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It turns out that the character of "Lady" happened to be very close to Walt Disney's heart. The heroine of the tale is the animated duplicate of a puppy Walt carried home to his bride one night in 1925, as a peace offering after he had forgotten a dinner engagement. Walt's gift came in a hat box, the basis for the endearing opening scene in the film in which Jim Dear and Darling first meet their little Lady.

The character of "Tramp" was found in a short story about a roguish mutt written by a prominent newspaper executive, Ward Greene. Walt had read the story and wasted no time in contacting Greene. After an exchange of doggish anecdotes and family experiences involving their pets, the two agreed that Ward should write a book elaboration. The fresh story gave Disney's creative staff new freedom. About this Walt said, "We were free to develop the story as we saw fit, which is not the case when you work on a classic. Here as the characters came to life and the scenes took shape, we were able to alter, embellish, eliminate and change to improve the material."

More than four years in the making, approximately 200,000 individual drawings were created to bring Lady and the Tramp to the screen. Actual production began two years before Peter Pan was released in 1953. Cinemascope, with its enormously improved story-telling potential and dramatic wide-screen effects, sometimes quadrupled the work on each scene and increased the overall expenses by roughly 30 percent. Due to Cinemascope, there are more long shots and panning to show off the distinctive background artwork than in previous films.

To define the characters, studio artists and writers drew from their personal pets, the dog pound and the streets. Walt's philosophy about pets shaped the film from beginning to end. He said, "No person or family can ever completely "own" an animal. Any dog worth room and keep in a household has a life of his own. He's a dog; entitled to some natural animal life aside from being man's best friend and his most tolerant critic. It was when we ignored this that we got into trouble storywise and dogwise."