Wuchak
RELEASED IN 1962 and directed by Abe Levitow, "Gay Pur-ee" is an animated film about a beautiful feline, Mewsette (voiced by Judy Garland), whose romantic fantasies about life in Paris become the awful truth when she stows away to travel there, but her dreams are shattered by a shady cat (Paul Frees) and his "sister" (Hermione Gingold). Meanwhile, a tomcat named Juane-Tom (Robert Goulet) goes to Paris to save Mewsette along with his lil' pal, Robespierre (Red Buttons).I suppose it helps if you're a cat-lover, but I always liked this cartoon flick. Sure, there are too many songs and only enough story to make up for half the runtime, but "Gay Purr-ee" has its charm. The climatic confrontation is particularly entertaining. Juane-Tom and Robespierre are the best characters. To be expected, several of the story elements reflect real-life, including a drunken binge (lol), but also money-loving smooth-talkers who take advantage of the naïve and ignorant. THE FILM RUNS 85 minutes. WRITERS: Dorothy Jones & Chuck Jones with additional dialogue by Ralph Wright & Levitow. GRADE: B-/C+
Cara B
I love this movie because the cats are so cute. To me this movie feels like a Golden Era Hollywood musical that got turned into a cartoon with music. Judy Garland's singing is superb. She hit all of her notes and the other voice over actors are good too. The artwork is very French and I liked the clip where Mewsette was being shown in multiple paintings. Major French artists got to have their works represented to children. There is not much violence so kids can easily watch this movie. I don't think this movie could ever be remade because the talent was there behind the scenes and on camera. It's not easy to make a film about singing cats and keep my attention. But they were able.
preppy-3
I remember seeing this a few times on TV as a kid. I vaguely remember liking it and had an amusing time hearing Judy Garland doing vocals for an animated cat! Seeing it now (about 30 years later) I can't figure out WHAT I ever liked about this. The story is dull, silly and trite and the animation is (and I'm being nice) 4th rate. I've seen episodes of "The Flintstones" with better animation that this! The songs were entirely forgettable, the characters were ALL annoying and it was a struggle to make it through to the end. This is getting three stars just for the vocals of Garland and Robert Goulet--they even make the bland songs sound OK. Very young children might like this but anyone over the age of eight will be bored out of their minds! Easy to see why this is mostly forgotten.
spost8260
It has everything! Action, romance (well, between two cartoon cats!)and adventure, in a family viewable arena! The children will adore this classic, I can practically gaurentee that! And the adults will laugh and cry along with it, cheering on the little Robespierre with his small body and lion's heart. Jon-Tom's tail and whiskers twitching as "The best mouse catcher in all of Paris!" spots a rodent hundreds of feet away (but never actually kills one). The pretty Mewsette who wants more than she can handle and ends up getting into trouble for it. Madame Rubinschottz, the large, pink cat of ill repute with the long eyelashes and big, red lips who sends out the despicable Meowrice, the scoundrel who is to bring a lovely kitty (Mewsette) into her fold. And lest we forget the "Money-Cats" (the scraggly, silly, bumbling black alley cats who shake their cat-behinds on the rooftops to the tune of "The money-cat knows where the money-tree grows"!). This cartoon feature is like those famous potato chips that claim you cant eat just one. Once you see this film, you will *always* want to go back!
