Review of Lady and the Tramp (1955) by James C — 03 Jan 2010

Movie night with my son, who was absolutely enthralled with this, and it's not hard to understand why. What I (and probably a lot of people) always think of when they think of Lady and the Tramp is the spaghetti scene, and we remember the film as a romance more than anything.

But there's so much more life to it than that. Much like Bambi, the movie's as much interested for a while in "natural" depiction as anything, and we spend almost ten minutes in the movie just watching dogs be dogs before the conversations start.

And, unlike so much modern animated fare, these aren't people in dogs' bodies; these are dogs, through and through, and seeing the world through their perspective is fascinating and entertaining.

What I had truly forgotten, though, was just how rich and textured a world Disney could once be counted on to produce: how fluid the animations, how vivid and lifelike the characters, how realistic the motion - all lessons that their heir apparent, Pixar, took to heart.

(Well, I had forgotten that and some deeply dated use of ethnic stereotypes...but it's not done with malice.) I honestly remembered liking Lady and the Tramp okay, but I was completely enchanted with it tonight - of course, seeing it through both my eyes and my son's probably helps with that, too.