Lady and the Tramp is one of the first movies I can ever recall seeing as a child. Looking back on it, I’m not sure I remember a lot of specifics about the film, other than it created a real sense of connection with the dogs (this is, after all, a dog story). I do know that I thought Lady was extraordinarily beautiful, particularly her shy looks and big brown eyes.
I don’t know that I’ve seen Lady and the Tramp in the past 45 years, but those fond memories were enough to make me want to take a peak at the Diamond Edition. Happily, after all these years, it still holds up. In fact, now that I’m grown I more fully appreciate the multiple layers of story that are embedded into the film. As a little kid I was enthralled by the marvelous colors (this was back in the days of black & white TV) and those wonderfully unique characters, like Jock, Trusty, Peg, the Siamese Cats, and of course Lady and the Tramp. As an adult, I still enjoyed all of those features, but I was also captured by the story.
It’s really not so different from all the great love stories from the past, from Romeo and Juliet to West Side Story - good girl from a respectable home taking up with a rascal from the wrong side of the tracks experiences a wild night of exhilarating freedom, only to return home with her reputation tarnished, convinced that she’ll never see him again (and not sure that she really wants to). In the end the cad proves to be more honorable than expected; even heroic. Bottom line; he does the right thing.
Yeah, overall it’s a pretty satisfying movie on a whole bunch of levels.
The Diamond Edition comes with both Blu-ray and DVD versions, but most of the special features are repeats of DVD features that have been previously available on earlier releases including:
- Lady’s Pedigree: The Making of Lady and the Tramp
- Finding Lady: The Art of the Storyboard
- Original 1943 Storyboard Version of the Film
- PuppyPedia: Going to the Dogs
- “The Siamese Cat Song,” Finding a Voice for the Cats
- “Bella Notte” Music Video
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