Gay Purr-ee Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Gay Purr-ee Blu-ray Movie Review

"Purr-ee", not "Purée".

Reviewed by Randy Miller III August 31, 2023

I'm not exactly the world's biggest Chuck Jones fan, the same goes for Judy Garland, and musicals are far from my favorite kind of entertainment... so with those obvious biases out of the way, it's a minor miracle I didn't outright hate Abe Levitow's Gay Purr-ee. This big-screen oddity, the first animated feature film to be released theatrically by Warner Bros. through United Productions of America*, follows a handful of cats around Paris in a music-driven adventure with stylish animation that's absolutely loaded with color. It also sports a solid voice cast including Garland, Red Buttons, Paul Frees, Mel Blanc, Hermione Gingold, and singer-turned-actor Robert Goulet in his very first film role.

The story goes like this: lovely Mewsette (Garland) and clumsy mouser Jaune Tom (Goulet) are just two country cats kinda-sorta in love on a rural French farm... that is, until Mewsette dreams of sophisticated city life in nearby Paris and hops on a train. Undeterred by her sudden change of heart, Jaune Tom and his little buddy Robespierre (Buttons) follow in hot pursuit. Unfortunately, Mewsette is already under the spell of dastardly Meowrice (Frees), who promises to prep her for high society life with the help of his "sister", the sultry Madame Henrietta Reubens-Chatte (Gingold)... but he's really just making arrangements to sell her off as a mail-order bride to Henry Phtt, a rich American cat.

It's not the most complex setup for what's essentially one long came of cat-and-mouse (or in this case, cat-and-cats), as Gay Purr-ee features the bare minimum of storytelling and mostly tries to breeze by on vocal performances, visual style, and music breaks. In this case, two out of three ain't bad: the voice cast wrings what they can out of its modest, theadbare script, and the colorful backgrounds will instantly remind art aficionados of several well-known Impressionist painters. (Though while admittedly impressive on their own, these visuals actually get kind of exhausting after awhile.) The songs, however, are decidedly average at best despite being written by the same composer and lyricist that worked with Garland on The Wizard of Oz, with only a small handful of its dozen or so original tunes leaving any kind of lasting impression. Bottom line: Gay Purr-ee was a valiant attempt at all-ages entertainment but it'll probably play better for younger crowds; this also applies to anyone with an unyielding nostalgic attachment, because only the most die-hard Judy Garland/musical fans will likely walk away fully satisfied if they're seeing this for the first time.

Warner Archive's stunning new Blu-ray -- one of their rare animated releases, which seem to be gaining traction as of late -- will be an absolute delight to fans, with its lovingly restored 1080p transfer producing some of the format's best-looking screenshots to date. Strong lossless audio and a respectable amount of extras, mostly in the form of pre-show entertainment, round out another strong catalog title from the most reliable boutique label in the business.

* Gay Purr-ee's story was co-written by Chuck Jones and his wife Dorothy for UPA as the studio's second and final film after 1959's forgotten 1001 Arabian Nights. Unfortunately, this violated the popular animator's exclusivity clause with WB and he was eventually fired, leading to his work with MGM including a five-year run on Tom and Jerry.

Gay Purr-ee Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As expected, Warner Archive's 1080p transfer for Gay Purr-ee is a lovely effort, toeing the line carefully with a clean, pristine appearance and just the right amount of organic, purist-friendly film grain. Similar to their recent release of Hey There, it's Yogi Bear, it was sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative and represents a best-case scenario for classic animation fans: the colors absolutely pop without falling victim to oversaturation or bleeding, linework looks exceptional with no edge enhancement, and those expressive backgrounds look better than ever... even if, as mentioned before, your eyes may be overloaded long before the credits roll. As usual, it's as clean as a whistle and encoded perfectly, running at a suitably high bit-rare on this dual-layered disc. Five stars all the way.

Gay Purr-ee Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gay Purr-ee's DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix follows suit with a clean and stable presentation sourced from the original magnetic print master, which was lightly restored to eliminate most if not all traces of hissing. Speech, sound effects, and songs all sound reasonably full and dynamic with no perceivable distortion, thinness, or other defects, enjoying a presence as robust as its source material will allow. Though obviously not as enveloping as multi-track musicals, this is an impressive presentation indeed and, like the visuals, will likely never be bettered on home video.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offered during the main feature only.

Gay Purr-ee Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with attractive vintage poster artwork and no inserts. On-board extras are limited to mostly pre-show entertainment but there's some good stuff to dig through here.

• Looney Tunes Shorts - A trio of vintage cartoons with a distinct French theme -- and you better believe Pepé Le Pew shows up more than once -- all presented in lovingly restored 1080p. A nice touch!

• Louvre Come Back to Me (6:40) - This 1962 Chuck Jones short features Pepé purr-suing Penelope Pussycat after a mixed signal sends him into full-on romantic mode, including of course a trip through the Louvre with clever gags showing what his putrid stink does to a few classic pieces of artwork.
• French Rarebit (7:18) - This Bugs Bunny short, directed by Robert McKimson, finds our heroic hare stuck between two feuding restaurant owners who'd love to have rabbit on the menu.
• For Scent-imental Reasons (6:54) - A Chuck Jones short from 1949, this early Pepé adventure finds him chasing Penelope from a perfume shop after spilled white ink gives her a skunk-like stripe. It won the Oscar that year for best animated short film -- the first for Jones, and only the second for a Warner Bros. cartoon after nearly two decades of absolute dominance by Walt Disney and Fred Quimby.

• Demo Recordings - Five short audio-only demo recordings of songs from the film -- "Little Drops of Rain", "Roses Red, Violets Blue", "The Horse Won't Talk", "The Money Cat", and "Paris is a Lonely Town", 2-3 minutes apiece -- as performed by composer Harold Arien and lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg.

• Theatrical Trailer (3:44) - This surprisingly long vintage promotional piece can also be seen here.

• Song Selection - Instant access to all 12 of the film's main musical numbers.

• Main Title
• Mewsette
• Take My Hand, Paree
• Roses Red, Violets Blue
• The Money Cat
• The Hose Won't Talk
• Bubbles
• Little Drops of Rain
• Little Drops of Rain (Reprise)
• Paris is a Lonely Town
• Mewsette (Finale)
• End Title

Gay Purr-ee Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Abe Levitow's Gay Purr-ee is a mostly forgotten animated musical that, among other historical highlights, features one of Judy Garland's final performances and the movie debut of Robert Goulet. The visuals, with plenty of color and artistic flair, are solidly impressive as well. But its story lags further behind, a too-simple tale whose theadbare script and slow-moving plot aren't salvaged by the surprisingly average songs. This is still decent family entertainment in a pinch but, aside from nostalgic fans, it'll mostly be of interest to die-hard Garland disciples. Both groups will appreciate Warner Archive's Blu-ray, which offers another outstanding A/V restoration and several thughtful extras.