Gay Purr-ee

Gay Purr-ee is a 1962 American animated musical feature about a country cat who runs away to 1890s Paris, produced by United Productions of America (UPA) and released by Warner Bros. It was directed by Abe Levitow, written by Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones and his wife Dorothy Jones, and features the voices of Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, and Red Buttons, with eight songs by Harold Arlen and E. Y. "Yip" Harburg, the songwriting team behind The Wizard of Oz (1939).^{1 • 2}

Production

The project was initiated by producer Lee Orgel, UPA's Director of Program Development, who acquired the story and screenplay from Chuck Jones and his wife Dorothy, who devised the original concept.^{9 • 8} Production began on June 6, 1961, according to trade press reported in the AFI Catalog, with an early budget estimate of $1.3 million.¹

Casting. The June 9, 1961 Los Angeles Times announced that Judy Garland would voice Mewsette. Garland recorded her vocals in November 1961; for the three weeks of recording she was paid $50,000 plus 10 percent of the gross, a provision TCM's film historian Jeremy Arnold describes as unusually generous for the time.^{1 • 2} Gene Kelly was reported among the voice cast in July 1961 but withdrew because of his commitment to direct Gigot in Paris; Elvis Presley was considered as a replacement and declined because of a scheduling conflict.¹ The producers had wanted Maurice Chevalier but could not obtain his services, and Morey Amsterdam provided both the narration and the voice of the sleeping cat in the train station.⁸ Robert Goulet, then a Broadway sensation in Camelot, took a week's leave in November 1961 to record the voice of Jaune-Tom in Los Angeles, completing his role in five days; the part was his feature-film debut.^{1 • 4} The supporting cast included Red Buttons, Hermione Gingold, Paul Frees, and Mel Blanc.⁶

Distribution deal. In November 1961 The Mirisch Company partnered with UPA for distribution through United Artists, but a month later UPA president Henry G. Saperstein, frustrated by UA's delay in financing, moved the picture to Warner Bros. Pictures. The Warner deal provided a $1 million budget against UA's offered $700,000. Saperstein declined Warner's request for a second animated film, since Gay Purr-ee still required another seven months of production and 40,000 drawings alongside UPA's television obligations.¹

Design. The film's backgrounds work in simulations of paintings by Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Seurat, and Picasso, and its stylized, modernist look drew on UPA's graphic approach, the studio having absorbed many artists Disney laid off after Sleeping Beauty.^{2 • 9} Production design credits went to Robert Singer, Richard Ung, Corny Cole, Ray Aragon, Edward Levitt, and Ernest Nordli, with Victor Haboush as art director.^{1 • 8}

Songs

Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg wrote eight songs for the film, reuniting with Garland 23 years after The Wizard of Oz. The titles are "Mewsette," "Roses Red, Violets Blue," "Take My Hand, Paree," "Paris Is a Lonely Town," "The Horses Won't Talk," "The Money Cat," "Little Drops of Rain," and "Bubbles."^{1 • 8} The blues number "Paris Is a Lonely Town," sung by Garland, became the score's biggest hit.² Garland's arranger and conductor Mort Lindsey arranged and conducted the score, and the soundtrack album was released on Warner Bros. Records in 1962; it went out of print until Rhino Handmade reissued it on CD in 2003 with demo tracks sung by Arlen and Harburg.^{8 • 12}

Release and reception

The film opened in the United States on October 24, 1962, with a Chicago premiere planned for November 9 and a Los Angeles opening on December 5, supported by an $800,000 to $900,000 advertising campaign. Garland was scheduled to make personal appearances in New York to promote it, though reports that it would play Radio City Music Hall over the holidays were denied.^{3 • 1}

Critical response. Reviews were mixed. The technical work drew high praise: Variety deemed the artwork to "rank with the finest ever manufactured in the specialized realm of the animated cartoon," and the New York Times praised its "fetching color canvas" and "superbly imaginative panorama of Paris."² Criticism centered on the film's attempt to reach both adults and children, satisfying neither: the story was seen as too uninspired for adults while the stylized animation was deemed too sophisticated for children.² On Rotten Tomatoes, 60 percent of 5 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8 out of 10.³ The film earned an Academy Award nomination for Art Direction and a Parents magazine Family Medal, but Variety described its commercial success in February 1963 as "dubious."¹

The Chuck Jones dispute and Warner Bros. animation

The Warner distribution deal carried an ironic consequence for the film's co-writer. Warner Bros. was angry with Chuck Jones, one of its longest-serving animators, for moonlighting with a rival studio on Gay Purr-ee; the dispute led to his departure, and in 1963 the Warner animation unit closed altogether.² Jones and Levitow later reunited to co-write and co-direct The Phantom Tollbooth (1970).² The Internet Animation Database lists the film as the first fully-animated film released by Warner Bros.⁴

Legacy and home media

Gay Purr-ee was Garland's first and only voice work in animation.⁴ It was released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1991 by Warner Home Video, reissued on VHS in 1992 and 1994, first released on DVD in 2003 in its original 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio, re-released on DVD in 2014 as a Warner Archive manufactured-on-demand title, and issued on Blu-ray on August 29, 2023.^{11 • 10} The Film Society of Lincoln Center's listing calls the animation "frequently remarkable or stunning."⁷

References

1. Gay Purr-ee (1962), AFI Catalog of Feature Films
2. Gay Purr-ee (1962), by Jeremy Arnold, Turner Classic Movies
3. Gay Purr-ee, Rotten Tomatoes
4. Gay Purr-ee (1962), The Internet Animation Database
5. Gay Purr-ee (1962), The Numbers
6. Gay Purr-ee, Apple TV
7. Gay Purr-ee, Film Society of Lincoln Center
8. Gay Purr-ee, The Judy Room filmography
9. Gay Purr-ee, AbeLevitow.com
10. The Warner Archive Collection, The Judy Room
11. Gay Purr-ee, Animated Views (2003)
12. UPA's "Gay Purr-ee" on Records, Cartoon Research
13. AFI|Catalog

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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