It's easy to see how Lady, alone, would've been sort of unbearable, though. She's cute, in the sense that one is required by law to think any and all puppies are cute, but she doesn't really do a whole lot. She's about as entertaining as, say, watching someone's home videos of their pets - not offensive, pleasant enough at first, but probably more interesting to Uncle Grantie than anyone else. If you can imagine an entire feature film consisting of nothing but Lady-antics, then please, by all means, fill me in! She's only a slight improvement over other recent female Disney leads of the era; she's also a bland but otherwise likeable enough individual who's mostly there for things to happen in the world around her, but at least she actually emotes and generally reacts to those things happening in the world around her in a believable way! There's nothing fundamentally wrong with her as a character, but there's no doubt that she couldn't carry a movie on her own. Lady needs supporting characters; Uncle Waltie was right about that, even if the way he went about obtaining those supporting characters was sort of bonkers.
Okay, so, Lady's kind of bland, but her situation is anything but; this film follows in the footsteps of Bambi to a degree, eschewing the grand magical plots of the average Disney film of the time for (perhaps ironically) a surprisingly human conundrum. Maybe I'm just saying that because it's a highly emotionally resonant situation for Jesse; I frequently find myself worrying about being abandoned altogether by my friends once they decide to have children, certainly more than I should, but I worry about everything more than I should. On the other hand, though, doesn't EVERYONE have a fear of being abandoned and/or replaced, of some sort? I think it's pretty universal. Lady's creeping confusion over the situation is genuinely heartbreaking enough for me to regard it as a successful emotional arc, even if its impact is lessened a bit by a screenplay that insists on being entirely too on-the-nose about it. For example, when the Dears gleefully exclaim about Lady, "Why, I don't believe ANYONE could ever take her place in our hearts!", is there really ANY doubt that the very next thing that happens is someone taking her place in their hearts?
Lady's canine love affair with Tramp is actually a far smaller part of the movie than all the marketing materials might have you believe. (In this sense, Lady and the Tramp is the same as, say, any recent serialized sitcom, pretty much.) Tramp's general story role is essentially the same as Snow White's Prince Charming or Cinderella's Prince Charming, showing up to "save" our bevaginaed protagonist by being a sexy, sexy fellow. Thankfully, just like Lady improves a bit on previous week-willed Disney ladies, Tramp possesses more character depth than the Charming Twins could ever hope to manage combined. He actually has personality and a backstory! He's, like, a character or something! WHAT A CONCEPT! The world can be forgiven for thinking the movie's more of a love story than it actually is, though; the "Bella Notte" sequence is genuinely romantic and sweet without being sickening, somehow, and I understand why people remember it. It's more charming than anything the Charmings did, as a result of the fact that Tramp isn't just a man-shaped plot cipher, like they are, but rather....yes, a character. It's hard to know whether Lady actually learned anything from her experience or not, but if she did, I'd imagine it has something to do with being comfortable even when she isn't the absolute center of attention. That, or maybe that it's okay to lie to dumb beavers when it furthers your own interests.
(Beaver is Gopher from Winnie the Pooh, right?)
It's a good thing Tramp works so well with Lady, though, because the other supporting characters are essentially just a potpourri of stereotypes and stock characters. Trusty represents something I only just realised was a bizarrely common stock character while watching this very film: the old bloodhound whose nose is on the fritz! In fact, I've probably seen more olfactorily impaired bloodhounds than standard-issue bloodhounds in movies. Why do you think that is? What is it about bloodhounds, moreso than other canine species, that makes filmmakers so gosh darned eager to constantly betray the very quality that makes them what they are? Do they still think it's a clever inversion, even though it's a well-worn trope? Similarly, what's the deal with pet breeds named after a certain foreign place necessarily having to speak with an accent characteristic of said foreign place, despite being raised in America by Americans? Jock's Scottishness is a fairly benign example; Pedro the Chihuahua is less benign, because he reminds me that Oliver & Company is something that I'll inevitably have to write about. Frowny face. And as for the evil Siamese cats, who are cleverly named Si and Am, I....I think I can sum of the experience of their entire musical number by noting that they seriously say things like "arso". Nice job making everyone uncomfortable, Peggy Ree!
(And the poodle in the pound is some sort of dog hooker, right?)
So, um. Yeah. It's not perfect. It's a rather slow-moving film, and the diversions from the main story skew a bit uncomfortable. Did I mention the weird resolution where the Dears decide that it's totally cool that Tramp nearly killed their little baby infant because he was chasing a rat at the time? He'll be perfectly safe around their kid as long as there aren't any other living things around! There's still the creeping sense that the studio wasn't getting back up to speed quite as quickly as they would've hoped in the 1950s - but we ARE making visible progress, at least. In addition to all the thematic nonsense I was prattling on about earlier, I also appreciated the animation here; it feels decidedly richer than the last couple films, despite a more mundane setting. (The crashing dog pound carriage in the big action climax, in particular, strikes me as a technically impressive bit o' moving drawings.) Maybe this isn't Disney firing on all cylinders again yet, but it IS Disney firing on a couple of those cylinders really well. As busted, unworkable engines go, you could do worse. I'd recommend it!
TERRIBLE AND UNNECESSARY AND UNWANTED DISNEY SEQUEL CONCEPT OF THE WEEK: Lady and the Tramp 1½ is a midquel of sorts, opening right after the Dears have taken Tramp in. Seeing how much their humans enjoy the concept of pet ownership, Lady and the Tramp adopt a stray human baby boy, Boy, which they immediately fall in love with. "Why, I don't believe ANYONE could ever take his place in our hearts!", they might declare! But, then, Lady suddenly finds herself great with child, and before too long L&T are spending all their time caring for their biological offspring, much to Boy's dismay. Boy spends a lot of time crying about this, but ultimately comes to terms with the fact that he won't receive all that much care or attention anymore, by way of falling in love with a little baby girl, Sheila. Who is a weirdly vicious Australian stereotype, naturally. (Meanwhile, Si and Am go into the restauranteuring business together, with wacky results!)
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