17 – One Hundred and One Dalmatians
With Sleeping Beauty almost
killing Disney Animation Studios, I was curious to see the work that
apparently saved the whole company. I definitely saw this one as a
kid and I know I liked it then. As always, I was curious how it stood
up now and if I would feel the same way about it. The story begins
with a dalmatian and his “pet” tired of life as bachelors but it
turns into so much more by the end.
The
dalmatian, Pongo, starts the story with some narration. With it, we
learn that Pongo lives with his “pet” Roger Radcliffe and that he
is bored with their life as bachelors. He decides that he is going to
find Roger a mate. This scene is really great. We get a good idea of
who Roger is and really get to know Pongo. We know that they have a
bit of an unorganized life with how messy the room looks. We also
know that Pongo cares a lot about Roger and wants to find a way to
make him feel happier. Roger is trying to become a songwriter but he
writes about love which Pongo thinks he can't if he's not. There's a
really funny scene where Pongo tries to spot a good mate for Roger
and keeps seeing unfit ladies who look a lot like their pets. He
finally sees a beautiful woman and her own dalmatian and knows
immediately that she's the right one.
Pongo
then makes Roger take him to the park to try to get Roger and Anita,
the woman, to meet. He also meets Perdita, Anita's dalmatian. This
scene was just really cute. You get the sense that Anita and Perdita
are a bit more serious than Roger and Pongo. I appreciated the little
looks of curiosity that Perdita gives to Pongo. Pongo knows Roger
won't do anything so he forces Anita and Roger to meet which ends up
with them falling in a pond. Every scene makes us understand the
characters a little more. Anita is initially very angry but warms up
to Roger and they share a laugh. They have a really great chemistry
here. Something you could definitely not say about Aurora and Prince
Phillip in Sleeping Beauty.
The story jumps to
Roger and Anita's marriage. Even with this jump in time, I don't
think we missed much. I don't need any details on how the two get
along because the brilliant scene before perfectly spelled it out. A
good scene can tell you everything you need to know sometimes. They
move in together and get a nanny. The nanny was an interesting case.
She didn't get a lot of screen time but she was really well done. You
can tell she really cares about Roger, Anita, Pongo, Perdita and
later, the puppies. We also get to see how Roger and Anita act when
they're together. They're very playful and still have that great
chemistry from before.
Pongo and Perdita
are perfect reflections of Roger and Anita. They have a really
similar relationship in the movie. Perdita is much more serious than
Pongo but they still get along really well. Perdita is also going to
have puppies so the story is moving along really quickly. I really
liked the scene where Roger and Pongo wait for the puppies. It runs
every emotion from tense, to happy, to surprised, to sad and then
back to hopeful. After the puppies are born, Perdita finally gets to
show some more personality. You can tell she's a really great mother.
Incredibly protective and a definitely more serious than Pongo.
The puppies
themselves get really great personalities as well. I was really
surprised by this because I didn't expect it. Only a few of them
actually get personalities but the movie is only so long to focus on
15 puppies. Their personalities aren't just for show either. Their
little quirks and behaviors end up playing roles in the story later
on. It's also really sweet to see how much they love and look up to
their dad when they compare Pongo to the action hero dog on the TV.
It seems like all would be well, if it wasn't for Cruella De Vil.
Before she actually
appears, there's a great scene where Roger puts words to a song he's
been writing about her. You get a good idea of what Anita and Roger
think of her before she even appears. When she does appear, you
immediately know that she's bad news. Visually, she is probably the
craziest looking villain Disney has had. Everything she does just
oozes creepiness. She trails a gross green smoke around her while she
smokes and drives a really evil looking car. She seems to have a
crazy obsession with the puppies that hadn't even been born yet and
that's just immediately off putting. Perdita even has a bad feeling
about her, wishing that she wasn't going to have puppies because of
how scared she was Cruella would do something. After the puppies are
born she tries to buy them but Roger and Anita refuse. She swears
she's going to get them back for rejecting her offer.
Part of that
revenge is hiring Horace and Jasper Badun, the other two villains of
the movie. Cruella hires them to kidnap the puppies from their home.
They are definitely less scary than Cruella. They have more slapstick
and funny moments. They have to genuinely scary moments, however,
when they barge into the house to kidnap the puppies and later when
they're discussing how they're going to kill them. They are
definitely effective villains. I don't feel like they're too
incompetent. They are definitely a real danger.
With no way of
finding the puppies, Pongo and Perdita decide to use the twilight
bark, a method to convey messages over long distances to try to find
their puppies. Here, we get to meet a bunch of really great
characters. They're all pretty funny but the really great thing is
that they all genuinely want to help Pongo and Perdita and go out of
their way to keep the message going. I can't mention them all but
some really stood out to me. First off, there was the team of the
Captain, a horse, Sergeant Tibbs, a cat, and Colonel, a sheepdog.
They were the ones who discover the location of the missing puppies,
which they discover has grown from 15 to 99 adding all the other
puppies that Horace and Jasper kidnapped. Sergeant Tibbs is
especially awesome. He's the one who sneaks into the house and finds
the puppies and later helps them escape. It's refreshing to see a cat
in a purely good role in a Disney movie.
Later, Pongo and
Perdita meet a Collie who gives them, and their now 99 puppies,
shelter from a snow storm and milk from cows. Later on, there's a
great Labrador who helps them find a ride home and helps them execute
a plan to safely get them past Cruella, Horace and Jasper. Even
though these characters didn't get a great deal of screen time, I
felt like they were really used well. You could really tell they
wanted to help Pongo, Perdita and the puppies. I think it also helps
that we know how difficult the journey was for the characters so any
character that is willing to help is automatically a character we can
like.
And there are
definitely really hard times for the characters. It's crazy to see
Pongo and Perdita running through the country in a snowstorm to try
to find their puppies. You really want them to succeed but you wonder
how exactly they're going to get back, especially now that you know
there are 99 of them. When they finally get there, Sergeant Tibbs is
helping the puppies escape and it's actually really tense. There's a
great change in color when Pongo and Perdita come in to save their
puppies from Horace and Jasper. The scene where they try to sneak
onto the van that the Labrador has shown them is really tense. You
have them trying to sneak by three villains all while their ride is
getting dangerously close to moving on without them. This is
immediately followed by an awesome chase scene that caps it all up
nicely.
So I can't say this
movie really surprised me. I knew I 'd liked it as a kid. It's just
really great to see Disney making a story about characters again.
This story really nails the action part as well though. With each
movie, I feel like every good step is a step toward the modern movies
I'm more familiar with. Overall, the movie really impressed me. I
feel like we're back to the quality they had ten years before.
17 down. 36 to go.
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