Everyone remembers the cats. They remember the swinging jazz, the pink milk, and that weirdly catchy "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat" song that stays stuck in your head for three days minimum. But when you ask someone what year did Aristocats come out, you usually get a blank stare followed by a guess like "1960?" or maybe "I don't know, the early 70s?"
The truth is, The Aristocats hit theaters on December 24, 1970.
It was a weird time for Disney. Walt had been dead for four years. The studio was essentially a ship without a captain, drifting through the fog of the post-Walt era. This movie wasn't just another cartoon; it was the first animated feature to be fully produced after the founder passed away. Because of that, it feels different. It’s looser. It’s scratchier. It has a vibe that feels like it belongs to the late 60s even though it technically kicked off the 70s.
If you grew up watching the VHS in the 90s, it feels ancient and timeless all at once. But in 1970, it was a massive gamble.
Why 1970 Was a Weird Year for Disney Animation
Imagine being an animator at Disney in the late 60s. Your boss—the guy who literally invented the industry—is gone. The "Nine Old Men" (Walt’s legendary core team of animators) were still there, but they were aging. They were tired. They were trying to figure out if people even wanted to watch hand-drawn cats dance around Paris while the world outside was dealing with the Vietnam War and the aftermath of Woodstock.
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When The Aristocats came out in 1970, it used a specific technical process called Xerography. This is why the movie looks "sketchy." Instead of hand-inking every single frame onto a piece of celluloid (which was expensive and slow), the animators used a Xerox machine to transfer their pencil drawings directly onto the cels. It saved a ton of money. However, it also meant you could see the rough construction lines of the characters. Some people hate it. I actually think it gives the movie a gritty, textured charm that modern CGI just can't touch.
It was also the last film Walt Disney himself personally greenlit. He saw the sketches. He approved the concept. He just didn't live to see the cats swing.
The Paris That Never Was
The setting is 1910 Paris. It’s a romanticized, watercolor version of France that feels like a dream. You’ve got Duchess, the refined white cat voiced by Eva Gabor, and her three kittens: Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse. They live in a mansion. They have a butler named Edgar. They’re rich.
Then Edgar decides to kidnap them because he wants the inheritance. It’s a pretty dark plot point for a movie about singing pets, honestly. He drugs their milk—yes, with sleeping pills—and dumps them in the countryside. That’s where the movie really starts, because that’s where we meet Thomas O'Malley.
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Abraham DeLacey Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley. That’s his full name. He’s a "street cat" which is basically Disney code for "he’s got a heart of gold but he’s definitely seen some things." The dynamic between him and Duchess is pure romantic comedy gold. It’s It Happened One Night but with whiskers.
The Jazz Influence and Why the Music Still Hits
You can't talk about what year did Aristocats come out without talking about the music. 1970 was a pivot point. The Sherman Brothers, who wrote basically every Disney song you know, were on their way out of the studio. They wrote the title track, which was sung by Maurice Chevalier. Fun fact: Chevalier was 82 years old when he recorded it. He came out of retirement just to do it because he loved the project so much.
But the heart of the movie is jazz. Scat Cat and his gang of alley cats represent a shift toward a more "cool" Disney. It wasn’t just about orchestral swells anymore. It was about brass, improvisation, and rhythm.
- Phil Harris voiced Thomas O'Malley. You might recognize him as Baloo from The Jungle Book. He basically played the same character—the lovable, lazy, swinging bachelor—and he was perfect at it.
- Scatman Crothers voiced Scat Cat. He was actually a replacement. The role was originally written for Louis Armstrong. Can you imagine? Satchmo himself as a cartoon cat. He had to back out due to health issues, but Crothers did an incredible job mimicking that raspy, soulful energy.
The Legacy of the Scratchy Style
A lot of critics at the time were pretty harsh. They thought Disney was getting lazy. They called the animation "recycled." And to be fair, Disney was recycling. If you look closely at some of the dance sequences in The Aristocats, you’ll notice they look suspiciously like the dance sequences in The Jungle Book or One Hundred and One Dalmatians. They literally traced over old animation frames to save time and money.
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But looking back from 2026, we see it differently. We see a studio in transition. We see the hand of the artist in every frame.
The movie was a huge hit at the box office, making about $191 million globally over its various releases. It proved that Disney could survive without Walt. It proved that a simple story about a family trying to get home could still resonate, even if the world was changing fast.
Real-World Impact and the Live-Action Future
There have been rumors for years about a live-action remake. Questlove is reportedly attached to direct it. It makes sense. The movie is built on music, and he’s a musical historian. But there’s a fear that a CGI version will lose the soul of the 1970 original. The charm of The Aristocats is that it isn't perfect. It’s a bit messy. It’s a bit loud. It’s very, very French.
If you’re looking to revisit it, keep an eye out for the background art. The watercolor style of the Parisian streets is legitimately some of the most beautiful work the studio ever produced. It’s soft and hazy, providing a sharp contrast to the bold, black-outlined characters.
What To Do Next
If you’re feeling nostalgic or just want to see if the movie holds up, here is how to dive back in effectively:
- Watch for the "Recycled" Scenes: Next time you put it on, look at the kittens' movements during the "Scales and Arpeggios" scene. Compare it to the pups in 101 Dalmatians. It’s a fun piece of film history to spot the similarities.
- Listen to the Soundtrack Solo: Put on the "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat" sequence on a good pair of headphones. The layering of the instruments—the piano, the trumpet, the harp—is much more sophisticated than you probably remember from childhood.
- Check Out the Documentary "The Boys": If you want to know more about the era when this movie came out, watch the documentary about the Sherman Brothers. It explains the tension at Disney during the production of The Aristocats and why the vibe of the studio changed so much after 1966.
- Skip the Sequel Rumors: Don't bother looking for The Aristocats 2. It was in development for years as a direct-to-video project but was famously canceled when John Lasseter took over Disney Animation in 2006. He felt it diluted the brand of the original. He was probably right.
The year 1970 gave us a lot of things, but in the world of animation, it gave us a jazzy, slightly chaotic masterpiece that proved cats really do have nine lives—at least on celluloid.