ANI-MOVIES, *Lady And The Tramp

For their first animated movie to be done in Cinemascope, Lady And The Tramp was Disney's adaptation of Ward Green's story, Happy Dan. The comic strip writer went on to do the Scamp spinoff which ran in newspapers for years. The change in format meant Disney had to redo their painted backgrounds, but ultimately delivered a sterling cinematic production which is one of the few Disney classics that doesn't have a traditional villain, plus it's shown from the point of view by dogs with how they see things living in the human world. Even though the movie came out in 1955, the story took a retro approach taking place sometime after the turn of the 20th Century. Despite the film being billed as a puppy love romance, it's more of a slice-of-life from the perspective of neighborhood canines as the romance between the title characters doesn't even show up over half through the movie.

The beginning part has the puppy Lady being given to a husband to his wife for Christmas and how she works their way into their hearts. As time goes by, the couple come to expect a baby, making Lady question what her place in the family is. A wandering stray dog called Tramp fills her in on what it means for a dog when a child is on the way. After the baby is eventually born, Lady learns to except the infant into her life. However, the parents get called out of town for some reason, leaving the baby in the care of their aunt Sarah whose Siamese cats make Lady look like a troublemaker. Lady escapes being muzzled as she runs into Tramp and he shows her what the collar-free lifestyle is like. The two dogs truly bond at the memorable dinner scene which almost didn't make it into the original cut of the movie. Tramp realizes that Lady needs to be with her family, even though a divergence of him scaring some chickens gets Lady in the pound. Lady gets let out by Sarah which literally lands her in the doghouse, but she notices a nasty rat sneaking into the baby's room. Tramp follows the rat up and kills it, making Sarah think that a stray dog tried to attack the baby. The mother and father finally show up and help clear Tramp's name. Tramp is adopted by them, and he and Lady have a few pups of their own, one of which gets his own sequel.

Lady And Tramp contains some of Disney's more memorable animated productions released in between their fantasy romps of Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty. The movement of the animals has much more detail than was normally given to their regular sidekick critter characters. The cast is amazing with the voice of Droopy, Bill Thompson, playing multiple roles. One voice actor in particular of note it the underappreciated Larry Roberts as Tramp who never went on to do much more in his career after this film came out as the character is a fast-talking carefree loner who likes pulling scams on various humans and other animals. Most longtime Disney fans don't give Lady And The Tramp the credit that it should get because of its simplistic plot, but it's the mundane realism that made for a grand outing for the cartoon kingdom which makes it a great feature for both kids and adults.