ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIONS (1961)

RELEASE DATE: Wednesday 25th January 1961

By 1961, over a decade had passed since the animation department at Disney was reborn with Cinderella. Animation techniques had been getting more refined with every release, and with the addition of television, live-action movies and Disneyland, the company was expanding into all kinds of new directions. However, things in the animation world were difficult. After the long and expensive production of Sleeping Beauty, which failed to recoup its costs at the box office, Walt felt like it was simply not financially viable to produce animated films anymore.

All the same, he promptly acquired the rights to Dodie Smith's 1957 novel as soon as he read it. The author herself was thrilled at the thought of Disney turning her book into an animated classic. The saving grace was a new technique using Xerox photocopying technology. Instead of the long and arduous process of tracing every single frame of animation on to a cel with ink, the new technology allowed the animator's original drawings to be transferred directly, eliminating the need for "inkers" and allowing Walt to dismiss hundreds of staff.

The plus side of this was that the film was substantially cheaper to create than Sleeping Beauty. The down side was that the visual style looked very "sketchy," and lacked the refinement that audiences had come to expect from a Disney movie. Gone were the strong fine lines, replaced with sometimes scratchy-looking pencil marks. This was not only reflected in the characters themselves, but the backgrounds were all given a very hand-drawn, pencil-ish look which was a far cry from the lavish backgrounds seen in Sleeping Beauty.

It's said that Walt himself disliked the visual style of the film. He much preferred the lavish and detailed look of the older movies. But times were tough (in 1960 the Walt Disney company had its first annual loss in a long time) and money talked.

 
Right from the opening credits, it's clear that this isn't going to be your average Disney movie.

You'll notice that after two movies in widescreen Cinemascope, we're back to good ol' 4:3 again. The story of One Hundred and One Dalmations takes place in London. A voice narrates that the main character, Pongo, lives with his "pet" in an apartment. The only problem is, his pet is fairly boring and needs to find a mate. (It turns out that the "pet" is actually the human and it's the dog narrating) Pongo thinks he's discovered the perfect mate and "arranges" a meeting situation.

The ruse works. The humans, Roger and Anita, fall in love and are soon married. Pongo and Anita's dog Perdita follow likewise.

What would usually be the "happily ever after" is just the beginning in this story, however! Anita's loud and overbearing old schoolmate Cruella De Vil busts into the scene. She is mad for furs, and suspicions begin to be raised when she shows an interest in buying Perdita's upcoming litter of puppies...

The day finally arrives. Fifteen puppies are born, although one doesn't quite make it. Roger makes a last-ditch attempt to save the little pup.

The little guy miraculously survives and from then on is known as "Lucky." At last the happy family is complete. The puppies begin to grow, but Cruella has her sights set on taking them away. Roger, in an act of unnatural bravery, stands up to Cruella and tells her that the puppies are not for sale. In a rage she screams that she will get them one way or another...

Some time later, the dog family is watching its favourite T.V. show.

Little do they know that Horace and Jasper, two hired goons, are waiting patiently for the right moment to dog-nap every single puppy while Roger and Anita take the big dogs out for a walk.

Their rotten plan succeeds. The puppies are dognapped and whisked away to Cruella De Vil's hideaway, Hell Hall. Heartbroken, Pongo and Perdy decide to access the Twilight Bark gossip network to see if any other dogs have heard of the puppies' whereabouts. They end up connecting with the Colonel (a sheepdog) and his soldiers Sergeant Tibbs (a cat) and the Captain. (a horse)

The Colonel sends Sergeant Tibbs to Hell Hall to see if there's any truth to the rumours. He discovers that not only are Horace and Jasper holding the 15 puppies hostage, but 84 others as well! He sneaks in and shows all 99 of them how to escape.

When Cruella discovers that her captives have all escaped, she is furious! While Pongo and Perdy race to meet their babies and bring them home, Cruella, Horace and Jasper race out to intercept them and bring them straight back to Hell Hall. The race is on!

The army of dalmations begin the long trek through the snow, hoping to make it back to London before Cruella catches them! They have many close calls but manage to stay just out of sight.

Exhausted, the dogs find their way to a farm barn where the friendly cows offer the starving puppies some fresh milk and a place to stay the night.

The following day the dogs continue on their journey. As Cruella and her goons get closer and closer, Pongo has the clever idea that if the dogs all roll in soot, they might be able to pass as black labradors!

Just as they find a homeward-bound ride in a truck, their disguise is busted and Cruella chases madly with her crazy driving skills!

A car crash later, and the dogs finally make it home to London, once again reunited with their pets.

Roger and Anita decide to keep the entire 101 dalmations and start their own "Dalmation Plantation."

IRVYNE: This is a really straightforward story. It's basically a "rescue-and-escape" tale. When you think about it, the main characters - Pongo and Perdy - are very simple characters that don't have a whole lot of personality besides "we love our family and will do anything to rescue them." Cruella is a wonderfully over-the-top villain who doesn't understand the meaning of the word "subtlety." She doesn't feature in a whole lot of the movie though, and while she is always enjoyable to watch, she only really has one mode as well. Horace and Jasper are amusingly stupid, and their scenes play like precursors to the Home Alone movies. All of the other characters are simple bit-parts that come on screen, do their scenes and then disappear.

I wouldn't say that the story is badly told (I appreciate that it's a very different style of film than what had been done before) but it lacks a lot of the humour that had become a staple of Disney films and it does seem fairly simplistic without many big surprises.

 

OK, let's approach the white elephant in the room. Following the stunningly beautiful Sleeping Beauty would be no easy task for any movie, but cost-cutting forced One Hundred and One Dalmations to adopt a completely new look, a visual style that took many people by surprise. Why could we suddenly see the animator's sketch lines? Why were the character's outlines no longer crisp and clear? Why couldn't the background artists paint within the lines? I understand that it was a very deliberate style that they undertook for this film, but I don't really like it. Look at the difference in detail between these two backgrounds...
 

The saving grace is the fact that the animation on the dogs is just lovely. Pongo in particular has a huge range of different expressions, and the puppies are adorable. Bottom line - the movie looks cheap, because it was cheap.

 

There's only one song in this whole film that anyone will remember, and that's the "Cruella De Vil" song that Roger writes early on in the story. It's a good, catchy song. Sadly, it's just about the only song in the entire piece, unless you count the "Canine Crunchies" T.V. jingle or the "Dalmation Plantation" song that is sung really briefly at the end of the film. The score is nice, but this is definitely not a movie that will be remembered for its music.

 

I like One Hundred and One Dalmations, but it's not Disney's best. The story is basic, the characters are basic, the songs is almost non-existant and a lot of the artwork is just plain ugly. (To my thinking, anyway...) Having said that, it's got a completely madcap villain who shows what happens when a character is completely unhinged and unrestrained. The film is still entertaining, but there are many other Disneys I'd prefer to watch.

 

 

SHENZI: Cruella De Vil. Such a punny name! And she comes from Hell Hall.

 

ANNA: And her evil henchman are always so incredibly stupid.

 

SHENZI: I'd never noticed Cruella's devil-shaped telephone before!

ANNA: I noticed that Lucky's spots are in the shape of a horseshoe. Cute! I'd never realised that.

 

HAKU: There's a lot of smoking in this film, what with Cruella and her cigarettes, and Roger with his pipe.

 

ANNA: They also seem to use the word "idiot" a lot.

 

SHENZI: It's cute how the dogs call humans pets.

 

ANNA: I don't like them calling women bad drivers though!

 

IRVYNE: They call THAT woman a bad driver. I don't think you could really argue with them there! Cruella doesn't really have much of an ending. She crashes her car, yells at Horace and Jasper, and that's it. Wouldn't you think she'd find another way to go straight to London and try to get the puppies back? It doesn't seem in character to think that a crashed car would stop her from following through with her evil plan!

 

HAKU: Maybe they were leaving it open for a sequel.

 

IRVYNE: Well the live-action Glenn Close films had a sequel, 102 Dalmations. I was never much into those movies though. I don't think I've even actually seen them. They didn't get good reviews.

  

HAKU: Well the animated film's pacing was average.

 

ANNA: It was a little bit slow in parts. How long did it take them to walk through the snow on their way to Dinsford?

 HAKU: I just did some research. There's no such town as Dinsford, they just made that up!

SHENZI: I like that it's a simple story though.

ANNA: The Twilight Bark sequence was cool.

  

IRVYNE: And did you notice a cameo or two? Jock from Lady and the Tramp was part of the Twilight Bark, and you could also see Peg and Bull in the pet shop window! I thought their story was supposed to be in a completely different time period, with horses and carts instead of cars. Pretty sure it was set in America too, judging by Lady and the Tramp's accents. But hey, never let logic get in the way of a good cameo!

 

HAKU: I shudder to think what their "Dalmation Plantation" would look like. Imagine all the dog poo!

IRVYNE: It's kind of baffling that most of the time they use real dog barks for the sound effects, but every now and again they have painfully obvious human-made dog sounds. It's really jarring, mostly in the scene where Pongo wants to go for a walk.

ANNA: The animation looks awful.

 

IRVYNE: Oh I don't know, I think they did some wonderful character animation on the dogs. It's more that the visual style, with the new Xerox scanning process, looks cheap and nasty. If you compare it to Sleeping Beauty which was just stunningly beautiful, it looks poxy. Unfortunately the next few movies would look similar to this one, because it was cheap and it was quick.

 

ANNA: Nowadays they can do it all digitally and they don't need ink or paint at all.

 

IRVYNE: I like One Hundred And One Dalmations, but it's not my favourite.

 

SHENZI: No, mine neither.

 

IRVYNE: I think overall, Lady and the Tramp is a much better doggy movie than this one.

 

SHENZI: Absolutely.