Lady and The Tramp
What’s so interesting about a cartoon that is more than fifty years old? That’s how old the movie Lady and The Tramp is. Old, yes. Outdated, never.
This is a great movie about a species that had been man’s constant, loyal companion for more than fifteen thousand years. And no, I am not talking about the little woman. Dogs and man have been friends for a long time. An old relationship, yes. An outdated relationship, never.
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The original Lady and The Tramp was made in 1955 by Walt Disney Productions with Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske as directors. The story and concept were created by Ward Greene, Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Ralph Wright, Don DaGradi, Joe Grant and Louise Pollock. Barbara Luddy was the voice of Lady, the Cocker Spaniel, and Larry Roberts was the voice of Tramp, a universal dog breed.
Cocker Spaniels were originally bred as hunting dogs in the United Kingdom for use while hunting the Eurasian Woodcock, a small to medium-sized wading bird found in temperate and subartic Eurasia. The Cocker Spaniel was derived from the Fields Spaniel and Springer Spaniel. The English Cocker Spaniel is descended from Ch. Obo while the American Cocker Spaniel is descended from the son of Ch. Obo, Ch. Obo II. The name Spaniel refers to its Spanish ancestry.
Cocker Spaniels have coats of various colors like black, liver, red and golden. An all-white Cocker Spaniel is also bred by fanciers. Developing from its hunting heritage, the Cocker Spaniel is now a show breed with numerous awards to its name. It’s long, floppy ears also make it an adorable pet.
In the Lady and The Tramp movie, Lady started as a pup being given as a Christmas present, very nicely gift-wrapped in a shoe box, by Jim Dear to his wife, Darling. Then the movie followed Lady as she grew up and eventually fell in love with Tramp, a universal dog breed.
Tramp was a mutt, a universal dog breed with too many ancestral inputs to name them all. The term mutt is, too often, wrongly used in a derogatory sense. A dog, irregardless of its pedigree or lack of, is just as loving and loyal to its owner as any other well-documented dog.
Neither is a mutt any less intelligent. Benji, the well-known canine star, was a mutt and no one disputed its intelligence. The real difference between a mutt and a pedigreed dog is the price of acquiring one and, of course, the bragging rights that comes with spending money. Also, with an established breed, you get a better idea of what you are going to be involved with.
For example, if your idea of exercise is working the remote control, don’t even think about getting a Siberian Husky, no matter how cute a Siberian Husky puppy may look. To do that would be the surest way of getting owned by your dog.
There was a line early in Lady and The Tramp which really stuck in my mind. Jim Dear said, “If we want to let it know who is the master, we must be firm with it right from the beginning.”
He was referring to house-training Lady. I would put that line under the category of “Famous Last Words”. Any dog lover would know that the humans are the ones who get owned and not the other way round. As another dog said in another movie, “We don’t follow them around picking up their poop.”
This movie moved at a good pace and the penultimate scene was rather heartbreaking. An old bloodhound chasing after the carriage carrying the villains, stopped the carriage and ended up under one of the carriage wheel. Crushed and motionless.
See the Lady and The Tramp DVD yourself to find out how the directors made up for that in the finale.
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