A really underrated film that should be held up to the standards of Beauty and The Beast or Pinocchio

Rating: 9/10 (22 July 2016)

I haven't read the book so I can't compare it to that though, frankly, that makes it easier to review and possibly more entertaining. But enough of this introduction, let's get on with the review!
I want to start off by expressing the great ideas this film comes up with. I love that they have the dogs consider the humans as their pets. And the way they go about explaining it is really good. If it were to be made now they'd probably just have a dog saying "Hi I'm a dog! You may think that this human I'm with is my owner but no! He's actually my pet!". I actually cringed typing that. My point is that they treat you with respect and don't ever talk about it as if we were supposed to think they were pets. That's good writing. However the two main characters, Roger and Anita are only brought together because Roger's dog sees them and thinks that they should get together. Despite this they don't lack any good chemistry and are one of Disney's best couples.
Now the animation! I've already said that I really like this modern sketchy style, it gives the movie it's own feel and almost even some grit to it. Doug Walker said something along the lines of that he personally doesn't like it and that it doesn't look like the final product, I disagree though understand where he's coming from. Though I also feel it helps with some of the character designs, the dog called colonel looks really cool, due to the sketchy style but I think you can tell that I'm just building up to talking about Cruella De Vil.
This bony little old woman under a massive fur coat is really unique idea is one of, if not the best Disney villain designs. She's one of the best Disney villains and has such an iconic presence and voice. Her entrance is amazing. She bursts in the door, with her own theme tune playing from up stairs. The opera length cigarette holder, that puffs out green smoke is also a really noticeable element about the character.
As I mentioned before Cruella has her own theme tune and unlike other Disney movies where people just break into song for no apparent reason, here it makes sense. Roger is a songwriter and is working on a melody, once Cruella shows up at the house he applies lyrics to do with her to the song. They even add to this idea more when we hear is song being played on the radio and his wife refers to it as "his first big hit". This, sadly, is the only song in the movie.
Now onto the pups. The puppies are the most important part of the movie, if they didn't exist this movie really wouldn't have it's plot. So how do they turn out? The puppies are probably the worst part about the movie because since there's so many of them, the writers couldn't have gave them all distinct personalities. Thankfully they never come across as annoying or stereotypical and that's good enough. It would probably take too much time to flesh all of them out anyway.
Something surprising about this movie is it's vast amount of suspense. Through a lot of it I was very worried for these characters and as critics would say "on the edge of my seat". The characters go through so much that when you do get to the final happy ending, you've worked for it and in this movie that's done better than in any other film I've seen, in my opinion. However once you do get to that happy ending you kind of feel underwhelmed, or at least I did. I feel they could have went that bit more happy but what I got I'm happy with.
This film is definitely worth giving a watch and, despite what some critics lead you to believe, has a lot of harsh elements. If I had to pick something that disappointed me, that I haven't already mentioned, is that it was too short and I didn't get enough. Though I suppose that's more of a compliment.
Thank you for reading and goodbye.