Gay Purr-ee (1962)

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

RELEASED IN 1962 and directed by Abe Levitow, "Gay Pur-ee" is an animated film about a beautiful feline, Mewsette (voiced by Judy Garland), whose romantic fantasies about life in Paris become the awful truth when she stows away to travel there, but her dreams are shattered by a shady cat (Paul Frees) and his "sister" (Hermione Gingold). Meanwhile, a tomcat named Juane-Tom (Robert Goulet) goes to Paris to save Mewsette along with his lil' pal, Robespierre (Red Buttons).I suppose it helps if you're a cat-lover, but I always liked this cartoon flick. Sure, there are too many songs and only enough story to make up for half the runtime, but "Gay Purr-ee" has its charm. The climatic confrontation is particularly entertaining. Juane-Tom and Robespierre are the best characters. To be expected, several of the story elements reflect real-life, including a drunken binge (lol), but also money-loving smooth-talkers who take advantage of the naïve and ignorant. THE FILM RUNS 85 minutes. WRITERS: Dorothy Jones & Chuck Jones with additional dialogue by Ralph Wright & Levitow. GRADE: B-/C+

France is a beautiful country or I will simply say, "La France est Belle". One must explore the beauty of the other side of the country, you just got to find the right connections. But this film is from the cat's eye view. Voiced by the wonderful actors and actresses, this animated movie is magnificent in a way. You got Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, and the voice of "Bugs Bunny" and other Looney Tunes characters, Mel Blanc. And the magic of Chuck Jones is nice. Here you have this cat who like a lavish lifestyle, and her boyfriend cat is not socially open. This lavish starved feline wanted to leave the farm life and head out to Gay Paris. However, the cat she hooked up with have other plans for her. So when the boyfriend cat brings along his friend, they start to have an adventure of their own. So when she's shown of the artwork that she can be on, she would later find out that the concat is shipping her out to the USA. While the two male cats get sent to cold parts of the USA, only to return to Paris, RICH! When the feline cat suffered a setback from fulfilling a dream, she feels redeemed when the boyfriend fought back to get what he loved. When where you live doesn't make you happy, it's great to try out something new. You just have to experience life for yourself and not let anything or anyone break your spirit. A great cartoon. I wished that it got a better results from back then. 5 stars

The UPA cartoons were known for their stylish art direction and in this film the backgrounds and scenery are like beautiful impressionist paintings. Unfortunately it's not enough to save this mediocre animated feature.The main character designs look generic and the performances from the impressive vocal cast (Judy Garland, Red Buttons, Robert Goulet, Hermione Gingold) are mostly bland. Voice actor extraordinaire Paul Frees does a good job as the villain.The story concerns a farm cat in turn-of-the-century France who journeys to Paris and falls in with some shady characters, while her provincial beau comes to the city looking for her. The songs are forgettable, though the musical sequences have style.The best scene is a brief lesson about famous artists of the era and their styles (Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Seurat, Degas, Renoir, etc.). It's actually quite educational. The movie has a subtle high-brow edge. Beneath the simple story and cheap laughs it wants to be artistic and intelligent.Comparisons to Walt Disney's THE ARISTOCATS (1970) are interesting, though mostly superficial. A white lady-cat, a yellow/orange tom, an adventure in Paris. Singing. Quintessential French entertainer Maurice Chevalier sings the title song for THE ARISTOCATS, while Morey Amsterdam does the narration for GAY PURR-EE in his best Chevalier voice. What people might find surprising is that the better-known Disney film was made eight years *after* this UPA feature.It's clear from other reviews that GAY PURR-EE (1962) is beloved by many who cherish the memory of watching it as children. However without the rose-tinted lens of nostalgia, the film is only interesting as a curiosity. UPA seems to be aiming for something special, but doesn't quite hit the mark. Kids might still enjoy it, though.

seriously, I thought "Gay Pur-ree" is up there on par with Disney's greatest productions, even surpassing some of them. Sure it's no blockbuster, nor is it planned to be one. But it does manage a certain kind of epic magic, more akin to the impressionist style it emulates than to the "MTV video feel" behind most of today's standard animation works.Gay Pur-ree (which aired in my country as "La Fair Mewsette", to my mind a MUCH better title) is a throwback to an age of innocence (corny as this may sound) in more than one sense; in those days, a simple, humane story was all the charm a story needed (my, that DID sound corny indeed). The movie had that special feel, in spades. And to me (a very impressionable 8-year old at the time), it was a true saga. I was taken to another world, cried for the characters, memorized their names and the song. And I dreamed of it for a month after watching it. I felt the magic. I felt as they said you should feel after watching an animated movie.*sigh*Maybe not a must see, but certainly a must remember. Watch it, and cherish the memory.