One Hundred and One Dalmatians


 * This article is about the animated film. See The Hundred and One Dalmatians for the original novel. For the 1996 live-action film, see 101 Dalmatians.

101 Dalmatians is the seventeenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was made and produced by Walt Disney Productions, and it was originally released to theaters on January 25, 1961 by Buena Vista Distribution. It is based on the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith.

The film features Rod Taylor as the voice of Pongo, the first of the Dalmatians, and Betty Lou Gerson as the voice of the villainous Cruella De Vil. The plot centers on the fate of the kidnapped puppies of Pongo and Perdita.

Production
The production of the film signaled a change in the graphic style of Disney's animation. This occurred with the introduction of Xerography which eased graphic reproduction requirements, but at the price of being unable to deviate from a scratchy outline style because of the new (and time and money saving) technology's limitations, recognizable by its thick black lines. Since the line would not have fit the "round" Disney drawing style used until then, a more graphic, angular style was chosen for this, and subsequent film. Rotoscoping, a technique formerly used for tracing live action human characters into animated drawings, became less important.

The technology change also happened when Disney cut its animation department after the economical failure of the very expensive Sleeping Beauty, resulting in a reduction of staff from well over 500 to less than 100 and fewer resources put into the movies. Walt Disney, who at this point had started to direct his attention more towards television and his Disneyland amusement park and less on his animated features, disliked this development. The "sketchy" graphic style would, however, remain the norm at Disney for years until the technology improved prior to the release of The Rescuers to allow a softer look. In later animated features the Xeroxed lines could be printed in many different colors.

Re-release schedule and home video
The film was the highest grossing film of 1961 and one of the studio's most popular films of the decade and was re-issued in 1969, 1979, 1985, and 1991, the last re-issue being one of the top 10 films of the year at the box office in a year when the studio had few hits. The film was released on video in 1992 (using 1988 Classics logo; it was also the first movie to have a new "Feature Presentation" graphic, with a lilac blue gradient background and white handwriting) and March 9, 1999 (using 1993 WDHV logo), and on DVD on November 9, 1999 as part of Disney's Limited Issue series. A Platinum Edition DVD release was originally scheduled for March 2007, but it was unexpectedly replaced by Peter Pan, as revealed from the Platinum Edition DVD of The Little Mermaid. It is most likely postponed to March 2008, as the October 2007 time slot has been occupied by The Jungle Book.

101 Dalmatians theatrical release history

 * January 25, 1961 (original release)
 * January 22, 1969
 * June 9, 1979
 * December 20, 1985
 * July 12, 1991

Worldwide release dates

 * Australia: October 8, 1961
 * Argentina: July 6, 1961
 * Spain: September 21, 1961
 * Italy: November 30, 1961
 * Finland: December 15, 1961
 * West Germany: December 19, 1961
 * France: December 20, 1961
 * Mexico: December 21, 1961
 * Denmark: December 26, 1961
 * Norway: December 26, 1961
 * Sweden: December 26, 1961
 * Japan: July 21, 1962

Characters

 * Pongo: The protagonist and the father of the Dalmatian puppies
 * Perdita: Pongo's mate and the mother of the Dalmatian puppies
 * Roger: Pongo's owner and a struggling songwriter; eventually becomes rich when creating a song about Cruella de Vil, who is Anita's social parasite.
 * Anita: Perdita's owner and Roger's wife. She is something of an artist and rather fond of Roger.
 * Cruella De Vil: The villainess of the film; an eccentric rich woman who has the puppies kidnapped in order to turn them into fur coats. She is a social parasite; she visits her ex-classmates, keeping a pretence of friendship, while taking advantage of their fears. She has an obsession for pelts, but in fact is only shown wearing a single, voluminous white coat. Beneath this, she wears a skintight swimming suit. Cruella smokes constantly and has no scruples to either commit blackmail or bad driving. She drives a long red car and is known for operating it recklessly.
 * Jasper and Horace Badun: Cruella's henchmen who carry out the kidnapping. Jasper is tall and thin, while Horace is short and fat; otherwise, they are obviously twin brothers. They argue often. Horace is the more intelligent of the two, but is absolutely intimidated by Jasper, who has the more ready tongue. Jasper has a closed mind to the possibility of sapience in dogs-- as well as the equal possibility of cleverness in his brother. He drinks alcohol, whereas Horace eats sandwiches. Both enjoy watching a weekly television programme called "What's My Crime?", wherein the misdeeds of lawbreakers are guessed by a panel of contestants. One of the guest stars of this programme, Percival "Meathead" Faunsquater, is an acquaintance of theirs.
 * Nanny: Roger and Anita's maid. Very maternal and fussy. Detests Cruella, has no patience for teasing, and is very attached to the puppies. Worthless in a crisis except to give the alarm.
 * Patch and Lucky: Two of the 99 Dalmatian puppies. Patch has a black eye; Lucky is obsessed with TV and has a horseshoe-shaped pattern of spots on his back. Their favorite television serial features a police dog named Thunderbolt, who while quite alone fights and captures a fat thief known as Dirty Dawson.
 * Cadpig: In the book and TV series, she is the runt dalmatian who nearly dies immediately after being born. In the film, however, Cadpig's role is played by Lucky. He is given the name "Lucky" because of being revived by Roger, who thawed him out by means of friction.
 * Rolly: Another puppy; always hungry.
 * Freckles: Another puppy; has a pattern of spots over the bridge of the nose resembling freckles on a human child.
 * The Colonel, the Captain, and Sergeant Tibbs: A dog, a horse, and a cat who help mastermind a rescue mission to save the puppies from Cruella

Voice cast

 * Rod Taylor - Pongo
 * Cate Bauer - Perdita
 * Ben Wright - Roger Radcliffe
 * Lisa Davis - Anita Radcliffe
 * Betty Lou Gerson - Cruella De Vil; Miss Birdwell
 * J. Pat O'Malley - Jasper Badun; Colonel
 * Frederick Worlock - Horace Badun; Inspector Craven
 * Martha Wentworth - Nanny
 * Tudor Owen - Towser
 * Tom Conway - Quizmaster; Collie
 * George Pelling - Danny
 * Thurl Ravenscroft - Captain
 * David Frankham - Sgt. Tibs
 * Ramsay Hill - TV Announcer; Labrador
 * Queenie Leonard - Princess
 * Marjorie Bennett - Duchess
 * Barbara Baird - Rolly
 * Mickey Maga - Patch
 * Sandra Abbott - Penny
 * Mimi Gibson - Lucky
 * Barbara Luddy - Rover
 * Paul Frees - Dirty Dawson; TV Announcer
 * Lucille Bliss - TV Commercial Singer
 * Rickie Sorenson - Spotty
 * Bill Lee - Roger (singing)

Directing Animators

 * Milt Kahl
 * Frank Thomas
 * Ollie Johnston
 * Marc Davis (Cruella DeVil)
 * John Lounsbery
 * Eric Larson

Plot
After Roger and Anita (and Pongo and Perdita) get married, Perdita gives birth to 15 Dalmatian puppies. Cruella De Vil, who is known to Anita from their school years, offers the human couple a large sum of money in return for the puppies so that she can make dog-skin coats out of them. The human couple refuses, but Cruella, who won't take no for an answer, hires Jasper and Horace Badun to kidnap the puppies. Once the puppies are kidnapped, it is up to Pongo and Perdita, along with the help of some animal friends they meet along the way, to rescue them along with the 84 other puppies in Cruella's possession. In a cliffhanger ending Jasper and Horance in their truck and Cruella in her car race after a van with the dalmations inside. Trying to cut the van off from two different directions, the villians vehicles collide with one another while the dogs go to safety.

Sequels and Spinoffs
101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure is a sequel to the original 1961 film, released on January 21, 2003.

A live-action sequel to 101 Dalmatians, entitled 102 Dalmatians, is currently in production. It is to star, Adam Campbell, Hayley Atwell, and Miriam Margolyes as Cruella de Vil.

101 Dalmatians: The Series is a cartoon television show series based on the original 101 Dalmatians film.

The Starlight Barking is the sequel written by author Dodie Smith.

Title in different languages

 * Bosnian: 101 dalmatinac/101 dalmatiner
 * Bulgarian : 101 Далматинци
 * Catalan : 101 dalmates
 * Chinese - Mandarin : 101忠狗 zhōng gǒu (Literal meaning: "101 loyal dogs")
 * Chinese - Cantonese : 101斑點狗 jūng gáu (Literal meaning: "101 loyal dogs")
 * Croatian : 101 dalmatinac/101 dalmatiner
 * Czech : 101 dalmatinů
 * Danish : 101 dalmatinere - Hund og hund mellem
 * Dutch : 101 dalmatiërs
 * Esperanto : 101 Dalmatoj
 * Estonian : 101 dalmaatsi koera
 * Finnish : Lupsakkaat luppakorvat (also known as "101 dalmatialaista")
 * French : Les 101 dalmatiens
 * German : 101 Dalmatiner (also known as "Pongo und Perdita")
 * Greek : 101 Σκυλιά της
 * Hebrew : על כלבים וגנבים
 * Hungarian : 101 kiskutya (Literal meaning: "101 little puppies")
 * Icelandic : Hundalif
 * Italian : La carica dei 101
 * Japanese : 101匹わんちゃん (Hyaku-ippiki Wan-chan)
 * Korean (South Korea) : 101마리 강아지 (literally 101 puppies)
 * Maltese: Il-101 Dalmatians
 * Norwegian : En Sjarmor i pels (also known as 101 Dalmatinere: En sjarmor i pels)
 * Polish : 101 dalmatyńczykow
 * Portuguese : Os 101 dalmatas
 * Romanian: 101 dalmaţieni
 * Russian: 101 далматинца
 * Serbian: 101 dalmatinac
 * Slovak: 101 dalmatinů
 * Slovenian: 101 dalmatinec
 * Spanish: 101 dálmatas (Spain); 101 dálmatas: La noche de las narices frías (Latin America)
 * Swedish: Pongo och de 101 dalmatinerna (also known as Pongo och valptjuvarna)
 * Thai: 101 ดัลเมเชียนส์
 * Turkish: 101 dalmacyalı
 * Vietnamese: 101 Con Chó Đốm

Goofs

 * At the park in the beginning of the movie, Pongo drags Roger from the bench where his hat is sitting beside him. He leaves the hat there, but a few seconds later it is on his head.


 * In the same scene when Anita is removed from the pond, the book she was carrying has turned into a purse.


 * In some scenes there more than 101 dalmatian puppies are shown such as the ending scene when there are well over 150 of them.


 * In the scene where Cruella tries to convince Roger to sell her the puppies, she sets her purse on the table to write out a cheque. After Roger refuses and she rips up the cheque and storms out of the house, she doesn't pick up her purse to bring it with her. Later on, she has the purse again. In the same scene, Cruella splatters ink all over Pongo and Roger. In the next shot, the ink disappears and they are clean.


 * During the final car chase, Jasper and Horace see the large truck approaching the intersection from their right, but when they collide, the truck has come from the left.

Trivia

 * Much as clownfish were later popularized in Finding Nemo, One Hundred and One Dalmatians popularized the Dalmatian breed. Many families sought Dalmatians, although Dalmatians are energetic and require a lot of exercise; therefore, many were returned or abandoned. The breed also suffered due to backyard breeders looking to profit from the trend.


 * Cruella's car in this film was not a Panther De Ville Convertible, although they look similar. The car was not produced until 13 years after the film's release.


 * Cruella De Vil's name is a play on words to sound like her personality: Cruel Devil.


 * When the Baduns are talking on the phone to Cruella, they are holding a newspaper. The only headline on the front page (minus the dognapping) is CARLSEN SPEAKS and a picture of a capsized ship. This headline helps us to date the story, since the Carlsen in question is Henrik Kurt Carlsen, captain of the freighter Flying Enterprise that sank after a prolonged struggle in the Atlantic. The sinking of the freighter was a media event in January 1952.


 * Cruella's design was a manic take-off on the flamboyant actress Tallulah Bankhead that included some of her personality quirks.


 * When Pongo and Perdita arrive to rescue the puppies, the puppies can be seen watching What's My Crime?, a parody version of What's My Line? on television.


 * Two of the local yokels of Westport from the Disney short The Saga of Windwagon Smith, which was released the same year as this film, resemble the Baduns.


 * Unlike many other Walt Disney animated features, One Hundred and One Dalmatians only features one song in it, "Cruella De Vil." Even this song isn't sung to its entirety.  The only other song is Dalmatian Plantation, which only contains two lines and is sung as a closer.


 * In the Squaresoft game Kingdom Hearts, the Dalmatians' world has been destroyed; consequently, Pongo and Perdita are, at first, the only residents in the mansion where they stay in Traverse Town. The puppies are trapped inside treasure chests scattered throughout the worlds. Every time Sora rescues a certain number of puppies, Pongo and Perdita give rewards to the player.


 * The scene where the puppies watching TV inspired The Simpsons creator Matt Groening to have his cartoons watch television, an idea which led to TV Shows-within-a-TV show such as The Itchy and Scratchy Show, The Krusty the Klown Show and Springfield News with Kent Brockman. The basic plot of 101 Dalmatians was also used in the episode Two Dozen and One Greyhounds where Mr. Burns wanted to have a fur coat similar to Cruella.


 * Akira Toriyama, famed creator of the Dragon Ball series, has stated on numerous occasions that it was this film that inspired him to start drawing. (This also seems to explain his unique art style, which is unlike the traditional anime art style and is more Disney-esque in appearance.)


 * Lady and 2 of Tramp's friends(Lady and the Tramp), make a cameo appearance in the show. Tramp's friends can be seen in "Percy's Pets", and Lady can be seen with the street dogs. Lady is hard to see, but she can be seen right after Coco(the rich lady's dog) gives the message to them. Look to the bottom after a few seconds and you can see a Cocker spaniel that looks like Lady.