Friday, November 7, 2014

Lady and the Tramp
















Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske
Written by Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Ralph Wright, and Don DaGradi


THE ANIMATION
Lady and the Tramp isn’t especially notable in the setting environment; there are no enchanted woods, foreign cultures, magical kingdoms, or sprawling bastions of nature here—just an opulent, apparently New England-based town (in part based off of Walt’s childhood hometown, Marceline, Missouri). That being said, it has the beauty and great design you’d expect from a Disney picture.






THE HEROES
The titular Tramp is the original Disney street rat—Aladdin, eat your heart out. Reliable in a scuffle, debonair, and with the street savoir faire that that his successor of a sort Dodger would later tote, the Tramp proves to be one of my favorite of the overlooked Disney heroes. The other eponymous primary here is Lady, of course, and she’s just as loveable. With brilliant voice work from Barbara Luddy, Lady is both totally convincing as a pampered house dog and as a dog of grace. Her nativity makes for a cute foil to the Tramp’s wiles, but their dynamic never feels like one is ever coercing the other; plus the fact that they’re dogs makes their quick romance much more believable in my eyes (this is aided by the fact that they’re not obnoxiously anthropomorphic in behavior—the dogs act like dogs).






THE SIDE CHARACTERS
The secondary characters are generally as endearing as the mains. Of course you’ve got Jock and Trusty—the two doting dogs who are almost like father figures to Lady in a way; Jock’s a great straight man to Trusty’s doddering joviality. You’ve got Lady’s owners, “Jim Dear” and “Darling”. They’re your basic 50’s happy couple—though I do find it a cute detail that Lady refers to them by their pet names. The other humans are Aunt Sarah, who initially comes off as unlikable due to her bias against the dogs (but she makes up for it by the end); and Tony and Joe, who provide meals for the Tramp from the former’s Italian restaurant (and Tony provides quite the serenade for Lady and the Tramp’s iconic dinner).

Tramp’s got his friends in the form of dogs too; they’re all fine and dandy, but not worth mentioning (props to the one dog who quotes The Lower Depths, though). Well, except for Pedro—another one of vintage Disney’s regrettable ethnic stereotypes (and don’t forget his sister, “Rosita Chiquita Juanita Chihuahua”, he thinks.)






THE VILLAINS
There is no big bad here—no single villain out to impede our heroes; instead we’ve got a couple characters that make their road a bit bumpier. You’ve got another embarrassing ethnic stereotype in the form of the Siamese cats, Si and Am; a dog catcher who’s just doing his job; a couple stray dogs that try to have their way with Lady; and finally a sinister rat that nearly harms the baby of Jim Dear and Darling. The rat’s my favorite out of these purely due to its menacing design and the kinetic and visually striking action sequence between it and the Tramp.






THE MUSIC
Ah, “Bella Notte”…another one of my absolute favorite Disney songs; and actually, the only song from this film’s score that I consistently recall once the movie has ended. Not that it’s a bad score; “La La Lu” and “Peace on Earth” are real pleasant listens, and “He’s a Tramp” and “What Is a Baby?” are effective. But nothing really leaves an impression on me like that lovely “Bella Notte”.

The Best: “Belle Notte”, of course.
The Worst: “The Siamese Cat Song”, on account of racism.






THE PLOT
One Christmas, a man named “Jim Dear” gives his wife, “Darling”, a little American cocker spaniel puppy that they name “Lady”. Pampered and doted upon, Lady is utterly content with her life until one day Darling becomes pregnant, and the attention of her owners shifts to the baby. Soon thereafter, her owners go on a vacation, leaving her in the care of the stricter Aunt Sarah, causing Lady to run away. However, when the streets of _____ (insert town here) become too dangerous for an uptown girl like her, she finds herself relying upon the street smarts of the infamous Tramp, with whom she begins to fall for. But will she choose to be with Tramp, or return to her home where she’ll have to settle for playing second fiddle?

While that description isn’t the most action packed in the world, even it gives an impression of more happening in this film than what actually does. And that’s not a bad thing—there’s nothing wrong with a simple narrative that’s basically just showing the characters living their lives, which is what a lot of this movie is. Just dogs being dogs. But, there is a little more here than what’s on the surface.

I’m of the persuasion, along with others, that the film is an allegory for extra-marital pregnancy. No, really! Lady, a prim and proper…er, lady, falls for a scoundrel, they share an intimate night together (“Bella Notte”), and then they’re separated. Next thing you know, Jock and Trusty are talking about who will marry her, out of nowhere (an attempt at preserving her honor). Plus the fact that Lady was randomly chased down by a bunch of wild dogs earlier in the film (they detected she was in heat?)—it makes sense to me. Not a new theory or one that makes or breaks the film, but I think it’s a subtext that makes the experience a bit more interesting.






Total Score: 24/30 = 80% = B

No comments:

Post a Comment