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Many people don't really care about genetics in animated movies, and I can understand that. However, I did learn a bit about cat coat colour thanks to the Aristocats. Why? I've always wondered "who can Duchess have a red kitten, a black/grey kitten and a white kitten?"
Cats like Duchess are completely white because they have a gene called white masking gene (W or w). W = white. w = non white. a non-white cat is w/w. A white cat can be either W/w or W/W. The gene is dominant so it prevents the "real" colours of the cat to show. Since Duchess has non-white kittens, we know that she is W/w.
But what is her "real" coat colour?
There is another gene that code basic coat colours : red and black. This gene is located on the X chromosome. O is red, o is black (or the absence of red). Normally, males can only be either black or red unless they have a chromosomal anomaly or are a chimera because they only have one X chromosome. Females can be tortoiseshell ("calico" minus the white) because they have two X chromosomes.
Duchess has one red kitten and one black kitten. It doesn't matter whether the father is black or red because she's the one who gives them their X chromosome. We know she is toirtoseshell because she has to have both the O gene and the o gene to have her kittens.
Tl,Dr
Duchess is : W/w, O/o -> tortoiseshell masked by dominant white
Marie is : W/w but can be O/O, O/o or o/o -> black, red or tortoiseshell masked by dominant white
Toulouse is : w/w and O -> he only has one X chromosome and is red.
Berlioz is w/w and o -> he only has one X chromosome and is black.
There are many other genes coding for coat colours such as colour dillution, albinism ("colourpoint"), tabby marking, piebald gene, etc. I only covered the basic colours because Duchess' family doesn't have any "unusual" colour.
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