One Hundred and One Dalmatians
Encyclopedia
One Hundred and One Dalmatians, often abbreviated as 101 Dalmatians, is a 1961 American animated film
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 produced by Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

 and based on the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians
The Hundred and One Dalmatians
The Hundred and One Dalmatians, or the Great Dog Robbery is a 1956 children's novel by Dodie Smith. A sequel entitled The Starlight Barking continues from the end of the first novel....

by Dodie Smith
Dodie Smith
Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith was an English novelist and playwright. Smith is best known for her novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Her other works include I Capture the Castle and The Starlight Barking....

. Seventeenth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was originally released to theaters on January 25, 1961 by Buena Vista Distribution
Buena Vista Distribution
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is a motion picture and television feature distribution company owned by Disney Enterprises, Inc. Buena Vista International was the international distribution arm, Buena Vista Home Entertainment was the firm's video and DVD distribution arm, and Buena Vista...

.

The film features Rod Taylor as the voice of Pongo, the first of the Dalmatians
Dalmatian (dog)
The Dalmatian is a breed of dog whose roots are often said to trace back to Dalmatia, a region of Croatia where the first illustrations of the dog have been found. The Dalmatian is noted for its unique black- or brown-spotted coat and was mainly used as a carriage dog in its early days...

, and Betty Lou Gerson
Betty Lou Gerson
Betty Lou Gerson was an American actress, predominantly in radio, but also in film and television, and as a voice actress.-Early life:...

 as the voice of the villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...

ous Cruella de Vil
Cruella de Vil
Cruella de Vil is a fictional character and the iconic villain in Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Disney's 1961 animated film adaptation One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Disney's live-action film adaptations 101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians. In all her incarnations,...

. The plot centers on the fate of the kidnapped puppies of Pongo and Perdita.

Plot

Pongo is a dalmatian
Dalmatian (dog)
The Dalmatian is a breed of dog whose roots are often said to trace back to Dalmatia, a region of Croatia where the first illustrations of the dog have been found. The Dalmatian is noted for its unique black- or brown-spotted coat and was mainly used as a carriage dog in its early days...

 that lives in a London bachelor flat with his owner Roger Radcliffe, a songwriter. Bored with bachelor life, Pongo decides to find a wife for Roger and a mate for himself. While watching various female dog-human pairs out the window, he spots the perfect couple, a woman named Anita and her female dalmatian, Perdita. He quickly gets Roger out of the house and drags him through the park to arrange a meeting. Pongo accidentally causes both Roger and Anita to fall into a pond, but it works out well as the couple falls in love. Both the human couple and the dog couple marry.

Later, Perdita gives birth to 15 puppies. One almost dies, but Roger is able to revive it by rubbing it in a towel (because of which, they would name the pup, "Lucky"). That same night, they are visited by Cruella De Vil
Cruella de Vil
Cruella de Vil is a fictional character and the iconic villain in Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Disney's 1961 animated film adaptation One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Disney's live-action film adaptations 101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians. In all her incarnations,...

, a wealthy and materialistic former schoolmate of Anita's. She offers to buy the entire litter of puppies for a large sum, but Roger says they are not selling any of the puppies. Weeks later, she hires Jasper and Horace Badun to steal all of the puppies. When Scotland Yard
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...

 is unable to determine the thieves or find the puppies, Pongo and Perdita use the "Twilight Bark", normally a canine gossip line, to ask for help from the other dogs in England.

Colonel, an old sheepdog
Old English Sheepdog
The Old English Sheepdog is a large breed of dog which was developed in England from early herding types of dog. The Old English Sheepdog has very long fur covering the face and eyes...

, along with his compatriots Captain, a gray horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

, and Sergeant Tibbs, a tabby cat, find the puppies in a place called Hell Hall (Cruella's abandoned and dilapidated family estate), along with many other Dalmatian puppies that Cruella had purchased from various dog stores. Tibbs learns the puppies are going to be made into dog-skin fur coats and the Colonel quickly sends word back to London. Upon receiving the message, Pongo and Perdita immediately leave London to retrieve their puppies. Meanwhile, Tibbs overhears Cruella ordering the Baduns to kill and render the puppies that night out of fear the police will soon find them. In response, Tibbs attempts to rescue the puppies himself while the Baduns are watching the television, but they finish their show and come for them before Tibbs can get the puppies out of the house. Pongo and Perdita burst through a window just as the Baduns have cornered them and are about to kill them. While the adult dogs attack the two men, Colonel and Tibbs guide the puppies from the house.

After a happy reunion with their own puppies, the Pongos realize there are dozens of other puppies with them. Shocked at Cruella's plans, they decide to adopt all of the puppies, certain that Roger and Anita would never reject them. The dogs begin making their way back to London, aided by other animals along the way, with Cruella and the Baduns giving chase. In one town, they cover themselves with soot so they appear to be labrador retriever
Labrador Retriever
The Labrador Retriever is one of several kinds of retriever, a type of gun dog. A breed characteristic is webbed paws for swimming, useful for the breed's original purpose of retrieving fishing nets. The Labrador is the most popular breed of dog by registered ownership in Canada, the United...

s, then pile inside a moving van going back to London. As the van is leaving, melting snow clears off the soot and Cruella sees them. In a maniacal rage, she follows the van in her car and rams it, but the Baduns, trying to cut off the van from above, end up colliding with her. Both vehicles crash into a deep ravine. Cruella yells in frustration as the van drives away.

Back in London, Roger and Anita are attempting to celebrate Christmas and Roger's first big hit, a song about Cruella, but they miss their canine friends. Suddenly barking is heard outside and after their nanny opens the door, the house is filled with dogs. After wiping away more of the soot, the couple is delighted to realize their companions have returned home. After counting 86 extra puppies, they decide to use the money from the song to buy a large house in the country so they can keep all 101 Dalmatians.

Development

In 1956 During the production of Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...

Dodie Smith wrote her book The Hundred and One Dalmatians
The Hundred and One Dalmatians
The Hundred and One Dalmatians, or the Great Dog Robbery is a 1956 children's novel by Dodie Smith. A sequel entitled The Starlight Barking continues from the end of the first novel....

. When Walt Disney read the book it immediately grabbed his attention and he acquired the rights in 1957. Smith had always secretly hoped that Disney would make her book into a film.. Disney assingned Bill Peet
Bill Peet
Bill Peet , was an American children's book illustrator and a story writer for Disney Studios...

 to write the story. This would mark the first time that the story for a Disney film was created by a single story man.
Walt had not been as involved in the production of the animated films as he had been in the past, but he was always present at story meetings. However, Walt felt that Peet's original was so perfect that very little was changed. Peet sent Dodie Smith some drawings of the characters, she wrote back saying that Peet had improved her story.

Animation

After the very expensive Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...

failed at the box-office the company was in debt, and there was some talk of closing down the animation department at the Disney studio. Although Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

 had been expanding the studio into other mediums such as live-action films, television and theme parks, he still had deep feelings for animation since he had built the company upon it. He wanted to continue producing animation at the studio, but he needed to cut the cost.

Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....

, in charge of special processes at the studio, had been experimenting with Xerox
Xerox
Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...

 photography to aid in animation. By 1959 he had modified a Xerox camera to transfer drawings by animators directly to animation cels
Cel
A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid was used during the first half of the 20th century, but since it was flammable and dimensionally unstable it was largely replaced by cellulose acetate...

, eliminating the inking process and preserving the spontaneity of the penciled elements. The introduction of xerography
Xerography
Xerography is a dry photocopying technique invented by Chester Carlson in 1938, for which he was awarded on October 6, 1942. Carlson originally called his invention electrophotography...

 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. One problem with the Xerox however, was that the animators were used to producing sketchy drawings, and the clean-up
Traditional animation
Traditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...

 stage in animation prior to One Hundred and One Dalmatians was done in the process of transferring the drawings to the cels. With the hand inkers gone, the animation remained as the animators drew it. It later became common to do clean-up on paper before the animation was copied, and with time and experience, the process improved in 1977 with the release of The Rescuers
The Rescuers
The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on June 22, 1977. The 23rd film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is about the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York and shadowing...

. From then on animated features the Xeroxed lines could be printed in different colours.

The xerox was a great help towards animating the spotted dogs. According to Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...

, Disney was able to bring the movie in for about half of what it would have cost if they'd had to animate all the dogs and spots. To achieve the spotted Dalmatians, the animators used to think of the spot pattern as a constellation
Constellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

. Once they had one "anchor spot", the next was placed in relation to that one spot, and so on and so on until the full pattern was achieved. All total, 101 Dalmatians featured 6,469,952 spots, with Pongo sporting 72 spots, Perdita 68, and each puppy having 32.

With the studio no longer able to afford the expensive, but lavish labour-intensive inking, the studio fired all of its inkers resulting in a reduction of animation staff from over 500 to less than 100. However painters were still needed to put colour on the cels.

The production of the film also signaled a change in the graphic style of Disney's animation. Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...

had a more graphic, angular style than previous Disney films, and this look was chosen for One Hundred and One Dalmatians and in most subsequent films. For One Hundred and One Dalmatians the background artists would paint loose molds to represent an object and xerox the details onto the mold. Walt Disney disliked the artistic look of One Hundred and One Dalmatians and felt he was losing the fantasy element of his animated films. The art director Ken Anderson felt very depressed by this. Walt eventually forgave him on his final trip to the studio in late 1966. As Anderson recalled in an interview
He looked very sick, I said "Gee it's great to see you Walt", and he said "You know that thing you did on Dalmatians". He didn't say anything else, but he just gave me this look and I knew that all was forgiven and in his opinion maybe what I did on Dalmatians wasn't so bad. That was the last time I ever saw him. Then a few weeks later I learned he was gone.

Live-action reference

As done with other Disney films, Walt Disney hired an actress to perform live-action scenes as a reference for the animation process. Actress Helene Stanley performed the live-action reference for the character of Anita. She did the same kind of work for the characters of Cinderella
Cinderella (Disney character)
Cinderella is a fictional character and is the main protagonist from Disney's twelfth animated film Cinderella and its two sequels. In the original film she is voiced by the late Ilene Woods...

 and Princess Aurora
Aurora (Disney)
Princess Aurora is a fictional character and the title character from Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty , as well as an official Disney Princess.The Disney version of the character was based on the French version of the tale by Charles Perrault, written in 1634 in Histoires ou Contes du...

 in Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...

.

According to Christopher Finch, author of The Art of Walt Disney:

Unlike rotoscoping, the animators did not trace the live-action film, because this would make the animation look stiff and unnatural. Instead they studied the movement of the human characters and drew free-hand.

Songs

Unlike many Walt Disney animated features, One Hundred and One Dalmatians features only three songs, with just one, "Cruella De Vil", playing a big part in the film. The other two songs are "Kanine Krunchies Jingle" (sung by Lucille Bliss
Lucille Bliss
Lucille Bliss is an American actress and voice artist. A New York City native, she has appeared in films and on television shows, including The Smurfs as Smurfette, Nickelodeon's Invader ZIM and Walt Disney's Cinderella...

, who voiced Anastasia in Disney's 1950 film Cinderella
Cinderella (1950 film)
Cinderella is a 1950 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "Cendrillon" by Charles Perrault. Twelfth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film had a limited release on February 15, 1950 by RKO Radio Pictures. Directing credits go to Clyde Geronimi,...

), and "Dalmatian Plantation" in which only two lines are sung by Roger at the film's closure. Songwriter Mel Leven
Mel Leven
Melville A. Leven known professionally as Mel Leven was an American composer and lyricist who had a long association with the Walt Disney Company, although he wrote songs for Peggy Lee , The Andrews Sisters , Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, and Les Brown, among...

 had, in fact, written several additional songs for the film including "Don't Buy a Parrot from a Sailor", a cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...

 chant, meant to be sung by the Badduns at the De Vil Mansion, and "March of the One Hundred and One", which the dogs were meant to sing after escaping Cruella by van.

Cameos of Characters From Lady and the Tramp

During the scene where all the dogs of London are sending out a message that the puppies have been puppy napped, Peg from Lady and the Tramp
Lady and the Tramp
Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released to theaters on June 22, 1955, by Buena Vista Distribution. The fifteenth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, it was the first animated feature filmed in the CinemaScope widescreen...

 is seen in a pet store as one of the animals for sale. Lady and the Tramp also appear, and get the message, and send it on.

Voice cast

  • Rod Taylor - Pongo
  • Cate Bauer
    Cate Bauer
    Cate Bauer is a British actress who voiced the character Perdita in the 1961 film One Hundred and One Dalmatians. She also played Miss Hidwick in the series The Third Man in the episode How To Buy A Country.-External Links:...

     - Perdita
  • Betty Lou Gerson
    Betty Lou Gerson
    Betty Lou Gerson was an American actress, predominantly in radio, but also in film and television, and as a voice actress.-Early life:...

     - Cruella De Vil
    Cruella de Vil
    Cruella de Vil is a fictional character and the iconic villain in Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Disney's 1961 animated film adaptation One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Disney's live-action film adaptations 101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians. In all her incarnations,...

     / Miss Birdwell
  • Ben Wright
    Ben Wright (actor)
    Ben Wright was an English actor in radio, film and television. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.-Radio:...

     - Roger Radcliffe
  • Lisa Davis - Anita Radcliffe
  • Martha Wentworth
    Martha Wentworth
    Martha Wentworth was an American actress.Originally a radio actress, she became a film actress in the 1940s, starring in several Red Ryder Western films...

     - Nanny / Queenie / Lucy
  • Frederick Worlock - Horace Badun; Inspector Craven
  • J. Pat O'Malley
    J. Pat O'Malley
    James Patrick O'Malley was an English singer and character actor, who appeared in many American films and television programs during the 1940s–1970s, using the stage name J. Pat O'Malley...

     - Jasper Badun; Colonel
  • Thurl Ravenscroft
    Thurl Ravenscroft
    Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft was an American voice actor and singer best known as the deep voice behind Tony the Tiger's "They're grrreat!" in Frosted Flakes television commercials for more than five decades. Ravenscroft was also known, however uncredited, as the vocalist for the song "You're a Mean...

     - Captain
  • David Frankham
    David Frankham
    David Frankham is a film and television actor. After serving in India and Malaya in WWII, Frankham worked first as a news reader, and then a writer, interviewer and producer for the BBC from 1948 through 1955....

     - Sgt. Tibbs
  • Barbara Baird - Rolly
  • Mickey Maga - Patch
  • Sandra Abbott - Penny
  • Mimi Gibson
    Mimi Gibson
    Mimi Gibson is a former child actress. After the early death of her father, her mother took her and her sister to Los Angeles. At only 18 months, she was a popular calendar model, posing with cute animals. By age two she was appearing in movies. During the 1950s and early 1960s she would appear...

     - Lucky
  • Tom Conway
    Tom Conway
    Tom Conway was a British film and radio actor, and elder brother of actor George Sanders.-Early life:...

     - Collie / Quizmaster
  • Bill Lee
    Bill Lee (singer)
    Bill Lee was an American playback singer who provided a voice or singing voice in many films, for actors in musicals and for many Disney characters. He was born in Johnson, Nebraska and died in 1980 in Los Angeles, California, of a brain tumor.Lee was part of a popular singing quartet known as The...

     - Roger (singing)

Release

One Hundred and One Dalmatians was first released to theaters on January 25, 1961. After its initial theatrical run, it was re-released to theaters four more times: January 1969, June 1979, December 1985, and July 1991.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released on VHS on April 10, 1992 as part of the Walt Disney Classics video series. It was re-released on March 9, 1999 as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection video series. On December 19, 1999, it received its first DVD release as part of Disney's Limited Issue series. A 2-disc Platinum Edition
Walt Disney Platinum Editions
Walt Disney Platinum Editions are a line of 2-Disc DVD sets released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, a follow-up to the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection. The Platinum line features newly restored digital versions of 13 of the most popular and successful Disney animated features of all...

 DVD was released on March 4, 2008. No Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...

 DVD release has been announced.

Reception

One Hundred and One Dalmatians was the tenth highest grossing film of 1961, accruing $6,400,000 in distributors'
Film distributor
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing...

 domestic (U.S. and Canada) rentals during its first year of release, and one of the studio's most popular films of the decade. The film was re-issued to theaters in 1969, 1979, 1985, and 1991. The 1991 reissue was the twentieth highest earning film of the year for domestic earnings. It has earned $215,880,014 in domestic box office earnings during its lengthy history. It currently holds a 97% "fresh" rating from critics and users on Rotten Tomatoes. The film did receive some negative criticism. Phillip Martin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell...

 only gave the film 2/5 stars. In 2011 Craig Berman of MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

 ranked the film and its 1996 remake as two of the worst kid films of all-time saying, "The plot itself is a bit nutty. Making a coat out of dogs? Who does that? But worse than Cruella de Vil’s fashion sense is the fact that your children will definitely start asking for a Dalmatian of their own for their next birthday."

American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

 Lists
  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - Nominated
  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
    • Cruella De Vil - #39 Villain
  • AFI's 10 Top 10
    AFI's 10 Top 10
    AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....

     - Nominated Animated Film

Sequels and spin-offs

In the years since the original release of the movie, Disney has taken the property in various directions. The earliest of these endeavors was the live-action remake, 101 Dalmatians. Starring Glenn Close
Glenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...

 as Cruella De Vil, none of the animals talked in this 1996
1996 in film
Major releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...

 edition. This version's success in theaters led to 102 Dalmatians
102 Dalmatians
102 Dalmatians is a 2000 live-action film, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and starring Glenn Close as Cruella de Vil. It is the sequel to 101 Dalmatians, a live-action remake of the 1961 Disney animated feature of the same name. In the film, Cruella de Vil attempts to steal puppies for her...

, released on November 22, 2000.

After the first live-action version of the movie, a cartoon called 101 Dalmatians: The Series
101 Dalmatians: The Series
101 Dalmatians: The Series is a animated television series produced by the Walt Disney Company based on the classic 1961 Disney animated feature of the same name and its 1996 live-action remake.-Premise:...

was launched. The designs of the characters were stylized further, to allow for economic animation, and appeal to the contemporary trends.

Most recently, 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure
101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure
101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure is a 2003 American direct-to-video animated film released by Walt Disney Home Entertainment on January 21, 2003. The film is the sequel to the 1961 Disney animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians...

, the official sequel to the original animated film, was released straight-to-VHS/DVD
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...

on January 21, 2003.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK