Animation Station: What Makes Lady and the Tramp Special

Didn’t I just say I regretted that most posts in my Animation Station feature were about Disney stuff when there are so many other animation studios out there? Yes, I did. Yet here I am doing one about Lady and the Tramp (1955), not only an animated Disney movie but quite a mainstream classic. I usually prefer to write about more obscure animated movies even when they’re from famous studios like Disney or Dreamworks. It’s not that I think those obscure movies are always better than famous ones. There are plenty of famous Disney movies I love. It’s just that I typically feel that critics or other bloggers have already written about them better than I could. What is it about this class-crossing canine romance that inspired me to devote an entire blog post to it?

I’ll get to that in a bit. First, I’ll describe some of its more obvious qualities.

Lady and the Tramp isn’t the most consistently funny Disney movie. Nor is it the most exciting or the most artistically ambitious.^[1]There’s an argument to be made it’s the most romantic but I’ll get there eventually. And, honestly, the fact that it’s not any of those things is part of its appeal. This is the Disney animated movie that’s best if you want something relaxing and pleasant to watch as you curl up on the couch with a cup of hot cider or hot chocolate and preferably a Christmas tree in the room. The voice acting is all great. The songs by Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee are all great. The postcard-like backgrounds are all lovely.

The animation of the animal characters is a great blend of realistically observed animal behavior and human emotion. I also love the way the camera typically stays close to the ground so that we barely see the human characters’ faces, reflecting how this is a story from the point of view of dogs, and I enjoy the movie’s worldbuilding, the way it creates a culture for dogs-or rather two cultures: the culture of pet dogs who believe their duty is to their human owners and that of the strays for whom humans are enemies or beings to be exploited.^[2]Babe (1995), another great talking-animals-movie does something similar.

Lady and the Tramp is one of the very few Disney classics that has gained another dimension for me with adult knowledge of sex.^[3]I mean, it has the word, tramp, right there in the title. Note: The following paragraph (and possibly the one after that) might ruin the movie for some. You might want to skip to the sentence that begins with “Let’s move on…” As a kid, when I saw Lady (voiced by Barbara Luddy who would go on to voice other iconic Disney characters) being chased by some vicious strays, far bigger than her, I vaguely assumed they wanted to eat her or something. Having observed animals in heat since, my mind goes to other possibilities. And, as a kid, my fears for her were calmed once the Tramp (Larry Roberts)^[4]This movie is one of his two IMDB credits, not counting an appearance on a TV talent contest, though apparently, he had a good career on the stage. That is something of a shame since his vocal … Continue reading fought off her attackers. As an adult, there was a brief moment of lingering tension afterwards as I wondered if this was a to-the-victor-belong-the-spoils situation.

This is probably the only Disney animated movie to have a song (He’s a Tramp) celebrating a character’s promiscuity. And certainly, the scene of Lady’s pet friends, Jock (Bill Thompson) and Trusty (Bill Baucom), offering to let her move in with either of them after she’s put in the doghouse is meant to evoke the male friends of a woman who has gotten pregnant out of wedlock offering to marry her to save her reputation.

Let’s move on from sex to gender. Normally, I wouldn’t make that a focus, not because the topic is uninteresting but because one of my literature professors in college seemed to want to teach literature mainly as an excuse for talking about gender and this rather soured me on it. But I find it interesting to contrast this movie with two other opposites-attract love stories from Disney animated films, both from the 90s. In Beauty and the Beast (1991), the male romantic lead is initially presented as dangerously violent, angry and, well, bestial. The role of Belle, the female lead, is to tame him. Her success in this is not just signified by him becoming kinder, gentler and more self-controlled but by his wearing more clothing, using silverware (or at least attempting to do so) and engaging in such civilized pastimes as reading and ballroom dancing. In fact, the movie’s final image is of Belle and the Beast, now human, dancing while in formal wear, a very civilized image. In Tarzan (1999), civilization is again associated with femininity and uncivilization with masculinity. But in that film, uncivilization is also associated with joy, strength and freedom. The role of the male lead is to free the leading lady from the stuffy confines of civilization (and clothing.) Like Belle with the Beast, Jane is initially frightened by Tarzan’s wildness but, in her case, she’s the one who needs to change, not him.^[5]At the climax of both movies, the male lead has a chance to kill the male villain but he declines, reflecting his character development. In Beauty and the Beast, however, this demonstrates that the … Continue reading The movie toys with the idea of Tarzan rejoining the human world for Jane’s sake but in the end, the opposite happens. The ending sees them swinging together through the branches of the trees.^[6]I confess I’m oversimplifying both movies a bit to make my point. The Beast’s fearsomeness comes in handy for Belle when he rescues her from wild animals halfway through the film, a plot … Continue reading

Lady and the Tramp has the outline of a Beauty and the Beast plot. In the end, Tramp, who previously boasted that he had many families without any of them having him, is adopted by Lady’s owners (Lee Millar and aforementioned songwriter Peggy Lee) and acquires a collar. Monogamy is affirmed over promiscuity. But on the other hand, the climax is about Lady’s upper crust friends realizing they misjudged Tramp rather than vice versa. And, watching the movie, one doesn’t feel much of a pressing need for either lover to become more like the other. Lady’s archetypally genteel femininity and Tramp’s archetypally rugged masculinity are each presented as appealing in their own right. I don’t want to dismiss the poetic appeal of either the woman-as-a-civilizing-influence-on-man plot or the man-reconnects-woman-with-nature plot. They can make for great stories^[7]If I had to choose which movie to save from a burning building, I’d probably pick Beauty and the Beast over Lady and the Tramp. I’d probably pick Lady and the Tramp over Tarzan though. I … Continue reading and there are probably thinkers out there who’d argue one or both of them tell us something profound about relationships between the sexes. But if I had to choose a model for successful romance in real life, I’d go with the dynamic between Lady and Tramp.^[8]Well, that’s if the opposites attract idea is workable in real life at all, which is questionable.

While Tramp’s “bad boy” nature attracts Lady in a way with which her more respectable male friends can’t compete, Jock and Trusty are still positive characters who play a vital part in bringing about the story’s happy ending. And while Lady’s “good girl” nature holds Tramp in a way his less respectable female companions, like Peg (Peggy Lee again), can’t, Peg is a positive character too, one who defends and comforts Lady during her stay in the pound. Again, the movie’s overall spirit is one of tolerance, summed up by the dedication “to all dogs, be they ladies or tramps.”

Of course, “tolerant” may sound like a strange way to describe a movie which relies so heavily on ethnic humor. The aforementioned Jock^[9]Heather Lad O’ Glencairn to strangers and Trusty represent a stereotypical scotch gentleman and a stereotypical American southern gentleman respectively. There’s also an English bulldog (Bill Thompson again) who says “blimey,” a Russian wolfhound called Boris (Alan Reed)^[10]Fred Flintstone! who cites Gorky and calls dogcatchers “Cossacks,” and a chihuahua named Pedro (Dallas McKennon of Talking Christmas Tree fame) who says his sister is named Rosita Chiquita Juanita. That’s not even mentioning the blustery Irish patrolman (Bill Thompson again.) Even the offscreen characters of the various restaurateurs Tramp describes as giving him table scraps are ethnic stereotypes! The list of the movie’s characters that aren’t would be shorter.^[11]And even they tend to be stereotypes, just not ethnic ones.

When this blog covered Disney’s Peter Pan as part of a series on adaptations of that story, I wrote that I couldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to show it to their kids because of the cartoony stereotypes of Indigenous Americans in it. I don’t feel that way about Lady and the Tramp. Maybe that’s just nostalgia talking^[12]I watched this far more often growing up than I did Peter Pan. and certainly no concerned parent should see me as the best of judge of what is appropriate for their child. But I think it comes down to how affectionately all the characters are portrayed. The stereotypical Italian restaurateurs (George Givot and Bill Thompson yet again) are responsible for the movie’s most famous scene: the spaghetti kiss.

The only really negative ethnic stereotypes are the devious Siamese cats (Peggy Lee yet again)^[13]Remember this movie was made after World War II. Americans tended to view Asians with hostility. and, honestly, I don’t care who finds them offensive, I adore those cats! They sing the movie’s catchiest song^[14]To be fair, most of the songs aren’t trying to be catchy per se. and provide its funniest physical comedy. My biggest complaint with the film is that they only appear for one scene. That’s not something I would say of the Indians in Disney’s Peter Pan.

Aunt Sarah (Disney veteran Verna Felton) is a more prominent antagonist but even she’s not a diabolically hissable villain, just a well-meaning old lady who’s unfortunately prejudiced against dogs. Even the dogcatchers in Lady and the Tramp (Lee Millar) come across as likeable.^[15]Fans of Eastern animation might find this movie comparable to Whisper of the Heart or Kiki’s Delivery Service with their similarly relaxed pacing and emphasis on loveable characters.

Back to the love story. In most fictional romances, either the lovers fall in love at first sight, or they start out hating each other. But I don’t know many real-life couples whose relationships started that way.^[16]Of the ones I’ve known, some were closer to love at first sight, but it wasn’t usually that intense. And neither do Lady and the Tramp. The first time they meet doesn’t feel particularly momentous^[17]Or to the extent it does, it’s because of the doubt Tramp casts on the affection Lady’s owners have for her. and even their second meeting, while it involves Tramp rescuing Lady, doesn’t necessarily scream, “romantic.” In this way, Lady and the Tramp just might be the most down-to-earth and relatable love story Disney has ever told.