Both less AND more impressive than my nostalgic childhood memories of it

Rating: 8/10 (27 October 2006)

I have to admit, next to mythical, archetypal blockbusters like "Bambi" and "Snow White", "Dalmations" comes off as a something of a lightweight. Seeing it for the first time in 30 years, I was startled by how much looser and rougher the animation was than my childhood memories; I was also somewhat disappointed to discover that only 4 or 5 of the legion of Dalmation puppies had any personality or even any speaking parts. And a few of the plot elements seem kind of "squirelly" to my adult sensibilities - (the young couple can barely make ends meet but they have a live-in cook and maid? Roger makes it big with a song that opens him for the biggest no-contest defamation suit in the history of England?)
But I don't really care. The movie won my adult heart all over again with its charm, its sense of intimacy, and a thousand little atmospheric touches, like the "Twilight Bark" and the "What's My Crime?" TV show and the way Cruella De Vil slammed her car down the lanes and around corners like a woman possessed. The directors and animators were obviously forced to take shortcuts and economy measures (due in part to the sheer number of puppies on the screen at some points) with both the artistic process and with the plot in order to meet the budgetary guidelines of the "new era" of animation. Even so, you can tell they labored mightily to create a mood, an atmosphere, of a world seen from a canine point of view, even down to camera angles, sound design and character design. (Cruella, for instance is too physically ugly to actually exist, even as a cartoon character, unless you take Pongo's and Pertita's fear and loathing for her into account.)
My conclusion: this may be a smaller, less lush and less epic Disney animation project, but it still reflects the utmost care and dedication of some very talented people, and it still holds up very well indeed to my grown up sensibilities. It was a great pleasure to see it again. "Bambi" is still my all time reigning champ of animated movies, but "Dalmations" in this context, could easily be thought of as Mickey Mantle to "Bambi's" Babe Ruth. It's a classic whose likes we are not likely to see again.