THE ARISTOCATS KITTENS
To me, this film is very underrated. Many claim this 1970’s classic to be one of their all-time favorites. When released, it was very well received, specially in Europe, and Marie has become a major Merchandise superstar, particularly in Japan.
These are some exploratory sketches by Ken Anderson, and show how early in production they tried to clearly differentiate the look of each of the three kittens through proportions, attitudes and coloring. They ended up with a d
ivalady, a painter and a musician, with quite the personalities. They went through quite the process too, first with Ken and then going through Milt Kahl’s refinement and Ollie Johnston’s very personal animation.Back then, haden’t even decided the name of the third kitten. Before Toulouse, they considered naming him Napoleon and also Dopey. Maybe they scrapped that last one out because two Dopeys in Disney would be too much, specially because of how popular Snow White’s lovable dwarfs was.