Walt Disney Productions' The Aristocats (Mega Post & My 500th Post!)

Walt Disney Productions' animated film, "The Aristocats," was released in theaters on December 23, 1970.  Below, are some of the original theatrical posters for the film.

This one features Baloo, from "The Jungle Book."  Phil Harris had provided the voice for Baloo, and was now providing the voice for Thomas O'Malley, in "The Aristocats."  (Hey....Baloo wasn't brown in the The Jungle Book!  He was gray!)

These next two posters mention the upcoming opening of Walt Disney World, in October of '71.

The Winter 1970 issue of Disney News Magazine featured an ad for the film, on it's back cover:

And this article was included inside:

The photo in that article shows "Scat Cat" and a couple of his friends, standing on Disneyland's Frontierland boat dock.  This color photo from the Walt Disney Archives, appears to have been taken during that same photo shoot.

In the early to mid 1970s, these characters could often be found hanging out in Walt Disney World's Fantasyland:

 

The costumed characters also appeared in the 1970 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the 1971 Tournament of Roses Parade. 

Here's the Tournament of Roses Parade float.  You can only see one of the cats on the back end of the float.  Scatman Crothers (who provided the voice of Scat Cat) appeared with the characters, singing "Everybody Want's To Be A Cat."

The Aristocats characters were also featured in a segment of the traveling arena show, "Disney On Parade," in 1972:

This is the only time that I have ever seen character costumes for Duchess and O'Malley!  I wonder if they were ever used in the theme parks?

They even had costumes for the the two geese in the film, Abigail and Amelia Gabble.  I had to look those names up!

Scat Cat and his friends showed up again, in Disneyland's and Walt Disney World's "America On Parade."  This parade was a salute to America's bicentennial, and ran from the summer of 1975 through the summer of 1976.

"The Aristocats" was re-released just three short years after it's debut.  For it's 1973 re-release, it was playing with a re-release of Walt Disney's Song of the South.  I clipped this advertisement out of The Los Angeles Times, and have kept it since childhood.

The Aristocats was re-released in theaters only two more times.  This Los Angeles Times ad is for it's 1980 re-release.

And this theatrical poster is for the film's 1987 re-release.

The back of the May 1987 Disneyland entertainment guide, featured a monochrome version of the same poster.

The Aristocats was released on video tape for the first time (in the U.S.), in 1996:

And the film was first released on DVD, in 2000.  This "special edition" DVD was released in 2008, and included a deleted scene as a "bonus":

Next, we have some "Aristocats" merchandise.

This Little Golden Book was a birthday gift to my brother, and has a hand-written date of "December 1970" on the inside cover.  I have scanned the whole book, and I'm including it at the end of this post.

This Colorforms set was also my brother's.  (I have previously posted images of my Doctor Doolittle, Robin Hood, and Mickey Mouse Colorforms sets.)

The board:

The pieces:

A booklet was included, showing an example of how the pieces could be displayed:

 

As a child, I had a fairly large collection of comic books, which included some Aristocats-related titles.

O'Malley and The Alley Cats, Issue No. 1, from April 1971:

 

Issue No. 5, from 1972:

The Aristokittens and O'Malley the Alley Cat, Issue No. 7, from 1975:

Issue No. 8, from July 1975:

Issue No. 9, from October 1975:

Walt Disney Comics Digest was a monthly publication, about the size of Reader's Digest.  This issue is from February 1971 (even though it has "©1970" on the cover).

My brother and I shared this album, featuring songs from the film, and other Disney "cat songs."

I only recently discovered this advertisement, tucked inside the record sleeve!  I think this type of paper item was usually thrown out or lost over time.

This is the record from the offer, above.  It includes songs from the film, but also the story (with illustrations), narrated by Sterling Holloway.

A 45 rpm record was also available:

 

Here's something interesting.  It's a record album with songs from the Walt Disney films, "The Aristocats" and "Pinocchio," but it doesn't appear to have been released by one of the Disney record labels.  I wonder if that plush cat came from Disneyland?  And is that supposed to be Marie?  It looks more like Toulouse or Berlioz, but with white fur.

 

 

 

In the 1980s, Disneyland and Walt Disney World sold several series of collector's plates.  One series was a tribute to Mickey Mouse's short films.  Another represented Disney's earlier classic animated films.  And a third series featured "Disney Animals."  The Aristocats was included in the "animal" series.

 

 

 

Here are a few somewhat "newer" items:

 

McDonald's ran a "100 Years of Magic" promotion, in 2000.  It was supposed to celebrate the 100th birthday of Walt Disney (even though he was born in 1901).  For the promotion, they released 100 figures of various Disney characters.  Marie and O'Malley were included in the series.

 

 

 

In 2020, a picture disc was released, containing songs from the film.  It's fascinating to me, to see how "records" have made a comeback in recent years.

 

 

About 5 years ago, Hallmark came out with this "Marie" Christmas card.  The sentiment inside reads, "Wishing you a joyful Christmas....all wrapped up with a bow!"

 

 

Marie is a very popular character in the Tokyo Disney parks, and they sell a lot of merchandise with her image.  However, you can be pretty hard pressed to find any Aristocats-related merchandise, here in the U.S. parks.  Now having said that, I did come across this Marie magnet in Disneyland's Emporium, about 10 years ago.

 

 

It has "Disneyland Resort" printed on the magnetic backing, instead of "Disney Parks," so maybe that means they didn't sell this item at Walt Disney World.

 

 

Speaking of Tokyo Disneyland, one of their Fantasyland shops used to be called,  "The Aristocats."  It has since been renamed, "Kingdom Treasures," but the shop has always carried merchandise themed to Disney's animated films.  (Walt Disney World also had a shop with the same name, and in the same location within their Fantasyland.)

 

 

For the Halloween season, they used to place this "carved pumpkin" just outside the shop.

 

 

For Tokyo Disneyland's 2005 Halloween season, these "ghost" figures of Marie, Mickey, and Minnie, along with Goofy in a skeleton costume, were placed in the park's Plaza.  If these figures look familiar to you, it's because the following year, they were all sent (with the exception of the Marie figure) to Anaheim, where they have been used every year since then, along the tram route outside the parks.  The other Halloween figures that guests see along the tram route today, also came from Tokyo Disneyland.  Tokyo used them just that one year, because they create all new figures to display in their Plaza, every single year.  They do this for Halloween, and Christmas, as well as for other seasonal events.  It's too bad that Disneyland can't get Tokyo's previously used figures, every year.

 

Tokyo DL's World Bazaar (their version of Main Street) includes the "House of Greetings" stationary store.  The shop's front window featured this display, back in 2010.

 

 

                     

A costumed character of Marie can be found walking around the Tokyo Disney parks, as well as in their parades.  Here, she can be seen greeting guests in the American Waterfront section of Tokyo DisneySea.

                                       

And lastly, here is my brother's Little Golden Book from December of 1970, in it's entirety.  Enjoy!

 

If you've made it this far along in the post, thank you for reading!  And if you have been following my blog for any amount of time, thank you for that, as well!  This just so happens to be my 500th post!  It might not seem like all that large of a number in the world of blogging, but because I only post about once a month, it has just taken me this long to reach this minor milestone!  Thanks again, to all my regular followers, and to any "occasional" readers, too!