‘LADY AND THE TRAMP’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
A Bella Norte for Two Dogs
It’s been a while since I saw this Disney movie as a kid!
‘Lady and the Tramp’ is one of the most beloved Disney movies ever made and was the 15th animated classic ever made! The film was produced by Walt Disney in 1955. It focuses on the story of two dogs from different social classes that fall in love and has a beautiful magical charm about it.
Apparently the film was based on ‘Happy Dan, The Cynical Dog’ by Ward Greene. I wouldn’t have known that as a kid since I was pretty young and inexperienced back then. My late sister Bethan saw this film as a kid according to my Dad. I’m certain she enjoyed it too as well as me back in the 1990s.
The film starts with a female American cocker spaniel named Lady who gets given as a Christmas present to the wife of a husband in an upper middle-class family. Incidentally, surely the puppy would have suffocated whilst waiting to be opened from that box with ribbon on Christmas Day?! 😀
Lady starts off as a little puppy before growing up to an adult dog, enjoying being pampered in the lives of her owners Jim Dear and Darling (that’s what Lady believes they’re called by the way. 😀 ) Lady also forms friendships with two other dogs living in that quiet neighbourhood, Jock and Trusty.
Jock is a Scottish terrier dog and Trusty is a bloodhound. Both are fiercely loyal friends of Lady as well as being neighbours. Jock calls Lady ‘Lassie’ in the film and doesn’t like the Tramp very much when first meeting him. Trusty used to track criminals, but is now old and has lost his sense of smell.
We eventually met a stray male mongrel called the Tramp, who loves the thrill of an adventure and prefers to be on the streets and not live in a home. He gets to meet Lady during the movie and very soon the two embark on many romantic adventures together. But will this have a happy ever after?
The circumstances of Lady meeting up with Tramp and falling in love with him are due to her owners Jim Dear and Darling having a baby together. This means that Jim Dear and Darling have less time for Lady and are more interested in having their baby and not sharing their dog in that part of their lives.
Of course Jim Dear and Darling do allow Lady into their lives with the baby once the happy occasion occurs. But it’s when Jim Dear and Darling have to go out somewhere and their Aunt Sarah looks after the baby in their absence that things go upside down for Lady. I can hardly blame Lady for that.
For one thing, Aunt Sarah doesn’t treat Lady in the same way Jim Dear and Darling do. And quite frankly Aunt Sarah is a bad babysitter despite being dotting and a busybody. It’s demonstrated in a later scene when Lady tries to stop a rat getting into the nursery, but Aunt Sarah doesn’t notice that.
Also, Aunt Sarah prefers cats over dogs. That explains it! And Aunt Sarah has two cats with her including Si and Am, the twin Siamese cats. This leads me to talk about something a little controversial here. The cats sing ‘The Siamese Cat Song’. I don’t think that would be accepted today.
I know, this film was made in 1955 and it was of its time. But I wonder how people would react to that song and the two cats being Siamese. Anyway, the Siamese Cats cause trouble when trying to put the blame on Lady for attacking them and Aunt Sarah falls for the fib these cats are making out.
Aunt Sarah sees to it that Lady gets a muzzle put on her whilst in the house. But Lady soon runs away with the muzzle on her face and is soon rescued by the Tramp from ferocious dogs about to attack her. The Tramp soon seeks the help from a beaver at a zoo and the beaver bites the muzzle off Lady.
Incidentally, the beaver did remind me of Gopher from ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh’ in terms of the voice, even though it’s not the same actor voicing him. Another thing I noticed is that Jock the terrier reappeared in the Disney animated film ‘101 Dalmatians’. It can’t be a coincidence! 🙂
Eventually Lady and the Tramp soon have a special evening meal at the back of Tony’s restaurant where they get spaghetti and meatballs from Tony himself and Joe. Yummy! 😀 This scene of course features the well-loved song, ‘Bella Norte’. I’m sure this is what many people remember this film for.
There are many memorable songs featured that I recall from the Disney ‘Sing A Long’ VHSs I watched when I was a kid. As well as ‘Bella Norte’ and ‘The Siamese Cat Song’, there’s ‘La La Lu’ and ‘He’s a Tramp’. Most of these songs were performed by Peggy Lee who also voiced characters in the movie.
The animation for the film is very well-done and feels classically Disney styled. I enjoyed watching the character animation featured in the film and even though there were still images that clearly weren’t animated, it was still lovely to watch. It all felt seamless and it rightly should be for a classic.
The ‘Lady and the Tramp’ DVD comes with a Disney’s FastPlay option where you watch the film in one go with the DVD special features after it. The DVD special features include an introduction by Diane Disney Miller; ‘Diane Disney Miller: Remembering Dad’; ‘PuppyPedia: Going to the Dogs’ and ‘Discover Blu-ray 3D With Timon and Pumbaa’.
On Blu-ray releases for ‘Lady and the Tramp’, the introduction by Diane Disney Miller; ‘Diane Disney Miller: Remembering Dad’ and ‘PuppyPedia: Going to the Dogs’ can be found on there. There are also the special features ‘Walt & His Dogs’; ‘Stories From Walt’s Office’; ‘How To Make a Meatball and Other Fun Facts About ‘Lady and the Tramp’; a song selection; a ‘Sing-a-Long’ option for the film; deleted scenes; the never recorded song ‘I’m Free as the Breeze’; an audio commentary featuring ‘Inside Walt’s Story Meetings’; ‘Disney Second Screen’ featuring ‘Inside Walt’s Story Meetings’; ‘Lady’s Pedigree: The Making of ‘Lady and the Tramp’; ‘Finding Lady: The Art of the Storyboard’; the original 1955 theatrical trailer; the 1972 reissue trailer; the 1986 theatrical reissue trailer and the original 1943 storyboard version of the film.
It was lovely to revisit ‘Lady and the Tramp’ after such a long time on DVD. I haven’t seen the film in a long while and it’s surprising how much I remember and don’t remember from watching it years ago as a kid. The story still stands well as do the animation and the characters featured throughout.
‘Lady and the Tramp’ is definitely a film you’ll enjoy relaxing to both for kids and adults. It’s a family film that stands the test of time despite the Siamese cats and their song. 😀 It’s also a nice little love story of two dogs from two different social classes and I like how this is beautifully told throughout.
‘Lady and the Tramp’ rating – 8/10
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