ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS (1961)
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
Since it is just slightly less than 101 days until the opening of the live action remake (with Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels, Joan Plowright and Joely Richardson) of Disney's 1961 classic ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS, we decided to watch the original cartoon version. What fun it is.
As the show starts, a Dalmatian named Pongo (voice by Rod Taylor) is contemplating ways to play matchmaker with his happy but recluse owner and song writer, Roger Radcliff (voice by Ben Wright). He does this by looking for a woman with a female dog heading for the park. After rejecting several unacceptable ones, he finds Anita (voice by Lisa Davis) and her Dalmatian Purdy (voice by Cate Bauer). As one of many delightful little aspects of the film, notice how the owners and their dogs look so much alike.
Soon Anita and Roger are married, but in a twist it is the dogs who are expecting. Into their happy life comes hyper-evil Cruella De Vil (voice by Betty Lou Gerson). She is a classic cartoon figure of a villain - very exaggerated, but effective. She is as thin as a rail, but wears an extra thick fur coat. She has hair that is half black and half white, and she smokes mile long cigarettes in a cigarette holder. Although she could make great anti-smoking ads, here her evil is manifested in her obsession for animal furs. When she demands to know when the pups will arrive, everyone is on their guard. Soon over a dozen pups arrive and are they ever cute.
The drawing for the picture is a blend of the real and the romantic. Indoor scenes are highly detailed, but the outdoor scenes have the look of a kid's storybook with the windows and doors lit up. The music (George Bruns) and songs are tuneful, but not memorable which works with lightheartedness of the script by Bill Peet, which is based on a book by Dodie Smith.
What is special about the movie are the small scenes. My favorite has all of the pups watching a black and white TV show about a cowboy and a dog. The pups are fascinated by it much as a human child would be. The most precious part is the plethora of little wagging tails. Other sweet little nuances are the way the dogs call the humans their pets.
The tension in the story is supplied by a pair of bungling dognappers named Horace (voice by Frederick Worlock) and Jasper (voice by Pat O'Malley). Cruella employs them to steal Dalmatian pups from all over town, and they end up getting ninety-nine of them including Pongo and Purdy's. There is another delightful scene where the bad guys and the pups watch Sunday's episode of "What's My Crime?" Perhaps those of you too young to remember "What's My Line?" will not be quite so enchanted by it as I was, but it is a cute scene.
Soon Pongo and Purdy use that time honored tradition of "the barking chain" to find where their pups are hidden. Now you finally know what those dogs are doing every night when they keep you awake.
ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS is not great drama, but it is a children's story well told. It should delight people of all ages. >From start to finish it is a very sweet show.
ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS runs just 1:29. It is rated G, and there is nothing to offend or scare anyone of any age - a great piece of family entertainment. Jeffrey (age 7) loved it as did I. I recommend it to you strongly and give the picture *** 1/2.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: August 29, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews