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Gay purr

Gay Purr-ee

★★★

Rewatched 29Jun

Tim Brayton’s review published on Letterboxd:

The combined talents of what remained of UPA by the early '60s and who had already shaken loose from the Chuck Jones unit at Warner's while it was still ongoing (which it ceased to do as a direct consequence of this feature: Jones co-wrote it, in violation of his contract with Warner's, and was consequently fired) means that this cannot possibly be unattractive to look at. And indeed, the film is intermittently a resourceful, experimental beauty, particularly in the background paintings, which combine the scruffy un-realism of UPA's glory days with a variety of aesthetics inspired by lateth Century Paris-based painters. Or some wholly other thing in the stunning red-and-silhouette approach to the villain song. The character animation is more of a mixed bag, uncertainly mixing and matching Slow Jones, classic UPA, and even some nods to the much less ambitious work starting to dominate on television (I really hate the kitten). But th



ABOUT THE DISC & RECORDINGS:

Judy's only animated film is a delightful venture that features some stunning animation, and a wonderful score that reunites Judy with the songsmiths from The Wizard Of Oz (), composer Harold Arlen and lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg.

"Little Drops Of Rain" became on of Judy's personal favorites. And on a scant private occasions, she would site this as her all-time favorite.

Long out of print, the album was finally released by Rhino Handmade Records in (see image below right).

All images on this page from the collections of Scott Brogan and Eric Hemphill.

Album cover restoration by "Alex in Belgium". Thanks Alex!



     

TRACK LISTING

All music recorded in at Capitol Records Studios, Hollywood, California, November

Judy Garland tracks in blue.

Title

Performed by

Time

Side 1

Gay Purr-ee Overture

Judy Garland & Chorus

Mewsette

Robert Goulet

Little Drops Of Rain

Judy Garland

The Money Cat

Paul

It’s Pride Month, even if COVID is too homophobic to let folks commemorate together.  To kick things off, let’s watch a few movies starring that woman who gave Friends of Dorothy the occasion, Judy Garland.

The animators of this movie were certainly on all of the drugs, weren’t they? Every time a cat launches into song, the already stylized film gets cranked to 11 and then beyond in a psychedelic swirl of colors and patterns. When it isn’t a musical, the clip becomes a blend of Van Gogh- and Monet-evoking static backgrounds (which can be quite beautiful, actually) and Chuck Jones design Looney Toons cats. And some of these cats have boobs, by the way. It’s rather a bit disturbing, all told. Not Cats-tier fucked up, but certainly a selection. The piece de resistance of the whole art department is a rogues gallery of art imitations where Mewsette is painted in the style of everyone from Picasso to Renoir.

Not much to speak of in terms of a plot—Mewsette longs for the glamour of Paris and gets swept up in a feline mail-order bride scam along



"Juane" is French for "yellow", thus Juane-Tom's mention translates to "Yellow Tom", a common name for a male, yellow-orange striped cat.

Robert Goulet's production debut.

Chuck Jones had been under an exclusive contract with Warner Bros., and worked on this film in violation of his contract. After Warner Bros. picked up the film from UPA for distribution, they discovered his work on the film and fired him, resulting in his departure for MGM.

Golden Books' children's division published a "Little Golden Books" version of "Gay Purr-ee" to coincide with the original theatrical release of the film.

Mme. Rubens-Chatte is a overweight cat. Artist Sir Peter Paul Rubens was noted for painting large women so often that the term "Rubenesque" basically means overweight. Chatte is French for cat.


When Judy Garland was approached about doing this movie, it was she who reportedly suggested that her two good friends (and The Wizard of Oz collaborators) Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg provide the music and lyrics, respectively. It was to be both men's last full-length score for