101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure

Since sequels continue to bring in money, Disney released its sequel to 101 Dalmatians in early 2003. 101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure starred Barry Bostwick, Jason Alexander, Martin Short, Susanne Blakeslee, Kath Soucie, Jim Cummings, and Bobby Lockwood. It was awarded the DVDX awards for best animated feature, best director, best editing and best musical score.

The Radcliffe family and their Dalmatians are preparing to move to their Dalmatian Plantation in the countryside. But one puppy, Patch (Lockwood), feels ignored and wants to be like his television hero, Thunderbolt (Bostwick). He is accidentally left behind and heads to an audition for a guest spot on the show.

 Meanwhile, Cruella de Vil (Blakeslee) has returned to London under probation and a restraining order but attempts to feed her fixation on spots with the help of a German artist named Lars (Short).

This is actually one of the more tolerable Disney sequels. By no means is it better than the original, but it’s still actually pretty creative. It gives Cruella a chance to reform by fixing her obsession onto another medium. But that really only goes to show how deep she is into how much she wanted that coat and how she could probably never change on her own.

The Thunderbolt dynamic is also pretty interesting. He’s the actor who wants to show that he can do what he does onscreen just as well as off. But that’s for selfish means. It’s not until he stops trying to be the hero for himself and becomes a hero for others that he actually succeeds. It also portrays the relationship between a starstruck child who believes the actor to actually be a hero and the actor who really isn’t.

And for one of the direct to video sequels, the animation here is actually fairly decent and quite a bit more vibrant than the first film.

#54

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.