Well, even though Walt Disney has left us on our journey, his legacy still remains! Disney’s 20th animated feature, although not worked on by Disney, was given the approval to go ahead before Walt had passed away! “The Aristocats”, released in 1970, was the beginning of the post-Disney years and what I term the “Iffy Era”. I don’t really consider the ’70s and ’80s as a “Dark Age”; but they definitely weren’t lucrative years!
“The Aristocats” in particular, is one of the films that many Disney fans rank near the bottom of their list and consider it somewhat boring. What do I say? I actually like this film very much!
The film is the story of a family of aristocratic cats to whom their rich lady owner wills all her money. Hearing that the cats inherit before him, the butler decides to do away with the cats once and for all!
Well no, he actually just kidnaps and abandons them by a road! He’s not extremely evil per se.
After discovering that they’re lost, the cats meet up with an alley cat, and together try to find their way home!
Yeah, I honestly can see why many people consider this film to be one of Disney’s most boring ones; but what can I say? I still like it very much!
ENOUGH OF THAT!
Now in a movie about cats, one can safely assume that the animals are extremely memorable. Besides the main cast, the movie also features other cats,
dogs,
“Think we’re in the wrong movie, Napoleon?”
geese,
a horse,
and a mouse dressed like Sherlock Holmes!
Umm…no it’s actually a mouse dressed like Sherlock Holmes with the voice of Winnie the Pooh!
So I knew that today’s forgotten/minor character would be found amongst the human characters. The two main characters were definitely too memorable: the rich cat lady, Madame Adelaide Bonfamille
and the menacing butler, Edgar!
Besides them, there’s an angry French milkman making a cameo,
an angry French chef making a cameo,
a drunk…umm…almost drunk…umm…”thinks he’s drunk” French man making a cameo,
and two delivery men making an extremely quick cameo with one of them ignoring the camera completely,
None of them had enough material to write about, so I chose the last human character available, Georges Hautecourt!
Now I know that he isn’t a minor character, and definitely not forgotten by the fans of this film! But if you go up to the random guy in the street and mention the name Georges Hautecourt to him, he’ll probably think of someone like this!
And if you show the same guy this picture,
he’ll probably think it’s Geri, the toy repairman from “Toy Story 2”.
So that level of obscurity is enough for me to give Georges the title today! Now who is Georges? He’s actually Madame Adelaide’s friend and lawyer who writes up the will for her. His entrance in the movie causes some “hilarity” since he’s over 88 years old and is oblivious to his age! Then again, he is voiced by Charles Lane!
But even though he’s old, he’s not extremely senile, because even he is shocked at Madame Adelaide’s instructions to leave everything to her cats! But being a good friend and lawyer, he does what he has been called to do.
He really serves no purpose otherwise; but if there was no will, there’d be no motive for Edgar, hence no lost cats, hence no adventures, hence no movie! And only Mr. Hautecourt’s official signature can make the document legal (I’m guessing, I know nothing about law and wills), so without the presence of Georges Hautecourt in this movie, there would have been no movie!
And that’s why I award him with the title of forgotten/minor character of “The Aristocats”!
The Animation Commendation 
I loved the Aristocats!! One of my childhood favorites. I also love cats. Lol. I really liked the story and all of the characters!! 🙂
I quite enjoy it myself! Too bad, the majority of people doesn’t!
I wanted to like this film, I really did but I could not no matter how hard I tried. It is just subpar as you said.
I admit it’s subpar, but I still really really like it.
Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay! 😀
Words to live by as Hautecourt himself has taught us!
Yeah, that never ceases to make me giggle!
You are so right about Edgar, I loved your double face palm and the ‘Menacing?!’ captions…Possibly worst villain ever? Mind you, I am relativity early in to my project so I could be wrong…I loved this as a kid and despite myself I still enjoy it: But this is the film that has fallen the furthest so far in my favour from an adult perspective…Still I could watch kittens painting and playing piano every single day and not get bored…Fa la so it goes…You must know your scales and your arpeggios! x
I have a special attachment to this film. Yes, I know that it’s definitely one of Disney’s weaker ones, but I can’t help but enjoy it every time I see it.
And I sing ‘O’Malley the Alley Cat’ all the time!