प्लॉट

With the help of a smooth talking tomcat, a family of Parisian felines set to inherit a fortune from their owner try to make it back home after a jealous butler kidnaps them and leaves them in the country.

Retired opera star Adelaide Bonfamille enjoys the good life in her Paris villa with even classier cat Duchess and three kittens: pianist Berlioz, painter Toulouse and sanctimonious Marie. When loyal butler Edgar overhears her will leaves everything to the cats until their death, he drugs and kidnaps them. However retired army dogs make his sidecar capsize on the country. Crafty stray cat Thomas O'Malley takes them under his wing back to Paris. Edgar tries to cover his tracks and catch them at return, but more animals turn on him, from the cart horse Frou-Frou to the tame mouse Roquefort and O'Malley's jazz friends.—KGF Vissers

Without a care in the world, snow-white Duchess, a sophisticated cat and elegant mother-of-three, enjoys attracting the love and attention from the retired opera diva and dedicated cat lover, Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, in picturesque 1910 Paris. However, trouble is brewing at the lavish mansion, as the unsuspecting Madame's English butler, Edgar, is up to no good. Now, after overhearing generous Adelaide's plans for the future, Edgar sets in motion his elaborate scheme to get rich without breaking a sweat. However, not if the gallant, free-spirited alley cat named Thomas O'Malley can help it. But it's a jungle out there. Can Madame Adelaide's once-happy Aristocats find their way home? Above all, will crafty Edgar get what's coming to him?—Nick Riganas

Madame Adelaide Bonfamille is a retired opera singer and a kind-hearted yet loving owner of Duchess and her beloved kittens of Toulouse, Marie, and Berlioz. Madame Bonfamille is preparing her will with her lawyer Georges Hautecourt, she plans on leaving her inheritance to her cats and then Edgar. Unfortunately the decision doesn't sit well with Edgar and he plots a scheme to abandon Duchess and her kittens in the French countryside so he can inherit the fortune for himself. Edgar apparently succeeds in abandoning the cats by sedating their cream with sleeping pills. Duchess and her kittens get help from Thomas O'Malley, an easy-going stray cat who takes a liking to Duchess and her three kittens.—dawsonpersi

The beloved, pampered housecat of a retired opera star in 1910 Paris finds herself stranded in the countryside with her three kittens, the victims of a plot by their owner's butler to cheat them out of a huge inheritance. They must find their way back to their home and owner, with the help of an independent-minded tomcat and other animal accomplices, while evading the butler and foiling his plan.—scgary66

In 1910, mother cat Duchess (Eva Gabor) a refined and elegant Turkish Angora cat, lives with her three kittens, Berlioz (Dean Clark) quiet but is quite mischievous, Marie (Liz English) comes off as spoiled, often imperious, sassy or snobbish, and Toulouse (Gary Dubin) idolizes all alley cats and wants to appear tough, but is actually fairly laid-back and easygoing. They live in Paris with retired opera diva Madame Adelaide Bonfamille (Hermione Baddeley), and her English butler, Edgar (Roddy Maude-Roxby). The cats are pampered pets that live a luxurious lifestyle and are very cultured in art and music, like their owner. The kittens are very playful with each other and Marie is the favorite kitten of Madame. Duchess teaches the kittens to behave like cultured cats and says that aristocrats do not engage in biting or clawing. The kittens make fun of Edgar, but Duchess admonishes them saying that Edgar is very fond of all of them. Duchess makes sure that Berlioz is trained on the piano, Marie is an excellent singer, and Toulouse is a budding painter. Rocquefort is the house-mouse and is friendly with the cats.

While preparing her will with elderly lawyer Georges Hautecourt (Charles Lane), Madame declares that her vast fortune will be first left to her cats, then revert to Edgar once they all pass away. Madame notes that she has no living relatives and considers her cats to be just as much a part of her family as anything else.

Edgar overhears this through a speaking tube that goes from the living room into his quarters. Edgar erroneously calculates that he will die before he can claim his inheritance as the cats will easily outlive him. Edgar believes that each cat lives for 8 years and has nine lives, so the total comes to 72 years.

Edgar plots to eliminate the cats. He sedates them by putting sleeping pills in a dish of cream, then drives them on his motorcycle out to the countryside in a basket. There, he is ambushed by two hounds named Napoleon (Pat Buttram) a bloodhound and Lafayette (George Lindsey) a Basset Hound, losing his hat, sidecar, umbrella, shoes, and the basket before escaping. Napoleon fancies himself to be the leader among the 2 of them. They had the habit of chasing everything in the countryside and had already bit 6 tires in the day before Edgar came along on his motorcycle. The cats are left stranded in the countryside

Back in Paris, Madame Adelaide, Roquefort the mouse, and Frou-Frou (Nancy Kulp) Madame Adelaide's Palomino carriage horse discover their absence. A house-mouse in Madam Bonfamille's residence named Rocquefort confers with Madame's coach horse, Frou-Frou. Both are unsure what has become of their friends, when Edgar comes into Frou-Frou's stables very chipper. As Frou-Frou can't talk, Edgar shows her the headline from the morning's paper, telling of a mysterious kidnapper taking off with Duchess and her children. Frou-Frou and Rocquefort realize that Edgar is the kidnapper. Edgar seems to think he's gotten away with his little crime, until he realizes that he left his hat and umbrella out in the countryside and quickly rushes out to retrieve them.

The next morning, the cats awaken to find themselves not in their home, but in the countryside. Toulouse was semi-conscious during the kidnapping and tells Duchess that Edgar did this to them. Duchess meets an alley cat named Thomas O'Malley (Phil Harris) a feral cat, who offers to guide her and the kittens to Paris. Duchess trusts O'Malley as he appears to be street smart and knows the ways of the world. Kittens love O'Malley and he keeps them engaged with tales of fantasy.

The group briefly hitchhikes in a milk truck before being chased out by the driver. Later, while crossing a railroad trestle, the cats narrowly avoid an oncoming train, and Marie falls into a river. O'Malley immediately dives in and rescues her, and is himself rescued by Amelia (Carole Shelley) and Abigail Gabble (Monica Evans), two English geese on holiday. The 2 geese were enjoying the French countryside, when they came across O'Malley drowning in the river. They thought O'Malley was learning how to swim and encouraged him. But then they realized that O'Malley was in trouble when he did not resurface after going under and this is when they intervened and pulled him out of the water.

The geese lead the cats to the outskirts of Paris. The group then follow the two to their Uncle Waldo (Bill Thompson). Their journey takes them to a restaurant where Uncle Waldo has escaped from becoming the main course. However, being marinated in white wine has caused Uncle Waldo to be quite tipsy.

Meanwhile, Edgar returns to the countryside to retrieve his possessions (the only evidence that can incriminate him) from Napoleon and Lafayette and, after some difficulty, ultimately succeeds. Rocquefort had tagged along with Edgar by clinging on to the back of his motorcycle., but he could not hold on due to the fumes from the exhaust.

Traveling across the rooftops of the city, the cats are almost home but worn out from their trip. O'Malley then takes them to Scat Cat's abode in an abandoned building. The cats meet up with O'Malley's friend Scat Cat (Scatman Crothers) who performs the song "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" with several other cat musicians. After the band has departed, O'Malley and Duchess converse on a nearby rooftop while the kittens listen in to their conversation from the window. After the kittens are put to bed, Duchess and O'Malley share a tender moment. O'Malley thinks Madame sees Duchess and her kittens as house pets. Duchess however, explains that Madame sees them as more than this: they are the equivalent of a family to her. Duchess' loyalty to Madame prompts her to decline O'Malley's marriage proposal.

The next day, Duchess and the kittens return to Madame's mansion. Edgar finds them before Madame does, and places them in a sack, deciding to ship them to Timbuktu.

Roquefort catches up with O'Malley at Duchess' instruction, and O'Malley returns to the mansion, sending Roquefort to find Scat Cat and his gang. Though he struggles to explain the situation to the alley cats, Roquefort successfully brings them to O'Malley's aid. O'Malley, the alley cats, and Frou-Frou fight Edgar, while Roquefort frees Duchess and the kittens. Scat Cat's gang, with some help from Frou-Frou, manage to knock Edgar into the trunk and out the stable's doors, just as the pick-up service arrives, taking it away.

The Aristocats return to Madame Adelaide, who, unaware of the reason for Edgar's departure, rewrites her will to exclude him. After adopting O'Malley into the family, Madame establishes a charity foundation, housing Paris' stray cats in the mansion. Scat Cat and his gang are the first to move in and reprise their song so loudly that the two hound dogs can hear it out in the countryside.