The Movie Diorama One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how timeless Disney animations are. 1961 and still better than the average modern animation, what more could one want? Dalmatian Pongo decides to find a wife for his master and a mate for himself, which eventually results in fifteen puppies being born. Old school friend Cruella De Vil wants the spotted fur of these puppies so she can make a new coat, to do this she hires henchmen to kidnap them and eighty four other puppies. What sets this film apart from the other classics in Disney's canon is just how small the story is. It's not a grandiose fairytale with fantastical magic, it's a crime chase set in both urban and rural London. Removing princesses, fairies and living puppets from the equation resulted in a more relatable plot that still conveyed the excitement and charm that Disney is famed for. The bachelor life in the first act, the portrayal of the "Twilight Bark" in the second act and the climatic car chase of the final act. Each segment exhumes delightfulness for both the human and canine characters that come together to create an enthralling story about family. The animation style was delicately crafted, from the cute bumbling puppies to the metropolitan streets of London, that unsurprisingly has stood the test of time. The human characters ooze essential British quirks that represent a flourishing love for their canine companions. Some of the puppies have the opportunity to push their own personality forward, such as Lucky, preventing them from being just a plot device. However, the main star is the maniacal fur speed demon herself, Cruella. An antagonist so deluded and crazed that she ranks in the top echelon of Disney villains, not an easy feat to accomplish. The outbursts, perfectly voiced by Gerson, were enough to put kids on edge! I just wished there was more closure for the character, especially after a nail biting chase sequence. Some of the supporting animal characters were not memorable enough, however everything else was spot on...*cough*!

ElMaruecan82 It wasn't called Disney Renaissance for nothing: in 1989, "The Little Mermaid" was the first animated Disney to feature a princess in thirty years, the last one being "Sleeping Beauty". With that in mind, the first Disney animated feature to be released after "Sleeping Beauty" was a starter in its own right, opening an era of uneven productions that can be assimilated to dark ages. Although perceived as classics they never inspire the same glee in the eye than the likes of "Snow White" and "Pinocchio" or "Mermaid" and "Lion King". But "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" has aged better than most of its contemporary, maybe enough to compete with the legitimate masterpieces. Now, do kids really care about these technicalities? Speaking for myself, this film is one of my earliest memories, and by that I mean very early. I had vague and foggy visions of the encounter between Pongo and Perdita (and their masters Roger and Anita) in the park, I never forgot the face of Cruella De Vil who was the first villain I could put a name on, and as a kid who was a bit cowardly, I used to hide uncer a table during the TV scene. I simply hated that startling moment where the villainous cowboy's face occupied the whole screen and scared the hell out of Patch, and me in the process (quite a "mise en abime"). I avoided watching, and later renting, the film maybe because of that moment, but the film didn't avoid me for all that.Indeed, one of the first books I started to read at the age of 5 was based on the film and at the same time, I used to watch the Disney Channel program and to those who remember, the intro started with the iconic picture of the polka-dotted canine family staring at the TV. This is just the stuff your nostalgia is made on, you can't control it. And for all these reasons, I simply can't formulate a critic against the film without feeling like I'm betraying my inner child. But I'll let the adult speak a little: after Christmas, I bought my daughter four Disney classics and I couldn't resist the temptation. I had to see the Dalmatians, three decades after the first complete viewing. Enough with the princesses, "Frozen" and 'let-it-go!' message, how about a family- friendly film about a dog family.After all these dragon fights and dazzling magic tricks from "Sleeping Beauty", there's a sort of cozy and relaxing little charm "Dalmatians", conveyed through that opening scene where Pongo tries to find the perfect girl for his master and culminating in the park. The next scene is a revolution; TV in a Disney film. This is an acknowledgment of the role the little screen played on Disney's expansion, and what a wonderfully crafted moment with these puppies staring at their dog hero while we stare at them. TV would even play a part to the story as the two thugs Horace and Jasper will delay their mission because they want to watch "What's My Crime?" on TV. As a big fan of the "What's My Line" channel on Youtube, I was surprised to find a parody of the program on a Disney film.But then I remembered that even the great Walt Disney came to the show and promoted the opening of Disney World (or was it Land?). Disney was a pioneer in the sense that he could anticipate the tastes of people but he could also disconcert the expectations and make something like "One Hundred and One Dalmatians", a family oriented film in the purest sense of the world, perhaps the only Disney with a united family not affected by death, and a great message about it. Even that powerful doggy SOS where, one howl to another, dogs communicate in order to find the puppies find some strong echoes in our era affected by sad kidnapping stories. "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" marks an unexpected entrance from Walt Disney in modernity.Of course, it had a few undesirable effects such as the constant recycling of images (I spotted that the image of Roger lighting his pipe was reused three or four times) but this is not as blatant as the case of "Sword in the Stone" or "The Aristocats" and there's obviously an element in the drawing of these little dogs (and the big ones, too) that is admirable. The sketchy drawing and seemingly static background never bothered me anyway because they fit the very kind of stories Disney would start to tell. And the way Cruella De Vil looks is integral to her appeal, she indeed looks like a devil, a monster, but she might be the most 'human' of all Disney villains, maybe the character modern audience can most relate too, she's crazy, obsessive, narcissistic, but she's a woman who backs up her words with actions, she embodies the darkest side of the 'woman-power' and contributes to one of the most thrilling climactic sequences from Disney. Can you believe that after a dragon fight, the next Disney featured a car chase, and one that holds up pretty well by today's standards.So, it doesn't come as a surprise that she was listed among the Top 50 Greatest Villains from the Top 50 villains of the American Film Insitute's List among the Evil Queen and the Man from "Bambi", not a bad company. So for the villain, the positive message about family (maybe the only Disney where it's a central theme) and the whole 'great escape' plot, "One Hundred and One Dalmatians", if not the best, is perhaps one of the most endearing Disney features.(And I just noticed this is the 100th review this film got, next reviewer will be happy)

minecraftypat I haven't read the book so I can't compare it to that though, frankly, that makes it easier to review and possibly more entertaining. But enough of this introduction, let's get on with the review!I want to start off by expressing the great ideas this film comes up with. I love that they have the dogs consider the humans as their pets. And the way they go about explaining it is really good. If it were to be made now they'd probably just have a dog saying "Hi I'm a dog! You may think that this human I'm with is my owner but no! He's actually my pet!". I actually cringed typing that. My point is that they treat you with respect and don't ever talk about it as if we were supposed to think they were pets. That's good writing. However the two main characters, Roger and Anita are only brought together because Roger's dog sees them and thinks that they should get together. Despite this they don't lack any good chemistry and are one of Disney's best couples.Now the animation! I've already said that I really like this modern sketchy style, it gives the movie it's own feel and almost even some grit to it. Doug Walker said something along the lines of that he personally doesn't like it and that it doesn't look like the final product, I disagree though understand where he's coming from. Though I also feel it helps with some of the character designs, the dog called colonel looks really cool, due to the sketchy style but I think you can tell that I'm just building up to talking about Cruella De Vil.This bony little old woman under a massive fur coat is really unique idea is one of, if not the best Disney villain designs. She's one of the best Disney villains and has such an iconic presence and voice. Her entrance is amazing. She bursts in the door, with her own theme tune playing from up stairs. The opera length cigarette holder, that puffs out green smoke is also a really noticeable element about the character.As I mentioned before Cruella has her own theme tune and unlike other Disney movies where people just break into song for no apparent reason, here it makes sense. Roger is a songwriter and is working on a melody, once Cruella shows up at the house he applies lyrics to do with her to the song. They even add to this idea more when we hear is song being played on the radio and his wife refers to it as "his first big hit". This, sadly, is the only song in the movie.Now onto the pups. The puppies are the most important part of the movie, if they didn't exist this movie really wouldn't have it's plot. So how do they turn out? The puppies are probably the worst part about the movie because since there's so many of them, the writers couldn't have gave them all distinct personalities. Thankfully they never come across as annoying or stereotypical and that's good enough. It would probably take too much time to flesh all of them out anyway.Something surprising about this movie is it's vast amount of suspense. Through a lot of it I was very worried for these characters and as critics would say "on the edge of my seat". The characters go through so much that when you do get to the final happy ending, you've worked for it and in this movie that's done better than in any other film I've seen, in my opinion. However once you do get to that happy ending you kind of feel underwhelmed, or at least I did. I feel they could have went that bit more happy but what I got I'm happy with. This film is definitely worth giving a watch and, despite what some critics lead you to believe, has a lot of harsh elements. If I had to pick something that disappointed me, that I haven't already mentioned, is that it was too short and I didn't get enough. Though I suppose that's more of a compliment.Thank you for reading and goodbye.

Jonathan C 101 Dalmatians is a straightforward animated classic whose brilliance is in its details. The plot is an uncomplicated kids story--a young couple own two dogs that have dalmatian puppies, but an evil friend of the couple wants the puppies for an unclear purpose. It turns out that she wants to kill them and use their coats for a fashion experiment, and after the couple decides not to sell her the puppies, she sends a couple of hired goons to kidnap them. The goons do their job, but the puppies escape and the chase is on.101 Dalmatians sounds like a kids' movie, and it is a kids' movie, but like all good Disney movies, this film resonates with adults as well. The key aspect is the villain, Cruella de Vil, who is one of those people that you occasionally run across and wish you hadn't. Cruella is quite simply an evil person, someone so self-involved that she really does not care about others at all. What makes her effective is that we know people like this, but sometimes we want to believe that they do not really exist. The film makes us confront them, makes us deal directly with a person evil enough to kill 99 helpless puppies for a simple fashion conceit. The effect is creepy enough to really make me feel for this family of dogs whose objective is only to live happily, and whose handicap is simple human greed and conceit. It is really very powerful.And what about child viewers? Oddly enough, they will not be traumatized by this movie as much as they might be. The reason is that the battle between good and evil is treated with real gentleness, and the good characters have great moments in the film. A scene where it appears that one of Pongo's puppies is born dead is treated with tremendous sensitivity. Another scene where Pongo and Perdita agree to take along another 84 orphan dalmatians rather than leave them behind for Cruella also is one that makes us cheer. Also, much of the conflict is treated with a comic flair that puts us at ease with some actually quite disturbing situations, and seems to deflate Cruella's menace. The result is that this is a great movie for kids. Evil Cruella is not sugar-coated but is put in proper perspective, a really impressive feat for a movie like this. At the same time, the movie is a thriller, a love story, a critique of the social class system, and an adventure film. It is a great movie.