Lady And The Tramp (Animated) (Special Edition) (DVD)

...twin terrors start causing havoc, Lady finds herself being blamed for all the trouble and after she is fitted with a muzzle decides to escape from the home.

Out on the streets in an unusual world, Lady comes across Tramp, a cocky male dog from the rough side of town. After helping Lady to remove the muzzle, he takes her out for a night on the town, Tramp style, ending up with a romantic Italian meal thanks to two canine loving waiters. ...
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Lady and the Tramp was the 15th animated picture to come out of the Walt Disney studios. Filled with stunning animation, wonderful songs and a brilliant classical story line, this has to be one of my favourite films to come out of Walt Disney studios. Unlike many of the Disney films from this era, Lady and the Tramp is different, due to the fact that it doesn't really have a completely nasty villain, and although Aunt Sarah doesn't ... more

Lady, a pampered Cocker Spaniel, lives in the lap of luxury with her owners Jim Dear and Darling in an affluent suburb of Paris. But her life of luxury takes a turn for the worse when her owners bring a baby into the home. On top of this Jim Dear and Darling decide to go away for a bit, and Darling's Aunt Sarah comes to stay with her meddlesome twin Siamese cats, Si and Am. After the twin terrors start causing havoc, Lady finds herself being blamed for all the trouble and after she is fitted with a muzzle decides to escape from the home.

Out on the streets in an unusual world, Lady comes across Tramp, a cocky male dog from the rough side of town. After helping Lady to remove the muzzle, he takes her out for a night on the town, Tramp style, ending up with a romantic Italian meal thanks to two canine loving waiters. Having spent the perfect, romantic evening with Tramp she decides that she has to return home to protect the baby. But as she makes her way back, she is caught by the dog catcher and thrown into the pound, where she learns all about Tramps philandering ways from a free and easy dog named Peg. Upset as being tricked by Tramp, she happily returns home, even though Aunt Sarah chains her up so that she cannot escape again.

Tramp goes looking for Lady, and after finding her at her home gets involved in a melee with a vicious rat in an attempt to protect her and the baby. But his attempts at valor are misconstrued by Aunt Sarah and she calls in the dog catcher to take him away. As his friends Jock the bloodhound and Trusty the Scottie show up on the scene a complete rumpus ensues.

Lady and the Tramp was the 15th animated picture to come out of the Walt Disney studios. Filled with stunning animation, wonderful songs and a brilliant classical story line, this has to be one of my favourite films to come out of Walt Disney studios. Unlike many of the Disney films from this era, Lady and the Tramp is different, due to the fact that it doesn't really have a completely nasty villain, and although Aunt Sarah doesn't like dogs, she is not in the same league as say Cruella De Vil, "One Hundred and One Dalmatians". In a way this makes it a much easier film to watch, although the hardened nose cynic would say that this makes the story line very weak. But in loosing a true villain, Disney has put the emphasis on the love story between the 2 dogs from different sides of the tracks. How many of us who remember watching this years ago, still remember the magical romantic scene with the meatballs and spaghetti.

From an adult's perception, the key to the appeal of Lady and the Tramp is in its characters. Firstly you have Lady, a prim Cocker Spaniel who has had it easy, but then when she ends up in a rough unusual world, she adapts and finds a "bit of rough" or should that be "be bit of ruff" that she bonds with. On the other end of the scale you have Tramp, a jack the lad type dog, whose raffish charm would win anyone over. The characterization is so good, that I could easily see elements of people's personalities that I know in the dogs, not that I'm saying my friends are dogs. As well as the main two characters you have a great selection of other animals including the annoying Siamese cats Si and Am, as well as Tramps mates from the streets, all of which are equally as well characterized as the lead pairing. The human element really does take a back seat in this film, and although brilliantly drawn, are not shown to the same extent as the cats and dogs.

A big part of the characterization is through the voices used for each of the characters. These come from many stalwarts of Disney movies such as Barbara Luddy and Bill Thompson but also included the voice of Alan Reed as Boris, who then went onto become the voice of Fred Flinstone. Each of the voices fit really well with the characters and adds to its whole appeal.

From a child's perspective, they will love watching the wonderful animation and the simple story. Having watched this recently with my young nephew and nieces, they were glued to the film for the duration and then watched it again straight away afterwards. Plus, with all early Disney films there is a strong musical element with memorable songs such as "He's a Tramp", "Siamese Cat Song" and "Bella Notte" all performed by Sonny Burke & Peggy Lee. Now, although I enjoy the songs in the film, after the fifth rendition of young children singing "We are Siamese, if you please", enough is enough.

Another big part of the appeal to Lady and The Tramp is in its animation and artistry. Compared to the modern animated films which rely on CGI to provide the entertainment, Lady and The Tramp, of course, uses the old technique of drawings to create the movements. It is amazing to look at the amount of detail which goes into each scene and personally I prefer this style of animation to CGI. Although both techniques are achieved through skilful operators, the amount of time, effort and art which went into creating the old style animations seems much more impressive and enchanting.

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The Cast (Voices)
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Barbara Luddy .... Lady
Larry Roberts .... Tramp
Peggy Lee .... Darling/Si/Am/Peg
Lee Millar .... Jim Dear/Dog Catcher
Verna Felton .... Aunt Sarah
Bill Thompson .... Jock/Bulldog in Pound/Policeman
Bill Baucom .... Trusty
Alan Reed .... Boris
Stan Freberg .... Beaver
George Givot .... Tony
Dal McKennon .... Toughy/Professor Pedro

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Technical Details
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Certificate: U
Length: 76 mins
Originally released: 1955
Main Language: English
Dubbed Languages: Dutch, French, German
Sub Titles: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

Plus being released on DVD the picture quality and soundtrack has been greatly restored and enhanced, making the DVD, although a little bit pricey, a much better way to view than the old video release and even better than the 1999 single disc DVD release.

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Bonus Material
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On the first disc you have the film and a few trailers and promo pieces. All the main extras come on the second disc.

"Deleted Scenes" - There are 2 deleted scenes, the first one being a silly scene where the dogs command the humans and then the second one is an extended version of the new baby arriving. Both very interesting, but not a great loss in the actual film.

"The Siamese Cat Song - Finding a voice for the cats" - is a short piece narrated by Disney animator Eric Goldberg, which discusses getting the right sound for the cats, included are some test recordings and initial concept drawings for the Siamese cats.

"Bella Notte" - This is a music video for the song, in this case performed by Steve Tyrell.

"Disney Virtual Puppy" - A DVD Rom feature which allows you to adopt and play with one of the canine characters from the movie. As an adult it bored me, but my niece loved it.

"Disney Dog Trivia" - This is another DVD Rom feature which is a virtual board game that can played either as single player or multiplayer. It's good for anyone who has seen plenty of Disney films as it asks questions about dogs from different films, I struggled quite a bit and was easily beaten by my nephew and niece.

"Going to the Dogs" - is a disneypedia feature which uses the cartoon illustrations to discuss things about dogs and their different breeds, definitely one for the children.

"Your Inner Bark" - is a fun personality test, which asks you a few questions and then tells you which character out of Lady and the Tramp you resemble. Thankfully I resembled Tramp.

"Lady's Pedigree: The Making of Lady and the Tramp" - This feature is nearly an hour long and is aimed at the adults. It features information from a plethora of people who have worked on Disney movies new and old and gives a look at the background to the man Walt Disney himself and then goes into detail on Lady and the Tramp. This is really informative and tells you so much about how the film was made from conception to finished master piece.

"Finding Lady: The art of the storyboard" - For anyone who is familiar with the use of storyboards this will be of little interest, as it is a feature on how story boards are used in films.

"Original 1943 storyboards" - This is just over 10 minutes and shows us the original ideas for Lady and the Tramp, which differ greatly from the finished product.

"Excerpts from Disneyland TV show" - This features 3 clips from 3 different shows which are relevant to Lady and the Tramp, although fun to watch, doesn't give anymore detail to what has already been shown in the other features on the DVD.

"Trailers" - for once I liked these, because they gave you the 3 trailers for each of the releases, 1955, 1972 and 1986.

"Lady and the Tramp Galleries" - There are around 300 photos and drawings from all elements of the film, from original drawings, layouts, storyboards and production photos.

All in all this has to be one of the best set of extras I have come across on a film which is mainly aimed for the younger audience. It balances out the children's games and fun stuff, with more detailed information for the adult viewers.

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Conclusion

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Having first seen this back in the 80s, I admit to falling in love with it straight away. In my opinion, it is the best of the original Disney movies and it is a shame that modern day animated films seem to lack the charm and magic of these early master pieces. Although, predominantly aimed at the younger generation, this has so much appeal to an adult audience as well, and is perfect viewing for all the family. Even at the higher than normal DVD price, this whole package of film and bonus features is brilliant value.

This version of Lady and the Tramp is available on Amazon for £14.99 but there is also a second version of this which comes packaged with a Limited Edition Lady cuddly toy for £25.95.

There is also a sequel to this film called Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's adventure and came out in 2001.
 

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