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This original hand-painted production cel captures Lafayette, the lovable and easily distracted Basset Hound from Walt Disney’s The Aristocats, in one of the film’s wonderfully comic encounters with his companion Napoleon. Lafayette is shown in a relaxed but alert pose, his long brown ears falling dramatically along either side of his face as he looks toward Napoleon. His raised paw and open, smiling expression perfectly convey the character’s amiable, somewhat bewildered personality. The blue-toned French countryside background provides a striking contrast to Lafayette’s white-and-brown coloring, while the visible painted texture and bold hand-inked outlines preserve the distinctive appearance of traditional Disney animation.
The cel comes from the memorable exchange between the two motor vehicle-chasing hound dogs. Lafayette dismisses Napoleon’s suspicion by observing, “Oh, shucks, Napoleon, that ain't nothin' but a little old cricket bug.” Napoleon insists, “It's squeaky shoes approachin'!” Lafayette counters, “Aw, cricket bugs don't wear shoes!”, prompting Napoleon's emphatic “Hush yer mouth!” The comedy of the sequence depends upon the contrast between Napoleon's intense suspicion and Lafayette's more easygoing nature. This cel captures Lafayette at precisely the sort of moment that makes the character so appealing: friendly, expressive, and utterly unconcerned with Napoleon's increasingly urgent warnings.
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, before the film was finally 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 follows a family of aristocratic cats and their struggle to return home after their greedy butler attempts to eliminate them so that he can inherit their mistress's fortune.
The story takes place in Paris in 1910, where 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 this plan, he realizes that the cats could outlive him and prevent him from ever receiving the inheritance. His solution is to put sleeping tablets into the cats' milk and, once they fall asleep, transport them far from Paris in a covered basket attached to his motorcycle. Edgar's journey through the French countryside ultimately brings him into the path of Napoleon and Lafayette.
Napoleon, a Bloodhound, and Lafayette, a Basset Hound, were both animated by legendary Disney animator Frank Thomas. The dogs were initially intended to appear in only one scene, but the sequence proved so successful that a second scene was developed involving Edgar's return to the countryside to retrieve his umbrella and bowler hat. Their scenes became some of the film's most memorable pieces of comic animation, with Thomas exploiting the enormous difference between Napoleon's imposing Bloodhound physique and Lafayette's low-slung, long-eared Basset Hound design.
Lafayette was voiced by George Lindsey, while Napoleon was voiced by Pat Buttram. The pairing was particularly effective because both performers brought distinctive Southern-inflected comic personalities to the characters. Buttram and Lindsey would later reunite in Disney's Robin Hood, with Buttram voicing the Sheriff of Nottingham and Lindsey voicing Trigger, the vulture guard. They teamed up once again in The Rescuers, providing the voices of Luke and Deadeye.
As a piece of Disney animation art, this Lafayette cel is especially charming because it showcases the character's personality through his expressive face and distinctive pose. His enormous ears, loose-limbed posture, and cheerful expression are immediately recognizable, while the beautifully painted countryside setting places him within the atmosphere of the film's French rural sequences. Together with the complementary Napoleon artwork, the cel represents the wonderfully eccentric canine duo whose brief appearances became an enduring highlight of The Aristocats.
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