Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Based on the 1945 story Happy Dan, The Cynical Dog by Ward Greene.
Intro song (“Main Title (Bella Notte)” & “Peace On Earth”). In 1909, in a small Midwestern town, "Jim Dear" gives his wife "Darling" a cocker spaniel puppy as a Christmas present. The puppy, named Lady, grows up pampered by her doting owners, and befriends her neighbors' dogs Jock (a Scottie) and Trusty (an elderly Bloodhound). Meanwhile, across town, a stray terrier-mix named Tramp feeds on scraps and handouts, and frees his friends Peg (a Pekingese) and Bull (a Bulldog) from the local dogcatcher.
Fleeing the angry dogcatcher, Tramp finds himself in Lady's neighborhood. He overhears a distraught Lady conversing with Jock and Trusty about her owners' suddenly-distant behavior towards her. When Jock and Trusty deduce this is because Darling is pregnant, Tramp inserts himself into the conversation as the "voice of experience", and warns Lady that "when a baby moves in, a dog moves out". Annoyed, Jock drives him from the yard. Tramp's words cause Lady to fret throughout Darling's pregnancy, but when the baby boy arrives, she is allowed to meet and bond with him, dispelling her fears (“What Is a Baby” & “La La Lu”).
Later, Jim Dear and Darling take a short trip, leaving the house, Lady, and the baby in the care of Jim Dear's Aunt Sarah, who brings along her two Siamese cats Si and Am. Sarah dislikes dogs, and prohibits Lady from seeing the baby; later, the cats destroy the house (“The Siamese Cat Song”), and pin the deed on Lady by pretending she injured them. Sarah takes Lady to the pet shop, and has a muzzle put on her; Lady panics and flees into the street, where she is pursued by three savage dogs, until Tramp intervenes to protect her.
Tramp takes Lady to the zoo to have the muzzle removed by a beaver; he then shows Lady his owner-free lifestyle, and they explore the town. The kindly proprietor of Tony's Restaurant gives them a spaghetti dinner to share (“Bella Notte”), before they end the evening with a walk in the park. The next day, Tramp tries to convince Lady to live "footloose and collar free" with him; despite liking Tramp, she decides her duty is to watch over the baby. As Tramp escorts Lady home, he stops to chase some chickens; the dogcatcher pursues them both, but only Lady is caught. At the pound, she meets Peg, Bull, and some other strays, who all know Tramp. They reveal he has had many girlfriends in the past, and claim that females are his weakness (“He’s a Tramp”).
Sarah comes to claim Lady, and chains her in the backyard as punishment for running away. Jock and Trusty propose that Lady should marry and come live with one of them, to escape the abuse, but she gently refuses them. When Tramp arrives to apologize to Lady, she berates him for his many girlfriends and sends him away, too. Afterwards, Lady notices a large rat sneaking into the house through the baby's bedroom window. Her attempts to alert Sarah fail, but Tramp hears her barking, returns, and enters the house himself to save the baby. Lady breaks her chain and follows soon after. Tramp is wounded in the battle with the rat, but manages to kill it behind a curtain. During the struggle, the baby's crib overturns, and he begins to cry; Sarah comes to investigate, and assumes the dogs attacked the baby.
Jim Dear and Darling return home to find that Sarah has locked Lady in the cellar and handed Tramp over to the dogcatcher to be euthanized. Disbelieving Sarah's story, Jim Dear frees Lady, who immediately shows them the dead rat. Overhearing the truth, Jock and Trusty pursue the dogcatcher's cart and try to stop it; the horses spook, causing the cart to crash. Jim Dear and Darling arrive with Lady to rescue Tramp, but Trusty is badly injured in the wreck.
Later, at Christmas time, Tramp has become an official part of the family, and he and Lady have four little puppies of their own. Jock and a mostly-healed Trusty visit the family; the puppies now provide Trusty a new audience for his old stories, but he has forgotten them, much to his and everyone else's amusement (“Finale (Peace on Earth)”).
TRIVIA
Visual Style
Lady and the Tramp is the first Disney animated feature film to be filmed in CinemaScope (e.g. the CinemaScope lens allowed movies to be filmed and projected in wide screen 2.55:1). This format presented some problems for the animators: the expansion of canvas space makes it difficult for a single character to dominate the screen, and groups must 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.
To achieve Lady’s perspective of the home, 3D models of the home’s interior were made and angled pictures were taken to use as reference points of a dog’s point of view.
The setting of the town is based off of Walt’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri.
Notable Scene(s)
Spaghetti scene