Based on Ward Greene's 1945 Cosmopolitan magazine story "Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog", it was directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wilfred Jackson.

Featuring the voices of Peggy Lee, Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Bill Baucom, Stan Freberg, Verna Felton, Alan Reed, George Givot, Dallas McKennon, and Lee Millar, the film follows Lady, the pampered Cocker Spaniel, as she grows from puppy to adult, deals with changes in her family, and meets and falls in love with the homeless mutt Tramp.

In 2023, Lady and the Tramp was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

The puppy, named Lady, grows up pampered by her doting owners and befriends her neighbors' dogs, Jock (a Scottie) and Trusty (an elderly Bloodhound).

Meanwhile, across town, a stray terrier-mix named Tramp spends his days wandering the streets, feeding on scraps and handouts, and causing trouble for the local dogcatcher.

Fleeing the angry dogcatcher after freeing his friends Peg the Pekingese and Bull the Bulldog, Tramp finds himself in Lady's neighborhood.

Tramp's words cause Lady to fret throughout Darling's pregnancy, but when the baby boy arrives, she is allowed to meet and bond with him, dispelling her fears.

Her attempts to alert Sarah fail, but Tramp hears her barking, returns, and enters the house himself to save the baby.

Jim Dear and Darling return home to find that Sarah has locked Lady in the cellar and handed Tramp over to the dogcatcher to be euthanized.

Disney enjoyed the sketches and commissioned Grant to start story development on a new animated feature titled Lady.

[6] Through the late 1930s and early 1940s, Joe Grant and other artists worked on the story, taking a variety of approaches, but Disney was not pleased with any of them, primarily because he thought Lady was too sweet, and there was not enough action.

[6] Walt Disney read the short story written by Ward Greene, titled "Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog", in the Cosmopolitan magazine, published in 1945.

The rat was a somewhat comic character in early sketches, but became a great deal more frightening, due to the need to raise dramatic tension.

[6] There was a love triangle among Lady, Tramp, and a Russian wolfhound named Boris (who appears in the dog pound in the final version).

[10] The film's opening sequence, in which Darling unwraps a hat box on Christmas morning and finds Lady inside, is inspired by an incident when Walt Disney presented his wife Lily with a Chow puppy as a gift in a hat box to make up for having previously forgotten a dinner date with her.

[6] On viewing the first take of the scene, the animators felt that the action should be slowed down, so an apprentice trainee was assigned to create "half numbers" in between many of the original frames.

Coats made models of the interiors of Jim Dear and Darling's house, and shot photos and film at a low perspective as reference to maintain a dog's view.

[12] Eyvind Earle (who later became the art director of Disney's Sleeping Beauty) did almost 50 miniature concept sketches for the "Bella Notte" sequence and was a key contributor to the film.

[7] This new innovation presented additional problems for the animators: the expansion of space created more realism but gave fewer closeups.

[18] Lady and the Tramp was first released on North American VHS cassette and Laserdisc in 1987 as part of the Walt Disney Classics video series and in the United Kingdom in 1990.

At the end of its initial home video release, it was reported to have sold more than three million copies, becoming the best-selling videocassette at the time.

Eventually in 1992, the California Court of Appeals order Disney to pay Lee $3.2 million in compensation or about 4% of the video sales.

[23] Lady and the Tramp was remastered and restored for DVD on February 28, 2006, as the seventh installment of Disney's Platinum Editions series.

[37] Harrison's Reports felt the "scintillating musical score and several songs, the dialogue and the voices, the behaviors and expressions of the different characters, the mellow turn-of-the-century backgrounds, the beautiful color and sweep of the CinemaScope process — all these add up to the one of the most enjoyable cartoon features Disney has ever made.

"[38] Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times described the film as a "delightful, haunting, charmed fantasy that is remarkably enriched with music and, incidentally, with rare conversations among the canine characters.

The website's consensus states, "A nostalgic charmer, Lady and the Tramp's token sweetness is mighty but the songs and richly colored animation are technically superb and make for a memorable experience.

[50] In its initial release, the film took in a higher figure than any other Disney animated feature since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,[16] earning an estimated $6.5 million in distributor rentals.

Walt Disney Pictures produced a live-action remake of the film with Justin Theroux and Tessa Thompson in the voice roles of Tramp and Lady respectively.

[citation needed] In the world builder game Disney Magic Kingdoms, Lady, Tramp, Tony, Joe, Jock and Trusty appear as playable characters, along with some attractions based on locations of the film.

Whilst Lady and the Tramp was in production, Walt was also designing Disneyland in California and styled the Main Street, U.S.A. area of the park to Marceline.