The Aristo-Cat (1943)

Simply Perfect

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

. . . for the 2005 live-action feature film, THE ARISTOCRATS. Someone close to me has called THE ARISTOCRATS "the most vulgar flick ever" (though that was BEFORE she saw HUMAN CENTIPEDE). But with THE ARISTO-CAT, Warner Bros. predicts Marlon Brando's fun-things-to-do-with-fingernail-clippers coming down the pike with LAST TANGO IN PAR!S. ARISTO-CAT begins with One Per Center sadism, as even the Rich Lady's pet lords it over working class stiff "Meadows." Claude Cat intentionally squirts grapefruit juice into Meadows' eyes, illustrating Warner's post-Depression tenet that The Rich--symbolized here by Fat Cat Claude--have replaced the John Dillingers and grapefruit-wielding Jimmy Cagneys as America's PUBLIC ENEMY. Next, the little guys--in this case, mice Hubie and Bertie--expose One Per Centers such as Claude for the cowardly, cannibalistic fakes that they are. (Just as a Sociopath Rich Person doesn't know the first thing about being Human, Claude must resort to a book to glean his initial smattering of feline facts.) Warner's final ARISTO-CAT warning is to beware of the bulldog Rover, drawn as a dead ringer for Donald Trump.

Chuck Jones's 'The Aristo-Cat' is a visual masterpiece which is slightly hampered by a very thin plot. The first of Jones's short lived Hubie and Bertie series about two frequently cruel and sadistic mice and their tendency to prey on the emotionally frail, 'The Aristo-Cat' reduces the star character's roles to virtual cameos. The Hubie and Bertie films have always been amongst my favourite cartoons but the two rodents add very little to this short and their roles could just as well have been filled by any generic mouse characters. However, 'The Aristo-Cat' pays less attention to the normal conventions of plot and instead throws the spotlight on the tremendous nervous breakdown of Pussy the cat. A spoiled feline who pushes his butler, Meadows, too far and then finds himself with no-one to look after him, Pussy makes the most of his short time in the spotlight (he was usurped by the similarly jittery Claude Cat) by having one of the all time great mental collapses in cartoon history. As he runs around the huge, empty mansion screaming "MEADOWS" in vain, the startling abstract backgrounds, filled with angular shapes of vivid colours, move around behind him reflecting his encroaching madness to incredible effect. It's so luscious to behold that the arrival of Hubie and Bertie actually comes as a disappointment and brings the cartoon to a sadly predictable conclusion (including a hugely unsatisfactory deus ex machina ending). Happily, by this stage 'The Aristo-Cat' has already established itself as a must see and, while its eventual disintegration prevents it from entering the annals of the genuinely classic, the cartoon's first half ranks alongside some of the most startling imagery of any Warner cartoon.

A pampered cat is left in the care of the butler by his wealthy owner. After a few final humiliations by the cat, the butler quits and leaves the cat by himself. Unable to feed himself the cat looks up a book which tells him cats eat mice. He isn't sure what he is looking for and is unaware when two mice convince him that the local bulldog is a mouse and that he should easily catch and eat it.The set up to this short is quite interesting and should have led to a better cartoon, but, once the mice point out the dog then the cartoon seems to just die on it's feet. The action is standard and shows no imagination and not a great deal to laugh about. The film has a total lack of substance which, in something 4 minutes long, is a problem.The cat and dog characters are pretty weak but the mice are wise-asses and pretty amusing. Again it was just a shame that nothing of great value was done with them.

THE ARISTOCATS is a brilliant film by Chuck Jones which utilizes ingenious backgrounds and dynamic cutting, via John McGrew's extraordinary layout, to create a new kind of animation. The Jones and McGrew partnership in design extablished a new rhythm of stylization that certainly led to the modern UPA work.