One Hundred and One Dalmatians

January 25, 1961 saw the release of Disney’s second dog-based animated film. Based on the novel of the same name, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, features a tale of kidnapped puppies.

 

Songwriter Rodger Radcliffe (Ben Wright) lives as a bachelor in London with his Dalmatian, Pongo (Rod Taylor). Pongo is bored as a bachelor and hatches a plan to pair him up with a woman, Anita (Lisa Davis), and her Dalmatian, Perdita (Cate Bauer). His plan works and the two couples marry.

Later, Perdita gives birth to 15 puppies and their home is visited by wealthy and materialistic Cruella De Vil (Betty Lou Gerson), who offers to buy them for a hefty sum. She is denied and weeks later, the dogs are stolen by her hired goons, Jasper and Horace Badun (Frederick Worlock and J. Pat O’Malley). Through the “Twilight Bark,” it is discovered that De Vil has captured many other puppies, which she plans to make into dog-skin fur coats. Pongo and Perdita immediately leave to rescue them.

The duo are reunited and met with all 99 other puppies, who they decide to adopt. They make their way back to London while being chased by De Vil and the Baduns.

They find their way home, where Roger and Anita are trying to celebrate Christmas. They realize there are 84 extra puppies and use the money from Roger’s first hit song to buy a large house in the country.

In my review of television series, I made the distinctions between Type A, B, C, and D plots. However, those categories simply explain the way plot or character development advance in regards to the episodes. When it comes down to the very basic element, there are two types of plot: Character-Driven, where the character’s actions define the plot, or Story-Driven, where the plot defines the character’s actions. For example, the plots of Lady and the Tramp and Song of the South are Character-Driven whereas the plots of Peter Pan and Sailor Moon are Story-Driven.

Why am I bringing all this up? Because even in Story-Driven plots, there is still a need for good characters. One Hundred and One Dalmatians is a Story Driven plot with barely any good characters. Like Sleeping Beauty before it, the best character the film has going for it, is the villain. Cruella De Vil is practically insane, but puts on a good face to convince everyone that she’s glamorous. She thinks she’s doing a good job, but everyone can see right through it. The façade is chipped away in brilliant fashion with the car chase in the end. All the other characters though are just completely uninteresting. Sure Horace and Jasper have their hilarious moments, but they’re not much more than bumbling idiots who manage to steal puppies. The one exception though is Sergeant Tibbs. He’s a longsuffering cat who really doesn’t want to be at Hell Hall.  But once he’s there, won’t leave until every puppy is gone and is almost the first to die.

Unfortunately, everything else about the film is just average. The story is good, but could have been much better had the characters been more interesting. There’s nothing really notable about the music either.

Final Call: Another average story with a great villain. It replaces Song of the South at #10.