slymusic "The Aristo-Cat" is a wonderful Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and starring the earliest versions of the neurotic Claude Cat (named Pussy in this film) and the mischievous mice Hubie & Bertie.My favorite scenes: Pussy's squeaky, mousy voice is absolutely hilarious as he quietly calls for the departed butler Meadows; as his voice increases in intensity while repeating the butler's name, watch how the well-constructed backgrounds indicate Pussy's claustrophobic anguish! I also like how Pussy timidly asks the mice for a little bite of cheese and how he measures his orifice against that of a bulldog.Of course, let us not forget Carl Stalling's fine music score for "The Aristo-Cat". As the setting for this film is the interior of an elegant mansion, Stalling uses heavy doses of classical music, particularly the works of Mozart and Chopin.

Lee Eisenberg As always, Chuck Jones's wise-guy mice Hubie and Bertie (making their debut) play tricks on an unsuspecting feline. While "The Aristo-Cat" has a fairly routine plot, the background catches my attention. The slanted angles look more like what I would expect in a Salvador Dali painting (Bob Clampett used Daliesque angles to a great degree in "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery"). But it's not just the angles. The colors - resembling those in Jones's "The Case of the Missing Hare" - obscure all perspective. This has to be the least pleasant place for a cat to attack a dog, believing the dog to be a mouse! So this is far from a masterpiece, but the background should draw interest. Even more than the fact that it's Hubie and Bertie's debut. Jones branched out their personalities in "Mouse Wreckers", "Cheese Chasers" and "The Hypo-Chondri-Cat".

Akbar Shahzad (rapt0r_claw-1) "The Aristo-Cat" is the first in an extensive, Oscar-nominated series by Chuck Jones. The series is one of my favorites, but this short is one of the lesser ones. The only reason I say it is a landmark is because it marks the debut of three great characters. The premise is good, but the following action is run-of-the-mill funny stuff.A butler is left to look after a pampered cat (Claude) who continuously humiliates him. After having had enough of it, the butler quits. Claude is petrified, but finds a book that informs him that cats eat mice, the only problem being that he doesn't know what a mouse looks like; therefore, he is perfect prey for a couple of wise-ass mice (Hubie & Bertie), who deceive him into thinking the large bulldog outside (why is it always a bulldog?) is a source of food. You can guess what follows, and if you can't, I don't think you can read either.It's also interesting to note that in post-1948 shorts, Hubie and Bertie swapped coat colors. Worth a watch any time, but the later cartoons were much improved.

msa-3 THE ARISTOCATS is a brilliant film by Chuck Jones which utilizes ingenious backgrounds and dynamic cutting, via John McGrew's extraordinary layout, to create a new kind of animation. The Jones and McGrew partnership in design extablished a new rhythm of stylization that certainly led to the modern UPA work.