The Aristocats - 52 Years in 52 Weeks

The Aristocats (1970)

Welcome back to 52 Years in 52 Weeks. Each week in 2021 we’ll watch a film I’ve never seen before starting in 1969 moving one year forward every week.

This week, I watched The Aristocats from 1970. Wolfgang Reitherman directed this feline family adventure from Disney. Reitherman is also (at least partly) behind other Disney classics like 1961’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 1959’s Sleeping Beauty, and 1970’s The Rescuers, which I believed to be connected to The Aristocats because the mice looked similar in my mind. But I guess that just makes me the racist equivalent for rodents. But I’ll leave the racial stereotyping to the experts over at Disney. More on that later. Reitherman co-directed these films but he’s arguably best known for 1973s Robin Hood and 1967’s The Jungle Book. All the films mentioned are available for streaming on Disney+. What the service might lack in original new programming it inarguably makes up with its rather impressive backlog

Phil Harris, who voices Baloo and Little John in Jungle Book and Robin Hood respectively, does the voice for the most memorable character from the Aristocats. O’Malley. It’s impressive how creepy yet still charming Harris manages to be as the stray cat that helps The Duchess and her three kittens on her way back to their wealthy home.

The plot is fairly simple. When Adelaide Bonfamille leaves all her liquidities to her cats, her butler decides to get rid of them in an effort to inherit his employer's money that he believes to deserve. Funnily enough, Edgar is too dense to realize that he would still get all the money as cats...can’t...spend...money. I know. Mind. blown. But that rather simple world-view runs through the entire plot of The Aristocats. Intense over the top action chase scenes and the occasional song is all we get from the movie. It never tries to be more than a simple - ignore the partly intended terrible pun - cat and mouse game. 

I personally found most jokes to be more miss than hit. For example, the geese characters feel particularly random and unnecessary. Maybe it’s because I just can’t stand the upper-class way of talking from the 40s-70s. Particularly the Duchess is a great example of that. I just can’t stand the way she talks. Perhaps that’s just a ‘me thing’ but I find it distracting. In the context of the story, it makes sense to have an upper-class cat speak in an upper-class manner. It’s just so annoying. But honestly, Thomas O’Malley’s constant ‘baby’ is equally irritating and predatory, to be frank. 

The Aristocats is a movie that’s supposed to be light-hearted. With Thomas O’Malley strolling along the riverside taking the family on an adventure. I just don’t connect as well with movies that I feel like don’t have a purpose or reason to exist. This might be cynical but I dislike cookie-cutter versions of stories that are way too familiar without adding much to anything. You could argue that the purpose of a movie like this is simply to entertain and I’d have to agree. Lots of studio films exist purely for that reason and don’t need any themes on top of that. But I wasn’t even entertained by anything happening in the plot. As you’d expect from a family film, its conclusion is predictable and the moments in between, at least to me, are not charming or memorable enough to leave a good impression. 

And what’s worse than a truly bad movie? A mediocre, boring one. And that’s what The Aristocats is. 

Also giving a cat with Asian features chopsticks to play the piano is at most unexpected but not really funny. In the overall context, that scene simply serves as a colorful, musical pitstop halfway through the movie before they ultimately assimilate to the aristocratic lifestyle at the mercy of an old, white woman.

Maybe I’m reading into this too much but there is that disclaimer at the start of the film that Disney puts in front of some of their older releases deemed controversial. 

Ultimately The Aristocats is a rather weak entry in the long list of animated Disney classics. But at least it’s better than all of the recent ‘live-action’ remakes, but from the recent trend of Disney redoing literally their entire 90s golden age of films, it’s only a matter of time until they’ll produce the inevitable remake for this one.

Next week we’ll watch Spielberg’s feature-length debut Duel.

Onward

The world used to be filled with all sorts of magic but the rise of technology made magic redundant in many ways. New Mushroomton, a small town in which all sorts of creatures like dragons, giants, dwarfs and elfs co-exist, has adapted to a magic-free lifestyle and opened the door for modern technology to take over. Most inhabitants of New Mushroomton do not even believe in magic anymore, as everything fantastical in their world has been made fictitious. In doing that, they completely negated their once magical history.

Onward is the 22nd feature film from Pixar and Dan Scanlon’s second Pixar film after 2013’s Monster’s University, the prequel to the critically acclaimed Monster’s Inc. from 2001. 

Tom Holland and Chris Pratt team up once again, this time not to fight Thanos but to voice the elf brothers Ian and Barley Lightfoot. On the day of this 16th birthday, Ian receives a present from his Dad that passed away when he was very young. A magical staff and a spell able to bring his Dad back for one whole day. But the spell goes wrong and only brings back the bottom half of their father, so the brothers are forced to embark on an adventurous quest to find an artifact powerful enough to complete the spell and bring back the rest of his body.

Pixar has always been strong at pulling at the audience’s heartstrings and it has gotten to a point where it has become a cliché to cry when the lamp is done stamping on the ‘I’ and the consecutive story starts to play out. I found myself at a dilemma with this because although moments of the third act did manage to make my eyes quite watery, I do not think this is one of the stronger Pixar outings. The story told in Onward is one that I feel quite personally attached to because of a similar life experience that I had with my father. The brother relationship is another one that I relate to quite a bit, as I have a little brother around the same age as Ian. Therefore, I was really connected to the relationships between the characters, rather than the plot itself. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of spectacle over substance in the film. This film could have had an even bigger focus on its well-established character relationships, but it went for action-packed chase scenes instead. Ian is a blank canvas, as most protagonists in those types of stories are, in order for people to relate to him. His character traits are; being socially awkward, sad about his father’s death and not believing in himself. But apart from that, he does not resemble someone that would exist outside of this story. 

Fact: Pixar makes the prettiest looking movies. After last year’s gorgeous Toy Story 4, comes Onward with a colorful, quirky animation style that is incredibly detailed. The comedy mostly worked as well, the highlight being all the Weekend at Bernie’s and literal ‘Daddy-only-legs’ humor coming from Wilden, Ian and Barley’s dad.

Onward is filled with moments that are universally relatable to young viewers like believing in yourself and appreciating what you have. As an adult, you pick up on when the filmmakers try to put those moments in and although I noticed when it was happening, it did not feel forced or preachy. When films are able to incorporate inspiring and touching messages into their films without bringing the story to a screeching halt, I applaud them for that. Because a lot of animated movies tend to cater to their target audience way too much. Although, there are a few tense moments in Onward that I wish were not played and broken for lazy attempts at comedy.

Should you see this film? Yes, if you have enjoyed Pixar films in the past, Onward will certainly not disappoint. If not, who are you and who has robbed your childhood that you don’t enjoy Pixar

Onward is an enjoyable family film that will make you laugh, cry and hug your loved ones.

★★★⋆☆

Release Date (CH): 05.03.20 - Release Date (Australia): 02.04.20 - Release Date (US): 06.03.20

Film Data: Director: Dan Scanlon - Writer: Dan Scanlon, Keith Bunin, Jason Headley - Cast: Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Mel Rodriguez, Ali Wong, Lena Waithe, John Ratzenberger, Tracey Ullman - 103’ - 2020 - USA - Pixar - Walt Disney Company

Photo and Video Source: Walt Disney Company Switzerland

The Peanut Butter Falcon

Peanut Butter Falcon, the Audience Award in Narrative Spotlight winner at the SXSW Film festival tells the down-to-earth adventure story of Zak, a 22-year-old man with Down syndrome who’s stuck in an elderly home. As well as fisherman Tyler (LaBoeuf) who finds himself in a wild feud with angry crab fishermen from whom he stole their catch. The unlikely pair is forced to work together when Zak, after escaping from the care facility, hides on a boat that Tyler uses to escape from the fishermen. Zak and Tyler embark on a bonding journey towards Florida to fulfill Zak’s life long dream of attending the wrestling school of his idol Salt Water Redneck and becoming a professional wrestler.

The Peanut Butter Falcon is written and directed by the creative team Tyler Nilson and Micheal Schwartz in their directorial feature debut. It stars Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, and Zack Gottsagen as the main protagonists. This marks Zack Gottsagen’s first feature film performance after writer and director Tyler Nilson discovered the actor at a camp for actors with disabilities and decided to write a story designed especially for him.

LaBoeuf and Gottsagen seem to click well together, which is integral for such an intimate and personal story like this to work. The film has some great moments that feel original and honest, but not all the way through. At a point towards the end of the second act, it starts to tick off the Hollywood plot point boxes and ends rather abruptly. I appreciate the trust in an emotionally intelligent audience because any other Hollywood film might have resorted to a voice-over narrator to explain the essentially obvious plot, and thus making the audience seem incapable of reading emotions themselves. But The Peanut Butter Falcon doesn’t rely on this lazy narrative element.

I especially enjoyed the muted and green-toned color palette which brings out the constantly changing landscape. The camera work is well done and both staging and blocking are conceived in a way that helps convey the story and emotional beats well. This becomes apparent in every scene Dakota Johnson is in as they visually establish the dynamic of the trio in a subtle but effective way.

One aspect that did not work and felt superfluous was the angry fishermen Duncan and Ratboy’s dedication to hunt down and kill Tyler. It felt a bit excessive and over the top. Even though the story has magical moments, they never cross the line to fantastical, it tonally shifts whenever there was another fishermen scene. In my mind, the story would have worked even better without that spectacle of the eventual explosive confrontation between Tyler and the fishermen. However, it was the initial and to an extent seemingly the main drive to keep LaBoeuf’s character moving, which wouldn’t have happened if there was no big conflict when he initially stole their catch that forced him to run away from his home like Zak did.

Should I watch this movie? It’s a great film to watch for anyone who wants to see an uplifting, emotional story that is able to pull on your heartstrings. The main reason I’d recommend it, is Zack Gottsagen’s performance alone, simply because it’s the best performance I have seen from an actor with Down syndrome and is a real delight to watch.

★★★⋆☆

The Peanut Butter Falcon is an adventure movie about friendship and fulfilling your biggest dreams against all odds. It shines the brightest through the performances of Gottsagen and LaBoeuf but falls victim to a rather predictable plot in the latter half and an abrupt ending that prevents it from being a truly great film.

Release Date (Switzerland): 20.01.2020

Release Date: (Australia): 30.01.2020

Film Data: Director: Tyler Nilson Michael Schwartz - Writer: Tyler Nilson Michael Schwartz - Cast: Shia LaBeouf Zack Gottsagen Dakota Johnson John Hawkes Thomas Haden Church Bruce Dern Jon Bernthal Yelawolf Jake Roberts Mick Foley - 97’ - USA - 2020 - Distributor: Impuls Pictures

Photo and Video Source: © Impuls Pictures AG. All Rights Reserved.