Disneyland, they went one step further and created a trackless version of the ride called Pooh’s Hunny Hunt. This opened in 2000, with many calling it the best Pooh Bear attraction at any Disney Park, with similar scenes to the original ride, but somehow better.

Winnie the Pooh and his friends, such as Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger, can also be found at meet-and-greets at all the Disney Parks, as well as featuring within various parades. At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, you can even have a character meal with those four characters, for either breakfast, lunch, or dinner, buffet-style at the Crystal Palace.

Some other parts of the whole Winnie the Pooh franchise include various games, including some educational ones and Tigger’s Honey Hunt, which was released in 2000. There were also two children’s albums by Kenny Loggins (yes, him from the Footloose and Top Gun movie soundtracks!), which are inspired by Winnie the Pooh, though these do not feature many songs related to the Winnie the Pooh films! The first album, titled Return to Pooh Corner, was released in 1994 and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children. The second album, titled More Songs from Pooh Corner, was released in 2000 and includes the main song from The Tigger Movie (2000), “Your Heart Will Lead You Home”, along with covers of other Disney songs.

There is also a musical based on Winnie the Pooh titled Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Adaptation, produced by Disney Theatrical Productions. It debuted in New York City in October 2021 to a positive response. It was then in Chicago and New York City again in Spring/Summer 2022, with a US tour from September 2022 to May 2023. It came to London between March and May 2023, and is on tour in the UK right now, until September 2023.

A further collection of Pooh stories was published in 2009, 81 years after the first book, titled “Return to the Hundred Acre Wood”, but it was not written by Milne. It was written by David Benedictus, and illustrated by Mark Burgess, with a new character, Lottie the Otter.

A final, weirder note that is not at all related to Disney’s Winnie the Pooh is that because the Winnie the Pooh books have now gone into the public domain, it does mean that stranger adaptations are likely to come. Though Disney still have exclusive rights to their version of Milne’s characters and its subsequent franchise, some filmmakers are now allowed to make the story “their own”. A horror film, titled Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023), directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, was released in early in 2023. It was subsequently panned, even “winning” five Razzies, but that hasn’t stopped the director from planning a sequel to it, or planning to do the same with the likes of Bambi and Peter Pan[7]!

FINAL THOUGHTS

After the “Fab Five” of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto, the collection of characters from the Hundred Acre Wood come a close second in terms of being the most popular Disney characters, with Winnie the Pooh merchandise occasionally outselling those of Mickey Mouse! What Walt Disney and his animators did was to bring the characters to the US market, ensuring that A. A. Milne’s stories could gain a reputation outside of Europe.

Disney have managed to make these characters so successful with a wide audience of people that we can’t help but be charmed by every new concept that comes from it! Though I found the film to be a bit long and think it would’ve been better to have been kept as three separate shorts and not combined, I still love all the Hundred Acre Wood characters, but especially Winnie the Pooh, and am happy to see whatever Disney have planned with them next.

---

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Harry Arends, “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: The Story Behind the Masterpiece”, from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), 25^th Anniversary DVD (2002).

[2] Credit: Michael Lyons, ‘Show Me the Honey: The 45^th Anniversary of “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh”, CartoonResearch.com, 11^th April 2022.

[3] Credit: Adam Donald, ‘How ‘Winnie the Pooh’ Updated the 1977 Animated Classic ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’, Collider.com, 18^th January 2023.

[4] Credit: Harry Arends, “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: The Story Behind the Masterpiece”, from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), 25^th Anniversary DVD (2002).

[5] Credit: Harry Arends, “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: The Story Behind the Masterpiece”, from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), 25^th Anniversary DVD (2002).

[6] Credit: Dave Shute, ‘Fridays with Jim Korkis: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

[7] Credit: Liam Maguren, ‘I Kid You Not: Disney’s Winnie the Pooh movies are meditative experiences’, Flicks.co.uk, 14^th February 2023.