The film's plot follows Pongo and Perdita, two Dalmatians who give birth to a litter of fifteen puppies, who are later kidnapped by the obsessive socialite Cruella de Vil, wanting to make their fur into coats. Pongo and Perdita set out on a cross-country rescue mission to save the litter from the maniacal Cruella. They rescue 84 additional Dalmatians in the process, bringing the total to 101.
In 1957, aspiring songwriter Roger Radcliffe lives in a bachelor flat near Regent's Park in London with his pet Dalmatian, Pongo. Deciding both of them need a "mate", Pongo watches women and their dogs in the street. Noticing a young woman named Anita and her Dalmatian Perdita, he drags Roger to the park to arrange a meeting. Roger and Anita fall in love, and soon marry, with Pongo and Perdita attending.
The Radcliffes hire a nanny and move into a small townhouse near Regent's Park. After Perdita becomes pregnant with a litter of 15 puppies, Anita's fur-obsessed former schoolmate, Cruella de Vil, arrives and demands to know when the puppies will arrive. Roger responds by writing a jazzy song mocking her. A frightened Perdita confesses to Pongo that she now regrets the idea of having puppies due to Cruella wanting them. When the puppies are born, Cruella returns demanding to buy them. Roger firmly denies her offer and Cruella refusing to take no for an answer, swears revenge storming out of the house.
Several weeks later, Cruella makes good on her threat and secretly hires brothers Jasper and Horace Badun two burglars, to steal the puppies. When Scotland Yard is unable to find the puppies or prove Cruella was involved, Pongo and Perdita use the "Twilight Bark", a canine gossip line, to solicit help from the other dogs in London, and eventually all of England.
The Colonel, a military-like Old English Sheepdog, along with his feline compatriot Sergeant Tibbs, investigate the nearby "Old De Vil Place", where puppies had been heard barking two nights earlier. Tibbs finds the puppies in the old mansion and learns that Cruella intends to make them into dog-skin fur coats. After the Colonel sends word back to London, Pongo and Perdita leave through a back window and begin a long cross-country journey, crossing an icy river and running through the snow toward Suffolk.
Meanwhile, Tibbs overhears Cruella ordering the Baduns to kill the puppies that night out of fear the police will soon find them. In response, Tibbs helps the puppies escape through a hole in the wall, but the Baduns notice and give chase. Pongo and Perdita break into the house and confront the Baduns just as they are about to kill the puppies. While the adult dogs fight the two men, the Colonel and Tibbs guide the puppies from the house. Following a happy reunion with their own puppies, Pongo and Perdita discover there are 84 more puppies with them. Shocked at Cruella's plans, they decide to adopt all the puppies, certain that Roger and Anita would never reject them.
The Dalmatians start their homeward trek, pursued by the Baduns. They take shelter from a blizzard in a dairy farm with a friendly collie and three cows, then make their way to Dinsford, where they meet a Black Labrador waiting for them in a blacksmith's shop. Cruella and the Baduns arrive, prompting Pongo to have his entire family roll in a sooty fireplace to disguise themselves as other Labradors. The Labrador helps them board a moving van bound for London, but melting snow falls on Lucky and clears the soot off of him, blowing the dogs' cover. Enraged, Cruella pursues the van in her car and tries to ram it off the road, but the Baduns, attempting to do the same with their lorry, end up colliding with her, resulting in Cruella and the Baduns getting stranded in a ditch with their vehicles destroyed as the van drives off.
In London, a depressed Nanny and the Radcliffes try to enjoy Christmas and the wealth they have acquired from the song about Cruella, which has become a big radio hit. The soot-covered Dalmatians suddenly flood the house. Upon removing the soot and counting the massive family of dogs, Roger chooses to use his songwriting royalties to buy a big house in the country so they can keep all 101 Dalmatians.
Voice cast
Rod Taylor as Pongo,[6] Roger's urbane and dashing petDalmatian, Perdita's mate, the father of fifteen, and adoptive father of the eighty-four orphaned puppies.[7] He also serves as the film's narrator.[8]
J. Pat O'Malley and Fred Worlock as Jasper and Horace Badun,[9] mean and argumentative small-time crooks[10] whom Cruella hires to steal Dalmatian puppies.[11]
O'Malley also voiced Colonel,[12] an Old English Sheepdog of military bearing who aids in the search for puppies;[13] Mr. Simpkins,[14] a panelist on What's My Crime? TV show;[15] and the Mechanic.[14]
Worlock also voiced Inspector Graves,[16] a panelist on What's My Crime? TV show.[15]
Betty Lou Gerson as Cruella de Vil,[17] an erratic and ruthless aristocrat and Anita's schoolmate[18] who adores fur and wants to turn Dalmatian puppies into a coat.[19]
Gerson also voiced Miss Birdwell,[9] a panelist on What's My Crime? TV show.[20]
Martha Wentworth as Nanny,[9] the Radcliffes' warm and motherly cook and housekeeper.[13] She is an amalgamation of the characters "Nanny Cook" and "Nanny Butler" from the original novel.[21]
Wentworth also voiced Lucy,[14] the white goose;[22] and Queenie,[14] one of the cows that the Dalmatians encounter during their escape from Cruella.[23]
Cate Bauer and Lisa Daniels as Perdita,[25] Anita's quiet and refined pet Dalmatian, Pongo's mate, the mother of fifteen, and adopted mother of the eighty-four orphaned puppies.[7] She is an amalgamation of the characters "Perdita" and "Missis" from the original novel.[26]
Sylvia Marriott voiced the fourth unnamed cow.[14]
Additionally, the film features Mickey Maga, Barbara Beaird, Mimi Gibson, and Sandra Abbott as Patch, Rolly, Lucky, and Penny,[16] Dalmatian puppies from Pongo and Perdita's litter.[7] Max Smith, Bob Stevens, Clarence Nash, and Dal McKennon provided the sounds of dog barks.[14]Thurl Ravenscroft voiced Captain,[35] a gray horse and aide of Colonel and Sergeant Tibbs.[15]Barbara Luddy and Rickie Sorensen voiced Rover[16] and Spotty,[38] two of the eighty-four Dalmatian puppies that were bought by Cruella.[39] Jeanne Gayle (the wife of the film's composer George Bruns) performed the radio version of "Cruella De Vil" song in the film's final scene.[22]Paul Frees voiced Dirty Dawson,[40] the villain in the Thunderbolt TV show.[41]Lucille Bliss performed the "Kanine Krunchies" jingle in a TV commercial.[42]
Production
Story development
The children's novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith had been published on November 19, 1956,[43] to an immediate success.[44] By February 1957, screenwriter Charles Brackett brought it to the attention of Walt Disney,[45] who acquired the film rights to the novel on November 26 of that year[46] (after lengthy negotiations)[47] for $25,000.[45] The project was set to be Disney's next animated feature after Sleeping Beauty (which was still in production at the time)[47] and was originally expected to be finished within two years.[46] Story artist Bill Peet was assigned to single-handedly develop the story,[48] marking the first time a Disney animated film was written by one person.[49] Disney also tasked Peet to write a detailed screenplay first before storyboarding; since Peet never learned to use a typewriter, he wrote the initial draft by hand on legal paper.[1] The manuscript was completed and typed up within two months, after which, having received Disney's approval, Peet began storyboarding and was charged with recording the voice-over process.[50]
Peet closely followed the plot of Smith's novel, but condensed some of its characters, which included Cruella's husband and cat,[26] as well as Cadpig, the female runt of Pongo and Missis' puppies, whose traits were transferred to Lucky in the final film.[21][b] He also merged two Dalmatian mothers, birth mother Missis and adopted mother Perdita, into one,[49] naming her after the latter;[26] likewise, Nanny Cook and Nanny Butler from the novel were amalgamated into one character, simply named Nanny.[21] The Colonel's cat assistant was re-gendered from the female Pussy Willow into the male Sergeant Tibbs, and Horace Badun was renamed from Saul.[52] Among other things, Peet retained a scene from the original book in which Pongo and Perdita exchange wedding vows in unison with their owners, who were also renamed from Mr. and Mrs. Dearly to Roger and Anita Radcliffe.[21] However, after the censor board warned that it might offend certain religious audiences if the animals repeated the exact words of a solemn religious ceremony, it was reworked to be less religious, down to having Roger and Anita dressed in formal clothes.[53] Also, the film's original ending involved the newly rich Roger selling his song about Cruella and buying the Hell Hall to turn it into a Dalmatian Plantation, with Pongo and Perdita expecting another litter of puppies. It was ultimately cut short and rewritten to have Dalmatians reunite with their owners after they escape from Cruella.[54]
Although Disney had not been as involved in the production of the animated films as frequently as in previous years, he was always present at story meetings.[55] When Peet sent Dodie Smith some drawings of the characters, she wrote back saying that he had improved her story and that the designs looked better than the illustrations in the book.
Casting
The filmmakers deliberately cast actors with deeper voices for the roles of dogs, so they would have more power than those of the human characters.[56]Rod Taylor, who had extensive radio experience, was one of the first actors cast in the film;[22] he got the role of Pongo.[57]Lisa Daniels was originally cast as Perdita and recorded about the third of her lines but then got married and moved to New York;[22] Cate Bauer replaced her for the rest of the film.[57]J. Pat O'Malley, who was a regular voice actor for the studio and one of Disney's personal favorites,[22] got the roles of Jasper and Colonel,[58] and also voiced several minor characters in the film.[57]David Frankham was cast as Sergeant Tibbs in the spring of 1959 and finished his recording within three sessions from May 1959 to January 1960;[59] he was also asked to record the part of Scottie, the Skye Terrier who appears early in the "Twilight Bark" sequence.[30]
Disney originally had Lisa Davis read for the role of Cruella De Vil, but she did not think that she was right for the part, and wanted to try reading the role of Anita instead.[60] Disney agreed, and, after they read the script for a second time, she landed the part.[31] Davis also provided live-action reference for the character.[61]Betty Lou Gerson, who was previously the narrator for Cinderella (1950), auditioned for the role of Cruella De Vil in front of Marc Davis, the character's supervising animator, and sequence director Wolfgang Reitherman, and immediately landed it.[62] While searching for the right accent of the character, she landed on a "phony theatrical voice, someone who's set sail from New York but hasn't quite reached England."[63] During the recording process, Gerson was thought to be imitating Tallulah Bankhead,[19] but she later disputed that she "didn't intentionally imitate her ... We both had phony English accents on top of our Southern accents and a great deal of flair. So our voices came out that way."[64] Gerson finished her recording sessions in fourteen days.[62]
Animation
Art direction
After Sleeping Beauty (1959) disappointed at the box office, Disney was losing money and there were discussions about closing down the animation department.[55] During the film's production, Disney told animator Eric Larson: "I don't think we can continue; it's too expensive."[65] Despite this, he still had deep feelings towards animation because he had built the company upon it.[55]
Ub Iwerks, in charge of special processes at the studio, had been experimenting with Xerox photography to aid in animation. By 1959, he used a Xerox camera to transfer drawings by animators directly to animation cels, eliminating the inking process, thus saving time and money while preserving the spontaneity of the penciled elements.[66] However, because of its limitations, the camera was unable to deviate from a black scratchy outline and lacked the fine lavish quality of hand inking.[66] Disney would first use the Xerox process for a thorn forest in Sleeping Beauty,[65] and the first production to make full use of the process was Goliath II (1960).[66] For One Hundred and One Dalmatians, one of the benefits of the process was that it was a great help towards animating the spotted dogs. According to Chuck Jones, Disney was able to complete the film for about half of what it would have cost if they had had to animate all the dogs and spots.[67]
Meanwhile, Ken Anderson, the studio's art director, learned a television production studio—Hurrell Productions—was using Xerography to produce television commercials featuring Disney characters.[68] Inspired by the aesthetic, Anderson experimented with a Xerox copier to directly transfer the animators' drawings onto transparent cels, thereby eliminating the inking process. Anderson screened an animation test to Disney and the animators; although Disney expressed concern at the graphic style, he gave his approval stating: "Ah, yeah, yeah, you can fool around all you want to."[69] For the stylized art direction, Anderson took inspiration from British cartoonist Ronald Searle,[70] who once advised him to use a Mont Blanc pen and India ink for his artwork.[69]
In addition to the character animation, Anderson also sought to use Xerography on "the background painting because I was going to apply the same technique to the whole picture."[69] Along with color stylist Walt Peregoy, the two had the line drawings be printed on a separate animation cel before being laid over the background, which gave the appearance similar to the Xeroxed animation.[55][71] Disney disliked the artistic look of the film and felt he was losing the "fantasy" element of his animated films.[55] In a meeting with the animation staff concerning future films, Disney angrily said, "We're never gonna have one of those goddamned things", referring to the film's art direction; he also stated, "Ken's never going to be an art director again."[72]
Anderson took this to heart, but Disney eventually forgave him on his final trip to the studio in late 1966. As Anderson recalled in an interview:
He looked very sick. I said, "Gee, it's great to see you, Walt," and he said, "You know that thing you did on Dalmatians." He didn't say anything else, but he just gave me this look, and I knew that all was forgiven and in his opinion, maybe what I did on Dalmatians wasn't so bad. That was the last time I ever saw him. Then, a few weeks later, I learned he was gone.[55]
Character animation
Marc Davis was the sole animator on Cruella De Vil. During production, Davis claimed her character was partly inspired by Bette Davis (no relation), Rosalind Russell, and Tallulah Bankhead. He took further influence from her voice actress, Betty Lou Gerson, whose cheekbones he added to the character. He later complimented, "[t]hat [her] voice was the greatest thing I've ever had a chance to work with. A voice like Betty Lou's gives you something to do. You get a performance going there, and if you don't take advantage of it, you're off your rocker".[36] While her hair coloring originated from the illustrations in the novel, Davis found its disheveled style by looking "through old magazines for hairdos from 1940 till now". Her coat was exaggerated to match her oversized personality, and the lining was red because "there's a devil image involved".[73]
To have music involved in the narrative, Peet used an old theater trick by which the protagonist is a down-and-out songwriter. However, unlike the previous animated Disney films at the time, the songs were not composed by a team, but by Mel Leven who composed both lyrics and music.[54] Previously, Leven had composed songs for the UPA animation studio in which animators, who transferred to work at the Disney studios, had recommended him to Walt Disney.[78] His first assignment was to compose "Cruella De Vil," of which Leven composed three versions. The final version used in the film was composed as a "bluesy number" before a meeting with Walt in forty-five minutes.[54]
The other two songs included in the film are "Kanine Krunchies Jingle" (sung by Lucille Bliss, who voiced Anastasia Tremaine in Disney's 1950 film Cinderella), and "Dalmatian Plantation" in which Roger sings only two lines at its closure. Leven had also written additional songs that were not included in the film. The first song, "Don't Buy a Parrot from a Sailor," a cockney chant, was meant to be sung by Jasper and Horace at the De Vil Mansion. A second song, "Cheerio, Good-Bye, Toodle-oo, Hip Hip!" was to be sung by the dalmatian puppies as they make their way into London.[79] A third song titled "March of the One Hundred and One" was meant for the dogs to sing after escaping Cruella by van. Different, longer versions of "Kanine Krunchies Jingle" and "Dalmatian Plantation" appear on the Disneyland Records read-along album based on the film.[80]
The Sherman Brothers wrote a title song, "One Hundred and One Dalmatians", but it was not used in the film.[81] The song has been released on other Disney recordings, however.[80][82]
Release
Original theatrical run
One Hundred and One Dalmatians premiered and was released in theaters on January 25, 1961,[83] accompanied by the documentary The Horse with the Flying Tail (1960).[46] To promote the film, an updated version of the 1957 Disneyland episode "The Best Doggoned Dog in the World" was aired on ABC on February 12, 1961,[28] featuring the footage from One Hundred and One Dalmatians instead of scenes from Old Yeller (1957).[84]
During its initial theatrical run, the film grossed $14 million in the United States and Canada,[85] which generated $6.2 million in distributor rentals.[86] It was the first animated feature to earn more than $10 million on its initial release,[87] as well as the most popular film of the year in France,[88] with admissions of 14.7 million ranking tenth on their all-time list.[89] The box-office success of One Hundred and One Dalmatians allowed to pull the studio's animation department out of the financial slump caused by the underperformance of Sleeping Beauty two years prior;[90] despite this, it did nothing to rekindle Disney's fading interest in animation,[91] with him being more focused on working on Disneyland and producing live-action films by then.[92]
Re-releases
One Hundred and One Dalmatians was re-released theatrically in the United States in 1969, 1979, 1985, and 1991.[93] During its first re-release in 1969, it earned $15 million.[94] In 1979, it grossed $19 million while playing on a double bill with another Disney film The Last Flight of Noah's Ark, and in its 1985 theatrical re-release, the film earned $32 million.[94] During its fourth re-release in 1991, it grossed $60.8 million,[95] becoming the 17th highest-grossing film of the year in the United States.[96] In 1980, the film earned rentals of $8 million in France, Belgium and Switzerland.[97] By 1995, the film had grossed $86 million internationally,[98] and in the same year it grossed $71 million overseas, bringing its international total to $157 million.[99] The film's total domestic lifetime gross is $145 million,[100] and its total worldwide gross is $303 million.[4] Adjusted for inflation, and incorporating subsequent releases, the film has a lifetime gross of $936.2 million.[101]
Home media
One Hundred and One Dalmatians was first released on VHS on April 10, 1992, as part of the Walt Disney Classics video series;[102] 11.1 million copies had been sold by June of that year.[103] At the time of its release, it was the sixth best-selling video of all time.[100] The film was re-released on VHS and LaserDisc on March 9, 1999, as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection[104] for a limited 101-day time period.[105] The DVD edition was originally scheduled for release in the spring of that year,[104] but was delayed until November 11; it was released as a Walt Disney Limited Issue for a limited 60-day time period before going into moratorium.[106]
By 2007, One Hundred and One Dalmatians underwent a digital restoration[107] and was released as a two-disc Platinum Edition DVD on March 4, 2008.[108] The set included a behind-the-scenes documentary Redefining the Line: The Making of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, two additional featurettes – Cruella de Vil: Drawn to Be Bad (dedicated to the talents behind the creation of the eponymous character) and Sincerely Yours, Walt Disney (covering Disney's correspondence with Dodie Smith), deleted songs, a virtual gallery of concept art and other production photos, theatrical trailers, radio and TV spots.[109] It returned to the Disney Vault on January 30, 2010.[110]
One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released for the first time on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2012.[111] In North America, it was released on Diamond Edition Blu-ray and Digital HD on February 10, 2015,[112] featuring a new making-of featurette Lucky Dogs,[113] the animated short The Further Adventures of Thunderbolt (based on the Thunderbolt TV show in the film),[41] a 1961 version of the Disneyland episode "The Best Doggoned Dog in the World", and several bonus features from the previous DVD release.[112] The set was re-released as a limited Blu-ray/DVD combo pack for the Disney Movie Club on November 6, 2018.[114] On September 24, 2019, One Hundred and One Dalmatians was re-released for HD digital download and on Blu-ray as part of the Walt Disney Signature Collection.[115]
Reception
Critical response
In its initial release, One Hundred and One Dalmatians received acclaim from critics, many of whom hailed it as the studio's best release since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and the closest to a real "Disney" film in many years.[116]Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote, "While the story moves steadily toward a stark, melodramatic "chase" climax, it remains enclosed in a typical Disney frame of warm family love, human and canine." However, he later opined that the "[s]ongs are scarce, too. A few more would have braced the final starkness."[117]Variety claimed that "While not as indelibly enchanting or inspired as some of the studio's most unforgettable animated endeavors, this is nonetheless a painstaking creative effort."[118] A review in Time magazine praised the film as "the wittiest, most charming, least pretentious cartoon feature Walt Disney has ever made."[119]Harrison's Reports felt all children and adults will be "highly entertained by Walt Disney's latest, a semi-sophisticated, laugh-provoking, all cartoon, feature-lengther in Technicolor."[120] Dodie Smith also enjoyed the film where she particularly praised the animation and backgrounds of the film.[47]
Contemporary reviews have remained positive. Reviewing the film during its 1991 re-release, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, while giving the film three stars out of four, asserted that "it's an uneven film, with moments of inspiration in a fairly conventional tale of kidnapping and rescue. This is not one of the great Disney classics - it's not in the same league with Snow White or Pinocchio - but it's passable fun, and will entertain its target family audiences."[121]Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel, in his 1991 review, also gave the film three stars out of four.[122] Ralph Novak of People wrote "What it lacks in romantic extravagance and plush spectacle, this 1961 Disney film makes up for in quiet charm and subtlety. In fact, if any movie with dogs, cats, and horses who talk can be said to belong in the realm of realistic drama, this is it."[123] However, the film did receive a few negative reviews. In 2011, Craig Berman of MSNBC ranked it and its 1996 remake as two of the worst children's films of all time, saying that, "The plot itself is a bit nutty. Making a coat out of dogs? Who does that? But worse than Cruella de Vil's fashion sense is the fact that your children will definitely start asking for a Dalmatian of their own for their next birthday."[124]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 53 reviews, with an average score of 8.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "With plenty of pooches and a memorable villain (Cruella De Vil), this is one of Disney's most enduring, entertaining animated films."[125]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 83 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[126]
101 Dalmatian Street is the second TV series with a plot in the 21st century, with a new art style and a concept loosely based on the source material. Set 60 years after the original film, the show mostly focuses on a completely new family of Dalmatians, (who are descendants of Pongo and Perdita) who all live without a human in Camden Town.
Sequel
A direct-to-video sequel to the original animated film, 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure,[130] was released in 2003.[131] The main focus of the sequel is Patch, the loneliest of puppies, feeling "lost in a sea of spots". After he gets left behind during the Radcliffe's moving day, he encounters his TV hero, Thunderbolt, who enlists him on a publicity campaign.
Live-action adaptations
A live-action remake of the 1961 film, 101 Dalmatians, was released in 1996;[132] unlike the animated film, none of the animals had speaking voices in this version.[133] It was followed by a sequel, 102 Dalmatians, in 2000.[134] A live-action version of Cruella De Vil is featured as one of the main antagonists in the fourth season of the fantasy television series, Once Upon a Time (produced by Disney-owned ABC Studios).[135] Cruella is one of the four main villains in the 2015 television film Descendants,[136] which follows the teenage children of Disney's iconic heroes and villains (including Cruella's son, Carlos).[137] A 2021 live-action reboot, Cruella,[138] focuses on the origin of the eponymous character.[139] A sequel to this film is currently in development.[140]
In the first Kingdom Hearts game, a side quest consists of Sora tracking down the 99 puppies whose world has been destroyed and returning them to Pongo and Perdita, who have been given shelter in Traverse Town by Squall Leonhart.
^Lucky Dogs (Documentary film) (101 Dalmatians Diamond Blu-ray ed.). Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. 2015. Archived from the original on June 2, 2023 – via YouTube.
^ abEhrbar, Greg (February 10, 2015). "101 Dalmatians on Records". Cartoon Research. Archived from the original on September 17, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
^Leamons, Travis (December 12, 2009). "Back into the Disney Vault". Inside Pulse. Archived from the original on October 4, 2020. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
^Eliot, Marc (1993). Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince. Birch Lane Press. pp. 255–256. ISBN978-1559721745.
^Thompson, Howard (February 11, 1961). "Disney Film About Dogs". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
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