Trivia / The Aristocats

• Acting for Two: In the French dub, Roger Carel voiced both Roquefort and Lafayette.
• Billing Displacement: The opening credits roll call list O' Malley's credit up first alongside Duchess and Roquefort, despite not appearing until the second third of the movie. Likewise, the voices for Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz were listed as the third set following those for the Alley Cats, who don't appear until about forty minutes in.
• Blooper: The sidecar on Edgar's motorcycle constantly switches sides.
• Children Voicing Children: Toulouse and Berlioz were both voiced by child actors in the original release as well as all foreign dubs of the film.
• The Danza: Contrary to popular belief, Scat Cat was not originally intended to be voiced by Scatman Crothers, but by Louis Armstrong. It was, in fact, a coincidence when Armstrong turned the role down and it ended up going to Crothers, who just so happened to have a similar nickname.
• Died During Production: This was the last film that Walt Disney personally greenlit, and the first film that his studio made without him.
• Fake Nationality: None of the main voice-actors are Parisians, despite the film taking place there, since the movie is an American production.
• Fake Russian: American actor Thurl Ravenscroft plays the Russian Billy Boss.
• Follow the Leader: Basically Disney's version of Gay Purr-ee.
• Non-Singing Voice:
  • Duchess's singing voice was done by Robie Lester, who also dubbed for Gabor in The Rescuers.
  • Frou-Frou's solo during the "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" reprise was provided by Ruth Buzzi of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In fame.
• One-Book Author: This film is the only voice acting roles for former child actors Liz "Louise" English and Dean Clark. After the film's release, Liz English (Marie) became a regular on The Benny Hill Show between 1978-1986 and one of the original members of Hill's Angels. Nowadays she's more active in plays, theaterical shows, and nationally-touring musical-theatre productions in the UK. Her most recent appearance on television was in a UK commercial for "Key Advice Release" from 2018 as one of the characters. Occasionally she would sign autographs featuring Marie such as animations cells from the film and various Marie merchandise. However, The Aristocats is the only acting role for Dean Clark (Berlioz), who hasn't reappeared in anything since then.
• The Other Darrin: In the Disneyland Records adaptation of the film, Duchess alongside Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz are voiced by uncredited actors. However, the original actors from the film reprise their roles as Roquefort, alongside Napoleon and Lafayette.
• Prop Recycling: Many of the vehicles in the film are actually recycled from 101 Dalmatians, especially the Baduns' truck and the moving van. The vehicles in that film were white models with outlines drawn on the edges, filmed with a stop-motion camera and then photocopied onto cels. Because of time and money constraints, rather than give build new models for the milk truck and the baggage van, Disney simply reused them for these roles in this film, respectively.
• Referenced by...:
  • 101 Dalmatians (1996): When the puppies are about to receive their collars, they are shown watching TV, much like in the original film. Here, they are shown watching The Aristocats, during the closing of the "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" sequence before changing the channel to Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, showing Shadow being reunited with Peter.
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In "Mac Daddy", Bloo tries to send Cheese away to Timbuktu, much like Edgar tried to do to Duchess and her kittens. Cheese gets sent back to Foster's due to insufficient postage to tolerate smell.
  • House of Mouse:
    • O'Malley and the Alley Cats have appeared on the show from time to time. A Running Gag is that they are constantly invited to perform at the House, but something always happens that results in their act being canceled.
    • In the MouseWorks short "Pluto's Magic Paws", Pluto is looking for something dog-related to watch on television, only to find that every channel is showing cat-centric programming instead. One of the movies playing is The Aristocats.
  • Robin Hood (1973) re-uses some animation from the film, such as the band playing music and Maid Marian dancing with Robin in "The Phony King of England".
• Stillborn Franchise: Disneytoon Studios planned to make a direct-to-video sequel. While the first film had the kittens' nemesis as a misguided butler intent on stealing their fortune, The Aristocats II created a similar dynamic by pitting them against a jewel thief on the open seas aboard a luxury cruise ship. There was also a young kitty love interest for Marie who became the focal character of the film. The ship would travel from places like France, Scotland, England, Spain, etc, thus creating a creating a new atmosphere of different places in the early 1900s. It was scheduled to be released in 2007, but it was abandoned in early 2006 after Disney acquired Pixar and John Lasseter pulled the plug on all the direct-to-DVD sequels that had not yet entered production. Tara Strong was also going to voice Marie for the sequel. In animatics for the sequel, Duchess was also going to be voiced by Russi Taylor.
• Swan Song:
  • This was the final acting credit for Disney stalwart Bill Thompson. His arsenal of roles include the White Rabbit, Mr. Smee, Jock, and Ranger Woodlore. He gives a rather memorable performance as Uncle Waldo.
  • It was also actor/singer Maurice Chevalier's final film appearance before he died on January 1, 1972.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The Aristocats was originally developed as a two-part live-action episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. It was later decided that the story would work better as an animated feature. You may have noticed that the opening credits say the film is, "based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe." McGowan and Rowe were, in fact, the screenwriters of this never-filmed Wonderful World of Color version.
  • A song called “She Never Felt Alone” was recorded, but never animated, about how Madame was never alone with Duchess and the kittens. It was sung at the beginning by Madame (via a recording on a new phonograph she demonstrates to the cats) and with a reprise sung by Duchess while on the “magic carpet”.
  • Scat Cat was originally written with Louis Armstrong in mind, with his original name being Satchmo Cat. Unfortunately, illness kept Pops from being able to play the intended character who was then reworked and recast with Scatman Crothers. Since his facial features were already patterned after Pops, they told Crothers to "pretend you're Satchmo". "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" replaced the song the Sherman Brothers wrote for Armstrong, "Le Jazz Hot". Armstrong died seven months after the movie's release.
  • There was a deleted character named Elvira who was Madame Bonfamille's maid. She would have formed a Big Bad Duumvirate with Edgar after singing a Villain Love Song with him called "Court Me Slowly."
  • Early on in production O'Malley was going to have stripes but Wolfgang Reitherman having learned from working with Shere Khan on their previous film decided stripes to be too expensive to animate and was so O'Malley was left a straight-up orange tabby.
  • The original character designs for Marie, Toulouse and Berlioz◊ looked very different compared to their final designs. Toulouse originally looked more like a tiger cub, Marie also used to look chubby complete with dimples, and Berlioz's original design was sweeter. The kittens also used to look fluffy, with a lot of fur.
  • The original character design for Roquefort had him looking very similar to the mice from Cinderella and Ben and Me.
  • According to the book Mouse Under Glass, Boris Karloff was the first choice to play Edgar the Butler.
  • At one point during the film's production, Toulouse was named "Dopey" which is seen in this concept art for the kittens.◊
  • Susan Olsen of Brady Bunch fame, was considered to voice Marie.
  • Part of the movie would have taken place in the sewers of Paris but Wolfgang Reitherman thought the water and lightning effects would cost too much to animate.
  • There were plans for an Aristocats: The Animated Series way back in 2003. Marie and her brothers, Berlioz and Toulouse, would be turned into teenagers◊. And it would've given Marie (who was supposed to be the main character of this new "Aristocats" show) someone new to bounce off of. They invented this teenaged cat similar to O'Malley the alley cat, called Delancey, who could dance like a combination of Justin Timberlake and Usher. And then to round out the cast "the Street Cats" were created. The basic idea here was to reinvent The Aristocats so that this franchise would then appeal to your typical Disney Channel/Toon Disney watcher. But when Disney bought Pixar in 2006, it was cancelled along with the planned sequel, the Aristocats II film. Only concept art of Marie, Toulouse, and Berlioz survive.

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