101 is the magic number

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 2006)

One of Dodie Smith's friends once looked at the novelist's dalmatians and said: "Those dogs would make a lovely fur coat!" It's this single phrase that inspired Mrs. Smith and led her to write what was about to become her most popular and influential novel: "The Hundred and One Dalmatians". I don't know who was this friend and what was he/she doing for living and what was his/her name. But whoever this person is, he/she inadvertently changed popular culture forever. This shows at which point the simplest sentences can become monumental.
Smith's novel was adapted by none other than Mr. Americana himself, Walt Disney. "101 Dalmatians" was Disney's first work of the '60s, the last decade of his life, but it doesn't mean that old age slowed him anyway.
It is Disney's 17th animated-feature film and 7th focusing on furry animal characters. It's the story of Pongo and Perdita, a dalmatian couple, whose puppies have been kidnapped by Cruella De Vil, one of the most cruel and diabolical characters portrayed by Disney and his crew. Cruella collected every dalmatian she could, so she would be able to make a fur coat from them. But Cruella didn't plan that Pongo, Perdita and a whole network of animal companions would unite their efforts in order to win back the puppies and get home safely.
As previously said, Cruella is by far the most interesting character of the lot. We never know how Perdita's mistress Anita became friend with Cruella, but we guess that Cruella's not interested in Anita: she only wants the dalmatian. Cruella has a scary look. She looks like an old witch. She doesn't respect anyone and she's only interested in her desires. That's what makes Cruella one of the creepiest and most interesting villains of Disney's universe.
But my predilection goes to the puppies themselves, which are absolutely adorable and charming. My favorite scenes are those where Pongo, Perdita and their 15 puppies watch a western on TV.
We don't get to know each one of the 15 puppies, but some are highlighted. There's Patch, who is probably the group rebel, with his black spot on his eyes and his love for hard words; there's Rolly, whose favorite phrase is: "I'm hungry" and there's Lucky who looks like the precursor of Generation X, because he always got the nose on the TV.
The viewer is also introduced to the dogs' own communication system: the "twilight bark", which looks like a large-scale Chinese whispers game. This is wildly imaginative and it's one of the most fascinating aspects of the dogs' own world.
Outside of the dalmatians, my favorite animal characters are the "military shed": a horse called Captain, a sheepdog called Colonel and, last but not least, Sgt. Tibbs, a courageous cat who is assigned to save the puppies from their countryside prison.
Cruella is sided by two stupid and running-gag henchmen, Jasper and Horace. These two foolish guys provide most of the film's laughs and they're not too overshadowed by their horrible boss.
Animation, even if it doesn't break any ground, is excellent, but not perfect. Victorian houses of London are well pictured, but it's not exceptional. It's the animals who are the best drawn. The dalmatians weren't easy to draw, because they don't have a uniform fur. Artists had to draw them white and then adding the black spots over and over, during 70 minutes of screen time. It must have been a monumental task.
Every classical Disney aspect is here: drama (the main plot), comedy (Horace & Jasper and some secondary/tertiary events), fearsome elements (Cruella), suspense (Sgt. Tibbs' puppies rescue) and action (the climatic car chase). And let's not forget some potentially symbolic images, such as the dalmatians' long walk in the blizzard and the puppies watching TV.
Also a thumbs-up for the music, and especially for the Cruella's title song. The soundtrack is mainly made from jazzy parts and it's very adequate.
Another feature, another classic. Walt Disney never deceives us. After this film, we became more familiar with two elements, both from the title. First, the number 101, when heard, is almost instinctively associated with this movie, and so is the dalmatian dog itself. It's another success that both parents and children will like for generations to come.