Michael's Movie Grade:A+
Year Released: 1955
History
The history of Lady and the Tramp dates back to 1937. In 1937 Disney animator and writer Joe Grant drew a picture of a dog, that he called Lady. Walt was interested in this character and so he told Joe to make a storyboard involving this character. The storyboard while quite different included some similar story points like Lady being afraid that she would be replaced by a baby, and some evil cats. Walt was not satisfied with this storyboard, and so the idea was shelved. However Joe continued working on this idea. Frank Tashlin (who had a very brief career as a Disney writer) remembered working on an early version of the story in 1940. You can see some of the early work for this film in the background of the live action studio tour section of Disney's 1941 feature The Reluctant Dragon. Like many of Disney's animated features, this film work would also be delayed by World War Two. Joe Grant would leave the Disney studio in 1949, so he would unfortunately not receive any credit on the film. After he left he would have his own greeting card business. However he would return to the Disney studio in 1989, and work on such films as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan, Fantasia 2000, Pocahontas, Monsters Inc., and UP.
In 1943 Ward Greene wrote a short story called Happy Dan, The Whistling Dog. This story had as it's main character a cynical male dog. Walt read this story and felt that a similar character would be just what the Lady story would need. Walt Disney remembered Ward Greene and when a fairly complete story was completed in 1953, Walt would hire him to write a novelization of the story to be released before the film as Walt was nervous about making an animated Disney feature not based off a well known book. Despite the opening titles saying "From the Story by Ward Greene" the book was based off of the story of the film not the other way around. The name for the new cynical dog character was not come by easily. Various names thought of for him were, Homer, Rags, and Bonzo. The name Tramp was controversial, because unlike when Charlie Chaplin had his little tramp character, this was the 1950's and the term had already gained it's other sexual meaning. However this was the name Walt wanted, and this was the name used. Similarly Jim Dear and Darling originally had the names, Jim Brown and Elizebeth. This was changed of course to make the story told from more of Lady's perspective. Also similarly the two Siamese cats were originally to be called Nip and Tuck, but the names were changed to Si and Am. Another change to the original script was that Aunt Sarah was originally going to be much meaner, instead she became a character, who simply was doing what she felt was best.
Based on their success with directing Cinderella and Peter Pan, the directors once again would be Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske. The original main background artist was going to be Mary Blair, however she left the Disney studio to become a children's book illustrator in 1953, so much of this work was handled by Eyvind Earle. Earle would later be the principle art director on Sleeping Beauty. 7 of Disney's Nine Old Men worked on this film. They were Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, Eric Larson and Les Clark. They were all supervising animators on this film.
To write the musical numbers Walt hired singer/songwriter Peggy Lee, and her song writing partner Sonnny Burke. They wrote all the songs except for Peace on Earth, which was written by Oliver Wallace, who wrote the score for the movie. Since they all ready had her working on the film it was deiced that she would do some voices as well, these voices included, the Siamese cats, Darling, the singing voice of Lady (Lady's speaking voice was done by Barbara Luddy, who would later do the voices of Meriwether (in Sleeping Beauty), and for Kanga (in the Winnie The Pooh films) for Disney), and of course Peg.
Lady and the Tramp was the first Disney animated feature to be done in Cinemascope, and the second Disney feature to be done in this process (the first was the live action 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea). This made animating much harder and longer work for all the animators, and raised the production cost up. On top of this not every theater was equipped with Cinemascope, and therefore the animation had to be shot twice. Because of all this the animation alone took three years to complete.
The most famous scene in Lady and the Tramp is definitely the spaghetti scene. However this scene almost didn't make it into the film. Walt was convinced that this scene just could not work in the animation stage. Because of this the scene was almost cut. However Frank Thomas was convinced it would work, and animated a rough version of the scene himself. Walt liked Frank Thomas' work and deiced to keep the scene in the film.
Lady and the Tramp was disliked by critics, who found it below par for Disney animation and that for an animated movie about dogs it was too mature and for adults (I am not making that up), however audiences loved the film and it was a huge box office success. Today it is still considered a classic AFI named it 95 on their list of the greatest love stories, and Tony's Restaurant from the film exists in Walt Disney World. The song number Peace on Earth has also become a Christmas classic.
Review
One of Disney's loveliest animated features.
Everything just works in this classic film. The music is great. The characters are great. The animation is amazing and the whole film just has such a lovely perfect feeling to it. This is just such a great film to look at. While I miss Mary Blair, Eyvind Earle is more than up to the task, and the backgrounds are just lovely all the way throughout. The romance is one of Disney's best, it is fully believable and perfectly handled. This may be one of my favorite movie romances of all time. Of course the songs are classics, and they enhance every scene they are in.
By the way with how perfect the opening scene is, with it's amazing artwork and beautiful music all revolving around Christmas, this film has become a must watch every Christmas season for me, despite it not actually being a Christmas movie.
Overall this is a great classic and again one of Disney's loveliest films.
Film Credits
Directors: Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson
Writers: Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Ralph Wright, Don DaGradi
Based off ideas by Joe Grant and Ward Greene
Voices: Peggy Lee (Darling, Si, Am, Peg), Barbara Luddy (Lady), Larry Roberts (Tramp), Bill Thompson (Jock, Joe, Bulldog, Dachsie, Policeman), Bill Baucom (Trusty), Verna Felton (Sarah), George Givot (Tony), Lee Millar (Jim, Dog Catcher), Stan Freberg (Beaver, Clerk), Alan Reed (Boris), Dallas McKennon (Toughy, The Professor, Pedro, Hyena, Old Sailor, Polar Bear)
Producers: Walt Disney, Erdman Penner
Music: Oliver Wallace
Songwriters: Oliver Wallace, Peggy Lee, Sonny Burke
Editor: Don Halliday
Sound Department: C.O. Slyfield, Harold J. Steck, Robert O. Cook
Effects Animators: George Rowley, Dan MacManus
Other Special Effects: Ub Iwerks
Supervising Animators: Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, Eric Larson, Hal King, Les Clark
Layout Artists: Ken Anderson, Tom Codrick, Al Zinnen, A. Kendall O'Connor, Hugh Hennesy, Lance Nolley, Jacques Rupp, McLaren Stewart, Don Griffith, Thor Putnam, Collin Campbell, Victor Haboush, Bill Bosche
Background Artists: Claude Coats, Dick Anthony, Ralph Hulett, Al Dempster, Thelma Witmer, Eyvind Earle, Jimi Trout, Ray Huffine, Brice Mack
Animators: Ed Aardal, Hal Ambro, Jack Campbell, Bob Carlson, Eric Cleworth, Hugh Fraser, John Freeman, Jerry Hathcock, George Kreisl, Don Lusk, Cliff Nordberg, Ken O'Brien, John Sibley, Harvey Toombs, Marvin Woodward
Resources Used
http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon-characters/31-Lady-And-The-Tramp
http://www.thedisneyfilms.com/search/label/Lady%20and%20the%20Tramp
http://norlinreelhistory.blogspot.com/2011/07/disneys-lady-and-tramp.html
https://www.yahoo.com/movies/lady-and-the-tramp-spaghetti-scene-121119404577.html
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons By Leonard Maltin
-Michael J. Ruhland
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