Is Lady And The Tramp really worth the hype?

Mary Alyce Yoho, writer

Disney never seems to be on anything but Disney.

 

Now, with the new Disney+ platform, they have almost every old new movie and show from shows like Mickey Mouse Club and That’s So Raven, to movies like Avatar and tons more.

Okay, let’s hope you have some sort of recognition of perhaps your favorite animated movie as a kid — or maybe not — Lady and The Tramp. This fall, just in time for the Disney+ launch, Disney released a live action of the well-loved classic Lady and The Tramp. The opening brought peaceful and elegance to the screen, with a view of the city and dazzling music. The entire space and setting leaves you with an early 20th century feel. At the start of the story, a young woman receives a surprise gift from her husband, a small and precious puppy. Just as the sweet ‘Lady’ becomes a part of the family, you’re introduced to the ‘Tramp’ of the movie, a raggedy street dog that is up to mischief and games. After the young couple have a baby, Lady is cast aside. It’s kind of saddening that the couple shows zero empathy towards her and doesn’t seem to care much for the poor Lady. She just wants love, and she will find it.

In this live action version of Lady and The Tramp, the dogs speak which gives an eerie experience. The movie comes off as very real but also filled with tons of animation. Sort of like the reverse version of The Polar Express. The Scottish terrier has a Scottish accent; love that. I’ve seen numerous movies like the Disney Buddies movie franchise, Marmaduke and so on, with dogs speaking, but these movie canines create an oddly different watch.

Alright, I hated that the ill-mannered cats started singing while destroying the house. It brought the entire movie into another genre, which was not expected. Also, why did they make the dogs have to possess such human qualities, such as when the dogs put their paws on one another as if they were holding hands? I don’t understand what the creators were thinking, taking the subtle original love story of the classic and adding “real” animals was really strange.

They only good part of this movie are the chefs from the restaurant, setting the original romantic spaghetti scene. The men are surprisingly nice to the dogs, something that none of the other character seems to convey.

The whole movie is like a weird, sappy romance novel. On another note, the dogs within the pound started singing, giving off a jailhouse vibe as in “Chicago.” The dog pound was intensely heart aching to watch with the puppies, the dark and dangerous rows of cages, and the poor dog that was put down. It was all terrible to see. They made the rat scene way too dramatic than it ever needed to be. Why is the dog catcher so hung up on one individual dog out of all the other stray dogs in the town, makes no sense? The young couple did redeem themselves toward the end, when they took in Tramp and saved him from the dog catcher. isn’t as bad, since they decided to take the Tramp under their own wing. 

As the credits rolled, I was most impressed with the robust character – and tons of laughs — found in the Scottish terrier, the tough bulldog from the pound with a heart of gold, and the caring chefs that prepared that lovely plate of kissable pasta. These were the only characters that made this movie relevant or worth any attention whatsoever.

Overall the movie was very well produced, very much like the original but this one with greater quality and lets whomever is watching it have more feelings and understanding with it since it’s live action. It was a cute message and lovely ending, but overall the writing could’ve had a lot more work and thought put into it.