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 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 Productions, 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. It also appeared in 1961 as a Walt Disney
comic book based on the animated film.
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.
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. The 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 500 to under
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 amusement park and less on his animated features, disliked this
development. The current look of animation would therefore be the
norm 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 many different colors. |
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 101
Dalmatians is a live-action film produced by Walt Disney Pictures in
1996. It is a remake of the 1961 animated film One Hundred and One
Dalmatians (which in turn was based on Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The
Hundred and One Dalmatians). It stars Glenn Close as the villainous
Cruella de Vil, and Jeff Daniels as Roger, the owner of the 101
dalmatians. Unlike the novel and earlier adaptations, none of the
animal characters talk. A sequel, 102 Dalmatians, was released in 2000.
Roger is a designer of
computer games who shares his home with his pet dalmatian, Pongo. One
day, Roger takes Pongo for a walk and the dog sets his eyes on a
beautiful female dalmatian named Perdy. Perdy likes Pongo as much as
he likes her, and thankfully Perdy's mistress, a fashion designer
named Anita, is quite taken with Roger. Romance blossoms between the
human and canine couples, and Roger and Anita tie the knot (Pongo and
Perdy are apparently still living out of wedlock). Anita works for
Cruella de Vil, an intense fashion maven with a lust for fur.
Inspired by her dogs, Anita finds herself working up a design for a
fur coat made with spotted fur, and Cruella leaps on the idea of
making garments out of real dalmatians. But where to get the animals?
Cruella has two nasty but not especially intelligent henchmen Jasper
and Horace, who have been known to kill the odd endangered species at
madame's request. Now they are sent on a mission to round up
dalmatians, and when they fall a bit short of their goal, it comes to
Cruella's attention that Perdy has just given birth to a litter of 15 puppies. |
