Released: June 22, 1955
Ever since I can remember, my mother had always had a pet cat in the house. First there was Duchess, next there was Ginger, and there was Coco, Charlie and now Michael. All of them became immediate members of the family, playfully mischievous. However, Coco who was our pedigree seal point Siamese was the most vocal and had the most interactive personality of them all. It is no wonder that Disney would include a Siamese cat in one of his films considering how distinctive their personality’s really are. How about two then?
Just like our pet cat Coco (who lived to be almost 15 years old), Si and Am show what typical Siamese cats are all about. This production cel setup featuring both of the mischievous felines from Lady and the Tramp displays their wonderful personalities while being antagonists with Lady. In this scene they have just finished wreaking havoc in the music room only to upset Lady. The production cels in the piece are trimmed to outline and feature an original production background from a different scene where Lady looks around the corner trying to understand what a cat really is.
Original production cel setup with master background, gouache on trimmed celluloid,
watercolor on board
Artist: Various Studio, unknown
Acquired: December 20, 2009
During the 1950’s, it was typical for the Disney studio art props department to prepare production animation art for gifts given by Walt Disney. In this particular piece, a studio artist embellished the background to enhance its overall appeal with the knocked over flower vase and one of the roses carefully placed in Si’s mouth. One of the unique features of this film was the artist perspective used to tell the story. Throughout the film, Disney artists set the scene from the eyes of dog (or cat in this case) to bring the viewer into the film at a lower perspective. Additionally, this was the first feature film shot in Cinemascope or 70 mm film which physically widened the visual landscape. This piece reminds me of the wonderful memories of my childhood when Coco would playfully wreak havoc in the house, just like Si and Am.
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