101 Dalmatians (1961)
Disney’s gone to the dogs with spots before their eyes.
Brief Backstory
Losing so much money to the financial struggles with Sleeping Beauty and Disneyland, Walt Disney moved forward and decided to use a different animation style to make up for the trouble. His first movie to do so was 101 Dalmatians, the 17th Disney animated feature.
Disregarding the concerns over the animation, 101 Dalmatians (or also titled One Hundred and One Dalmatians) would quickly become a big turnaround for Disney and rank as a well beloved movie of the early 1960s.
Story
Pongo and Perdita, owned by multi-instrumentalist Roger and his wife Anita, end up with a batch of 15 puppies. Cruella De Vil, affiliated with Anita, hires Jasper and Horace to dognap the puppies and have them flayed for Cruella to make a fur coat after Roger refuses to give in.
Random Facts
Animation of Sergeant Tibbs being attacked by Jasper is reused from Cinderella.
A cartoon from Disney’s earlier Silly Symphonies (dating to around 1929) is seen on the television.
One of Groening’s (creator of the Simpsons and Futurama) favorite Disney movies.
Ben Wright would also voice Grimsby in the Little Mermaid.
Although beaten by Goliath II for being the first Disney material to be Xerox animation, it was the first full length animated feature.
Random Opinions
I wondered why Cruella said she’d call the police on Jasper and Horace, however her intentions were to have the duo arrested for the dognapping if they didn’t fulfill their part.
Not sure why some people don’t really like the Xerox animation; sure it’s not as clean as other Disney movies but that’s fine with me.
Pros
- The Xerox animation looks really good, and appears to have worked better for this over later Disney movies.
- Cruella deserves to be considered one of the most evil villains in Disney history (certainly not number one but she’s up there)
- Roger deserved to make a fortune on the Cruella De Vil song. No royalties to dog nappers though.
Cons
- I’m aware this is just storytelling but the police really had that much trouble on finding stolen puppies?
Rating: 9/10 – Amazing
Equivalent quality to Beauty and the Beast and one of the greatest Disney movies of all time.
One response to “101 Dalmatians”
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101 Dalmatians a 7/10 for me. Although good, I didn’t like the early romance with Roger, and 99 puppies live with their new owners feels unrealistic and the dogs watching TV doesn’t connect to the plot whatsoever. Doesn’t come close to Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. My favorite film of 1961.
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