A History of Adversity
Animation fans love to talk about the second golden age of Disney animation in the early ‘90s, and how a dedicated team of artists working out of trailers and warehouses pulled Disney animation back from the brink of oblivion. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, however, were hardly the first animated features to keep cartoons off the chopping block at the house that Mickey built.
The 1959 release of Sleeping Beauty nearly bankrupted the studio, and Walt Disney, who was already deeply preoccupied with live-action feature production, television, and Disneyland, seriously considered shutting down animation all together. The only exception would be a tiny unit of animators to fill the needs of the Disneyland TV show.
With several animated features in various stages of production, including an adaptation of Dodie Smith’s 1956 best selling children’s book The One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Disney realized that shuttering animation would require more of his time than he was willing to commit. Ultimately, he could not bring himself to abandon the medium that had become synonymous with his name.
Animation remained part of Walt Disney productions, albeit with drastically reduced staffing. The Disney brothers laid off nearly half of the animation department’s workforce.
This put tremendous pressure on remaining productions, like 101 Dalmatians, to reduce costs.
Cruella De Vil's car was a cardboard model photographed, xeroxed, painted, and inserted into the film.
Watch the filming of Cruella's car in the video clip at the end of the review.
Image copyright© Disney. All rights reserved.
Firsts
Ub Iwerks, Disney’s first partner and the father of Mickey Mouse, then in charge of Special Processes at Walt Disney Productions, had been experimenting since the early part of the decade with Xerography as a means to speed animation production and reduce costs. Ready or not, the process was used on Dalmatians to transfer the animators’ drawings directly to cells for painting.
Cost savings notwithstanding, the Xerox process wasn’t without its share of controversy. Some Disney animators loved the fact that their drawings would now appear on screen as rendered for the first time. Others thought the process marked the end of the classic style of Disney animation—it did—by forcing all the characters to look “sketchy.”
Xerography wasn’t the only new thing being tried out in Dalmatians. The story, which was not a fairytale, was the studio’s first animated feature to be set in, what was then, present day. Additionally, it featured beautifully artistic backgrounds done in a modern contemporary style, rich and vividly colored.
Perhaps it was because Sleeping Beauty, which cost so much and performed so poorly at the box office, was equally stylized that Disney was extremely critical of the look of 101 Dalmatians, something he never forgave production designer Ken Anderson for.
He also wasn’t entirely satisfied with longtime Disney writer and story man Bill Peet’s take on Dodie Smith’s book. Relations between the two men continued to deteriorate during production of The Sword in the Stone and The Jungle Book. In the end, Peet left the studio after Disney rejected his story and script for Jungle Book.
Occasionally, the Xerox process captured more of an animator's sketch work than intended,
as seen in this close up of one of Marc Davis' drawings of Cruella De Vil.
Image copyright© Disney. All rights reserved.
Instant Classic
As the saying goes, the rest is history. Disney’s 101 Dalmatians was a hit with audiences and critics alike, grossing $14 million dollars in its initial release. Subsequent releases, adjusted for inflation, made Dalmatians the 11th highest grossing film of all time.
The film was hailed for its innovate style and called one of Disney’s best animated films—ever. And that background artwork Disney disliked so has often been compared to the works of Picaso, Dali, and other modern masters.
Disney Home Entertainment has given 101 Dalmatians a full digital makeover. Cleaner, sharper, and brighter than ever, the adventures of Pongo, Perdita, and their pups have never looked or sounded more vibrant and alive.
If there’s any drawback at all to this edition of Dalmatians, it’s that the film’s much larger than life, quintessential Disney villain, Cruella De Vil, really should be seen on the big screen. Ranked one of The American Film Institute’s “Best Villains of All Time,” Cruella’s outsized and outlandish movements best come to life as her near skeletal frame anchors the yards of fur that swirl about her body.
This is the first time the Mouse’s home entertainment division has done a nose-to-tail, spot-on, full grooming for 101 Dalmatians, so there’s lots of rarely if ever seen stuff included with the bonus features, something that should please even the pickiest animation buff.
Instead of a commentary track following the on-screen action, you can choose from two different sets of Pop-Up Trivia facts: one for grownup Disney/animation fans and another for families.
There are three excellent behind the scenes featurettes on Disc Two.
Redefining The Line: The Making Of 101 Dalmatians uses archival footage and interviews to describe the then innovative processes used to create 101 Dalmatians.
Cruella De Vil: Drawn To Be Bad tells the story of how flamboyant actress Tallulah Bankhead inspired legendary Disney animator Marc Davis to make Cruella De Vil a villain that movie fans love to hate. In his own words, Davis, one of Disney’s immortal “Nine Old Men,” reveals how this iconic character came into being.
Sincerely Yours, Walt Disney is a short film in which actors portray Walt Disney and Dodie Smith’s correspondence during the nearly five years Dalmatians was in production.
In addition to several games for the family, the 101 Dalmatians Bonus Features also include rarely seen theatrical trailers, television ads, and songs deleted from the final production, now brought to life through the use of storyboards and test footage.
The only real misfire among the bonus features is the lamentable Cruella De Vil Music Video. The classic anthem gets a contemporary Disney Channel skewering from teen star Selena Gomez, who does for the song Cruella De Vil—what disco did for the Ballad of Sweeny Todd.
101 Dalmatians 2-Disc Platinum Edition
Film: A+
Bonus Extras: A
Buy or Rent: Recommended Buy
Suggested retail price: U.S. $29.99, Canada $36.99
Feature run time: 79 Minutes
Rated: “G” Bonus materials not rated or subtitled
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 full-screen aspect ratio (feature only)
Sound: Disney-enhanced Home Theater Mix, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Languages: English, French, and Spanish language tracks; Close captioned in English
Walt Disney Home Entertainment is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Inc.
Fun Facts and Video Clip
Roger's walk in the park with Pongo opens with one of the most widely recognized, especially among Baby Boomers, tunes in the Disney catalog: George Bruns' Playful Melody. Most Disney fans know the tune but haven't the slightest idea of what its title is.
Actor Ben Wright, who voiced Roger in 101 Dalmatians, was also the voice of Grimsby in Disney's The Little Mermaid. At the time Mermaid was recording, no one at the studio knew Wright had previously voiced a Disney character.
Video clip courtesy and copyright© Disney. All rights reserved.
