One Hundred and One Dalmatians

Voices of: Rod Taylor, Cate Bauer, J. Pat O'Malley, Betty Lou Gerson, Martha Wentworth, Ben Wright, David Frankham, Frederick Worlock
Directed by: Clyde Geronimi , Hamilton Luske, Wolfgang Reitherman
Rating: G
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
1961

Times Seen:
Tim: 2


Summary:The evil Cruella de Vil kidnaps 15 dalmatians and their parents launch a desperate rescue attempt.

Review:

Tim: I've always felt that One Hundred and One Dalmatians was a bit over-celebrated as a Disney movie. It feels like it's mostly stayed in the public consciousness since its release in 1961. Maybe it's because people love those adorable puppies, maybe it's the idea of anyone owning 101 dogs. Maybe it's just a reaction to Cruella de Vil, one of the admittedly better Disney villains. I'm not sure. The movie itself is good- that's absolutely clear. However, I don't rank this among the best Disney efforts. It's good, but it's not much more than that.

It feels like the central aspect of this movie is one that's hard for younger kids to understand and pretty disturbing for those who do. I literally just asked my five year-old son why Cruella wanted the puppies. We watched the movie yesterday. His reply- "I don't know, she's mean?" That feels 100% accurate for younger viewers, and that's probably okay. The movie mentions her desire to skin them and turn them into a fur coat, but it never takes the step to pound this message home. Older kids will understand, but younger kids will just gloss over it. That's not a bad thing. It's interesting that the center of this movie feels like it's more about the villain than the protagonists. That's what people remember about this movie.

Some of this has to do with Cruella being a surprisingly effective villain. One, it wasn't often that a woman was in the chief antagonist role. Two, she's an interesting character. She's a schoolmate of Anita, obviously has money, and very little morals. She can be frightening (that car chase scene), but just generally comes across as mean and distasteful. It's actually a big strength of this movie.

The protagonists are good, but they aren't the most memorable. Pongo and Perdita are likeable characters (not names I would have expected). Roger and Anita are good, too. None of them are incredible memorable, but you can identify with them. The puppies are good, but there's just so many of them. It's hard to keep track of 15, let alone when that number increases to 99. It's all a bit overwhelming.

I actually found one of the most compelling parts of the movie to be the beginning. The scenes where Pongo is trying to get Roger to meet Anita, the ups and downs to create a meet cute- it's entertaining and sweet. The birthing scene is excellent as well. It has some really tense moments, but was executed quite well. The rest of the movie turns into a long rescue attempt, and it's all good- but it loses some of the quiet power of those early scenes.

The animation is quite good. It holds up fairly well, even 60+ years later. The film does feature the song "Cruella de Vil", which is surprisingly memorable and actually pretty funny. I wasn't a big fan of the language (they say "devil woman" a lot in this movie), but that's probably more a product of the times than anything else.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians is a good movie. It might not do enough for me to put it in that upper echelon of Disney films, but it's an eminently watchable movie. Even as a kid, I never really loved this movie- I didn't mind it, but it was never one of my favorites. There's not a lot of feel good moments in this film. It throws a lot of dread and thrills at the audience. That's fine, but it's probably a bit much for a kids movie.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Aristocats, Robin Hood