In the mid 50s, Disney produced his first animated feature
that was completely original. While he had some inspiration from a short story
called “Happy Dan, The Whistling Dog” in an issue of
Cosmo, the idea for
Lady and
the Tramp came from story man Joe Grant and his own English Springer
Spaniel. The resulting film was released June 22, 1955 and was the first
animated feature filmed in CinemaScope widescreen.
On Christmas morning in 1909, a man (Lee Millar) gives his
wife (Peggy Lee) a Cocker Spaniel that they name Lady (Barbara Luddy). At
first, she enjoys a happy life with the humans and a couple of friends, Jock
the Scottish Terrier (Bill Thompson) and Trusty the Bloodhound (Bill Baucom).
However, the humans soon begin to treat her coldly and the other two explain
that they are expecting a baby. The stray Tramp (Larry Roberts) comes by and
gives his two cents that Lady will take a backseat to the baby.
The baby arrives and Lady grows fond of it, but when Aunt
Sara looks after the baby and house, Lady clashes with her and her Siamese
cats. She gets a muzzle put on her, but flees and is found by Tramp. They
remove the muzzle and he shows Lady the life of a stray. However, Lady is
caught by a dogcatcher and learns more about Tramp in the dog pound. Aunt Sarah
picks her up and chains her to the doghouse. Tramp comes to apologize, but is
unfruitful.
Lady soon sees a rat about to harm the baby and Tramp
responds by killing it, but wakes the baby. Sarah thinks the dogs are responsible
and has Tramp impounded. Lady’s owners come back when the dogcatcher is leaving
and Lady leads them to the dead rat. Jock and Trusty are able to save Tramp.
The film ends at the next Christmas when Tramp is a part of
the family and is raising puppies with Lady.
This movie tells a tale of love unlike any Disney movie before
it. Lady and Tramp don’t fall in love when they first meet. In fact, Lady
despises him at that first meeting and all he’s probably looking for is another
conquest. This actually doesn’t do harm to the story. In fact, it makes it a
very believable love story. It’s not until they spend some time together that
they start to grow fond of each other and that still manages to happen
gradually. It wouldn’t be until later that Disney would do this again to its protagonists
and it would happen so scarcely that they eventually decided to deconstruct and
reconstruct their use of “love at first sight.” But more on Frozen when I get there.
Then there’s the music. “Bella Note” seems like a song made
for the sole purpose of getting an award, which it didn’t. But it’s still a
great song. It’s not the most memorable song in the film though, which easily
goes to the “Siamese Cat Song.” “He’s a Tramp” is also quite enjoyable, but
other than that, the music isn’t exactly memorable.
As a whole though, the film is quite average. There’s
nothing particularly wrong with it, but other than those three songs and the
fact that love at first sight is abandoned, it’s just rather plain. Doesn’t
mean it’s unlikeable though, it just means it’s decent.
Final Call: A decent love story that has the characters
gradually fall in love. It’ll go in at #10, under Song of the South.
Forty six years after Lady
and the Tramp debuted, Disney released a sequel: Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure. It was obviously direct
to video, starring Scott Wolf, Roger Bart, Jeff Bennett, Jodi Benson, Mickey
Rooney, and Cathy Moriarty. 