101 Dalmatians

As the 17^th Disney animated film, 101 Dalmatians introduced a new type of animation called xerography, which was a cheaper way for Disney to animate movies.  They hoped that by using this new type of animation they could avoid the box office failure that happened with Sleeping Beauty.  This type of animation was used up until The Little Mermaid (from 1961-1989).  Walt Disney himself hated xerography, however, due to the “scratchy” look it gave, but the new animation attracted moviegoers, as it received positive reviews from critics, and 101 Dalmatians was a box office success and is well loved by Disney fans today.  It’s kind of ironic that I’m reviewing this because next year the movie Cruella will make its debut; the film is going to be about Cruella De Vil’s origins.  I do hope that Disney will take a play from Warner Bros and release the film on Disney+ so that people can enjoy it safely.  I also hope everyone loves this movie as much as I do!  Whatever your thoughts I’d love to hear from you!  

*I would like to dedicate this review to a very special dog, Zoe, who was rescued just this year by a wonderful family that I love, a family that would say that Zoe actually rescued them!

101 Dalmatians (based on a British novel of the same name) is about a dog named Pongo who lives with his owner, an aspiring songwriter named Roger.   One day, Pongo decides that Roger needs a partner and ends up matchmaking him with a woman named Anita who has a dog named Perdita.  (Even though “Perdita” means “lost” in Latin, I wanted it to be my name when I was younger.)  Roger and Anita get married, and Pongo and Perdita end up having 15 puppies together.  An old friend of Anita’s, Cruella De Vil (and yes, she really is a devil!), wants the puppies so she can make their fur into coats.  So, Cruella has them kidnapped when the young couple is not at home.  Pongo and Perdita then go on a mission to rescue their puppies from Cruella’s cruel plan (pun intended).  This movie has some good messages (like how you should always be kind to animals); and I find it funny that the dogs in the movie consider the humans their “pets,” maybe even more so than the humans themselves consider the dogs their pets.  Even with all the cuteness of the puppies, Cruella is very wicked and might scare younger kids; while I’m not scared of her like I was when I was younger, she does still send a chill up my spine. So, I would caution parents of young kids regarding the infamous villain. Something else I noticed in the movie is that Pongo and Perdita are a different kind of couple than the couples you see in the earlier Disney movies; they seem to get to know each other before “marrying” (however dogs get married) and seem to get each other on a deeper level than earlier Disney couples.  For example, when Perdita is very sad about her puppies coming because she’s worried Cruella will take them away once they’re born, Pongo sits beside her, and doesn’t try to “preach” advice to her, and just listens.  When a person is going through something big, a lot of the time they don’t want advice or they don’t want someone to do something to fix it—they just need someone to sit beside them silently and listen.  And that is why Pongo and Perdita are, in my opinion, truly the “it” couple!  

“The humans have tried everything.  Now it’s up to us dogs.” Danny (a “Great” Dane that helps Pongo and Perdita in the movie)