Disney’s ongoing efforts to turn basically every animated entry in its canon of classics into a live-action film has now reached the point that so many of us did while scouring our VHS shelves back in the day: Desperately trying to find something that hasn’t already been done to death, shrugging, and finally reaching for The Aristocats.
Variety reports that the entertainment leviathan has put in motion plans to create a live-action version of the 1970 animated feature, which was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, and which starred Eva Gabor and Phil Harris as cats trying to make their way back to Paris after Gabor and her kids are dumped out in the countryside. (An evil butler is also involved.)
Although it’s generally seen as lesser Disney these days, The Aristocats was a decent-sized hit back in the ’70s—especially in Europe, where it takes place. The company is presumably hoping to keep that magic alive 52 years later with this live-action version, which follows last year’s Cruella, and next year’s The Little Mermaid, in the long line of in-person (and usually CGI-heavy) adaptations of the company’s library.
Scripting duties on the film are being handled by Will Gluck, who recently directed both of the Peter Rabbit movies, and by Keith Bunin, who helped pen Onward for Pixar. (Also: Several episodes of the recent In Treatment revival, which we can only assume will impact the writing here.)
And, really, we can’t decide which we’re more excited for right now: A modern revamp of the plot of the original, in which a humble domestic servant does some slightly morally questionable things to the titular cats after learning he is second to a crew of animals in his employer’s succession plans, or the inevitable pop remix of “Ev’rybody Wants To Be A Cat.” (Minus, presumably, the bit with the racist “Chinese” cat.)
Meanwhile, plans to make an animated adaptation of The Aristocrats, as a sort of elaborate role-reversal scheme, are moving forward only in our minds, where we can assure you that they’re completely horrifying.