Miss Anita Radcliffe

**Anita Radcliffe** is a character from Disney's 1961 animated feature film, *One Hundred and One Dalmatians*.

## Background

Anita is the wife of Roger Radcliffe and the owner of Perdita. The first film establishes that she and Cruella De Vil had gone to school together as children and were apparently friends at one points. Although by the time of their adulthood (at least after Anita had married Roger), Anita appears to have grown weary of their meetings and admits to Roger at one point that she does consider Cruella to be eccentric.

### Personality

Anita is beautiful, kind, and intelligent. She also devoted to her husband, Roger Radcliffe, and loving toward Perdita, Pongo and the puppies.

## Biography

### *One Hundred and One Dalmatians*

**In the animated film, Anita is spotted by Pongo, while out on a walk with her Dalmatian, Perdita. Pongo, who is looking for potential mates for both him and Roger, attempts to bring the two owners together. Pongo tricks Roger into going to the park and pursues Anita. Eventually, Anita and Roger are both tangled up in Pongo's leash, resulting in the two of them falling into a pond. Anita frets at first, as she was wearing a new suit and hat, but she and Roger begin laughing together.** A time skip shows that Anita marries Roger, and she and Perdita move into a small home with Roger and Pongo. It is also revealed that Pongo and Perdita are expecting puppies. Anita is shown trying to get Roger, who is busy composing, to come down for tea. When he finally does, she playfully teases him on the song that he is writing. Their tea is interrupted by the impromptu visit of Anita's former schoolmate, Cruella De Vil. The name inspires lyrics for Roger's song, and he begins singing in a somewhat mocking tone. Anita tries to silence him, but Roger goes upstairs to work on the song, leaving Anita to entertain her friend. **Cruella walks in, and Anita notes Cruella's new fur coat. Cruella responds with a comment about her love for fur. Cruella then gets down to business and asks where the puppies are. Anita tells Cruella that the puppies are not expected for a few more weeks and that these things cannot be rushed. However, Cruella is now looking at a picture of Pongo and Perdita, murmuring about their coats. Anita invites Cruella for tea, but Cruella cannot stay. Cruella leaves just as quickly as she came, noting that she will be back in three weeks when the puppies are born.** Three weeks later, Perdita gives birth, and Anita, along with Nanny, assist. Anita is shown calling out puppy numbers, as the litter increases from 8 to 11 to 14 to a total of 15. However, one of the puppies apparently dies. However, Roger is able to revive the puppy, much to Anita's relief. Cruella soon comes in, as she had promised. However, Cruella is shown to be disappointed and angry that the puppies are all white. Anita notes that the spots come in a few weeks after the puppies are born. Cruella is relieved and quickly offers to buy the puppies, noting that Anita and Roger cannot possibly afford to keep them all. Anita notes that they couldn't sell the puppies, as Perdita would be heartbroken, and that she and Roger could find a way to get along. Cruella laughs at the idea of Roger's songs supporting the family. This incites Roger to step in; Roger sternly tells Cruella that they have no intention of selling the puppies. Cruella is angered to the point that she ends her friendship with Anita, and storms out vowing revenge. Anita applauds Roger on his bravery. **One night, when the puppies are older, Anita and Roger take Pongo and Perdita to the park. They return to find that the puppies have been stolen. Soon after, Cruella calls, expressing shock over the theft. Roger is shown to believe that Cruella was behind the theft, but Anita isn't convinced only because of her former friendship with Cruella. She admits that Cruella is eccentric, but that she couldn't be a thief. Anita also notes that Cruella's home had been searched, but no evidence had turned up. However, unknown to her, Cruella had hired two henchmen, Jasper and Horace Badun, to steal the puppies, with the intention of turning them into fur coats and hid them in another deserted house.** Anita is not shown again until around Christmastime. She is shown decorating a tree while Roger listens to the radio, which is playing the song he wrote. Anita notes that the song was Roger's first hit and brought in a substantial amount of money. Roger agrees but notes that he can't believe that Pongo and Perdita ran away. (Unknown to either of them, Pongo and Perdita had gone to rescue the puppies from Cruella.) Suddenly, a group of "Labradors" bound in through the door. Anita cleans the face of one of the adults and discovers that it is actually Perdita. Anita and Roger notice that the puppies with them are much greater in number than the original 15. She, along with Nanny, counts the puppies while Roger adds up the totals, finding out that there are 101 Dalmatians in total. Anita asks Roger what they should do with the other puppies. Roger decides to keep them, which leads Anita to point out that they have a small house. Roger responds that they can use the money from his song to buy a country home large enough for them all. **Since the DVD commentary and sequel confirm that Cruella was arrested for the theft of the puppies after she failed to ram the truck apart, it is presumed that Anita finally accepted the idea of Cruella being a thief and possibly pressed charges against her.**

### *101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure*

Anita returns for the sequel and is shown, alongside Roger, to be preparing for the move to a country home they have bought. A while after they move, the adults learn of Patch being left behind in London; they frantically travel back in their car to find him, arriving in time to retrieve not just Patch but the rest of his siblings who had also been kidnapped from the farm while they were gone. Jasper and Horace confess to her that it was Cruella who was behind the dognapping. As they find the puppies, they also adopt Thunderbolt.

## Relationships

### Cruella De Vil

The first film establishes that she was a schoolmate to Cruella De Vil, and the two apparently shared a friendship at one point. By adulthood, Anita seems to be exhausted after Cruella's meetings and admits at one point that she finds Cruella to be eccentric.

## Gallery

***Known Combined-Shared Crossovers wiki*** has a collection of images and media related to ***Anita Radcliffe***.

## Trivia

* *Radcliffe* was the last name she and Roger had in the original book.
* In the animated movies, Anita's maiden name was never mentioned. However, in the 1996 remake, her last name was originally *Campbell-Green* before she met and married Roger.
* Anita's maiden name is *Darling* in the live-action remake.
	+ Anita is given the maiden name Darling. A play on the original movie when Cruella greets Anita as "Anita, darling. How are you?"
* There has been some debate over whether Anita's hair color is red or brown. In the films and television series, it appears to be strawberry-blonde, but in related books, it appears to be brown.
* Anita's original voice actress, Lisa Davis, was first brought in by Walt Disney, to audition for Cruella. However, she felt that she was wrong for the role. She expressed this to Walt and was cast as Anita.
* Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in *The Little Mermaid*, voices Anita in the film's sequel.
* In the TV series, Anita has a niece named Amber, who bears an uncanny resemblance to her.
* Anita's name is slightly similar in sound to Perdita.
* In the 1996 remake, she and Roger told Cruella the puppies weren't for sale. However, they seemed to have later changed their minds as it is implied they did sell Dipstick to Chloe Simon.
* According to *Disneystrology*, her birthday is March 1.