User Reviews

One of Dodie Smith's friends once looked at the novelist's dalmatians and said: "Those dogs would make a lovely fur coat!" It's this single phrase that inspired Mrs. Smith and led her to write what was about to become her most popular and influential novel: "The Hundred and One Dalmatians". I don't know who was this friend and what was he/she doing for living and what was his/her name. But whoever this person is, he/she inadvertently changed popular culture forever. This shows at which point the simplest sentences can become monumental.

Smith's novel was adapted by none other than Mr. Americana himself, Walt Disney. "101 Dalmatians" was Disney's first work of the '60s, the last decade of his life, but it doesn't mean that old age slowed him anyway.

It is Disney's 17th animated-feature film and 7th focusing on furry animal characters. It's the story of Pongo and Perdita, a dalmatian couple, whose puppies have been kidnapped by Cruella De Vil, one of the most cruel and diabolical characters portrayed by Disney and his crew. Cruella collected every dalmatian she could, so she would be able to make a fur coat from them. But Cruella didn't plan that Pongo, Perdita and a whole network of animal companions would unite their efforts in order to win back the puppies and get home safely.

As previously said, Cruella is by far the most interesting character of the lot. We never know how Perdita's mistress Anita became friend with Cruella, but we guess that Cruella's not interested in Anita: she only wants the dalmatian. Cruella has a scary look. She looks like an old witch. She doesn't respect anyone and she's only interested in her desires. That's what makes Cruella one of the creepiest and most interesting villains of Disney's universe.

But my predilection goes to the puppies themselves, which are absolutely adorable and charming. My favorite scenes are those where Pongo, Perdita and their 15 puppies watch a western on TV.

We don't get to know each one of the 15 puppies, but some are highlighted. There's Patch, who is probably the group rebel, with his black spot on his eyes and his love for hard words; there's Rolly, whose favorite phrase is: "I'm hungry" and there's Lucky who looks like the precursor of Generation X, because he always got the nose on the TV.

The viewer is also introduced to the dogs' own communication system: the "twilight bark", which looks like a large-scale Chinese whispers game. This is wildly imaginative and it's one of the most fascinating aspects of the dogs' own world.

Outside of the dalmatians, my favorite animal characters are the "military shed": a horse called Captain, a sheepdog called Colonel and, last but not least, Sgt. Tibbs, a courageous cat who is assigned to save the puppies from their countryside prison.

Cruella is sided by two stupid and running-gag henchmen, Jasper and Horace. These two foolish guys provide most of the film's laughs and they're not too overshadowed by their horrible boss.

Animation, even if it doesn't break any ground, is excellent, but not perfect. Victorian houses of London are well pictured, but it's not exceptional. It's the animals who are the best drawn. The dalmatians weren't easy to draw, because they don't have a uniform fur. Artists had to draw them white and then adding the black spots over and over, during 70 minutes of screen time. It must have been a monumental task.

Every classical Disney aspect is here: drama (the main plot), comedy (Horace & Jasper and some secondary/tertiary events), fearsome elements (Cruella), suspense (Sgt. Tibbs' puppies rescue) and action (the climatic car chase). And let's not forget some potentially symbolic images, such as the dalmatians' long walk in the blizzard and the puppies watching TV.

Also a thumbs-up for the music, and especially for the Cruella's title song. The soundtrack is mainly made from jazzy parts and it's very adequate.

Another feature, another classic. Walt Disney never deceives us. After this film, we became more familiar with two elements, both from the title. First, the number 101, when heard, is almost instinctively associated with this movie, and so is the dalmatian dog itself. It's another success that both parents and children will like for generations to come.

I always considered this one of Disney's lesser efforts, with Cruella DeVil being it's saving grace. One of the great movie villains of all time, she seemed to be the life of this story. However, after my two year old daughter became obsessed with several scenes, I found that I was able, after watching it over and over, to appreciate many of the little details.

101 Dalmatians is the story of a family of puppies who are kidnapped by an evil fur-loving heiress who wants to make them into a coat. It's a fairly simple story, and not everything about it is entirely novel. The climactic car chase, for example, doesn't really have much to it when you break it down. Most of the characters are pretty bland, in contrast to the outrageous Cruella.

Yet, I find myself appreciating these attributes, having grown tired of every children's movie since Aladdin showcasing at least one smart-alec, pop-culture referencing sidekick to plant the story firmly in the age of irony. It is refreshing to return to a time when we didn't have Eddie Murphy or Nathan Lane doing hyperactive voice-overs filled with in-jokes meant for the adults.

In addition, I like the visual style, which other reviewers noted came about through a process meant to finish the film more cheaply, and which would be used for nearly twenty years of Disney movies. I especially enjoy the detail in the London street scenes, but I also like to watch the way the characters move, at times almost breaking out of the two-dimensional plane. Watch as Anita tries to walk around Roger while he is singing about Cruella. He jumps to the side to block her, and you feel the depth of the room better than you expect you could. There are also some great facial expressions (my favorite being the exasperated Anita as Roger descends the staircase at the reprise of "Cruella DeVil"). Throw in a couple hidden references (some characters from Lady and The Tramp and some older Disney cartoons), along with a score that's fun to whistle, and I find that I don't really mind watching this one over and over.

The animated sequel, 101 Dalmatians part 2, offers some laughs for fans of the original by bringing back some of the little details, such as showing Cruella's reconstructed car, and employing Thunderbolt and Kanine Krunchies as plot devices. However, comparing the new movie with the original, you can see how much has changed in the expectations for family entertainment. I get the idea that as long as movies are animated and don't contain anything outright offense, there will be people who praise it as decent children's viewing. Disney deserved his success because of the care he put into his movies--not just the look, but the story, the feel, the characters, what audiences would take from it. (For a jaw-dropping example of just how much thought went into a story, listen to one of the extras on the Bambi DVD where you "listen in" on some of the planning sessions Disney had with his creative teams). Pixar seems to be the only ones doing anything that comes close to this today. That's why they deserve their success, too.

This is a Disney film I first saw as a kid and I liked it. Several years later, I watched it again and I still like it. It's a charming film with a laid-back quality and more contemporary look and feel than any of the Disney movies that came before it.

The animation certainly doesn't compare to the animation in the Disney films that came before it such as Sleeping Beauty and Lady & The Tramp, but it works well enough on its own. The characters (both human and animal) are drawn with more of a sharp and angular look and the backgrounds are drawn with that same kind of style as well.

The opening credits sequence is fun to watch even though it mostly consists of using Dalmatian spots as a series of visual puns, but the sequence does help to get you to look forward to the rest of the film.

The songs are a nice delight to listen to, despite that this movie isn't really a musical like most Disney films, but the two songs (Cruella De VIl & Dalmatian Plantation) are catchy and kind of memorable. The rest of the music works fine with the movie. My favourite part is during the opening credits sequence.

Cruella De Vil is a really fun villain and a lot of that comes from the way she's drawn, animated and voiced. She is probably the best character in the movie. The rest of the human characters are fine, but nothing outstanding. The main Dalmatian characters are fun to watch (especially during the scene where they're watching TV or when they have to disguise themselves as Labradors to get past Cruella's evil clutches) and most of the other animal characters have some fun moments as well.

The plot is a bit out-there, but it works fine for a family film.

Overall, 101 Dalmatians is a charming, laid-back and entertaining movie that has been enjoyed by kids and adults in the past and should continue to be enjoyed for generations to come.

And yet another dog film brought to us by Disney.

When it comes to animation, Dalmatians started a trend in Disney I don't really care for. Strapped budgets required some money-saving scheme, so in walked Xerox and with it the very scratchy-outliney style that lasted through The Rescuers. There's just something about that style that bugs me- perhaps it suggests a lack of refinement and finishing. Anywho, it is what it is, and despite my predisposition, I did love the elegance of the dogs- they always felt wonderfully sleek and fluid. Surprisingly, there are very few songs. In fact, there is only the infamous Cruella De Vil and a short blurb at the ending. I guess the extreme popularity of Cruella more than made up for the lack of other songs.

When reviewing this film, I feel I must draw at least some upon comparisons to Lady and the Tramp. They were made so close together, yet appear so radically different. You can see the radical changes in Disney really start to break through around 1960 (it happens again at the end of the 80s). Once again, we are dealing with a dog's point of view, but for some reason it does not feel as entirely faithful to that point as in its predecessor. There is just a little too much focus on the human characters- the dogs begin to run into danger of stepping the boundary of cartoon-animals-that-talk land, instead of being purely animated characters (that trend only gets worse from here).

What keeps this film from getting a higher score is it's not as easy to get plugged into as some stories. Being more of an adventure film than a love story, Dalmations just doesn't leave that much impact on me. It was suspenseful and well-crafted, but it never gripped me with meaningful relationships or outstanding characters or charged lines. Not to say that adventure films are inherently bad, but outside of spectacular sequences or plots, they are harder to invest in. And Dalmatians simply didn't offer me anything investable.

So in the end, Dalmatians is kind of like a piece of bubble gum. I never really crave it, but it's fun to get as a novelty once in a blue moon. And after 10 minutes of unsuppressed bubbles, I spit it out and it doesn't cross my mind again. It's good for a pleasurable throw-away afternoon, but has little use beyond that.

Quote of the Film:

-I live for furs. I worship furs! After all, is there a woman in all this wretched world who doesn't?

The reason I like animated films like 101 Dalmatians is because they don't take themselves too seriously. Two other Disney films like this one, The Aristocats and Jungle Book, are, not so coincidentally, made by the same director and (mostly) the same writing staff. I'm unaware if other Disney films were also made by them, but this trio of films represents the most fun I've gotten out of Disney.

101 Dalmatians opens with Pongo, bored to death, looking out the window, while his owner Roger, his 'pet', is composing at the piano. Longing for a mate for both him and his 'pet', he arranges for Roger to meet a woman called Anita and her Dalmatian Perdita. In typical Disney fashion, they get married before you can say Bob's your uncle. Perdita eventually gives birth to fifteen puppies. That's when Cruella De Vil pops her head around the corner and decides she wants the puppies' skins for a new fur coat. When Roger and Anita obviously refuse, she hires Horace and Jasper to 'dognap' them. Roger, Anita and the police are unable to find the lost puppies and so it is up to Pongo and Perdita to track them down with help from the rest of the animal kingdom.

If there's one thing that pops to mind when critiquing 101 Dalmatians, it's the quality of the animation. I'm not too sure of the history, but it looks like it was financially impossible to pump too much money in the animation department. Backgrounds are sometimes monotone and lack depth. Several types of animations also repeat throughout the film, such as Pongo running (to the right) which is not only repeated once or twice, but sometimes even obviously mirrored (with Pongo running to the left). But these technical details are easy to forgive, because of the humor which is quite often of the adult kind. No kid watching this will ever see the horse and the dog from the barn as military satire.

Also amusing is the subtext of humans being more like dogs than one might think. This is not necessarily new. In fact, it's about as old as Darwinism, but it's pleasant that we're not hit over the head with this message. There's no grand monologue on how humans must realize they are more animal-like than they'd like to think. Instead, it subtly reoccurs through imagery and dialogue. Pongo refers to Roger as his 'pet' multiple times. Also cute is when De Vil accidentally sprays Roger with ink, making him visually similar to a Dalmatian.

101 Dalmatians and similar films like The Aristocats and Jungle Book represent Disney at its most humorous. Gone are the overtly grand moral statements ('when you wish upon a star'), something which 101 Dalmatians is not interested in. Instead, watching it feels more about having a good time. Consequently, this might not make it one of Disney's best, but the humor and its not-too-serious nature more than make up for it.

I love this move. It is so adorable. Cruella De Ville used to scare the crap out of me, though, when I was a little kid. But I still love it. It is so cute. I loved all the little puppies. This movie, if you haven't seen it, which is like three people on the entire planet, it is about a family of Dalmatians. Two adult Dalmatians have puppies. Then Cruella De Ville wanted to steal them, to make a fur coat out of them. How cruel is that? And then as she's trying to steal them, the puppies run away and everyone, including Cruella, the puppies parents, and the owners are now looking for these puppies. I love how it ends up with one hundred and one Dalmatians, hence the title of the movie.