- “Aristocrats do not practice biting and clawing and things like that. It's just horrible.”
- ―Duchess
Duchess is the protagonist of Disney's 1970 animated feature film The Aristocats. She is Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse's mother.
Quick Answers
Who are Duchess's kittens in Disney's The Aristocats?
What breed is Duchess from The Aristocats?
What kind of collar does Duchess, the white cat from The Aristocats, wear?
Who is Duchess's owner in The Aristocats?
What are the distinctive features of Duchess from The Aristocats?
Background[]
Physical appearance[]
Duchess is a beautiful long-haired purebred white Turkish Angora cat with blue eyes later described as shining as sapphires. She wears a gold, jeweled collar studded with diamonds.
Personality[]
Duchess is very elegant, precise, and ladylike, being the pet of an aristocrat. She is very devoted to her owner, Madame Adelaide Bonfamille. She is kind and friendly to everyone. She is both caring and protective toward her kittens and also tries to encourage them to develop into proper members of society. She also is a connoisseuse of music and presumably teaches her kittens to sing and play the piano.
Duchess is also shown to be slightly pacifistic, as she scolds her kittens for "play-fighting". She is sweet and compassionate and willing and able to make friends with anyone, no matter their social background. She also seems to show concern for others, as is evidenced when she calls out to Thomas O'Malley as he floats down the river after he throws Marie to safety.
Appearances[]
The Aristocats[]
Duchess in The Aristocats
Duchess and her three kittens Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse live in a large mansion in 1910 Paris with their owner Madame Adelaide Bonfamille, a retired opera singer. At the beginning of the film, the family is returning from a carriage ride. Back home, Duchess oversees Toulouse's painting lesson and Marie and Berlioz's music lesson. Later, Madame Bonfamille meets with her lawyer and dear friend, Georges Hautecourt. After kissing Duchess' tail (which the lawyer believes to be Madame Bonfamille's hand), they settle down to business. Madame reveals that, after her death, she intends to leave her vast fortune to Duchess and her kittens. At the end of their lifespan, Madame's butler, Edgar would inherit. Edgar overhears, and plots to remove the cats from the inheritance, as he believes he would die before getting to inherit.
That night, Duchess and the kittens are drugged by cream mixed with sleeping pills. Edgar catnaps Duchess and her kittens and leaves them in the French countryside so that Madame Adelaide would think the cats had run away so that she could give the entire fortune to himself. After Edgar flees back to Paris following a scuffle with two feral dogs, Duchess and her kittens awake to very unfamiliar surroundings, and endure a frightening and rainy night together in the basket they were transported in. The next morning, Duchess meets Thomas O'Malley, an alley cat, who offers to guide them back to Paris. They have difficulties returning to the city, briefly hitchhiking on the back of a milk cart before being chased off by the driver. Marie subsequently falls into a river and is saved by Thomas. They then meet a pair of English geese, Abigail and Amelia Gabble, who are traveling to Paris. The group heads off, marching like geese until they reach Paris and come across the girls' drunk Uncle Waldo. Abigail and Amelia then depart to take Waldo home.
Traveling across the rooftops of the city, the cats meet Scat Cat and his band, close friends to O'Malley, who performs the song "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat". After the band has departed and the kittens lie in bed, O'Malley and Duchess spend the evening on a nearby rooftop and talk, while the kittens listen at a windowsill. O'Malley offers to have Duchess stay and be with him, but she sadly turns him down, largely out of loyalty to Madame Adelaide.
The next morning, Duchess and the kittens make it back to the mansion, whereupon O'Malley departs sadly. Edgar sees Duchess and kittens coming and captures them, placing them in a sack hidden in an oven. Duchess tells Roquefort to pursue O'Malley and get help. He does so, whereupon O'Malley races back to the mansion, ordering Roquefort to find Scat Cat and his gang. Edgar places the cats in a trunk which he plans to send to Timbuktu, Mali. O'Malley, Scat Cat, his gang of Alley Cats, and Frou Frou all fight Edgar, while Roquefort frees Duchess and the kittens. In the end, Edgar is tipped into the trunk, locked inside, and sent to Timbuktu himself. Madame Adelaide's will is rewritten to exclude Edgar and include O'Malley and any future kittens he and Duchess have. Madame also starts a charity foundation providing a home for all of Paris's stray cats. The grand opening thereof, to which most of the major characters come, features Scat Cat's band, who perform a reprise of "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat".
House of Mouse[]
Duchess made a few cameo appearances in the animated series. Her only speaking role was in "Ladies' Night", where Daisy Duck announced a phone call for Duchess, having many Disney Princesses believe she was referring to them. Duchess then arrives and states, "Darlings, she said, 'Duchess,' not 'princess,'" and picks up the phone. This was also the only time in which a character that was previously voiced by Eva Gabor has dialogue.
Miriya & Marie[]
Duchess makes a minor appearance in the manga "Miriya & Marie" which ran from 2009 till 2012. In the manga, Marie introduces Duchess to Miriya after getting trained to use some magic by Marie. Duchess asks Miriya if she can show off some magic that amazes her. After Duchess congratulates Marie for teaching her some magic spells, she starts cuddling her. Miriya sees the two interactions and starts to cry when she starts missing her parents. Marie notices this and gets a magic crystal ball for Miriya's mother and father to interact with each other. Eventually, the crystal ball gets stolen, and Duchess watches on in shock. Marie actually has a small house of her own in the manga and apparently moved away from Duchess.
Once Upon a Studio[]
In the short, Duchess appears during "When You Wish Upon a Star", with Berlioz, Marie, Toulouse, Thomas O'Malley, Tod, Copper, Gurgi, Basil of Baker Street, Olivia Flaversham, David Q. Dawson, Dumbo, Timothy Q. Mouse, Flit, Mama Odie, and Boun as they surround Pocahontas as she sings. Duchess and The Aristocats characters join in singing the last line as the group photo is successfully taken for Disney's 100th anniversary.
Video games[]
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode[]
- “Graceful and kind, Duchess is a devoted mother and music lover who always carries herself with elegance. She cares deeply for her kittens and encourages to grow into proper aristocats.”
- ―Duchess' in-game Hero description.
Duchess in Disney Heroes: Battle Mode
Duchess is a playable character in Disney Heroes: Battle Mode. Introduced in Update 7.2., Duchess is a Back-Line Support role hero on the Red Team. Duchess' skills are: "Elegant Harmonics", "Elegant Vibes", "Duchess's Glare", "The Duchess's Jewel", and "Petal Serenade". These skills allow Duchess to (in the order):
- "Elegant Harmonics": Duchess gracefully plays the harp, dealing Fantastic Damage 3 times to a random enemy and Silencing them for a few seconds. This Silence cannot be prevented by Hardy stacks. Additionally, whenever Duchess or an ally attacks a Silenced enemy, they gain an HP Shield for a few seconds. Heroes can gain Shield this way, once every few seconds.
- "Elegant Vibes": Duchess nods her head while listening to music, granting herself and all allies an HP Shield for a few seconds, and Momentum stacks.
- "Duchess's Glare": Duchess shows her big glowing sapphire eyes, Charming the closest enemies for a few seconds. While Charmed, enemies gain Skill Power, and all of their Basic Attacks and Skills become guaranteed Crits. If a Charmed enemy is KO’d during this skill’s duration, Duchess immediately recasts it.
- "The Duchess's Jewel": Duchess and all allies are Immune to Limit. If an enemy attempts to apply Limit to Duchess or any of her allies, the targeted hero instead gains Skill Power and Overload for a few seconds. Overloaded allies have their Skill Levels increased.
- "Petal Serenade": Each additional note from “Elegant Harmonics” that hits the same enemy increases its damage by a percent. “Elegant Vibes” now also grants Empowered stacks to Duchess and all allies. Duchess and her allies cannot have their buffs removed or stolen during the first few seconds of each wave. When Duchess or an ally reaches 0 HP, she intervenes, Reviving them and Healing for a percent of their Max HP. She also grants them Momentum stacks. This effect can trigger up to a maximum amount of times per wave and cannot affect the same ally more than once.
Duchess has friendship campaigns with Lady & Tramp and Mushu. She also has friendship campaigns with Marie and Bambi.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Like Lady in Lady and the Tramp, Duchess is a house pet who gets accidentally separated from her home. As she tries to find her way home, she meets, falls in love with, and marries a street-smart individual. The difference is that Thomas O'Malley becomes a stepfather to Duchess’ kittens while Lady’s puppies are biological to Lady and Tramp.
- She was voiced by the late Eva Gabor, who also voiced Miss Bianca in The Rescuers and its sequel.
- Some of Duchess' dance moves were infamously reused for that of Maid Marian in Robin Hood.
- Duchess bears some resemblance to Mewsette from the Warner Bros/UPA film Gay Purr-ee, which coincidentally also featured talking cats in Paris, France.
- It is possible that after marrying Thomas O'Malley, Duchess' full name now appears to be Duchess Bonfamille-O'Malley.
- It is likely that Duchess' first mate (the father of her litter) had either orange and/or black fur, due to Toulouse and Berlioz having those fur colors.
- By the time of the movie, she's single and, evidently, romantically available; it is unknown what happened to her first mate.
- The Greek dub for Aristocats implies that he is either deceased or out of the picture, as Berlioz says "Πάλι δε θα 'χουμε πατέρα.", which translates to "Once again, we won't have a father." This could also imply that Duchess had been pursued by other cats in the past before meeting Thomas.
- More than likely, the kittens' father was a pedigree tom who Madame Bonfamille set Duchess up with for pedigree (breeding purposes). It would be the logical action of a wealthy doting cat owner.
- Additionally, Madame de Bonfamille is a kind cat lover more than willing to adopt Thomas on the grounds "that every household needs a male", as in she could see Duchess and Thomas being attached to each other. This could indicate that either the kitten's dad died of natural causes or (and most likely) Madame set up Duchess with a pedigree tom from another affluent family.
- By the time of the movie, she's single and, evidently, romantically available; it is unknown what happened to her first mate.
- Her name means wife's duke or woman duke who has the same equivalent rights to be a monarch ruling over a duchy or a member of the nobility.
- Duchess is the first main protagonist to be a single parent. In most other cases they are the hero and heroine's parent, or they already have a spouse.
- In animatics for the canceled sequel The Aristocats II, Duchess was voiced by the late voice actress Russi Taylor.
- Duchess is the only cat that doesn't wear a ribbon.
- In one comic, her personality slightly differs from that of her in the movie, where she can be seen punishing her kittens instead of telling them from wrong to right.
- In another comic, she can be seen attacking some alley cats, but only to save Thomas O'Malley from them.
- In one comic, her personality slightly differs from that of her in the movie, where she can be seen punishing her kittens instead of telling them from wrong to right.
- Duchess may be an inspiration for Mama Cat from Don Bluth’s Banjo the Woodpile Cat.
- In the Hungarian dub, Duchess is renamed as Hercegnő, which means princess.
References[]
- ↑ https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-call-obituary-for-candy-cand/102561440/
- ↑ The Aristocats: The Graphic Novelisation
- ↑ "Uncle Antoine's Visit", The Aristocats books
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