One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)

Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, Hamilton Luske and Clyde Geronimi
Written by Bill Peet. Based on The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith.
Premiered January 25, 1961
79 minutes
Rated G

Synopsis
Dalmatian Pongo (Rod Taylor) wants his bachelor songwriter "pet" Roger (Ben Wright) to get married and settle down. On a walk, Pongo sees a lovely woman named Anita (Lisa Davis) and her Dalmatian Perdita (Cate Bauer) and orchestrates a meeting. Romance blossoms and Roger and Anita marry while a litter of puppies soon follows Pongo and Perdita's union. However, trouble begins when Anita's insane school friend Cruella de Vil (Betty Lou Gerson) decides she wants the puppies for herself. Not trusting Cruella's intentions (which secretly are to make a Dalmatian skin coat), Roger refuses to sell the puppies which leads to their eventual kidnapping. When the humans fail to convict Cruella, Pongo and Perdita set out to find their children.

Before We Begin
The big story here is that Disney developed a new animation technique to cope with the millions upon millions of Dalmatian spots in this movie. It's called xerography and it's the thing that makes the 60s, 70s, and 80s DAFs look different from the ones in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Basically, animation frames were Xeroxed to save time and the animator's wrists. This left pencils marks on the cells, which gives everything a "scratchy" quality.

And here's what I think about that:  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I was never a huge fan of One Hundred and One Dalmatians. And I'm pretty sure it's because it's a dog movie and I'm not a dog person. (Team Cat all the way.) There's also that old chestnut...no princesses. And now...well...I truly am On the Fence because I recognize the good but get hung up on the not so good.

Mötley Müsings
• This is the first DAF obviously set in the present--if you neglect all of the package films, which I certainly choose to do. You can't tell with Bambi. (That movie could have taken place yesterday, although there'd probably be a bunch of Keystone Light cans next to the fire pit.) And Dumbo...well, fine, Dumbo is probably set in the 1940s. But in this there are cars! And magazines! And television!

• "It was a beautiful spring day...a tedious time of year for bachelors."

• I love this part! Humans looking like their dogs!

• "A little too short coupled....NOPE."

• Anita is very pretty.

• Why isn't pipe smoking cool? I mean, if you're going to smoke...a pipe is dignified.

• "He's settled down on the grass and puff his pipe and that'd be it."

• Perdita checking out Pongo.

• This is awesome. I mean really.

• Wow...I wonder how long they dated before getting married.

• "Just right for two couples who were just starting out..."

• My first complaint: Nanny. Why do they need a maid? There are only two of them. And it doesn't look like Anita has a job!

• Oh, they're cute.

• All right. Here comes Cruella. "Your dear and devoted old schoolmate."

What?

1. Anita, at the most, has got to be around 30. Cruella is a corpse. How did they go to school at the same time?
2. These women seem like they would have run in separate social circles even if they attended school at the same time.
3. But even if they were friends then, why are they still acquainted now?
4. And how are they so well acquainted? Cruella knows where Anita lives? That she was recently married? That she has a pregnant Dalmatian? This film takes place well before Facebook allowed us to send the personal details of our lives out into the abyss.


• "Anita, you're such a wit."

• "Here, dog, here."

• This is pretty bleak...dead puppy, but rubbing it will do the trick. Sure.

• And here's Cruella again...out of nowhere.

• "You can't possibly afford to keep them." TRUE.

• "BLAST THIS WRETCHED, WRETCHED PEN!"

• "Anita, we're through..." Yeah...what were they before?

• REMEMBER WHAT I SAID ABOUT WESTERNS BE UBIQUITOUS ON TV??? I didn't know that was the case on British TV.

• "No dog's better than Dad."

• Kittens are way cuter than puppies.

• Why do the puppies have American accents?

• TV...bringing the family together for 65 years.

• Yikes! Jasper's fingernails!

• Nanny is brave for taking them on.

• Hmmm...I wonder you put them up to this...

• Look at Cruella's nostrils! And her pale complexion and wraith like figure! She's clearly a cokehead.

• "Is she calling to confess?"

• You know...I don't like barking.

• There's Jock and Peg from Lady and the Tramp.

• Heh. The poodle's name is Coco.

• And that looks suspiciously like Trusty...

• Disney horses are always awesome.

• They call him Sergeant Tibbs!

• I like the Colonel's design.

• This Twilight Bark thing just keeps going doesn't it?

• "Fiddle faddle and rot, sir."

• In goes Tibbs, the unsung hero of this movie.

• Hell Hall. Awesome.

• "They're over there by the TV."

• This movie has a lot of drinking and smoking.

• Tapping the ash into the naked sandwich. (That sounds far dirtier than it is, I promise.)

• Still lotsa barking. Pongo and Perdita set out.

• BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

• Killing 99 puppies would take a long time. :-/

• What's My Crime? is hilarious. Nice ticking clock.

• All right. Once the puppies exit Hell Hall it's just dull for me.

• I like that Pongo and Perdita are both searching for the puppies. #feministdisney

• "She's a devil...a witch." Come on, Perdita. You can do better than that.

• Oh, joy. Slapstick.

• "My toes are froze."

• This collie is majestic.

• Can dogs drink cow's milk? Blecch.

• Rolling in the soot...this was actually from the book.

• "Crazy woman driver."

• And then what happens to Cruella? It's not like the dogs can say it was her. No justice?

• Hey. It's Christmastime. Sure.

• This is insane. You cannot have that many dogs, even if you have a huge estate. How do you keep them all straight? How do you keep them from breeding with each other? And to think, this whole thing could have been avoided if they just had Pongo and Perdita fixed.

Final Thoughts

Hey, I like One Hundred and One Dalmatians just fine. If I ignore the absurdity of Cruella and Anita knowing each other past high school. Which is hard for me to do. Perhaps if these women lived in a small town, where everybody knows everybody's business, instead of one of the world's largest cities, I could buy it. The live action remake from 1996 (yeah, it's not a new thing) has Anita as Cruella's employee which works. It explains why Cruella would know things about Anita and why Anita would be respectful and indulgent towards Cruella. But whatever. Character development wasn't as important to Disney back then. (And then the film might be more about Cruella's Regina George-esque tyranny over Anita and how it affects her marriage...which would be an interesting film, probably, but no good for kids.)

As for the rest of it...yeah. Just fine. I don't dread it, but I won't pick this one off the shelf when I'm craving Disney on a rainy afternoon.

(One last thought: I appreciate that Roger and Anita are portrayed as a child-free couple. I'm aware they're newlyweds, but there isn't any sort of "When we have a litter of our own..." type of comments. Their hands will be plenty full with the 101 dogs. And if that's what they want, good for them. It's also nice to see a Disney couple past the wedding day.)

Favorite Character

Sgt. Tibbs

Favorite Moment -- Pongo looks for prospective mates for Roger and himself.
Favorite Song -- "Kanine Krunchies"