BACKGROUND
One Hundred and One Dalmatians is one of those Disney animated feature films that most people remember with joy and nostalgia, because who doesn’t like dogs?
Me. I don’t like dogs.
Well, I’m scared of dogs; it’s not like I want to make fur coats out of them or anything, but for that reason, I don’t particularly like One Hundred and One Dalmatians. It’s similar to how I feel about Lady and the Tramp (1955), although I struggled to find any sequences in One Hundred and One Dalmatians that I liked, unlike Lady and the Tramp.
To be fair, I hadn’t watched One Hundred and One Dalmatians in years before this week, and the only reason I would’ve watched it years ago is because my family wanted to watch it, not because I did!
It wasn’t awful to sit through; the first 45 minutes to an hour in particular weren’t too bad, but then the last half an hour was so slow, I just kept hoping the end was in sight! But One Hundred and One Dalmatians isn’t my thing – I just don’t like Disney’s “animal” films that much, and as there is very little music in this movie, I didn’t even have that to keep my interest. I also don’t particularly like the look of the movie; it doesn’t match the standards of the films that came before it, such as Cinderella (1950) or Sleeping Beauty (1959), but I’ll get to why that is later.
PLOT
One Hundred and One Dalmatians starts with quite a long opening sequence, introducing the credits. It shows line drawings of the Dalmatians, before throwing the black spots on to them, which makes the dogs bark and move. From this point, the spots are used in various ways, such as backgrounds for the credits to be written on; as smoke coming out of a boat; and as musical notes, all with a jazzy tune playing over it.
Then the actual action begins. A narrator speaks, saying how he is living a lonely, dull life as a bachelor in a flat near Regent’s Park, with his “pet”. This narrator is actually Pongo, the Dalmatian, not Roger Radcliffe, the human. Pongo wants to find himself and Roger a partner, so he starts looking out of the window at women walking their dogs down the street. Eventually, Pongo spots one he likes, and gets Roger to take him for an early walk, by changing the time on the clock so that it’s after 5pm, because Roger won’t stop his songwriting work before that time. The two head off to the park, with Pongo pulling Roger as he searches for the Dalmatian he saw with her “pet”. He sees them, on a bench, and walks past casually, to a patch of grass by the pond. Pongo starts trying to get their attention, by stealing Roger’s hat and playing with it, finally resting it on the bench next to the woman – but both of them have gone! Pongo sees them just ahead and runs in circles, so that Roger and the woman are tied together; they stumble, trying to get free but end up falling into the pond. Both of them are soaked, with the woman clearly upset by her new suit being ruined. Eventually, they laugh it off and we skip forward to the dogs and their “pets” getting married.
Roger and his new wife, Anita, move to a small townhouse near the park and hire Nanny, their cook and housekeeper. Perdita, Pongo’s “wife”, is expecting puppies and the two are very happy about that – until Anita’s overly flamboyant, posh schoolfriend, Cruella de Vil, pays them all a surprise visit. She’s looking for the puppies, but she’s three weeks too early and leaves, telling Anita to let her know when they’ve arrived. Perdita is visibly shaken by Cruella, and hides under the stove until she’s gone, as she knows Cruella is after their puppies. Pongo tells her not to worry. At the same time, Roger writes and sings a song about Cruella, and how strange and wicked she is, titled “Cruella de Vil”.
One October stormy night, exactly three weeks later, the puppies arrive, but the number is far higher than anyone expected, going from 8, to 10, 11, 13, to 15! Nanny comes in sadly, saying one was lost, so there’s only 14. Roger takes the puppy and rubs it gently; it comes alive again, so there really are 15 puppies! Everyone is overjoyed – but then Cruella returns. She’s horrified to see that they have no spots; they can’t be real Dalmatians. Anita assures her that all Dalmatian puppies start off like that, but they’ll get their spots in a few weeks. Cruella then demands to buy the puppies, for any price, because Anita and Roger clearly can’t afford to keep them. Roger stands up to her, saying they will not sell. Cruella is furious, and leaves, saying they can do what they like with the puppies, “drown them” even!
A few weeks later, the puppies are watching a show about a hero dog called “Thunderbolt” on television, complete with an advert for “Kanine Krunchies”, which has a surprisingly catchy jingle! The puppies are soon sent to bed, so that Pongo, Perdita, Roger and Anita can go for their evening walk, unaware that two men have been waiting around the corner for them to leave. The two, Horace and Jasper, barge into the house, much to the dismay of Nanny, who tries to get them to leave. Jasper goes upstairs, and Nanny follows, with Jasper shutting her in the attic until Horace has collected all the puppies. They leave right after. Nanny assumes they’ve stolen the silver, but is horrified to find it’s only the puppies that have gone. She tries to run after them and calls for help.
The next day, Cruella is reading about the incident, laughing. Jasper calls her, confirming they’ve got the puppies and asking for their money. Cruella tells him not to call her again and that they shan’t get any money until the job is done. Cruella then calls Anita to “check on them”. Roger is suspicious, believing Cruella has the puppies. Anita says that as Scotland Yard already investigated her and found nothing, they cannot do anything else. Pongo and Perdita, unhappy with waiting for the human police to find their puppies, use the “Twilight Bark”, a way to pass news to other dogs in the area. The message is passed on throughout London, with all of London’s dogs barking like mad. Eventually, the news gets further than London, all the way to Suffolk, where it is picked up by Colonel, an Old English sheepdog, who, along with Sergeant Tibbs, a cat, go to investigate. Puppies were heard barking at Hell Hall, the old De Vil place, confirming Cruella was behind the crime. Tibbs is sent inside to check, where he finds a whole room full of puppies. The nearest one says that none of them have been stolen, they were all bought from pet shops, but another points out that some have names and collars, so can’t have been. She tells Tibbs they are all around the television, watching alongside Horace and Jasper. Tibbs goes over to count them, careful not to be spotted; there are fifteen of them! As he’s about to leave to report this update, Jasper grabs Tibbs, thinking it’s his nearby bottle of wine. Both of them freak out, with Tibbs making a hasty getaway.
Meanwhile, Pongo and Perdita set off for Suffolk, navigating snow and a fast-flowing icy river. They’re told to find Old Towser, a bloodhound, who will direct them to Colonel. Colonel doesn’t hear any news of them and suspects the two are lost. Then, the De Vil car arrives at Hell Hall, with Colonel and Tibbs going back over there to see what’s going on. Tibbs overhears Cruella saying that the police are on to them and that the puppies must be skinned tonight. She orders Horace and Jasper to do it now, or she’ll call the police. The two decide to finish their programme first, giving Tibbs time to sneak all the puppies out through a hole in the wall. Jasper and Horace finish their show, and find that all the puppies are gone. They grab torches and start searching the house. Jasper finds them all hiding under a bed, with Tibbs scaring him so that they can make a run for it. They hide under the stairs, but are spotted again, and run to another room. Jasper and Horace shut them in, with the puppies being cornered, Tibbs trying to protect them. Pongo and Perdita finally arrive, having been heard by Colonel, and they jump in to the room and attack Jasper and Horace. Tibbs and the puppies flee through a broken window.
All of them escape and find shelter in a barn, where they find there are 99 puppies in total that have been rescued! Pongo and Perdita decide to take all of them back to London and they start on their exhausting journey, through snow and freezing weather, dodging Jasper and Horace’s attempts to recapture them as they follow in their van. The next morning, Cruella asks where the puppies are, and starts searching for them too. The dogs are given shelter in a dairy farm barn but start back out on their journey the next morning. They get to Dinsford, where a local black Labrador has organised a ride home for them, in a van heading to London. But Cruella, Jasper and Horace are in the village too. Pongo has a clever idea of covering the puppies in soot so they look like Labradors instead. It works – for a while, until melting ice drops on to some of them, revealing their spots, just as Cruella is driving past.
Pongo quickly gets all the puppies into the van, and it drives off, with Cruella in hot pursuit. Driving like a maniac, she constantly hits the van, trying to knock it off the road. Jasper and Horace try to head the van off at the next junction, but instead of hitting the van, they hit Cruella, sending them tumbling down a ditch, vehicles completely destroyed. Needless to say, Cruella is furious! But the van arrives in London, just in time for Christmas Day. Roger, Anita, and Nanny are heartbroken that Pongo and Perdita seemingly ran away, but Roger’s “Cruella De Vil” song has become a huge hit. They are shocked to find numerous black dogs at their door, but soon realise it’s their beloved Dalmatian dogs and puppies returning to them – along with 84 other puppies. They decide to keep all of them, with Roger and Anita planning to use their newfound wealth from the hit song to buy a big house in the country for them all, saying they’ll have a “Dalmatian plantation”.
CHARACTERS & CAST
Pongo and Perdita are the loving Dalmatian couple that the movie centres around. Pongo sets out to find a partner for himself, as he is lonely being a bachelor, and spots Perdita through a window, deciding that she is the one, and setting up a way for them to meet. They fall in love quickly, and are soon expecting puppies to complete their family. They are supportive of each other and work well together in pursuit of their stolen pups. Pongo is level-headed and adoring of Perdita. Perdita is slightly more cautious. She also fears Cruella de Vil, whereas Pongo is not afraid of her, vowing to protect Perdita. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston animated many of the scenes of the two dogs, with Frank animating the sequence of Roger reviving one of the puppies, and Ollie working on the scene of Perdita hiding from Cruella. Rod Taylor and Cate Bauer voice Pongo and Perdita respectively. Taylor played Mitch Brenner in the Hitchcock movie The Birds (1963), with his final film role being in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009) as Winston Churchill.
Of Pongo and Perdita’s fifteen puppies, only six have names: Lucky, Rolly, Patch, Penny, Pepper, and Freckles, with Rolly and Lucky being the only two distinguishable ones for me! Rolly is hungry all the time, and Lucky likes to watch television close to the screen!
Roger and Anita Radcliffe are the loving human couple, who came to be together because of Pongo’s persistence! It is quite the meet cute, being tangled in dog leads and falling into a pond together! Roger is a songwriter, who is relatively calm and collected most of the time, though he despises Anita’s friend, Cruella. He stands up to Cruella multiple times, despite Cruella making comments to put him down. Anita is a little bit naïve, in that she doesn’t believe Cruella is evil and puts up with her, even though it’s quite clear she doesn’t really like her! Milt Kahl animated many of the sequences of Anita and Roger. He particularly enjoyed animating the scene of Roger fumbling with his pipe when he is startled by Pongo, waiting for the puppies to be born[1]. English actors Ben Wright and Lisa Davis voiced Roger and Anita. Lisa Davis retired from acting in 1970, but had been acting since the age of 13. Ben Wright would voice Rama, Mowgli’s wolf father in The Jungle Book (1967) and Grimsby in The Little Mermaid (1989), that being his final film role, but he also starred as Herr Zeller in The Sound of Music (1965).
Cruella de Vil was animated by Marc Davis, who had a lot of fun designing this character, using inspiration from people he’d met; Cruella’s voice actress Betty Lou Gerson; and Mary Wicks’ live-action reference material, since Gerson did not look right for the character. The original book that the film is based on stated that Cruella had a great white fur coat, and half-black, half-white hair, so these were included in the character design, with Davis going even further with it, to ensure she’d be hated, giving her overly flamboyant expressions, crazy movements, and even green smoke coming from her pink cigarettes. Animators felt that Cruella stole the show from the rest of the characters, with Davis wondering if he’d “gone too far” with the character at times! Milt Kahl loved to design the crazy villains, so he was quite jealous of Davis’ assignment.
Betty Lou Gerson gave her all in the voice work, with her cackling laugh, the posh, entitled accent, and pushy tone. Cruella de Vil is Gerson’s most recognisable role, though she was the Narrator in Cinderella (1950). Together, Gerson and Davis created a villain who has gone down in movie history as being one of the best[2].
Alongside Cruella, we have her two bumbling henchmen, Jasper and Horace. Jasper is tall and skinny, the brains of the operations, with Horace being shorter and rounder, and the one who is told what to do! Jasper and Horace make a real mess of everything, with Cruella ruing the day she hired them to do a simple job like this! In a way, Jasper and Horace remind me of “The Wet Bandits” from the Home Alone films (1990-92), though Marv is the tall, dumb one, and Harry is the short, smart one! J. Pat O’Malley voiced Jasper. He did a lot of voice work for Disney, such as Cyril Proudbottom in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949), Tweedledee, Tweedledum, the Walrus and the Carpenter in Alice in Wonderland (1951) and would go on to voice Colonel Hathi in The Jungle Book (1967). Frederick Worlock voiced Horace.
Finally, for the humans, there is Nanny, the cook and housekeeper for the Radcliffe family. Nanny is dedicated to the family, but quite nervous and anxious. She gets in a real state when Horace and Jasper barge into the house, for example! Nanny was voiced by Martha Wentworth, who would voice Madam Mim in The Sword in the Stone (1963).
Then, there are numerous other dogs and animals. Colonel, the Old English Sheepdog in Suffolk who helps find the stolen puppies, is voiced by J. Pat O’Malley as well, with his loyal and brave second-in-command, Sergeant Tibbs being voiced by British actor David Frankham. Another interesting name I found in the credits is Thurl Ravenscroft, who voiced Captain, the grey horse who works alongside Tibbs and Colonel. Ravenscroft did a lot of voice-over and singing work for many Disney animated films and theme park attractions such as The Haunted Mansion and Country Bear Jamboree. He was also the voice of Tony the Tiger in Kellogg’s adverts from 1953-2005.
Finally, some characters from Lady and the Tramp (1955) make surprise, non-speaking, roles in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, during the “Twilight Bark” scene. Jock, a rougher, looser version of him anyway, receives the call for help and passes it on to a pet shop, where Bull and Peg can be seen, before Lady makes an appearance on the street. It was director Woolie Reitherman’s idea to re-use those animated characters for this scene[3].
PRODUCTION
The story for Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians was based on a children’s book, written by Dodie Smith, who used her own experiences of owning Dalmatians to come up with the story. She also claimed to have helped birth a litter of fifteen puppies, with her husband reviving one, just as Roger does in the film[4]. There are a few changes from the original story though. The most obvious is the title, which should actually be “The Hundred and One Dalmatians”, not “One Hundred and One”. Some others are that in the movie Roger and Anita’s surname is Radcliffe, whereas in the original book, they are called “the Dearlys”, with no first names being given. Mr. Dearly is not a composer, but worked in finance, being given a lifelong tax exemption as a reward for wiping out the government’s debt! They also had two nannies at their home in Regent’s Park, not just one.
Another change is that Pongo’s partner in the book is actually called “Missus”, with Perdita being a third dog, who is found out in the rain by Mrs. Dearly and taken into the home, partly as an extra way of feeding these extra puppies. The name “Perdita” means lost; she ran away from her owners as her recent litter of puppies had been sold and she wanted to find them. Cruella de Vil is a schoolfriend of Mrs. Dearly, as per the movie, however, in the book, it is revealed that she was expelled from school for drinking ink! One other change is that the whole experience at Hell Hall is much scarier, so much so that the puppies scratch “SOS: Save Our Skins” into a bone.
The original story adds the numbers up to 101 slightly differently as well, as there are three adult Dalmatians, not just two. 97 puppies are found at Hell Hall, including the fifteen stolen puppies, so that totals 100 Dalmatians. The final one is actually Perdita’s lost love, Prince, who returns to her at the end of the story[5].
Dodie Smith’s original story was published in 1956, with the book being brought to Walt’s attention a year later in 1957. He liked the universal appeal of the story. The rights were purchased after some discussions, and was passed over to Bill Peet, as Walt’s attentions were focused on other projects, such as his new theme park, Disneyland, television series, documentaries, and live-action films. His attention on animation had been waning for some time at this point, yet Walt Disney and Dodie Smith kept up a correspondence both during the production on the film and for many years afterwards. Dodie Smith stated that she had hoped Walt Disney might make a film of her book, even to the point where some of her writing was inspired by how it might be portrayed on screen. She gave Walt an autographed copy of the book; he responded by sending her pictures from the production on the film, telling her that they were aiming for a Christmas 1960 release. The film would be released in January 1961.
Smith would state in a letter to Walt Disney that she was heartbroken to find that her character, “Missus”, had somehow become “Perdita”, though Dodie Smith did come to love the film, along with both US audiences and the international press. The only gripe she had was that her name was only on the screen for a flash and in a small font during the credits. Walt apologised for this and sent her some original artwork from the movie by way of an apology. I do not know if this was fixed in later releases, as her name is bigger than the title of the novel in the version of the movie that I watched, and seemed to be on screen for a decent amount of time. Dodie Smith would write a sequel to “The Hundred and One Dalmatians”, titled “The Starlight Barking”, released in 1967. Walt Disney would not be alive to read the novel, let alone adapt it, so unfortunately, despite their hopes of working together again, it did not happen[6].
Legendary Disney story man Bill Peet wrote the script for the movie, becoming the first person to write a whole Disney animated movie singlehandedly. Despite the changes to her novel, Dodie Smith loved Peet’s storyline, saying that it was funny, exciting and suspenseful. Bill Peet joined the Disney Studios in 1937, in a low-level role as an in-betweener, but he was driven and soon got his story ideas into Disney animated features. From Dumbo (1941), his work was included in every other Disney feature that followed. The plot that Peet chose was relatively close to the telling of the story, and kept it controlled and centred so it would be easy to follow. It is a mystery story, something very different from the fairy-tale and fantastical stories that Disney had become known for at that time. It was a contemporary movie, with modern relationships and current themes, like smoking and television, and all the excessive advertising that comes with it! [7]. One Hundred and One Dalmatians was the first Disney animated feature to be set in a specific place and a contemporary time. Previous features had been based on fairy-tales set in non-existent places in non-specific times. Others were set in real locations, but based in the early 1900s.
One of the reasons for Disney to branch out with their story ideas like this was because of the failure of their previous release, Sleeping Beauty (1959). Unfortunately, Sleeping Beauty cost $6 million to make, using the traditional hand-drawn animation and ink-and-paint methods that Disney had become know for to evoke that magical imagery on screen; it only made back $5.3 million at the box office. Sleeping Beauty was twice as expensive as the previous Disney animated features, such as Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955). Because of the financial failure, Disney would not make another fairy-tale-based animated film for three decades, where they made a comeback during the Disney “Renaissance Era”, beginning with The Little Mermaid in 1989. At the same time that Disney were sticking with their well-known storybook style, other studios had started to become more modernist and experimental with their styles[8].
Sleeping Beauty was the last Disney animated movie to be inked and painted by hand. Although beautiful, the process was complicated and time-consuming, and Disney Animation knew that to stay profitable, they would have to find a cheaper method. Walt Disney had been told to close down Disney Animation as he had other profitable pursuits, but as animation was the basis for the whole company, he knew it had to keep going.
Walt turned to Ub Iwerks to come up with a solution. Iwerks had worked with Walt during the early days of Disney, with Mickey Mouse and Laugh-O-Grams. He left the Disney company in 1930, but returned in 1940 to develop new processes for visual effects. Iwerks had heard about the Xerox process and thought that could work for Disney animation. The method involves taking a photocopy of a drawing, transferring it onto a plate, before dipping that plate in toner and printing it onto an animation cel. This process had been used briefly for some parts of Sleeping Beauty, such as the Maleficent dragon scene, but was fully tested on the short Goliath II (1960). It worked well, so Xerox was the process that Disney Animation started using, putting all the inkers and painters out of a job. Xerox was used right up until the creation of CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) in the 1990s.
Sadly, the Xerox process was not without its problems, at least back in the late 1950s and early 1960s when Disney started using it. The biggest problem was that the line lacked subtlety, compared to that of an inked line. For One Hundred and One Dalmatians, the lines were all black, grey, or brown, which worked well with the black and white Dalmatians in the movie, but it did not work so well with other characters, as a black outline on everything makes it obvious that you are watching drawings, and takes away from some of the magic – at least, it does to me! Xerox would become more sophisticated, so that additional coloured Xerox lines could be used in later Disney features.
However, the animators liked this process because it meant that their original drawings were not tampered and changed by other people along the process, though there was a memo sent to make sure that all the drawings were clean and without construction lines. This meant many assistants had to go and tidy up the work of some of the big animating greats. Milt Kahl in particular did not like this, and hated other people changing his drawings, so many of his original drawings were kept exactly as they were!
With this new process came new ways of experimenting with motion in Disney Animation. For one thing, the driving scenes used Xerox. Small scale models of Cruella’s car and the two vans were built out of cardboard with strong black lines drawn on to the edges. They were suspended from the ceiling and pulled along to do a take. This take was then transferred to animation via the Xerox process. The process was repeated for the other scenes. When Cruella’s car is going up a snowbank, a snowbank was created with sand, with the action then being filmed and Xeroxed.
The Xerox process worked well for this specific movie, given the number of spots that were required, around 6.5 million of them, with Disney publicity stating that there were 72 spots on Pongo, 68 on Perdita, and 32 on each puppy. Lucky even has a horseshoe symbol on his back made up of three spots[9]. It was a crazy idea to begin with, with each one having to be drawn, but imagine if they’d all had to be inked and painted as well! Another was that Xerox gave the movie a more modern look to match the present-day story. Ken Anderson, the Art Director on this film, wanted the backgrounds and animation to feel cohesive. With the help of Colour Stylist Walt Peregoy, they found that additional detail could be Xeroxed and placed over the light backgrounds to match the graphic quality of the characters.
Although many audiences and artists love the look and stylistic design of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Walt Disney did not like it. He was sad to let go of the romantic, though expensive, style of animation he’d been used to, in exchange for this cheaper, sketchier animation style. Personally, I agree with Walt Disney on this one, but then, I’m no art buff! Ken Anderson, the Art Director on this film, said it took a long time for Walt to forgive him. In late 1966, Ken Anderson saw Walt on the studio lot, and they had a brief conversation. Anderson believed that with one look, Walt was saying that he finally forgave him for One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Two weeks later, Anderson and the rest of the Disney animators were told that Walt Disney had passed away[10].
MUSIC
Despite the fact that Roger is a songwriter in this movie, One Hundred and One Dalmatians is not a musical. In fact, there are only three songs in this whole movie. The three songs were written by Mel Leven and George Bruns. Leven worked with the Walt Disney Company on other projects such as Babes in Toyland (1961) and for the 1969 short It’s Tough to Be a Bird, which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject in 1970. Leven had also written songs for bigtime singers, such as Peggy Lee, Dean Martin and Nat King Cole.
However, Leven’s most famous song is likely to be “Cruella De Vil”, the main song in One Hundred and One Dalmatians. The original version was changed to a Blues tempo, to suit the character of Cruella better. The song at that end of the movie, “Dalmatian Plantation”, was another one that was changed from its original idea. It’s not a big song to finish the movie, so I find it forgettable. I used to like “Cruella De Vil” as a song, but I think it’s been overused now, so I don’t like it so much anymore! These two songs are performed by Roger in the movie, whose singing voice was provided by singer Bill Lee. As well as singing for Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965), Lee has performed singing work in many Disney movies, such as The Jungle Book (1967) and Lady and the Tramp (1955) as part of the group, The Mellomen.
The only other song is a spoof advertising jingle called “Kanine Krunchies” for the product of the same name. It is quite a catchy jingle, considering it is a parody of the advertisements of the time. This jingle is performed by Lucille Bliss, a well-known voice performer, who had performed roles such as Anastasia Tremaine in Cinderella (1950) for Disney, and Smurfette in The Smurfs (1981-1989).
George Bruns composed the score for One Hundred and One Dalmatians. He created a contemporary, jazzy score for this modern day, non-fantastical film[11]. I do quite enjoy the “Overture” at the start of the movie, with the opening credits sequence, but nothing else within the score stood out to me particularly. I’m not saying the score is bad, because it’s not, and it does compliment the action on screen; it’s just that I didn’t find it very memorable. Bruns had a longstanding working relationship with the Walt Disney Studios, which lasted from 1953 to 1976, when he retired.
There were plenty of deleted and abandoned songs from the One Hundred and One Dalmatians soundtrack, but none that I think were so good that they were worthy of being in the movie! One was a song that would’ve featured when the Dalmatians are in the van, heading back home. There was another peppier song, with a Christmas theme, as the Dalmatians return on Christmas Day called “Cheerio, Good-bye, Toodle-Oo, Hip-Hip!”. Jasper and Horace were even going to have a song, something to resemble a pub shanty, called “Don’t Buy A Parrot From A Sailor”, which was such a random song!
RECEPTION
One Hundred and One Dalmatians surprised everyone. As well as being less costly to make than previous Disney animated features, it also did incredibly well at the box-office, grossing around $14 million in North America in its initial run.
One Hundred and One Dalmatians brilliant box-office achievement allowed the Disney Studios to recover after their previous animated movie, Sleeping Beauty (1959), was a financial disappointment. One Hundred and One Dalmatians has continued to do well in its subsequent re-releases, in theatres and on home media.
In terms of critics’ reviews, One Hundred and One Dalmatians received some of the best reviews that Disney Animation had received since Dumbo was released in 1941. The critical reviews stated that the movie was unpretentious, fresh, and artistic, pushing the studio forward in a new direction. It was light-hearted and loved by both children and adults. Cruella de Vil was also warmly received, despite her unsettling love of fur coats and obsession with Dalmatians, with many loving her eccentric nature[12].
Cruella de Vil has since made it onto the American Film Institute’s list of “100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains”, sitting at No. 39 on the Top 50 Villains list. This list was created in 2003.
LEGACY
Given this response to the movie, it is no surprise that One Hundred and One Dalmatians spanned a successful range of spin-offs and sequels, more so, in my opinion, than many other Disney animated features, especially one released outside of the Disney “Renaissance Era”, though Cinderella (1950) has had a similar achievement.
Let’s begin with the animated sequels and spin-offs. Between 1997 and 1998, a television series was created called 101 Dalmatians: The Series, which primarily focused on three of the puppies: Lucky and Rolly, known from the original film, and Cadpig, their sister and runt of the litter, who was not named in the film. It follows their adventures at their new farm, where Roger and Anita have moved the family. Another animated television series, called 101 Dalmatian Street, is much more recent, being released on Disney Channel and on Disney+, running from 2019 to 2020. It is set 60 years after the original film, and follows a family of 101 Dalmatians who live in Camden, London, and are descended from Pongo and Perdita. Delilah, the mother of 99 puppies, is their great-great granddaughter. All of the dogs’ names begin with the letter “D”. Only one season was ordered and produced.
A sequel to One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released, direct-to-video. It is titled 101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure (2003). It is considered to be one of the better of these sequels, and follows Patch meeting Thunderbolt, the puppies’ TV hero, whose show they are all sat around watching in the original movie, after Patch is left behind when the Radcliffe family is moving to the country, to their “Dalmatian Plantation”. I think I watched this sequel and liked it, yet I can’t remember it. I believe I have mixed it up with Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure (2001); they are both about dogs getting lost! But 101 Dalmatians II has some very interesting names in its voice cast, like the Canadian comedian Martin Short, who voices Lars, an eccentric French artist; American actor Jason Alexander, voicing Thunderbolt’s sidekick, Lil’ Lightning; and the voice of Ariel from The Little Mermaid (1989), Jodi Benson, as Anita.
Then, there are the live-action spin-offs, with 101 Dalmatians being released in 1996, with some differences to the original film, such as Roger being an American video game designer, living in London, and Anita working as a fashion designer, at Cruella’s “House of de Vil”. The dogs also do not speak in this film and the original surname of Roger and Anita from the book, “Dearly”, is used. It features an impressive cast, such as Jeff Daniels as Roger; Hugh Laurie as Jasper; Mark Williams as Horace; Tim McInnerny as a new character, Alonzo, Cruella’s underappreciated butler; and of course, Glenn Close as Cruella de Vil. Despite receiving mixed reviews, a sequel to this, called 102 Dalmatians, was released in 2000. It follows Cruella’s release from prison, having been “cured” of her Dalmatian obsession, and how she reverts back to her old ways! I actually really like 102 Dalmatians, unlike the original movie or the live-action remake, which I can’t even remember much of! Close and McInnerny reprise their roles in 102 Dalmatians, with other great actors such as Ioan Gruffudd and Eric Idle joining the cast.
The most recent film to be released based on this franchise is the live-action prequel, Cruella, released in 2021, starring Emma Stone as a young Cruella, alongside the likes of Dame Emma Thompson and Mark Strong. This gives Cruella a backstory to how she got to be a fashion designer, set in 1970s London. I did quite like this film’s storyline, but it would’ve been better had it not been linked to Cruella de Vil at all; I disagree with the need to give all these Disney villains simple backstories to make them more human. Isn’t the whole point of a villain that we aren’t meant to sympathise with or relate to them, since they then cease to be an object of distress to anyone? Still, it wasn’t a bad film, and did well on its release, so much so that a sequel in the works, though little information has been revealed on Cruella 2 recently. It is unclear if it is currently in production or not. Around the time of the film’s release, Glenn Close, who was an executive producer on Cruella, stated that she had an idea for a 103 Dalmatians movie, so whether or not that becomes a reality, we’ll have to wait and see!
Speaking of Cruella, she has had a featured role in other Disney projects. Actress Victoria Smurfit played the role of Cruella de Vil in the series Once Upon A Time, in the show’s fourth and fifth seasons. This version of Cruella can actually control animals. I think Smurfit’s portrayal of Cruella is the best one; she’s calculating, evil, heartless, insane, yet also very funny. Another version of Cruella is seen within the Disney Channel Original Movie Descendants (2015), played by American actress Wendy Raquel Robinson. Cruella does not appear for much of the movie, nor for either of the two sequels, but her son, Carlos, is one of the four villain children who get to go to school in Auradon, away from the villain slum of the Isle of the Lost. Carlos was played by Cameron Boyce, who sadly passed away in 2019, at the age of 20.
There were also multiple video games released in the 1990s and 2000s based on One Hundred and One Dalmatians. I think my family had one, but I couldn’t tell you which, just that there was some game where you had to match dogs to their owners, based on the scene where Pongo is looking out the window, trying to find a partner for himself.
At the Disney theme parks, Cruella de Vil is the only character from One Hundred and One Dalmatians available for meet-and-greets, with her being particularly prominent at the Halloween parties, either as a meet-and-greet location or within the parades. Cruella de Vil is also now a main character in the live stage show Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After, which opened on 27th May 2025 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort. Hook and two other villains, Maleficent and Cruella de Vil, present their cases to the audience about who was treated the worst. The show is around 15-20 minutes long and runs throughout the day.
On the Disney Destiny on the Disney Cruise Line, there is a lounge themed to One Hundred and One Dalmatians, specifically Cruella de Vil and her love of high-class elegance and style called De Vil’s. Music from the movie may also be included in The Golden Mickey’s stage show on the Disney Dream and the Disney Wonder.
Merchandise based on the movie can be found at multiple shopping locations, and a whole area of Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort at Walt Disney World is dedicated to the movie, with some photo spots and large statues of Pongo and Perdita.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Plenty of people love One Hundred and One Dalmatians, those who were around at the time of its release as well as current audiences, so I am well aware that I am in the minority here by not liking it! Every Disney film has its fair share of fans and haters.
The fact that it is still being used as material for further Disney adaptations just proves how popular the franchise is, and I have to admit that without One Hundred and One Dalmatians there would be no Cruella, who is a good Disney villain, although not one of my favourites, nor would I have ever been able to see 102 Dalmatians (2000), so I suppose I have some reason to be thankful to One Hundred and One Dalmatians!
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Disney, Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians (2008).
[2] Credit: Disney, Cruella De Vil: Drawn To Be Bad (2008).
[3] Credit: Disney, Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians (2008).
[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘101 Dalmatians (1961)’, pp. 49-51.
[5] Credit: Alison Flood, ‘I wish more people would read…The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith’, The Guardian (online), 23rd April 2020.
[6] Credit: Disney, Sincerely Yours, Walt Disney (2008).
[7] Credit: Disney, Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians (2008).
[8] Credit: Parker Amoroso, ‘The Making and Impact of One Hundred and One Dalmatians’, The Walt Disney Family Museum Blog, 21st March 2022.
[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘101 Dalmatians (1961)’, pp. 49-51.
[10] Credit: Disney, Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians (2008).
[11] Credit: Disney, Redefining the Line: The Making of 101 Dalmatians (2008).
[12] Credit: Howard Thompson, ‘Disney Film on Dogs’, The New York Times (online), 11th February 1961.
The Disney Purist 