Watching The Aristocats as an adult

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I think what you're saying is actually "if I were in Edgar's shoes, I wouldn't go about it that way". But that's just it: Edgar is a particular character, with particular traits. He obviously can't kill the cats, so saying "he should just kill them" is irrelevant; that's just not who he is. Why can't he kill them? No definite answer, but several possibilities: he's a coward, he shrinks at the thought of blood, he's a sadist - imagining the cats suffering is more pleasing to him than knowing them dead - etc etc...
Not only is there absolutely no evidence that Edgar would be able to spend the money as he wished while looking after the cats (Madame has a lawyer, remember? I doubt he wouldn't be the one managing the estate), it would also be very uncharacteristic of Edgar to be satisfied with spending the cats' money instead of his own. On several occasions, he betrays how fed up he is with being in the service of somebody else. His idea of a happy life is to do nothing while enjoying fine and expensive things. So maybe you would be happy looking after the cats in a big house that wasn't yours, but he wouldn't: he just wasn't written that way. Thankfully, because otherwise there wouldn't be a story to tell.

"Occasionally I'm callous and strange."

If you want to see Aristocats for adults, I heartily recommend Felicidae. An English dubbed version is freely available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiKn-vPXFCc&noredirect=1

I completely agree with your point, OP. He was very clumsy about how he went about doing the deed so to speak. Plus, I think it was mentioned in the will that after the cats, Edgar is entitled to the estate, so if you try to eliminate the cats before hand, uh, whoops? Butler has the motive, he will be the first suspect. He is pretty dumb.

My view of the movie as, an "adult", this is sure to rub most people the wrong way, was how funny it was that Duchess' three children looked like they were offspring of three different tom cats. A white one like her, an orange one like O Malley and a blue one like one of Scat Cat's buddies. She is a little french floozy that was getting a lot of action. The Duchess indeed!

Something that doesn't occur to you when you're young.

Edgar is often described as a weak Disney villain, but I have never found that to be entirely true. Sure, he is nowhere near the more iconic Disney villains like Queen Grimhilde, Lady Tremaine, Maleficent, Shere Khan, Ursula, Jafar, Scar and Frollo. But then, you have to remember that what Edgar is fighting against is four (later five) innocent cats! So if he had been scarier, or even more competent, it wouldn't have been a fair battle at all.

Intelligence and purity.

I may get booed off the stage for this, but I think analyzing a movie so clearly aimed at little ones is nothing but a recipe for serious acid reflux.

Whatever logic and reason one might see as being absent is beside the point. This 78-minute cute-and-cuddly cartoon farce is not exactly ripe for profound cerebral analysis. It's meant to give seven-year-olds (and younger) something to laugh at, some songs to sing and a happy ending. I fully acknowledge and respect the deconstruction of the characters' motives, but I saw it when I was about 4, and I loved it because it was cute and cuddly and amusing and the songs were memorable at the time.

If I were to go back and deconstruct some of my all-time faves from early childhood, I would probably destroy my memories of all of the following:

-The Wizard of Oz - All you need in the world is at your doorstep, and you need never travel beyond there or have adventures? What the hell kind of moral is that to the story?

-Babe - Sure, as long as the pig can exhibit special skills he is worthy of being saved from slaughter. Otherwise, as Ferdinand assures us, "Christmas means carnage!"

-101 Dalmatians - Where, exactly, was this hand-to-mouth couple getting the money or credit to purchase the land for a "Dalmatian plantation"? It's not Cruela's demise suddenly made them flush.

-The original Star Wars trilogy - too many issues to count, but they addressed a few of them on "How I Met Your Mother", most notably the structural deficiency of the Death Star in that one laser rocket fired at the electrical core destroyed the whole thing.

I could conitnue, but you get the idea. Enjoy your childhood memories for what they were, not what they may have become after you've seen 12,000 more movies, aced your finals in Logic and Reasoning 101, and completed your masters degree in mechanical engineering.

Just MHO. Feel free to rip me apart. -kolybear70

the will was pretty stupid anyway. it would have been mote sensible to leave the money to edgar on condition taht the cacts were cared for. but then there wouldn't have been a story i suppose. the same things happens sometimes in an Agatha christie story - a will has been made that is so stupid it clearly invites skullduggery.

...but the cat came back...the very next day....