To purchase this cel or to visit the Art Gallery, CLICK HERE!
This original hand-painted production cel captures a delightfully comic moment from "The Aristocats," Walt Disney Productions' 1970 animated feature. The cel depicts Lafayette, the bumbling Basset Hound, caught in a moment of confusion and alarm as he crawls low to the ground on all fours, his long ears trailing in the dirt and his tail flung straight up in agitation. His wide, startled eyes and open mouth capture him mid-exclamation, seemingly blurting out his now-famous line, "It's them shoes! It's them shoes again!" as he becomes entangled in Edgar the butler's oversized boots, which have slipped onto his back paws. The nighttime countryside setting is rendered in rich, moody blues, with silhouetted haystacks and trees framing the muddy farmyard where the scene unfolds, evoking the rural French setting Edgar stumbles into after abandoning the cats. In the lower corner, the cel bears the "Original Hand-Painted Movie Film Cel" Walt Disney Productions certification seal, authenticating it as a genuine piece of animation history.
"The Aristocats" holds a special place in Disney history as the last film project personally approved by Walt Disney before his death in late 1966; the film would not reach theaters until Buena Vista Distribution released it on December 11, 1970. Based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe, the film is voiced by a talented cast including Eva Gabor, Hermione Baddeley, Phil Harris, Dean Clark, Sterling Holloway, Scatman Crothers, and Roddy Maude-Roxby. Set in Paris in 1910, the plot follows Madame Bonfamille's decision to leave her fortune, including her mansion, jewels, and treasures, to her beloved cats rather than to her conniving butler, Edgar Balthazar. Upon overhearing this news, Edgar panics, muttering to himself, "I'll be gone, no oh no... they'll be gone," and hatches a plan to drug the cats' milk with sleeping tablets before spiriting them away in a covered basket aboard his motorcycle, dumping them far from the safety of the city.
Lafayette and his hound companion Napoleon were both brought to life by legendary Disney animator Frank Thomas, whose comedic timing gave the pair their memorable slapstick charm. Originally intended for just a single scene, the dogs proved so popular with story artists that a second sequence was developed, one that sends Edgar back into the French countryside to retrieve his lost umbrella and bowler hat, only to run afoul of the two farm dogs once again. This cel appears to capture Lafayette in the midst of that very chase, his confusion over Edgar's discarded footwear driving him into a frenzy as he tries to alert Napoleon to the intruder's presence. Voiced respectively by Pat Buttram and George Lindsey, Napoleon and Lafayette left such an impression that their voice actors would go on to share the screen again in "Robin Hood" as the Sheriff of Nottingham and Trigger the vulture guard, and once more in "The Rescuers" as the villainous Luke and Deadeye.
No comments:
Post a Comment