Lady and the Tramp 1955
Somehow I had never seen this movie and when I started buying up Disney movies, this one was locked in the vault. When I made a ranking of Disney animated movies based on several different reviewers, Lady and the Tramp came in at number 6, which surprised me. Since doing that ranking, I have bought and watched three other higher ranked Disney movies, Pinocchio, The Little Mermaid, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, two of those being Disney’s first animated feature length movies. Lady and the Tramp is an original story with a strong narrative, maybe the first modern Disney movie in that sense. It still creaks a little. About the first half of the movie is more about Lady at home with her well-to-do owners before Tramp shows up and starts doing anything. Her story before Tramp is mostly cute, but shows her being shoved aside to some degree as her owners have a baby.
Other than the famous meatball scene, I had no idea what to expect from this movie. There are a number of good characters, a good story with plenty going on, and a few good songs. It isn’t a great piece of artwork like Snow White or Bambi and the story and songs aren’t quite as good as Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, but it is still a good movie even if it isn’t in the highest tier. Perhaps one reason it doesn’t stand out that much is that the animation looks so effortless as they get great expressions and performances from animals that move like real ones.
Written: 25 May 2018
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital