If you’re looking for a vampire bat, an inhuman beast, or perhaps someone who should be locked up and never released, then look no further than this next film. For this project, I’m focusing on the story itself, including dialogue, character development, any subplots, how a story presents itself, the speed at which it moves, if it slows down unnecessarily, etc.
A Brief Summary
(Taken from D23)
Animated feature about Pongo, a clever Dalmatian, who arranges to get married to the female of his choice, Perdita, and to round things out, gets his master, Roger Radcliff wed to Perdita’s pretty mistress, Anita. Soon Perdita produces 15 puppies, which the evil Cruella De Vil arranges to have kidnapped in her quest to make a fabulous Dalmatian-fur coat, also gathering many other puppies in order to accomplish her aim. Helped by the Twilight Bark, whereby dogs throughout the city and the countryside pass along the word of the missing puppies by barking, Pongo and Perdita go into action and locate 99 stolen puppies in Cruella’s sinister-looking home, Hell Hall. Pongo, Perdita, and the puppies manage to escape and through various ruses elude the pursuing Cruella. Cruella and her henchmen, Horace and Jasper Badun, get their just desserts. Roger and Anita adopt the puppies, and with their new family of 101 Dalmatians and Nanny to look after them, plan to build a “Dalmatian Plantation” and live happily ever after.
What works
- There was such good pacing in this movie. Whether it was Cruella’s perfect timing to stir up trouble, the pace at which new conflicts or decisions occurred or the amount of time it took for the dogs to get back to London.
- Roger & Anita (who are serious Disney Couple goals) but really, Roger was the standout of the pair.
- Roger’s mocking Cruella at any time is gold. Also, Roger saving Lucky who had been stillborn(?).
- Roger standing up to Cruella, though scared to death but he was a champ
- Roger’s on the nose with his no. 1 suspect (Cruella)
- One of my absolute favorite parts of this movie is how detailed it is from the animals’ point of view. Calling their owners as their human pets, how civilized they are (shout outs to the Collie and the cows for providing shelter and food for the dogs as they make their way back to London), and even more so, how organized they are. The organization by which Pongo and Perdita are able to find and return their puppies is insane. I’d dare say better than humans what with the animals using the Twilight Bark, checkpoints, strategies to avoid Cruella and Co., etc. to help save the day.
- As a wonderful example of life from a dog’s point of view, they’re watching a dog hero show. Not Zorro, not the Lone Ranger, but a western action show starring Thunder.
- Dialogue is on point. I’ve watched and loved this movie since I was little, but I don’t know how close I ever paid attention I’ve included more in the Honorary Mentions, but I wanted to highlight these a little bit more.
- “No spots. No spots at all. Just a horrid little white rat.” (Cruella)
- “Out of my way, you barkin’ haystack” (said to the Colonel)
- Hell Hall/De Vil place. I love how blatant the nickname is for Cruella’s family home, and frankly, I would love to explore Hell Hall. You kind of get to in the Animated Storybook computer game, but I would pay good money to do it now.
- One of the best car chase scenes ever at the end of the movie.
- That truck driver deserves all the things after going through the Cruella gauntlet back to London.
Honorable Mentions
- Lessons from Pongo:
- Springtime is “a tedious time for bachelors”
- dogs are a pretty poor judge of human beauty
- “just right for 2 couples starting out”
- Pongo might just be a better matchmaker than Mulan’s (and his success rate might be better too)
- When the dogs are watching their tv show early on in the movie, one of the puppies comments on the skills of the hero, Thunder
- “He’s even better than Dad.”
- “No dog is better than Dad.” (Daddy’s little girl)
- “He’s even better than Dad.”
- As an aside, the commercial guy (Kanine Krunchies) reacts when Pongo turns off the TV. It was a super small moment, barely any time at all, and yet I thought it was one of the coolest extra moments in the movie.
- Twilight Bark. Fastest form of non-tech communication.
- I wonder if the ‘Twilight Bark’ incident made the front page (what with all the dog barks)
- Horace and Jasper’s favorite show: What’s my crime? (I’d probably be a closet binge watcher)
- “If the panel fails to guess your unusual crime in ten questions, you will receive 2 weeks vacation at a fashionable seaside resort. all expenses paid. That is, after you’ve paid your debt to society.”
- Jasper and Horace act like they can’t do both the poppin’ and the skinnin’ with 99 puppies. I’m sure there would’ve been plenty to go around if the dogs hadn’t escaped.
- “Twice that many Dad. Now there’s 99 of us.” (Good math count)
- Cruella’s choice of car is fabulous and I am a little bummed that it was totaled by the end of the movie.
- “I’m tired and I’m hungry. And my tail is froze. and my nose is froze. and my ears are froze. and my toes are froze.” – Lucky (a frequent quote used by either me or my dad as I was growing up…and that I still use at times)
- At several times throughout the movie, Horace proves to be the brains between the pair. Kind of the Pumbaa to Jasper’s Timon when it comes to thinking up of ideas.
- Dalmatian plantation song which is the final musical number (sort of), but I would totally listen to a longer version of it if only to hear how many more works can rhyme with Dalmatian or plantation.
Side Questions
- Alright, I know this would essentially mean that the story couldn’t happen but here me out. What if Anita was only the dog walker? Pongo is scoping out his mate (and Roger’s mate) and he knows NOTHING about the dogs and humans he’s seeing. So what if Anita didn’t actually own Perdita, but was just a dog walker?
- I wonder how long it took Roger to realize that both his watch and house clock were wrong (Thanks, Pongo). My money is that they didn’t get changed until after Roger and Anita were married.
- What school did Anita & Cruella go to that Cruella looks years older? Or was it the smoking?
- Cruella was inspected by Scotland Yard. Inspected by Scotland Yard? How hard did they try?
Would I watch this movie again?
- Absolutely! There is a solid plot and solid execution of said plot. And now that Disney+ has been launched, I can watch it anytime I want.
If you’ve seen One Hundred and One Dalmatians, what are some of your thoughts? Share in the comments below!
Rewind to the beginning of the Disney Film Project
Skip back to the previous film with Swiss Family Robinson
Fast Forward to the next film with The Absent-Minded Professor
One Hundred and One Dalmatians can be found at Disney+
Leave a Reply