Deep Dive Disney: Wes Looks at Lady & The Tramp

Welcome back to Deep Dive Disney everyone. After Peter Pan last time, whatever I watched next had to be better. And well, it was, but It’s also not a movie I really have much to say about. This is the beginning of the era of Disney, going to the dogs as it were. Sometimes, they just got tired of grand epic fairy tales and just wanted to make chill movies about cute dogs. As such, we have Lady & The Tramp, a mostly harmless little story about a lovely lady dog from a well to do household and a mangy stray from the wrong side of the tracks who fall in love. A simple story for a relatively simple movie. I’m going to try and blast through this one quickly since… well, we have one of the big ones coming up next and this one is really nothing special

Main Characters:

Like our last outing, our film has two characters who can be considered the protagonist, and hey, this time around both their names are in the title. We’ll start with Lady since her name comes first. Lady is sweet and has a good heart but is clearly very naïve and doesn’t really understand how things work outside her owner’s ritzy looking neighborhood. She can seem a little stuck up as a result, but then again, that’s just because that’s all she knows. Still, she is clearly good hearted and cares about protecting Jim Dear and Darling’s baby. Tramp is a little more world weary and doesn’t exactly sugar coat things when he explains to Lady what her owners having a baby might mean. He’s never malicious or unkind, he’s just clearly been through some stuff wants to help. I do appreciate how, despite his clear dislike of what becomes of dogs when a baby enters the picture, he still agrees that protecting the baby is the right thing to do and even risks his own life and freedom to save the baby from the rat at the end. Ultimately, Tramp’s goal is to show lady that there’s more to a dog’s life than the pampered world she knows, and to her credit, Lady seems receptive to it, even picks up on Tramp con game pretty quick. They actually are kind of a cute couple. Good stuff.

Villain:

So, most would think that the villains of the piece are Si and Am, the Siamese Cats, and sure, they’re pretty memorable, though not necessarily for good reasons, they aren’t really the villains. There’s also The Rat at the end who’s fairly frightening. Though, if I’m being honest, the real villain here is Aunt Sarah. For whatever reason, she is unnecessarily mean to Lady, blames Lady for all her own pet’s mischief, muzzles someone else’s dog without their permission and every chance she gets calls Lady a “Wicked Animal.” Woman, I don’t know what your problem is, but that ain’t cool.

Side Characters:

This movie does an odd thing where nearly every dog in the movie save for the title characters are some kind of ethnic stereotype. It’s weird, but never ventures into outright racist territory, it saves that for the cats. Obviously, the two most noteworthy are Jaques, a Scottish Terrier with a French name for some reason despite being a Scottish stereotype through and through complete with everything but bagpipes to announce his presence, and Old Trusty, a southern redneck type who never shuts up about his grandpa, old reliable. They’re perfectly fine characters and I actually enjoyed Trusty’s arc about being a retired police dog who’d lost his sense of smell and regaining it and his confidence by the end of the film. I also found I quite enjoyed Tony and Joe, the two Italians who feed Tramp when he comes to the back of their restaurant. I was all set to call these two offensive Italian stereotypes but the more I watched them, the more their mannerisms reminded me of my elderly Sicilian immigrant barber, so maybe this is just how some Italians are. They seem like nice fellas, they’re clearly kind to animals and I happen to know that it takes mad skills to be able to play the accordion, so Joe and Tony are cool in my book.

Songs:

Obviously we need to talk about the Bella Notte sequence. It’s easily the most iconic moment in the film and it gives us the even more iconic spaghetti moment that has been referenced and parodied millions of times. Good stuff.

I actually rather liked the song sung by Peg, the canine version of Mae West. It’s basically a song about how much of a player the Tramp can be, something that upsets lady, but that doesn’t make it a bad song by any stretch.

And of course, we should probably address the Siamese Cat song in all its racist glory. You know, if the last film we’d covered were anything other than Peter Pan, I’d tear this uncomfortable travesty apart, but honestly, after “What Made the Red Man Red,” this is tasteful by comparison. Oh, don’t it twisted, it’s racist as all hell, but at least it’s brief and the characters don’t get a ton of screen time, so… I guess I can deal with it. Frankly, after Peter Pan, I can handle anything Disney can throw at me.

Memorable Scenes:

Not too much to talk about here, but I can honestly say, the scenes at the beginning where Lady is a puppy are Weapons Grade Adorable. I also rather enjoyed the fight between Tramp and The Rat, which was surprisingly intense considering this isn’t exactly an action-packed film. The scene with the beaver was also fun. I love how Tramp sells the muzzle to the beaver with the gusto of a seasoned used car salesman. It’s also the first time we see Lady catch on to how Tramp operates and actually starts having fun with it.

Story:

The story seems to be that of class. Lady, the dog from a wealthy upper-class family and Tramp, a dog who lives by the trainyard, could not be more different, and yet, they learn from each other and learn to love one another. Though, I’m honestly not sure why Tramp agrees to live with Lady at the end. He seemed to have no interest in that life, but I guess he got tired of always dodging the dog catcher. It’s a simple story, even by Disney standards.

The Dark Disney Factor:

Surprisingly, there’s a lot to talk about here. First off there’s the aforementioned Rat, who I never found frightening, but I can see how small children would find him pretty creepy. He also almost kills a baby which in and of itself is pretty dark. There’s also the climax where Trusty runs after the Dogcatcher’s wagon and nearly gets killed by it. It’s surprisingly unsettling to see him lying there dying. Apparently, in the original draft of the film, Trusty was supposed to die but they nixed it and just gave him a broken leg. Still, the fact that they almost killed off a major character was pretty ballsy. Speaking of killing dogs, there’s one scene in the pound where one dog is lead away for “The Long Walk” which obviously means he’s being put down. You don’t see it happen, you don’t even see the actual dog, just the shadow, but the mental image of the grim fate that awaits that poor animal is very disturbing indeed.

Final Thoughts: Lady & The Tramp isn’t one of Disney’s better movies, but it’s mostly inoffensive. I can see a little kid really liking this one, and it was some lovable characters, especially if you’re a dog person. Next time, we tackle one of the Big Ones when we look at Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.