I had the chance to enjoy The AristoCats and both of The Rescuers films on Blu-ray recently, and I was struck by how good they are. I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone to point to any of these three movies as their favorite Disney films. They’re too overshadowed by bonafide classics like Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood, Peter Pan, and a dozen other films people seem to like more.
But these films are very unique on their own, beautiful for their own reasons, and quite capably carve out their own place in Disney movie history.
The AristoCats came out in 1970, preceded by The Jungle Book and followed immediately by Robin Hood, it seems to have come out at just the wrong time. Made and conceived in the swingin’ sixties it has all the imagery of a classic acid trip, flashing colors, and seemingly drugged up, jazz playing cats, all set against a proper British backdrop. It is a classic Disney story in every sense, right down to the practically mustache twirling villain, a butler named Edgar, a protagonist voiced by Disney favorite Phil Harris (Baloo in Jungle Book and Little John in Robin Hood), and a bunch of cute anthropmorphized animals. But it was released in the 70s, when perhaps the appetite for such a story and visual story wasn’t as great.
It really isn’t the finest of Disney films, but holds up remarkably well. The sketchy animation is reminiscent of 101 Dalmations, which came out just nine years prior, making one wonder if this was just the film they made for cat lovers.
The music is memorable, the images are catchy, and it looks stunning on Blu-ray. If you’ve overlooked this Disney film because of the reputation of others, you owe it to yourself to check this one out. You can pick it up on Amazon for a limited time.
The Rescuers films fall very much into that same middle ground. It was released in the summer of 1977, competing against Star Wars and another Disney film: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
For me, this is actually one of my favorite Disney films. Bob Newhart kills me in every role he’s in and his Bernard character is one of the most charming of Disney’s heroes. Add to it the creepy Louisiana bayou backdrop and a pair of mice trying to defeat a crazy Cruella DeVille sort of character and save an adorable orphan named Penny and you have all the makings of a solid Disney film but overshadowed by everything else going on.
This was also the last Disney cartoon to come out until The Fox and the Hound, which kicked off Disney’s dry spell for a long time.
A sequel was conceived and, for many, holds up better than the original. The Rescuers Down Under was wedged in release right between The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast and you wonder why no one seems to remember it. This brings the Rescue Aid Society to Australia and gives us quite a fun adventure. The technical achievements of the film are stunning in Blu-ray as well. They did a lot of perspective work and landscapes digitally and seeing them play out on a massive TV in high definition is a thing of beauty. Never has the animated outback looked so good.