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This charming original hand-painted production cel from "The Aristocats" captures Napoleon the Bloodhound reclining atop Edgar's fallen bowler hat and umbrella, his lanky frame stretched out against a hay bale as he lifts one oversized paw to hold the umbrella aloft against the deep blue night sky. His expressive, wide eyes are cast sideways with a mixture of suspicion and alarm, his mouth agape mid-bark, capturing the exact comic beat from the dogs' now-famous exchange over the approaching "squeaky shoes." The moment comes from the dogs' hilarious exchange as they attempt to determine what is approaching them: Lafayette dismisses the sound with, "Oh, shucks, Napoleon, that ain't nothin' but a little old cricket bug," to which Napoleon fires back, "It's squeaky shoes approachin'!" When Lafayette protests, "Aw, cricket bugs don't wear shoes!", Napoleon emphatically snaps, "Hush yer mouth!" The humor comes from the wonderfully mismatched personalities of the two motor vehicle-chasing hounds: Lafayette is the more easygoing and skeptical Basset Hound, while Napoleon is perpetually ready to sound the alarm. The artwork captures precisely the kind of exaggerated expression and body language that made their brief appearances among the film's most memorable comic sequences, with Napoleon's oversized nose, drooping ears, and dramatically arched posture radiating his trademark excitability.
"The Aristocats," released in 1970, was an animated feature film produced and released by Walt Disney Productions. It was the last film project to be approved by Walt Disney himself, who died in late 1966, several years before the film's completion, with the finished picture ultimately released to theaters by Buena Vista Distribution on December 11, 1970. The film featured the voice talents of Eva Gabor, Hermione Baddeley, Phil Harris, Dean Clark, Sterling Holloway, Scatman Crothers, and Roddy Maude-Roxby. Based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe, the film centers on a family of aristocratic cats living in Paris. In 1910, Madame Bonfamille tells her lawyer Georges Hautecourt that she intends to leave her stocks, bonds, mansion, treasures, jewels, and entire fortune to her beloved cats rather than to her butler, Edgar Balthazar. When Edgar overhears the plans, he realizes that the cats could outlive him and prevent him from ever receiving the inheritance, and his sinister solution is to drug the cats' milk with sleeping tablets and secretly transport them far from Paris in a covered basket attached to his motorcycle.
Napoleon and Lafayette encounter Edgar during these events, becoming an unexpected obstacle to his plans; their pursuit of motor vehicles, particularly Edgar's motorcycle, provides some of the film's most entertaining slapstick. The contrast between Napoleon's imposing Bloodhound appearance and Lafayette's long-eared, more tentative Basset Hound personality makes the pair especially effective, and in this cel, Napoleon's expressive eyes, drooping ears, oversized nose, and exaggerated pose exemplify the broad yet carefully controlled character animation that defines the sequence. Both dogs were animated by Frank Thomas, one of Disney's legendary Nine Old Men. Napoleon and Lafayette were originally intended to appear in only one scene, but the sequence proved successful enough that a second scene was developed, involving Edgar's return to the French countryside to retrieve his umbrella and bowler hat, the very items seen beneath Napoleon in this cel. Napoleon was voiced by Pat Buttram, while Lafayette was voiced by George Lindsey; the two performers would later reunite in Disney's "Robin Hood," with Buttram voicing the Sheriff of Nottingham and Lindsey providing the voice of Trigger the vulture guard, and again in "The Rescuers," where they voiced Luke and Deadeye.
As a piece of Disney animation history, this cel is particularly appealing because it represents one of the film's distinctive supporting characters rather than its central feline cast. Napoleon's wonderfully exaggerated design and Frank Thomas's expressive animation give the artwork an immediate sense of motion and personality. The combination of the original painted cel, the unmistakable 1970 Disney character design, and Napoleon's comic pose makes this a charming representation of one of "The Aristocats"' most memorable canine characters.
