After 15 Viewings, Still Disturbing

Rating: 7/10 (25 April 2003)

My two-year old is obsessed by this movie. He can't get enough of the unsanitized, unpasteurized fare that Disney used to put out before political correctness drained all the fun out of their movies in an effort to make them suitable for McDonald's action figure tie-ins.
Watching "101 Dalmatians" is like entering a time machine to the days when all the men drank Miller High Life and all the women fetched the men their beers. The animation is so rough it's good; more than a few times you see shots where not everything was colored in. And that's freaking cool. Fast, cheap and out of control.
I mean, what other Disney flick has criminals drinking beers, everyone smoking, gunplay, violence and the lead human character living a quote-unquote "bachelor lifestyle" when everyone knew that "bachelor lifestyle" in 1961 was code for "alternative lifestyle"? Yet Pongo-Boy finds his "pet" a woman, and the ensuing childless marriage is blessed not by the pitter-patter of little infant's feet, but the stench of wet dog smell.
This has to be the funniest Disney movie I've seen: Kanine Krunchies and the little dog watching the Western TV show and trying to peer around the corner's of the screen to see where the bad guy is hiding is worth the price alone.
Even with all its merits, the movie must go back "into the vault" for 28 years. By then, my two-year old will be able to appreciate it in all its perverse glory.