Lady and the Tramp
Encyclopedia
Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 American animated film produced by Walt Disney
and released to theaters on June 22, 1955, by Buena Vista Distribution. The fifteenth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, it was the first animated feature filmed in the CinemaScope
widescreen
film process. The story centers on an anthropomorphic female American Cocker Spaniel
named Lady who lives with a refined, upper middle-class family, and a male anthropomorphic stray called the Tramp.
named Jock and a bloodhound
named Trusty. Meanwhile, across town by the railway, a schnauzer
-mix stray mutt, referred to as The Tramp, lives life from moment to moment, be it begging for scraps from the local Italian restaurant or protecting his fellow strays Peg (a Lhasa Apso
) and Bull (an English bulldog
) from the local dog catcher.
As she blossoms into a one-year-old, Jim Dear and Darling become increasingly impatient with Lady, hurting her feelings. Jock and Trusty visit her, and determine that the change in behavior is due to Darling's pregnancy. While Jock and Trusty try to explain what a baby is, Tramp offers his own opinions to the dogs. Jock and Trusty disapprove of the stray, ordering order him out of the yard; as Tramp leaves, he reminds Lady that "when the baby moves in, the dog moves out".
Eventually, the baby arrives and Jim Dear and Darling introduce Lady to the infant, to whom Lady grew a fond to. Soon after, the two decide to go on a trip together, leaving their Aunt Sarah to look after the baby and the house. Aunt Sarah, however, dislikes dogs, refusing to let Lady near the baby. When Lady clashes with Aunt Sarah's two trouble-making Siamese cats, Si and Am, she takes Lady to a pet shop to get a muzzle. Lady flees, but is pursued by some street dogs. After the Tramp rescues Lady, the two visit a zoo, where Tramp tricks a beaver
into removing the muzzle. Tramp later shows Lady how he lives "footloose and collar-free", eventually leading into a candlelit Italian dinner.
As Tramp escorts Lady back home, Lady is caught by the dog-catcher. At the pound, the other dogs admire Lady's license and reveal Tramp's past girlfriends and how he is unlikely to ever settle down. Eventually, Lady is collected by Aunt Sarah, and is chained to the backyard doghouse. Jock and Trusty visit to comfort her, but when Tramp arrives and tries to apologize, thunder starts to rumble as Lady angrily confronts him about his past girlfriends and failure to rescue her, after which Tramp leaves.
Moments later, as it starts to rain, Lady sees a rat
trying to sneak into the yard. While the rat is afraid of Lady, it is able to evade her and enter the house. Despite Lady's unsuccessful attempt at warning Aunt Sarah, Tramp hears her and runs back to help. Tramp enters the house and confronts the rat in the nursery. Meanwhile, Lady breaks free and races to the nursery to find the rat on the baby's crib. Tramp kills the rat, but knocks over the crib in the process, awakening the infant. When Aunt Sarah comes to the baby's aid, she sees the two dogs and thinks they are responsible
. She pushes Tramp into a closet and Lady into the basement, then calls the pound to take the Tramp away.
Jim Dear and Darling return as the dogcatcher departs. They release Lady, who leads them and Aunt Sarah to the rat, clearing Tramp. Having overheard everything, Jock and Trusty chase after the dogcatcher's wagon. Jock is convinced Trusty has long since lost his sense of smell, but the bloodhound is able to find the wagon. They bark at the horses, who rear up and topple the wagon onto a utility pole
. Jim Dear arrives by car with Lady, and Lady is happily reunited with Tramp. However, Trusty is injured in the struggle and Jock howls in sorrow.
A year later, on Christmas Day, Tramp, now a part of Lady's family, has his own collar and license. Aunt Sarah has also made amends with Lady by sending her a box of dog biscuits as an apology for her mistreatment. Lady and Tramp raise four puppies together: three resemble Lady (Annette, Danielle, and Collette) and the other resembles Tramp (Scamp). Jock comes to see the family along with Trusty, who has a broken leg.
s for Christmas to make amends for having so badly misunderstood them.
. They were originally named Nip and Tuck. In Ward Greene's novelization, they tearfully express remorse over causing the Tramp's impending execution by hiding the rat's body as a joke, and then try to make amends, while in the film they do not partake of the climactic scene.
, Darling and Jim's faces are rarely shown. The background artists made models of the interiors of Jim Dear and Darling's house, and shot photos and film at a low perspective as reference to maintain a dog's view.
The film's opening sequence, in which Darling unwraps a hat box on Christmas morning and finds Lady inside, is based upon an actual incident in Walt Disney's life when he presented his wife Lily with a Chow
puppy as a gift in a hat box.
, down to the speech pattern: a whistling noise when he makes the "S" sound. On the Lady and the Tramp Platinum Edition DVD he demonstrates how the effect was done, and that a whistle was eventually used because it was difficult to maintain the effect.
The Beaver's voice was created by Stan Freberg
, who has an extensive background in commercial and comedy recordings. He was known for his works with Warner Bros. Cartoons
, but at the time that studio was briefly closed due to studio owner Jack Warner
's belief that 3-D film
would trump animation. The same closure led to animator Chuck Jones
doing work on Sleeping Beauty
.
approached Walt Disney with some sketches he had made of his Springer Spaniel
named Lady and some of her regular antics. Disney enjoyed the sketches and told Grant to put them together as a storyboard. When Grant returned with his boards, Disney was not pleased and the story was shelved.
In 1943 Walt read in Cosmopolitan
a short story written by Ward Greene, called "Happy Dan, The Whistling Dog". He was interested in the story and bought the rights to it.
By 1949 Grant had left the studio, but Disney story men were continually pulling Grant's original drawings and story off the shelf to retool. Finally a solid story began taking shape in 1953, based on Grant's storyboards and Greene's short story. Greene later wrote a novelization
of the film that was released two years before the film itself, at Walt Disney
's insistence, so that audiences would be familiar with the story. Grant didn't receive credit for any story work in the film, an issue that animation director Eric Goldberg
hoped to rectify in the Lady and the Tramp Platinum Edition's behind-the-scenes vignette that explained Grant's role.
. This new innovation presented some additional problems for the animators: the expansion of canvas space created more realism, but gave fewer closeups. It also made it difficult for a single character to dominate the screen, so that groups had to be spread out to keep the screen from appearing sparse. Longer takes become necessary since constant jump-cutting would seem too busy or annoying. Layout artists essentially had to reinvent their technique. Animators had to remember that they could move their characters across a background instead of the background passing behind them. Yet the animators overcame these obstacles during the action scenes, such as the Tramp killing the rat.
More problems arose as the premiere date got closer. Although CinemaScope was becoming a growing interest to movie-goers, not all theaters had the capabilities at the time. Upon learning this, Walt issued two versions of the film to be created: one in widescreen, and another in the Academy ratio
. This involved gathering the layout artists to restructure key scenes when characters were on the outside area of the screen.
-type canine named Hubert. Hubert was later replaced by Jock and Trusty. A scene created but then deleted was one in which, while Lady fears of the arrival of the baby, she has a "Parade of the Shoes" nightmare (similar to Dumbo
s "Pink Elephants on Parade" nightmare) where a baby bootie splits in two, then four, and continues to multiply. The dream shoes then fade into real shoes, their wearer exclaiming that the baby has been born.
Another cut scene was after Trusty says "Everybody knows, a dog's best friend is his human". This leads to Tramp describing a world where the roles of both dogs and humans are switched; the dogs are the masters and vice-versa.
Prior to being just "The Tramp," the character went through a number of suggested names including Homer, Rags, and Bozo
. It was thought in the 1950s that the term "tramp" would not be acceptable, but since Walt Disney approved of the choice, it was considered safe under his acceptance. On early story boards shown on the Backstage Disney DVD had listed description "a tramp dog" with "Homer" or one of the mentioned prior names.
.
. An episode of Disneyland called A Story of Dogs aired before the film’s release. The film was also reissued to theaters in 1962, 1971, 1980, and 1986.
in 1987 (this was in Disney's The Classics
video series) and 1998 (this was in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection
video series). A Disney Limited Issue series DVD was released on November 23, 1999. It was remastered and restored for DVD on February 28, 2006, as the seventh installment of Platinum Edition series. One million copies of the Platinum Edition were sold on February 28, 2006. The Platinum Edition DVD went on moratorium on January 31, 2007, along with the 2006 DVD reissue of Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure
. A Blu-ray Diamond Edition of the film will be released on February 7, 2012.
Lady and the Tramp was named number 95 out of the "100 Greatest Love Stories of All Time" by the American Film Institute
in their 100 Years...100 Passions special, as one of only two animated films to appear on the list, along with Disney's Beauty and the Beast
(which ranked 34th).
In 2010, Rhapsody (online music service)
called its accompanying soundtrack one of the all-time great Disney & Pixar Soundtracks.
In June 2011, TIME
named it one of "The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films".
American Film Institute
Lists
wrote the songs with Sonny Burke
, and assisted with the score as well. In the film she sings: "He's a Tramp", "La La Lu", "The Siamese Cat Song", and "What Is a Baby?". She helped promote the film on the Disney TV series, explaining her work with the score and singing a few of the film's numbers. These appearances are available as part of the Lady and the Tramp Platinum Edition DVD set.
On 16 November 1988 Peggy Lee sued the Walt Disney Company for breach of contract claiming that she still retained rights to the transcripts, including those to videotape. She was awarded $2.3m in 1991 after a protracted legal battle with the studio.
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
and released to theaters on June 22, 1955, by Buena Vista Distribution. The fifteenth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, it was the first animated feature filmed in the CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
film process. The story centers on an anthropomorphic female American Cocker Spaniel
American Cocker Spaniel
The American Cocker Spaniel is a breed of sporting dog. It is a spaniel type dog that is closely related to the English Cocker Spaniel; the two breeds diverged during the 20th century due to differing breed standards in America and the UK...
named Lady who lives with a refined, upper middle-class family, and a male anthropomorphic stray called the Tramp.
Plot
On Christmas morning in 1909, Jim Dear gives his wife Darling a cocker spaniel puppy and call her Lady. Lady enjoys a happy life with the couple and with a pair of dogs from the neighborhood, a Scottish TerrierScottish Terrier
The Scottish Terrier , popularly called the Scottie, is a breed of dog. Initially one of the highland breeds of Terrier that were grouped under the name of Skye Terrier, it is one of five breeds of terrier that originated in Scotland, the other four being the modern Skye, Cairn, Dandie Dinmont, and...
named Jock and a bloodhound
Bloodhound
The Bloodhound is a large breed of dog which, while originally bred to hunt deer and wild boar, was later bred specifically to track human beings. It is a scenthound, tracking by smell, as opposed to a sighthound, which tracks using vision. It is famed for its ability to discern human odors even...
named Trusty. Meanwhile, across town by the railway, a schnauzer
Schnauzer
A Schnauzer is a German dog type that originated in Germany in the 15th and 16th centuries. The term comes from Schnauze , the German word for "snout", because of the dog's distinctively bearded snout. The word Schnauzer also means moustache in German; some authorities, such as Encyclopædia...
-mix stray mutt, referred to as The Tramp, lives life from moment to moment, be it begging for scraps from the local Italian restaurant or protecting his fellow strays Peg (a Lhasa Apso
Lhasa Apso
The Lhasa Apso is a non-sporting dog breed originating in Tibet. It was bred as an interior sentinel in the Buddhist monasteries, who alerted the monks to any intruders who entered...
) and Bull (an English bulldog
Bulldog
Bulldog is the name for a breed of dog commonly referred to as the English Bulldog. Other Bulldog breeds include the American Bulldog, Olde English Bulldogge and the French Bulldog. The Bulldog is a muscular heavy dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose...
) from the local dog catcher.
As she blossoms into a one-year-old, Jim Dear and Darling become increasingly impatient with Lady, hurting her feelings. Jock and Trusty visit her, and determine that the change in behavior is due to Darling's pregnancy. While Jock and Trusty try to explain what a baby is, Tramp offers his own opinions to the dogs. Jock and Trusty disapprove of the stray, ordering order him out of the yard; as Tramp leaves, he reminds Lady that "when the baby moves in, the dog moves out".
Eventually, the baby arrives and Jim Dear and Darling introduce Lady to the infant, to whom Lady grew a fond to. Soon after, the two decide to go on a trip together, leaving their Aunt Sarah to look after the baby and the house. Aunt Sarah, however, dislikes dogs, refusing to let Lady near the baby. When Lady clashes with Aunt Sarah's two trouble-making Siamese cats, Si and Am, she takes Lady to a pet shop to get a muzzle. Lady flees, but is pursued by some street dogs. After the Tramp rescues Lady, the two visit a zoo, where Tramp tricks a beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
into removing the muzzle. Tramp later shows Lady how he lives "footloose and collar-free", eventually leading into a candlelit Italian dinner.
Moments later, as it starts to rain, Lady sees a rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
trying to sneak into the yard. While the rat is afraid of Lady, it is able to evade her and enter the house. Despite Lady's unsuccessful attempt at warning Aunt Sarah, Tramp hears her and runs back to help. Tramp enters the house and confronts the rat in the nursery. Meanwhile, Lady breaks free and races to the nursery to find the rat on the baby's crib. Tramp kills the rat, but knocks over the crib in the process, awakening the infant. When Aunt Sarah comes to the baby's aid, she sees the two dogs and thinks they are responsible
The Brahmin and the Mongoose
The Brahmin and the Mongoose is a folktale from India, and "one of the world's most travelled tales". It describes the rash killing of a loyal animal, and thus warns against hasty action. The story underlies certain legends in the West, such as that of Llewellyn and his dog Gelert in Wales, or...
. She pushes Tramp into a closet and Lady into the basement, then calls the pound to take the Tramp away.
Jim Dear and Darling return as the dogcatcher departs. They release Lady, who leads them and Aunt Sarah to the rat, clearing Tramp. Having overheard everything, Jock and Trusty chase after the dogcatcher's wagon. Jock is convinced Trusty has long since lost his sense of smell, but the bloodhound is able to find the wagon. They bark at the horses, who rear up and topple the wagon onto a utility pole
Utility pole
A utility pole is a pole used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as cable, fibre optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights. It can be referred to as a telephone pole, power pole, hydro pole, telegraph pole, or telegraph post,...
. Jim Dear arrives by car with Lady, and Lady is happily reunited with Tramp. However, Trusty is injured in the struggle and Jock howls in sorrow.
A year later, on Christmas Day, Tramp, now a part of Lady's family, has his own collar and license. Aunt Sarah has also made amends with Lady by sending her a box of dog biscuits as an apology for her mistreatment. Lady and Tramp raise four puppies together: three resemble Lady (Annette, Danielle, and Collette) and the other resembles Tramp (Scamp). Jock comes to see the family along with Trusty, who has a broken leg.
Cast
- Barbara LuddyBarbara LuddyBarbara Luddy was an American actress from Great Falls, Montana. Her film career began with silent pictures in the 1920s, during which time she was also a prolific radio performer....
as Lady - Larry Roberts as The Tramp
- Bill ThompsonBill Thompson (voice actor)Bill Thompson was an American radio actor and voice actor whose career stretched from the 1930s until his death.-Early career:...
as Jock, Joe, Bulldog, Dachsie, Policeman - Bill Baucom as Trusty
- George Givot as Tony
- Peggy LeePeggy LeePeggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
as Darling, Si, Am, Peg - Verna FeltonVerna FeltonVerna Felton was an American character actress who was best-known for providing many female voices in numerous Disney animated films, as well as voicing Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law Pearl Slaghoople for Hanna-Barbera...
as Aunt Sarah - Stan FrebergStan FrebergStanley Victor "Stan" Freberg is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director whose career began in 1944...
as the beaver - Alan ReedAlan ReedAlan Reed was an American actor and voice actor, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on The Flintstones and various spinoff series...
as Boris - Thurl RavenscroftThurl RavenscroftThurl Arthur Ravenscroft was an American voice actor and singer best known as the deep voice behind Tony the Tiger's "They're grrreat!" in Frosted Flakes television commercials for more than five decades. Ravenscroft was also known, however uncredited, as the vocalist for the song "You're a Mean...
as Al the alligator - Dallas McKennonDallas McKennonDallas Raymond McKennon , sometimes credited as Dal McKennon, was an American actor, with extensive work as a voice actor, in a career lasting over 50 years.-Career:...
as Toughy, Pedro, Professor, Hyena - Lee Millar as Jim Dear, Dogcatcher
- The MellomenThe MellomenThe Mellomen were a popular singing quartet active from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s. The group was founded by Thurl Ravenscroft and Max Smith in 1948. The Mellomen recorded under a variety of names, including Big John & The Buzzards, The Crackerjacks, The Lee Brothers, and The Ravenscroft...
(Thurl RavenscroftThurl RavenscroftThurl Arthur Ravenscroft was an American voice actor and singer best known as the deep voice behind Tony the Tiger's "They're grrreat!" in Frosted Flakes television commercials for more than five decades. Ravenscroft was also known, however uncredited, as the vocalist for the song "You're a Mean...
, Bill LeeBill Lee (singer)Bill Lee was an American playback singer who provided a voice or singing voice in many films, for actors in musicals and for many Disney characters. He was born in Johnson, Nebraska and died in 1980 in Los Angeles, California, of a brain tumor.Lee was part of a popular singing quartet known as The...
, Max SmithThe MellomenThe Mellomen were a popular singing quartet active from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s. The group was founded by Thurl Ravenscroft and Max Smith in 1948. The Mellomen recorded under a variety of names, including Big John & The Buzzards, The Crackerjacks, The Lee Brothers, and The Ravenscroft...
, Bob HamlinThe MellomenThe Mellomen were a popular singing quartet active from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s. The group was founded by Thurl Ravenscroft and Max Smith in 1948. The Mellomen recorded under a variety of names, including Big John & The Buzzards, The Crackerjacks, The Lee Brothers, and The Ravenscroft...
and Bob StevensThe MellomenThe Mellomen were a popular singing quartet active from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s. The group was founded by Thurl Ravenscroft and Max Smith in 1948. The Mellomen recorded under a variety of names, including Big John & The Buzzards, The Crackerjacks, The Lee Brothers, and The Ravenscroft...
) as Dog Chorus
The Tramp
In early script versions, the Tramp was first called Homer, then Rags and Bozo. However in the finished film, the Tramp never calls himself a proper name, although most of the film's canine cast refer to him as "the Tramp." The Tramp has other names that are given to him by the families he weekly visits for food, such as Mike and Fritzi. However, he doesn't belong to a single family, so his name is never confirmed, although most comics and indeed the film's own sequel assume that he is also named Tramp by Jim Dear and Darling. He is most likely a Schnauzer-mix.Aunt Sarah
The character that eventually became Aunt Sarah was softened for the movie, in comparison with earlier treatments. In the film, she is a well-meaning busybody aunt (revealed to be the sister of Darling's mother in the Greene novelization) who adores her cats. Earlier drafts had Aunt Sarah appear more as a stereotypical meddling and overbearing mother-in-law. Her singing ability is apparently non-existent. While she is antagonistic towards Lady and Tramp at first, she sends them a box of dog biscuitDog biscuit
A dog biscuit is a hard biscuit-based dietary supplement for dogs or other canine, similar to human snack food.Dog biscuits tend to be hard and dry. Dog biscuits may be sold in a flat bone-shape...
s for Christmas to make amends for having so badly misunderstood them.
Si & Am
Earlier versions of the storyline, drafted in 1943 during the war, had the two cats appear as a sinister pair, suggesting the yellow perilYellow Peril
Yellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...
. They were originally named Nip and Tuck. In Ward Greene's novelization, they tearfully express remorse over causing the Tramp's impending execution by hiding the rat's body as a joke, and then try to make amends, while in the film they do not partake of the climactic scene.
Jim Dear and Darling
In pre-production, Jim Dear was known as Jim Brown, and Darling was named Elizabeth. These were dropped to highlight Lady's point of view. In a very early version, published as a short story in a 1944 Disney children's anthology, Lady refers to them as "Mister" and "Missis". To maintain a dog's perspectivePerspective (visual)
Perspective, in context of vision and visual perception, is the way in which objects appear to the eye based on their spatial attributes; or their dimensions and the position of the eye relative to the objects...
, Darling and Jim's faces are rarely shown. The background artists made models of the interiors of Jim Dear and Darling's house, and shot photos and film at a low perspective as reference to maintain a dog's view.
The film's opening sequence, in which Darling unwraps a hat box on Christmas morning and finds Lady inside, is based upon an actual incident in Walt Disney's life when he presented his wife Lily with a Chow
Chow Chow
Chow chow is a breed of dog that was developed in China, where it is referred to as Songshi Quan , which literally means "puffy-lion dog".- Appearance :...
puppy as a gift in a hat box.
Beaver
The Beaver in this film is similar to the character of Gopher in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey TreeWinnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree is a 1966 animated featurette released by The Walt Disney Company. Based on the first two chapters of the book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne, it is the is the only Winnie the Pooh production released under the production of Walt Disney before his death later that...
, down to the speech pattern: a whistling noise when he makes the "S" sound. On the Lady and the Tramp Platinum Edition DVD he demonstrates how the effect was done, and that a whistle was eventually used because it was difficult to maintain the effect.
The Beaver's voice was created by Stan Freberg
Stan Freberg
Stanley Victor "Stan" Freberg is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director whose career began in 1944...
, who has an extensive background in commercial and comedy recordings. He was known for his works with Warner Bros. Cartoons
Warner Bros. Cartoons
Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was the in-house division of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, Warner Bros. Cartoons was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical...
, but at the time that studio was briefly closed due to studio owner Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
's belief that 3-D film
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
would trump animation. The same closure led to animator Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
doing work on Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...
.
Rat
The rat, a somewhat comical character in some early sketches, became a great deal more frightening, due to the need to raise dramatic tension.Story
In 1937 legendary Disney story man Joe GrantJoe Grant
Joe Grant was a Disney artist and writer.Born in New York City, New York, he worked for The Walt Disney Company as a character designer and story artist beginning in 1933 on the Mickey Mouse short, "Mickey's Gala Premiere". He was a Disney legend. He created the Queen in Snow White and the Seven...
approached Walt Disney with some sketches he had made of his Springer Spaniel
Springer Spaniel
Springer Spaniel refers to two different breeds of dogs, both of which are commonly called simply Springer Spaniel:*English Springer Spaniel*Welsh Springer Spaniel...
named Lady and some of her regular antics. Disney enjoyed the sketches and told Grant to put them together as a storyboard. When Grant returned with his boards, Disney was not pleased and the story was shelved.
In 1943 Walt read in Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
a short story written by Ward Greene, called "Happy Dan, The Whistling Dog". He was interested in the story and bought the rights to it.
By 1949 Grant had left the studio, but Disney story men were continually pulling Grant's original drawings and story off the shelf to retool. Finally a solid story began taking shape in 1953, based on Grant's storyboards and Greene's short story. Greene later wrote a novelization
Novelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
of the film that was released two years before the film itself, at Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's insistence, so that audiences would be familiar with the story. Grant didn't receive credit for any story work in the film, an issue that animation director Eric Goldberg
Eric Goldberg (film director)
Eric Goldberg is an American animator and film director. He is best known for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He's also well known as the creator of Disney character Genie in Aladdin...
hoped to rectify in the Lady and the Tramp Platinum Edition's behind-the-scenes vignette that explained Grant's role.
CinemaScope
This was the first animated feature filmed in CinemaScopeCinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
. This new innovation presented some additional problems for the animators: the expansion of canvas space created more realism, but gave fewer closeups. It also made it difficult for a single character to dominate the screen, so that groups had to be spread out to keep the screen from appearing sparse. Longer takes become necessary since constant jump-cutting would seem too busy or annoying. Layout artists essentially had to reinvent their technique. Animators had to remember that they could move their characters across a background instead of the background passing behind them. Yet the animators overcame these obstacles during the action scenes, such as the Tramp killing the rat.
More problems arose as the premiere date got closer. Although CinemaScope was becoming a growing interest to movie-goers, not all theaters had the capabilities at the time. Upon learning this, Walt issued two versions of the film to be created: one in widescreen, and another in the Academy ratio
Academy ratio
The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 is an aspect ratio of a frame of 35mm film when used with 4-perf pulldown. It was standardized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the standard film aspect ratio in 1932, although similar-sized ratios were used as early as 1928.The Academy ratio is...
. This involved gathering the layout artists to restructure key scenes when characters were on the outside area of the screen.
Script revisions
The finished film is slightly different from what was originally planned. Although both the original script and the final product shared most of the same elements, it would still be revised and revamped. Originally, Lady was to have only one next door neighbor, a Ralph BellamyRalph Bellamy
Ralph Bellamy was an American actor whose career spanned sixty-two years.-Early life:He was born Ralph Rexford Bellamy in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lilla Louise , a native of Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy. He ran away from home when he was fifteen and managed to get into a road show...
-type canine named Hubert. Hubert was later replaced by Jock and Trusty. A scene created but then deleted was one in which, while Lady fears of the arrival of the baby, she has a "Parade of the Shoes" nightmare (similar to Dumbo
Dumbo
Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures.The fourth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, Dumbo is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a...
s "Pink Elephants on Parade" nightmare) where a baby bootie splits in two, then four, and continues to multiply. The dream shoes then fade into real shoes, their wearer exclaiming that the baby has been born.
Another cut scene was after Trusty says "Everybody knows, a dog's best friend is his human". This leads to Tramp describing a world where the roles of both dogs and humans are switched; the dogs are the masters and vice-versa.
Prior to being just "The Tramp," the character went through a number of suggested names including Homer, Rags, and Bozo
Bozo
Bozo or bozo may refer to:*The Bozo people, a fishing people of the central Niger delta in Mali*The Bozo languages, languages of the Bozo people*Bozo the Clown, a clown character very popular in the United States...
. It was thought in the 1950s that the term "tramp" would not be acceptable, but since Walt Disney approved of the choice, it was considered safe under his acceptance. On early story boards shown on the Backstage Disney DVD had listed description "a tramp dog" with "Homer" or one of the mentioned prior names.
Spaghetti sequence
The spaghetti scene, wherein Lady and the Tramp eat opposite ends of a single strand of spaghetti until meeting in the middle, is often parodied, including in the film's own sequel, Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's AdventureLady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure
Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure is a 2001 direct-to-video animated film which was released on February 27, 2001 by The Walt Disney Company as a sequel to the 1955 feature film Lady and the Tramp. The story centers around Lady and Tramp's anthropomorphic puppy, Scamp, and his desire to...
.
Release
The movie was originally released in theaters on June 22, 1955. At the time, the film took in a higher figure than any other Disney animated feature since Snow WhiteSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
. An episode of Disneyland called A Story of Dogs aired before the film’s release. The film was also reissued to theaters in 1962, 1971, 1980, and 1986.
Home media
The movie was released on VHS and LaserdiscLaserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
in 1987 (this was in Disney's The Classics
Walt Disney Classics
Walt Disney Classics was a brand name used by Walt Disney Home Video on their American, Japanese, European and Australian home video releases of Disney animated features. The first title arrived in stores on December 6, 1984...
video series) and 1998 (this was in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection
Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection
The Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection was a line of VHS videos and Laserdiscs released by Walt Disney Home Video from 1994 to 1999. The Spanish counterparts began selling in 1995. Limited issue DVDs also have the same cover art....
video series). A Disney Limited Issue series DVD was released on November 23, 1999. It was remastered and restored for DVD on February 28, 2006, as the seventh installment of Platinum Edition series. One million copies of the Platinum Edition were sold on February 28, 2006. The Platinum Edition DVD went on moratorium on January 31, 2007, along with the 2006 DVD reissue of Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure
Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure
Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure is a 2001 direct-to-video animated film which was released on February 27, 2001 by The Walt Disney Company as a sequel to the 1955 feature film Lady and the Tramp. The story centers around Lady and Tramp's anthropomorphic puppy, Scamp, and his desire to...
. A Blu-ray Diamond Edition of the film will be released on February 7, 2012.
Reception
Despite being an enormous success at the box office, the film was initially panned by many critics: one indicated that the dogs had "the dimensions of hippos," another that "the artists' work is below par". However the film has since come to be regarded as a classic.Lady and the Tramp was named number 95 out of the "100 Greatest Love Stories of All Time" by the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
in their 100 Years...100 Passions special, as one of only two animated films to appear on the list, along with Disney's Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
(which ranked 34th).
In 2010, Rhapsody (online music service)
Rhapsody (online music service)
Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...
called its accompanying soundtrack one of the all-time great Disney & Pixar Soundtracks.
In June 2011, TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
named it one of "The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films".
Awards
| Year | Ceremony | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | BAFTA Awards 9th British Academy Film Awards The 9th British Film Awards, given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 1956, honoured the best films of 1955.-Best Film: Richard III *Bad Day at Black Rock*Carmen Jones*The Colditz Story*The Dam Busters... |
Best Animated Film | |
| David di Donatello Awards David di Donatello David di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The... |
Best Foreign Producer (Walt Disney) |
||
| 2006 | Satellite Awards | Best Youth DVD | |
American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - #95
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- He's a Tramp - Nominated
- AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals - Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
- Nominated Animated Film
Soundtrack
(songs and musical cues as listed on CD)Peggy Lee
Recording artist Peggy LeePeggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
wrote the songs with Sonny Burke
Sonny Burke
Sonny Burke was a big band leader. In 1937, he graduated from Duke University where he had formed and led the jazz big band known as the Duke Ambassadors....
, and assisted with the score as well. In the film she sings: "He's a Tramp", "La La Lu", "The Siamese Cat Song", and "What Is a Baby?". She helped promote the film on the Disney TV series, explaining her work with the score and singing a few of the film's numbers. These appearances are available as part of the Lady and the Tramp Platinum Edition DVD set.
On 16 November 1988 Peggy Lee sued the Walt Disney Company for breach of contract claiming that she still retained rights to the transcripts, including those to videotape. She was awarded $2.3m in 1991 after a protracted legal battle with the studio.
External links
- Lady and the Tramp at Disney's Archives