Special Thanks to @KinekoVideo for their scanning and restoration services https://www.youtube.com/c/KinekoVideo https://twitter.com/kinekovideo For more videos related to this film, check out this curated playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQnigF_xmZEmgh_bCSaRE9cx-wkyiH9C The Aristocats (78 min) Synopsis: A pedigree mother cat, Duchess, and her kittens Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse, enjoy a pampered life in the Parisian mansion of their mistress, Madame Adelaide Bonfamille. When Madame’s trusted butler, Edgar, learns that Duchess and the kittens are to inherit everything–with Edgar obtaining the inheritance only after the felines are dead–Edgar decides to hasten matters by kidnapping the cats and dumping them in the countryside. Finding themselves lost and all alone, Duchess and her brood are befriended by Thomas O’Malley, an easy-going alley cat, who offers to take them back to Paris. Along the way, O’Malley introduces the cats to his friend Scat Cat and his band, who croon “Ev’ry Body Wants to Be a Cat.” Duchess and the kittens arrive home, only to find Edgar waiting for them. Now it is up to O’Malley and his rag-tag gang of friends to save the day. Cast: Phil Harris (Thomas O’Malley), Eva Gabor (Duchess), Sterling Holloway (Roquefort), Scatman Crothers (Scat Cat), Paul Winchell (Chinese Cat), Lord Tim Hudson (English Cat), Vito Scotti (Italian Cat), Thurl Ravenscroft (Russian Cat), Dean Clark (Berlioz), Liz English (Marie), Gary Dubin (Toulouse), Nancy Kulp (Frou-Frou), Charles Lane (Georges Hautecourt), Hermione Baddeley (Madame Adelaide Bonfamille), Roddy Maude-Roxby (Edgar), Bill Thompson (Uncle Waldo), George Lindsey (Lafayette), Pat Buttram (Napoleon), Monica Evans (Abigail Gabble), Carole Shelley (Amelia Gabble), Songs: “The Aristocats,” “Scales and Arpeggios,” “Thomas O’Malley,” “She Never Felt Alone,” “Ev’rybody Wants To Be A Cat” Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman Premiere in Los Angeles on December 11, 1970; general release on December 24, 1970. US Theatrical Reissues: December 19, 1980 and April 10, 1987 US Home Media Releases: April 24, 1996 (VHS/LD); April 4, 2000 (DVD/VHS); February 5, 2008 (DVD); August 21, 2012 (BR/DVD); Trivia: • Frames: 112,320 • This was the first feature-length animated cartoon completed without Walt Disney. • The film was four years in the making, budgeted at over $4 million, and included more than 325,000 drawings made by 35 animators, with twenty main sequences to the film having 1,125 separate scenes using 900 painted backgrounds. The project employed some 250 people. • Actor and singer Maurice Chevalier was convinced to come out of retirement by his friend Walt Disney to sing the title song. • The film was originally intended to be a live-action television special in two parts for Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. • For the background musical score, George Bruns, who had considerable background with jazz bands in the 1940s, provided a great deal of jazz music. The Copyright Laws of the United States recognizes a “fair use” of copyrighted content. Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act states: “Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.” This video and the “Animation Compendia” YouTube channel in general may contain certain copyrighted works that were not specifically authorized to be used by the copyrighted holder(s), but which we believe in good faith are protected by federal law and the fair use doctrine for one or more of the reasons noted above.