Disney Movie Challenge: The Sword in the Stone (1963)

DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE

The Sword in the Stone

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020. 

Going into The Sword and the Stone I knew very little about the film.  I knew it was based on the King Arthur legend and it wasn’t one of the most highly regarded Disney animated films but not much else.  So I was very curious to see what it was all about. The movie is not at all what I was expecting.   

There are lots of versions of the Arthurian legend but this film is based on the book by British Author T. H. White. The film follows young Arthur or Wart as he is known in the film.  He meets the magical wizard Merlin who says he can see the future and that Arthur is someone special.  As an orphan Arthur doesn’t believe this but accepts Merlin’s offer to teach him.  The movie is a bunch of lessons that Merlin teaches Arthur.  He turns Arthur into a fish, a squirrel, and a bird and each animal is designed to teach Arthur to solve problems.  Merlin’s goal is for Arthur to realize it is better to be smart than to be strong.   

The film is very cartoony and slapsticky and feels more like a Looney Tunes cartoon. This isn’t to say that is a bad thing but after watching all the Disney films in order you really feel that this is a dip in quality.  After working on making realistic animals for past feature films it didn’t even look like they tried in this one. The best example of this is a wolf in the beginning that is stalking Arthur, it looks like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon not a Disney animated feature.  

This story is different from other Arthur legends.  Instead of focusing on Arthur’s rise to king and forming the Knights of the Round Table the movie is focused on the time before he drew the sword.  The actual sword from the title is barely in the movie. It’s mentioned in the opening narration but then doesn’t show up in the film till about 5 minutes from the end of the movie. The focus is on the student-teacher relationship of Arthur and Merlin, and the lessons that Arthur needs to learn.  It is actually more philosophical than other Disney features.  One of the lessons that many people seem to have forgotten these days is “Just because you don’t understand something, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong.” Another life lesson Merlin teaches Arthur is “That love business is a powerful thing…. I’d say it’s the greatest force on earth.”  For more fun life lessons check out this page https://ohmy.disney.com/movies/2014/09/20/you-can-learn-a-lot-about-life-from-the-sword-in-the-stone/

Since the movie is really about Merlin giving Arthur life lessons there really isn’t any traditional bad guy.  Each lesson usually has Arthur being turned into an animal.  First a fish, then squirrel, and finally a bird. Each animal has its own lesson and has its own mini bad guy.  When Arthur is turned into a bird he meets an evil witch Madame Mim.  Merlin has a big battle with Mim so she feels like the big baddy, but after the battle we never see her again and there is still a decent chunk left in the movie.  The biggest antagonist is Kay. Arthur wants to be Kay’s squire and Kay is constantly putting him down and treating him badly.  In the end when Arthur proves he is worthy of the sword Kay is one of the first that is forced to kneel before him a king.  But Kay is absent for a chunk of the film while Arthur is learning from Merlin.  

I know some people like the songs but for me they just didn’t do anything for me.  This is the first time the Sherman Brothers wrote songs for a Disney Animated film.  They would go on to write some iconic songs for The Jungle Book and Mary Poppins but these just felt uninspired and I expected more from them.  This is the 3rd animated film in the row that George Bruns wrote the score for.  The score is actually good and probably one of my favorite aspects of the film.  

Overall:  A fairly forgettable film.  I can see the appeal for kids as it is very cartoony and has some good life lessons.  But comparing it to other Disney Films that came before it doesn’t hold up.  The Sherman Brothers would go on and write much better songs and while the score by George Bruns is good it’s not enough to save the film.   

Random Facts

Last Animated Feature released before Walt Disney’s death. 

The only film from the 50’s or 60’s that never had a sequel or a live action adaptation.  

Wolfgan Reitherman directed the film  It was the first Disney animated film directed by one person. Wolfang would go on to be the sole credited director on the next three films (The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and Robin Hood).  

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: 101 Dalmatians (1996)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

101 Dalmatians (1996)

Before it became a thing in the 2010's the first Disney Live Action adaptation of an animated film was 101 Dalmatians in 1996.  It was a huge hit that year ranking number 7 at the box office for the year even beating the Animated Disney Film that year The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 

The film updates a few of the aspects of the animated film.  In this one Roger is a video game designer not a musician and the relationship between Anita and Cruella is explained better.  In this one Cruella is Anita’s boss as a fashion designer. The rest of the film is pretty similar to the animated film.  Pongo is the one that gets Roger to meet Anita. Pongo and Perdita have 15 puppies. The puppies get dognapped by Cruella’s henchmen and taken to a rundown house with 84 other puppies.  Pongo and Perdita use the twilight bark to find them and rescue them.  Anita and Roger adopt all the puppies for a total of 101 Dalmatians.  Of course the biggest difference is that the dogs don’t talk in this one.  

This movie has everything you want from an adaptation of an animated film without having the animals talk.  It keeps the cartoonish slapstick comedy, over the top villain, and a whole lotta family fun.  The highlight of the film is of course Glenn Close as Cruella De’Vil. She just looks like she is having the time of her life being evil (she even got a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy). The rest of the cast is perfect also. Jeff Daniels as Roger, balances the slapstick with being charming perfectly.  Joely Richardson and Joan Plowright are great as Anita and Nanny. And it’s fun to see a pre-House Hugh Laurie just getting knocked around by animals. 

The biggest disappointment from the original is that Pongo and Purdita don’t have a bigger role in the rescue and the police due. Some of the charm of the animated film comes from the dogs being able to do what the humans can’t. But all the animals get a time to shine and watching Glenn Close get beaten by farm animals is fun. 

Overall: A fun adaptation that is able to show dogs communicating without making them talking dogs. The movie is perfectly cast with Glenn Close being the standout. Best line in the film “You may have won the battle but I won the wardrobe”

Disney Movie Challenge: 101 Dalmatians (1961)

DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE

101 Dalmatians

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020. 

After the gamble with Sleeping Beauty didn’t pay off, Disney was about to give up on Feature Animation. But he had recently bought the rights to the book “The Hundred and One Dalmatians” and really wanted to turn it into a film. Walt ended up being very hands off the process for the film and it led to a movie that is very different from previous Disney Films. It had a more modern feel (it’s the first time a TV is in a Disney Animated Feature), a modern jazz score from George Brun, almost no songs, and used a new animation technique called Xerography. Walt ended up disliking almost everything about this movie. He was specifically annoyed by the look of the background animation and told production artist Ken Anderson that he would never work in an art department again. Despite what Walt thought the movie would become the highest grossing animated yet for Disney.


The movie is about two dalmatians Pongo and Purdita and their owners Roger and Anita. Purdita gives birth to 15 puppies. Anita’s “friend” Cruella de Vil says she wants to buy the puppies to turn them into a fur coat. When Roger and Anita decline the offer Cruella sends two thugs to kidnap the puppies. The puppies are taken to an abandoned house where there are 84 other puppies. While Scotland Yard is unable to produce any leads the dogs use the “twilight bark”. The twilight bark has dogs spreading information to one another. Eventually word reaches a sheepdog named Colonel, who lives in a barn with a horse named Captain, and a cat named Sergeant Tibbs. They notice some suspicious activity at the old de Vil house. Sergeant Tibbs goes to investigate and finds the puppies. They use the twilight bark to send news back to Pongo and Purdita who set out to rescue the puppies themselves. After a few close calls they escape from Cruella and her henchman. Roger and Anita are happy to have their puppies home and decide to adopt the rest of them for a total of 101 Dalmatians.


The biggest thing this film is known for is being the first to use Xerography to make an animation feature film. Xerography is a way of photocopying artists drawings and bypassed the inking and painting process. Ub Iwerks, a long time collaborator with Disney, saw the potential of Xerox’s process for film. He helped transition it from just paper copies to animation. This saved money (also cost a lot of people in the inking department their jobs) but also gave a look that some consider less artistic. For years the animators would work on making very tiny lines and could get great detail in the characters. With Xerography every sketch had thick black lines around them and kind of lost that detail. It also made it easier to animate 101 dogs since one drawing could be photocopied multiple times in different sizes. One of the things they had going for them was that the dalmatians are black and white so the black lines kind of get lost on them and it’s not as noticeable. But, in Walt Disney’s eyes it was less artistic and more cartoony. No matter what your take on the artistic quality is, the process gives a different feel and would be how Disney would make films for another 30 years. Here are a few videos describing the process. 

https://youtu.be/CWwU8jd04-I
https://youtu.be/edfM5OuJqks

The movie is also a departure from other Disney films in terms of genre. While Disney films usually are fantasy or fairy tale films this one feels like more of an adventure movie. It’s about a rescue mission and an escape. Adventure films are only as good as their villains and Cruella de Vil is obviously one of Disney’s most iconic villains. She is completely over the top, has a unique style, just a great presence on screen (it’s no wonder why Glenn Close would want to play the villain in the 1996 live action version).

There is a fun bit in the beginning when they showed a bunch of dogs and each dog resembled their owner. Also, Roger writes a funny Cruella de Vil song (the only real song in the film) which is kind of catchy. But the fun really starts when the dogs take matters into their own hands (or paws at it would be). While the action is kid friendly and nothing too over the top, I think it keeps the story movie and interesting. There are a bunch of close calls during the escape and the movie is able to keep the tension.

Overall: The movie is a fun adventure. I thought it was well done and a different film for Disney. George Bruns is proving to be a master at scoring Disney films.  I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. You can see a decline in quality with the animation but they made it work in this film.

Random Facts:

The screenplay was written by Bill Peet. It was the first Disney Animated film written by one person.

The movie was a huge hit and because it cost less ended up making the studio a lot of money.

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Maleficent (2014)

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

MALEFICENT

Disney films have had some iconic villains. There is the evil stepmother in Cinderella, the Evil Queen in Snow White, and Cruella DeVille in 101 Dalmatians. But the first to get their own film is Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty (although a Cruella movie is in the works).  This film is a twist on the animated story from the villain's perspective.  We start with a backstory on who  Maleficent was, and learn why she has such hatred for King Stefan.  After Maleficent curses Aurora we see more about the 16 years that pass from when Aurora is born till she falls asleep.  

The movie begins explaining that Maleficent was the greatest of the fairies and had the largest wings.  We also learn that there has been a war between the fairies and humans for a long time.  But when a child wanders into the Moors where the fairies live, Maleficent befriends him.  The child turns out to be Stefan and he visits her often and she trusts him.  But as he grows so does his ambition.    His desire to become king leads him to realize that if he killed Maleficent the current king would give his crown to him.  When he returns to the Moors Maleficent welcomes him back and they have a pleasant evening reacquainting.  She does not know his evil intentions.  But when she falls asleep he realizes he doesn’t have it in him to kill her so he just takes off her wings as a trophy.  This works and he becomes king.  But when Maleficent realizes she has been betrayed she sets out for revenge.  This is where we get the familiar curse and the three good fairies hiding Aurora away.  But it is also where the story shifts from the animation version.  Maleficent knows where Aurora is the whole time but hides in the background and observes Aurora as she grows.  The more she observes her the more she realizes that the three good fairies are incompetent and has to use her magic to protect Aurora.  Aurora realized that Maleficent is there and thinks that Maleficent is her Fairy Godmother.  A friendship develops between Aurora and Maleficent and Maleficent changes her mind on the curse but it can’t be undone.  In the end on her 16th birthday the curse takes fruition and the King does everything she can to kill Maleficent.  But, it is Maleficent's kiss that awakens Aurora, not a kiss from the prince.  With the help of Aurora, Maleficent is able to escape and return to the Moors and restore it to the peaceful place it once was.  

The beginning of this movie is really interesting and a fun backstory.  It was cool to see the villains side of the story and to turn her into a sympathetic character.  But once she curses Aurora and then starts stalking her it becomes a bit odd.  It’s never really clear why she feels the need to start watching her all the time or why she felt the need to intervene when the three fairies started to neglect her.  It’s easy to see why Aurora would think that Maleficent is her Fairy Godmother and it was nice to see Maleficent have have a change of heart.  Still the whole part of the film felt odd.  The end became an epic battle and Aurora got to really play a part in it.  

One of the things I remember reading about Maleficent when it first came out was how Stefan's betrayal of Maleficent was symbolic of a woman being raped.  It’s an interesting comparison and you can easily see how the imagery of a man taking what he wants from a woman while she is vulnerable can be interpreted as a rape.  Looking at the film from that point of view gives the film a whole new context about moving on from a tragic incident and finding peace again.  I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has theories on this or what people think.  

One of the things that happens when watching an adaption of a film so close to the watching of the original film is it becomes obvious the changes that were made. The the most disappointing difference is how the three good fairies are portrayed.  In the animated film they were the heroes of the movie.  While they might have been silly and goofy they weren’t incompetent.  In Maleficent they are grossly incompetent and almost let Aurora die a number of times.  I’m guessing to give Maleficent a more motherly role but I feel they could have done that without making them complete idiots. A their names were changed and their blessings were changed to wishes.   Of course the big change was the True Love’s Kiss at the end.  And this is a bit of an odd one that while definitely a surprise ending I’m not sure worked as well as they were hoping.  It was Maleficent’s sidekick Diaval’s quote that threw me off.  As Aurora wakes up he says “No Truer Love”.  I assume he means motherly kiss.  While it became clear throughout the film that Maleficent cared deeply for Aurora I’m not sure I got the feeling she felt like Aurora’s adoptive mother.  And if you don’t get the feeling that Maleficent feels like Aurora’s adoptive mother then the whole scene doesn't work.  

Overall:A sort of uneven film.  Had a pretty violent beginning and end, but the middle was kind of just weird.  I enjoyed this one but again maybe watching it so close in time with the animated film skewed my opinion.  

Random Facts

Angelina Jolie’s daughter was cast as young Aurora because all other children were afraid of her when she was in costume.

Nominated for best costume Oscar.

Last film legendary special makeup artist Rick Baker did before retiring from the film business. 

Disney Movie Challenge: Sleeping Beauty (1959)

DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE

Sleeping Beauty

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020. 

After having one of their biggest hits (box office wise) with Lady and the Tramp, Disney returned to another Princess fairy tale film.  Both Snow White and Cinderella had been huge hits for Disney so it seemed like everything was pointing to Sleeping Beauty being a big hit.  And because Disney wanted to make everything bigger he decided to film it in 70mm Super Technirama.  Unfortunately the cost of making the film was so huge that despite the success of the film it lost money and once again Disney was on the verge of shutting down the Animated Feature Film Department.  

The story of Sleeping Beauty has been told many times with the earliest version dating back to the 1300’s.   The Disney version adds it's own spin to the story.  The King and Queen have a daughter named Aurora. During the celebration of her birth 3 fairies (Flora, Fauna, Merryweather) begin to give their blessings on baby Aurora.  Flora blesses Aurora with beauty, Fauna blesses her with the gift of singing, and before Merryweather can present her gift Maleficent the evil fairy interrupts. She curses Aurora with death before her sixteenth birthday when she touches a spindle on a spinning wheel.  Since Merryweather hadn’t given her a gift yet she was able to change Maleficent's curse from death to enchanted sleep.  She will awake from the sleep when her true love kisses her.  But to be safe the King orders all spinning wheels to be destroyed and the fairies agree to hide Aurora in the woods till she turns 16.  Jump to 16 years later the fairies are getting ready to celebrate and tell Aurora (who now is going by the name Briar Rose) that she is a princess.  Before they can tell her she meets a man who she instantly falls in love with.  She doesn’t know but the man is Prince Phillip who she was betrothed to at birth.  But after 16 years of searching Maleficent finally finds Aurora and with only hours to spare before sundown tricks Aurora in touching a spindle.  She then captures the prince so he will have no change in kissing the princess.  The fairies spring into action and rescue the prince, help him destroy Maleficent, and finally lead the Prince to Aurora.  He kisses her and she awakes and everyone lives happily ever after. 

The first thing striking about this film is the way it looks.  The animation style is different from any of the other Disney films.   Eyvind Earle worked on the background painting and brought a unique Gothic and medieval style to them.  The backgrounds, which Walt Disney approved of, forced the other animators to rework their drawing so the characters felt part of the same world.  This led to stress on the animators and when Earle left prior to the movie being finished they went back and toned down some of the gothicness.  

The next thing that became apparent on watching the film is that Aurora is not the main character in the film.  She is only in the film for approximately 18 minutes,  sings two songs and has very little dialogue.  I recently listened to a Podcast that briefly discussed the difference between protagonist, main character, and hero (check out The Shame List Picture Show wherever you get your podcasts they are a fun listen). The definitions went something like this:

Main Character - The person or people we follow good or bad

Protagonist - The person or people propelling the story forwards

Hero - The “good guy”  

Aurora does not fit any of these descriptions.  The ones that fit all of these are the three fairies.  They are there when she is born and hatch the plan to protect her by hiding her away in the forest.  An argument could be made that Prince Phillip is the hero but it is the fairies that release the Prince from jail and the fairies that ultimately defeat Maleficent.  Just odd that the title character of the movie is not a large part of the actual movie.  

The last aspect I wanted to talk about is the Prince.  This is the third Disney Princess Fairy Tale movie and the first that gave the prince a name.  It is also the first to give the Prince something to do besides sing a song or dance.  Unfortunately it comes in a movie that really sidelines the princess and it will always be strange to me that it has to be a kiss that saves the princess.  

Overall: A fun watch.  Great use of color and sound, and the style really stands out from Disney Films. The sequence at Maleficent’s castle is one of the most harrowing and suspenseful we have seen in a Disney movie yet.  The three fairies have really fun interactions. Songs are ok. but not really my style.  

Random Facts

There is a running bit of two of the fairies  arguing over the color of Aurora’s dress.  This is based on two of the animators arguing over the same thing and not being able to decide.  

The Black Cauldron (1985) is the only one other Disney animated film shot in Technirama.

One of the few Disney Princess Movies where both parents are alive (although the Queen barely speaks and isn’t part of the story). 

It would be 30 years before Disney made another fairy tale movie.  The next one would be The Little Mermaid in 1989.  

The movie took 7 years to make. A record for any Animated Disney movie. The only other movie that tied that record was The Black Cauldron (1985) which was also filmed in Technirama. 

George Bruns composed the score for the film.  He would go on and score the next 5 animated features for Disney. For this one he adapted the music from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Ballet. He got an Oscar nomination for his efforts. 

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Lady and the Tramp (2019)

LADY AND THE TRAMP (2019)

2019 was a big year for Disney adaptations.  First there was Dumbo, then we had Aladdin and The Lion King, and finally Lady and the Tramp.  The biggest difference was Lady and the Tramp was released on the newly formed Disney+ instead of in theaters.  Disney had really built up anticipation for Disney+ which was going to have  classic Disney Animated films, Marvel Films, Star Wars films, and Pixar films.  In addition they were trying to promote brand new original films and shows that were premiering on the platform.  One of the biggest original movies they were promoting was the live action adaptation of Lady and the Tramp. The biggest obstacle it was facing was trying not to feel like a lesser direct to video film.  

The plot of the film is basically the same. It’s still a classy girl who meets a boy from the wrong side of town. The update moved the location to Savannah, Georgia from London. It also expanded Tramp’s back story, expanded the role of the dog catcher, and switched up the type of cats from Siamese Cats to Devon Rexes.  The most noticeable difference is that Lady’s owners are a mixed race couple which based on IMDB reviews is the worst thing ever. 

It’s not really fair to compare this to the original but when you watch them pretty much back to back it’s hard not to do.  So let's just get it out of the way.  The two things I think they did better in this adaptation are the expansion of Tramps backstory and the introduction of the rat early in the film.  One of the things we never got from the animated film is really what happened to Tramp.  We can guess what happened but this film really gets into it and helps us better understand him and also makes the romantic relationship more believable.  Introducing the rat early on makes sense from a storytelling perspective.  In the animated film it just pops up out of nowhere. Here there is at least foreshadowing. On the flip side there is something about this film that doesn’t quite capture the magic of the animated version.  When the photorealistic The Lion King came out one of the big complaints is that the lions didn’t really show emotion.  And maybe that's the problem with this film.  The voice acting is fine but it just doesn’t match with the emotions you are seeing on screen.  It’s kind of that uncanny valley when what you are hearing and what you are seeing doesn’t match up.   I will say the CGI work did a pretty good job. There were a few scenes where it was obvious it wasn’t a real dog but the big scene of them eating spaghetti looked fantastic.  

Overall: The movie was fine.  It didn’t capture the fun or magic of the animated film, but it wasn’t awful.  I was hoping for something more from the first big Disney+ feature film but we got what looked like a straight to video adaptation.  Obviously the modern sensibilities will trigger some that feel Disney is just promoting SJW values and if you read the IMDB comments you will see what I mean.  

Disney Movie Challenge: Lady and the Tramp (1955)

DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE

Lady and the Tramp

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020. 

As the 1950’s rolled along Disney kept turning out would be classics.  Cinderella was a huge hit, Alice in Wonderland a huge disappointment, and Peter Pan somewhere in the middle.  Then 1955 came along and Lady and the Tramp came out.  This would go on to be Disney’s most profitable movie to date.  It is also one of the rare original stories for a Disney Animated film.  

The story itself is pretty generic.  A girl from an upper class family meets an orphan boy who lives on the wrong side of the tracks.  Just swap the characters out for cute dogs, a villainous dog catcher, and some mischievous cats and you got Lady and the Tramp.  Sticking to familiar story elements without having to be bound by preexisting material freed the animators up to be as creative as they wanted to be.  Lady is a female Cocker Spaniel who lives in a loving home. Things start to change when a baby comes and the Aunt that is there to watch the baby and Lady brings her cats.  The cats make Lady look bad and the Aunt takes her to the pet store to get a muzzle.  But Lady escapes and runs into Tramp who shows her how the other side lives “without a leash”. They have a memorable spaghetti romantic dinner and begin to fall in love.  Lady then learns that Tramp has had many loves in the past and decided to go back home.  Tramp comes to tell her that this time is different.  When a rat gets into the baby's room and Lady can’t get it because she is on a leash Tramp goes and kills the Rat.  When everyone realizes what Tramp was doing he is adopted by the family and they live happily ever after.   

The characters are fun and suck you into the story.  Lady and the Tramp probably has some of the most fully formed characters in a Disney film yet.  While it’s a quick romance you still feel that both Lady and the Tramp have personality, and while we don’t know a whole lot about Tramp’s history we can discern a lot by what he says. Even the side characters like Jock, Trusty, and Peg, while cliched, still feel authentic and characters  you could connect too.  Earlier Disney movies mostly focused on one or two characters and the side characters were even more one dimensional.   

The animation does a good job of creating the world.    The first thing you notice in the film is that it is shown from a dog’s point of view so you never see the human’s faces.  I thought it was a clever way to show perspective.  To do this the animators got creative and made a replica of the house so they could study what it would look like from a dogs perspective.  As the movie progresses it doesn't keep up the perspective and eventually you see Lady's owners faces.  The animators also did a great job of creating two distinct worlds. There is the  world of privilege with backyards, loving family, and plentiful food contrasted with the world of street dogs living by themselves and scrounging for meals.   

Part way through the animation process a decision was made to release the film on Cinemascope widescreen.  This created an extra challenge for the animators because they had to go back and fill up more screen so it didn’t feel stretched out.  They also had to redo it again because when it came time to release the film there weren’t many Cinemascope Cinemas around and to get a wide release they had to release another cut in traditional Academy ratio.    

Overall: This is one of the first Disney VHS tapes I had as a kid so it’s one of the Disney Films I am most familiar and have the strongest connection too so nostaligia might play a factor in my feelings for this movie.  I thought it was a fun movie that moves along well and the animation does a great job of creating a world that feels lived in. I really liked the beginning with the dogs point of view and kind of wish that they kept that up for the whole movie. I enjoyed this one as a kid and still enjoyed it as an adult, nothing earth shattering but simply enjoyable.  

Random Facts:

The first Disney Animated Feature released by Disney’s new distribution company Buena Vista Distribution. 

Hugely popular at the time. Second highest grossing Disney movie at the time of release, second only  to Snow White. Yet most critics did not like it.  

First animated film released in Cinemascope

Disney didn’t like the spaghetti eating scene but it has gone on to become one of the most memorable scenes in film history.  

Peggy Lee wrote and performed songs for the movie.   She sings: "He's a Tramp", "La La Lu", "The Siamese Cat Song", and "What Is a Baby?". The character Peg who sings “He’s a Tramp” was named and designed to look like her.  

Peggy Lee sued Disney in 1988 for royalties from the sales of the VHS release. She ended up winning the court case and won $2.3 million when the case was finally over in 1991. Here is a great article about the court case. https://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/peggy-lee-war-disney-lady-and-the-tramp-113688.html