For some reason I’ve been watching a fair amount of old
Disney animated classics and I feel compelled to write my feelings about these
old standbys. So following in the
tradition of my Sleeping Beauty essay,
here comes one about everybody’s favorite mismatched pair: Lady and the Tramp.
I never realized that every dog in this film skirts the line
between funny, okay stereotype to downright racist ethnic stereotype. Those Siamese cats are on Breakfast at Tiffany’s Mickey Rooney
levels of racism, but to be fair, they do have the best song in the movie. I stand by that position. Still I feel like dogs and cats are the best
way to go for broad ethnic humor without really drawing much offense because
they are just so gosh darn adorable. It
also helps to make your film during the 1950’s.
But for the record I am a fan of the old hound dog and his faulty
memory. That folksy glory day’s living
hound is alright in my book. Plus I’m
convinced that the girl dog in the pound is some sort of doggie prostitute
besides being a vaudeville/burlesque/showgirl of old. I think it’s the way she covers her bangs…like
a doggie whore. Still if I were the
Tramp I would have been with her instead of Lady. The hooker dog has a sultry voice and
intriguing personality as compared to the posh bland stylings of that upper
class “Lady”. She is a bore in my book
and fits in perfectly with the whole blandly nice Disney princess vibe. When will Disney make the wisecracking/ironic
classic princess I demand!
For me the saddest part in the film (other than the presumed
death of the hound dog) is the rejection of the Tramp’s lifestyle. The pivotal scene is when Tramp shows Lady
the hills and the mountains and the untamed forests and proclaims this land to
be their kingdom. He says we can take
this land and roam around freely in a lovely bohemian existence. Lady looks out and simply sees the manicured
town and responds how she has to watch over the baby, despite the fact that
there are two capable parents there. She
decides to live in boring suburbia and drags our bohemian hero down with
her. Talk about a buzzkill.
Since when do rats have it in for babies? Why was that rat so intent on killing or
hurting that poor little infant? It made
absolutely no sense but then again I don’t have a child nor do I own any dogs
nor do I live in a small town at the turn of the century. So if I’m missing anything pardon my
ignorance on the matter.
Jim’s moustache is very distracting to me. Every time it appears I just become fixated
on it and can’t look away. It’s hypnotic
in a strange way.
The restaurant spaghetti scene is a classic of cinema but I would
like to see what was happening on the other side of the equation – the paying
customer side. How long were these
people waiting for their fine Italian meals and did anybody notice what was
causing the delay? I like to imagine
after about a 20 minute wait a guy looks out the window to the back and sees
the wait staff attending to a doggy date.
Then he angrily narrates the scene to his fellow starving patrons until
they start to become belligerent and violence ensues. Or maybe Tony’s restaurant only serves
animals. Again I wasn’t around in
America at the turn of the century so I have no idea if that’s how restaurants
or small town Italian eateries worked backed then. So again I ask you to please pardon my
ignorance.
This movie is the perfect date movie. It’s probably one of the only reasons I would
have wanted to be alive and dating in the mid 50’s. A story about a sheltered uptown Lady and a streetwise
rascal Tramp is more romantic than any lame drives up to lookout/make-out/fornication
point (well maybe not the last one). Add
in some lovable characters like a Scotty in a vest and scenes of Lady being a
puppy and you’ve got the most adorable movie of all time. It is a force of puppy dog love.
In closing I believe Disney should have stuck with their
original title: Love, Doggystyle.
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