One Hundred and One Dalmatians

This article is about the 1961 animated film. For other uses, see 101 Dalmatians.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians
Directed by	Clyde Geronimi Hamilton Luske Wolfgang Reitherman
Written by	Dodie Smith (novel "The One Hundred and One Dalmatians" Bill Peet (story)
Produced by	Walt Disney
Starring	Rod Taylor Cate Bauer Betty Lou Gerson Ben Wright Lisa Davis Martha Wentworth
Music by	George Bruns Mel Leven (songs)
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates	January 25, 1961
Running time	79 min.
Language	English
Budget	$4,000,000 USD (estimated)

One Hundred and One Dalmatians (often abbreviated as 101 Dalmatians) is the seventeenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was made and produced by Walt Disney, and it was originally released to theaters on January 25, 1961 by Buena Vista Distribution. It is based on the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith.

The film features Rod Taylor as the voice of Pongo, the first of the Dalmatians, and Betty Lou Gerson as the voice of the villainous Cruella de Vil. The plot centers on the fate of the kidnapped puppies of Pongo and Perdita.

Plot

Pongo is a Dalmatian who lives in a London bachelor flat with his owner ("pet" in Pongo's mind), Roger Radcliffe, a professional songwriter. Unlike Roger who spends his days writing music, Pongo is bored with bachelor life and decides to find a wife for his pet and a mate for himself. He sees a beautiful female Dalmatian, Perdita (or Perdy for short), and her "pet", Anita heading to Regent's Park and later leads Roger to the park to meet up with them. After an awkward and unusual meeting that almost goes awry, Pongo's efforts pay off as Roger and Anita fall in love along with him and Perdita.

Once Roger and Anita (and Pongo and Perdita) get married, Perdita gives birth to 15 Dalmatian puppies. One of the puppies appears to die, but Roger is able to revive it by vigorously rubbing it in a towel. Cruella De Vil, an eccentric and wealthy social parasite known to Anita from their school years, offers the human couple a large sum of money in return for the puppies so that she can make a dog-skin coat out of them. The human couple refuses, but Cruella, who will not take no for an answer, secretly hires Jasper and Horace Badun to kidnap the puppies. The humans try every effort to locate the stolen puppies but to no avail.

Heartbroken and desperate, Pongo and Perdita use the "Twilight Bark", a dog gossip chain, to alert the other dogs in England and locate their puppies. Once the puppies are located, it is up to Pongo and Perdita, along with the help of some animal friends they meet along the way, to rescue their 15 puppies. When the parents are reunited with their children, they discover 84 other puppies in Cruella's possession at the old De Vil mansion, Hell Hall, and soon learn of Cruella's diabolical scheme to skin them for a coat. Pongo and Perdita decide to bring the other puppies home with them, and raise them along with their own 15. However, Cruella and the Baduns are in hot pursuit of the dogs and will stop at nothing to catch them. With help from various animal friends, the dogs make their way back to London all the while trying to avoid their pursuers. In order to try and fool Cruella and the Baduns, the Dalmatians smother their coats in black soot, covering up their spots making them appear like Black Labradors. They hitch a ride back to London in a moving van but not before Cruella and her partners see through the dog's masquerade. Jasper and Horace in their truck and Cruella in her car race after the van with the Dalmatians inside. Cruella rams the van repeatedly trying to force it off the road (promptly damaging her car in the process) while the Baduns try to cut it off from a different direction. They almost succeed but a panicked Horace accidentally tears the steering wheel from the truck's dash board, causing the vehicle to skid out of control. The Badun's truck collides with Cruella's car and both vehicles crash into a deep ravine while the dogs go to safety. Comically, the villains are shown alive and well among the wreckage of their demolished vehicles, with Cruella berating the Baduns before starting to cry.

Roger and Anita, meanwhile have continued the search, using the money Roger has made from selling his catchy tune, "Cruella de Vil". At home alone on Christmas Eve, The couple are overjoyed when the Dalmatian clan make it back home. Roger and Anita decide use the money from Roger's song to buy an estate in the country to raise the 84 other dogs along with their original fifteen, so making 101 Dalmatians. As the film closes, we see Roger working on his new song ("Dalmatian Plantation").

Production

The production of the film signaled a change in the graphic style of Disney's animation. This occurred with the introduction of xerography which eased graphic reproduction requirements, but at the price of being unable to deviate from a scratchy outline style because of the new (and time and money saving) technology's limitations, recognizable by its thick black lines. Since the line would not have fit the "round" Disney drawing style used until then (with the exception of Sleeping Beauty), a more graphic, angular style was chosen for this and subsequent films. Rotoscoping, a technique formerly used for tracing live action human characters into animated drawings, became less important.

Another reason for its look was that the animators themselves were used to producing drawings which were very sketchy, as the clean-up was taken care of by those who transferred the drawings to the cels. With the hand inkers gone, the animation ended up the way the animators drew them on paper. Later it became common to do clean-up on paper before the animation was copied, and with time and more experience, the process improved also in this area.

The technology change also happened when Disney cut its animation department after the economical failure of the very expensive Sleeping Beauty, resulting in a reduction of staff from well over 500 to less than 100 and fewer resources put into the movies. Walt Disney, who at this point had started to direct his attention more towards television and his Disneyland amusement park and less on his animated features, disliked this development. The "sketchy" graphic style would, however, remain the norm at Disney for years until the technology improved prior to the release of The Rescuers to allow a softer look. In later animated features the Xeroxed lines could be printed in different colors. Unlike many other Walt Disney animated features, One Hundred and One Dalmatians features very few songs, only three, with just one, "Cruella De Vil", playing a big part in the film. Even this song isn't sung in one setting (a scene between Cruella and Anita splits it into two parts). The other two songs are "Kanine Krunchies Jingle" (sung by Lucille Bliss, who voiced Anastasia in Disney's 1950 film Cinderella), and "Dalmatian Plantation" in which only two lines are sung at the film's closure. The MPAA was close to re-rating this movie due to the new criteria about smoking.

Significance

One Hundred and One Dalmatians is an important film from Walt Disney Feature Animations for these reasons:

• It was the first film to introduce photocopy technology (Xerography), which led other films after this to be made with the same concept.
• Was the first film ever to take place in the (present-) days. This later lead the continuations with The Rescuers (1977), Oliver and Company (1988) and Lilo and Stitch (2002).
• The first film to rarely have any musical songs or sequences added to there film. The only songs ever made were "Cruella De Vil" and "Kanine Krunchies".
• Was the final film for Marc Davis to animate. After releasing Cruella De Vil, he decided to move on in working with the WED Enterprise.
• Was one of the many films that saved Walt Disney and his company, after the failure of Sleeping Beauty. With the help of the xerography to make the film a classic hit, it was later soften in 1977 with The Rescuers and last used in 1989 with the successful beloved animated classic, The Little Mermaid.
• The film featured at least the amount of 6,469,952 spots on ever dalmatian in the film including on Pongo and Perdita.

Characters

File:Movies cruella.jpg

Cruella DeVil takes out her anger on Jasper and Horace, her bumbling henchman. This image illustrates the exaggerated mannerisms and appearance of De Vil, key to her character's continued success among audiences and critics alike.

• Pongo

Voiced by Rod Taylor, is the protagonist, the father of the Dalmatian puppies and the narrator of the story. He's a clever dog and a loyal companion to his "pet" Roger. Pongo is a loving mate to his wife, Perdita, as well as a proud and devoted father. His quick thinking comes in handy when he and Perdita have to rescue their family from the likes of Cruella De Vil and the Baduns.

• Perdita

Voiced by Cate Bauer and Lisa Daniels, is Pongo's mate and the mother of the Dalmatian puppies. She's quieter and more refined than her husband and enjoys the comforts of hearth and home, yet like him is quick to act and fiercely defends her children (and foster children) when confronted with danger.

• Roger Radcliffe

Voiced by Ben Wright, is Pongo's owner and a struggling songwriter; eventually becomes rich when creating a song about Cruella de Vil (whom he strongly dislikes). He's often seen smoking a pipe.

• Anita Radcliffe

Voiced by Lisa Davis, is Perdita's owner and Roger's wife. She doesn't defend or dislike Cruella, but finds her overwhelming and politely brushes her off as "eccentric".

• Cruella de Vil

Main article: Cruella de Vil

Voiced by Betty Lou Gerson (who also narrated Disney's 1950 film Cinderella), is the villainess of the film, an eccentric rich woman who has the 15 puppies in particular kidnapped in order to turn them into a fur coat. She buys and steals other Dalmatian puppies before stealing the "Pongo Puppies". Cruella smokes constantly and drives a long red car recklessly.

• Jasper and Horace Badun

Voiced by J. Pat O'Malley and Frederick Worlock respectively, are Cruella's henchmen who carry out the kidnapping. Jasper is tall and thin, while Horace is short and fat. They argue often. Jasper drinks alcohol, whereas Horace eats sandwiches. Both enjoy watching a weekly television program called "What's My Crime?"

• Nanny

Voiced by Martha Wentworth, is Roger and Anita's maid. Very maternal and fussy, she's very attached to the puppies. It is she who gives the alarm that the puppies have been stolen and when they return.

• The Colonel, the Captain, and Sergeant Tibs: An Old English Sheepdog, a horse, and a cat who help mastermind a rescue mission to save the puppies from Hell Hall.

• Lucky

Main article: Lucky (Dalmatian)

Voiced by Mimi Gibson, Lucky loves watching T.V. (maybe a little too much) and has a bad habit of climbing up in front of the television. He has a distinctive spot pattern as the spots on his back form a "lucky" horseshoe.

• Rolly

Main article: Rolly (Dalmatian)

Voiced by Barbara Baird, is one of Pongo and Perdita's puppies. He is always hungry, even if he just ate. Even in the middle of an escape, he can't help but ask for a snack. Rolly is pudgier than the rest of the young puppies, with the skin on his neck bunched tight around his collar. He is also the narrator in the Vinyl LP release The Story and Songs of 101 Dalmatians.

• Patch

Voiced by Mickey Maga, is another of Pongo and Perdita's puppies. Patch is the more aggressive of the puppies, with a tendency to bark and growl a lot. However he is not quite as feisty when faced with the likes of Cruella. Patch's most distinct feature is a black "patch" around his right eye. His favorite show is Thunderbolt. Patch is often seen with Rolly, Lucky or Penny.

Reception

Pongo, Perdita and some of their puppies were featured as guests in House of Mouse, and Cruella De Vil was one of the villains featured in Mickey's House of Villains. In the video game Kingdom Hearts, Pongo and Perdita, living in Traverse Town, have lost their puppies when the Heartless destroyed their world. One of the side missions is to collect the 99 puppies.

Sequel and remake

In 1996, Disney remade the film as the live-action remake 101 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close as Cruella De Vil. In the 1996 film, none of the animals spoke, and the storyline had significant alterations.

On January 21, 2003, a direct-to-video sequel, 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure was released straight to DVD.

Distribution

This film was the highest grossing film of 1961 and one of the studio's most popular films of the decade. The film was re-issued to theaters 1969, 1979, 1985, and 1991. It has earned $215,880,014 in worldwide box office earnings during its lengthy history. The 1991 reissue was the twentieth highest earning film of the year for domestic earnings. The following are the release dates:

• January 25, 1961 (original release)
• January 22, 1969
• June 9, 1979
• December 20, 1985
• July 12, 1991.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released on VHS on April 10, 1992 as part of the Walt Disney Classics video series. It was re-released on March 9, 1999 as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection video series. On December 19, 1999, it received its first DVD release as part of Disney's Limited Issue series. A limited edition two disc Platinum Edition DVD was released on March 4, 2008.

External links

• Disney's 101 Dalmations Platinum Edition DVD Website
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians at IMDb