One Hundred and One Dalmatians
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (also simply known as 101 Dalmatians) is a 1961 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions with distribution by Buena Vista Distribution. Adapted from Dodie Smith's 1956 novel of the same name, the film was directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wolfgang Reitherman from a script by Bill Peet.[a] It features the voice talents of Rod Taylor, J. Pat O'Malley, Betty Lou Gerson, Martha Wentworth, Ben Wright, Cate Bauer, Dave Frankham, and Fred Worlock.
This article is about the 1961 animated film. For other uses, see 101 Dalmatians.One Hundred and One Dalmatians
Bill Peet
- Roy M. Brewer, Jr.
- Donald Halliday
- January 25, 1961
79 minutes
United States
English
$303 million[4]
The film's plot follows a litter of fifteen Dalmatian puppies, who are kidnapped by the obsessive socialite Cruella De Vil, wanting to make their fur into coats. Pongo and Perdita set out on a cross-country rescue mission to save the litter from the maniacal Cruella, in the process rescuing 84 additional ones, bringing the total of Dalmatians to 101.
One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released in theaters on January 25, 1961, to critical acclaim, and was a box-office success. Grossing $14 million domestically in its original theatrical run, it was the first animated feature to earn over $10 million during its initial release, and became the eighth-highest-grossing film of the year in the North American box office and the highest-grossing animated film when reissues of films are not counted. Aside from its box-office revenue, the employment of inexpensive animation techniques, such as using xerography during the process of inking and painting traditional animation cels, kept production costs down. Counting reissues, the film grossed $303 million worldwide, and when adjusted for inflation, is the twelfth-highest-grossing film in the North American box office and the second-highest-grossing animated film globally.[5]
The success of the film made Disney expand it into a media franchise, with a live-action remake released in 1996, followed by a sequel in 2000. A direct-to-video animated sequel to the 1961 film, 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure, was released in 2003. Two animated television series based on the franchise were also produced, with 101 Dalmatians: The Series in 1997 and 101 Dalmatian Street in 2019. A live-action reboot, Cruella, was released in 2021.
Plot[edit]
In 1958, aspiring songwriter Roger Radcliffe lives in a bachelor flat near Regent's Park in London with his pet Dalmatian, Pongo. Deciding both of them need a "mate", Pongo watches women and their dogs in the street. Noticing a young woman named Anita and her Dalmatian Perdita, he drags Roger to the park to arrange a meeting. Roger and Anita fall in love, and soon marry, with Pongo and Perdita attending.
The Radcliffes hire a nanny and move into a small townhouse near Regent's Park. After Perdita becomes pregnant with a litter of 15 puppies, Anita's fur-obsessed former schoolmate, Cruella De Vil, arrives and demands to know when the puppies will arrive; Roger responds by writing a jazzy song mocking her. A heartbroken Perdita confesses to Pongo that she now regrets the idea of having puppies due to Cruella wanting them. When the puppies are born, Cruella returns, demanding to buy them. Roger firmly denies her offer; Cruella, refusing to take no for an answer, swears revenge and storms out.
Several weeks later, Cruella makes good on her threat and secretly hires brothers Jasper and Horace Badun, two burglars, to steal the puppies. When Scotland Yard is unable to find the puppies or prove Cruella was involved, Pongo and Perdita use the "Twilight Bark", a canine gossip line, to solicit help from the other dogs in London, and eventually all of England.
Colonel, an Old English Sheepdog, along with his feline compatriot Sergeant Tibbs, investigate the nearby "Old De Vil Place", where puppies had been heard barking two nights earlier. Tibbs finds the puppies in the hall and learns that Cruella intends to make them into dog-skin fur coats. After Colonel sends word back to London, Pongo and Perdita leave through a back window and begin a long cross-country journey, crossing an icy river and running through the snow toward Suffolk.
Meanwhile, Tibbs overhears Cruella ordering the Baduns to kill the puppies that night out of fear the police will soon find them. In response, Tibbs helps the puppies escape through a hole in the wall, but the Baduns notice and give chase. Pongo and Perdita break into the house and confront the Baduns just as they are about to kill the puppies. While the adult dogs attack the two men, Colonel and Tibbs guide the puppies from the house. Following a happy reunion with their own puppies, Pongo and Perdita discover there are 84 more puppies with them. Shocked at Cruella's plans, they decide to adopt all the puppies, certain that Roger and Anita would never reject them.
The Dalmatians start their homeward trek, pursued by the Baduns. They take shelter from a blizzard in a dairy farm with a friendly collie and three cows, then make their way to Dinsford, where they meet a Black Labrador waiting for them in a blacksmith's shop. Cruella and the Baduns arrive, prompting Pongo to have his entire family roll in a sooty fireplace to disguise themselves as other Labradors. The Labrador helps them board a moving van bound for London, but melting snow falls on Lucky and clears the soot off of him, blowing the dogs' cover. Enraged, Cruella pursues the van in her car and tries to ram it off the road, but the Baduns, attempting to do the same with their lorry, end up colliding with her. Both vehicles crash into a ditch, and Cruella yells in frustration at the pair, only for Jasper to tell her off as the van drives away.
In London, a depressed Nanny and the Radcliffes try to enjoy Christmas and the wealth they have acquired from the song about Cruella, which has become a big radio hit. The soot-covered Dalmatians suddenly flood the house. Upon removing the soot and counting the massive family of dogs, Roger chooses to use his songwriting royalties to buy a big house in the country so they can keep all 101 Dalmatians.
Max Smith, Bob Stevens, Clarence Nash, and Dal McKennon provided the sounds of dog barks.[14] Barbara Luddy and Rickie Sorensen voiced Rover[16] and Spotty,[38] two of the eighty-four Dalmatian puppies that were bought by Cruella.[39] Jeanne Gayle (the wife of the film's composer George Bruns) performed the radio version of "Cruella De Vil" song in the film's final scene.[22] Paul Frees voiced Dirty Dawson,[40] the villain in the Thunderbolt TV show.[41] Lucille Bliss performed the "Kanine Krunchies" jingle in a TV commercial.[42]
Production[edit]
Story development[edit]
The children's novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith had been published on November 19, 1956,[43] to an immediate success.[44] By February 1957, screenwriter Charles Brackett brought it to the attention of Walt Disney,[45] who acquired the film rights to the novel on November 26 of that year[46] (after lengthy negotiations)[47] for $25,000.[45] The project was set to be Disney's next animated feature after Sleeping Beauty (which was still in production at the time)[47] and was originally expected to be finished within two years.[46] Story artist Bill Peet was assigned to single-handedly develop the story,[48] marking the first time a Disney animated film was written by one person.[49] Disney also tasked Peet to write a detailed screenplay first before storyboarding; since Peet never learned to use a typewriter, he wrote the initial draft by hand on legal paper.[1] The manuscript was completed and typed up within two months, after which, having received Disney's approval, Peet began storyboarding and was charged with recording the voice-over process.[50]
Peet closely followed the plot of Smith's novel, but condensed some of its characters, which included Cruella's husband and cat,[26] as well as Cadpig, the female runt of Pongo and Missis' puppies, whose traits were transferred to Lucky in the final film.[21][b] He also merged two Dalmatian mothers, birth mother Missis and adopted mother Perdita, into one,[49] naming her after the latter;[26] likewise, Nanny Cook and Nanny Butler from the novel were amalgamated into one character, simply named Nanny.[21] The Colonel's cat assistant was re-gendered from the female Pussy Willow into the male Sergeant Tibbs, and Horace Badun was renamed from Saul.[52] Among other things, Peet retained a scene from the original book in which Pongo and Perdita exchange wedding vows in unison with their owners, who were also renamed from Mr. and Mrs. Dearly to Roger and Anita Radcliffe.[21] However, after the censor board warned that it might offend certain religious audiences if the animals repeated the exact words of a solemn religious ceremony, it was reworked to be less religious, down to having Roger and Anita dressed in formal clothes.[53] Also, the film's original ending involved the newly rich Roger selling his song about Cruella and buying the Hell Hall to turn it into a Dalmatian Plantation, with Pongo and Perdita expecting another litter of puppies. It was ultimately cut short and rewritten to have Dalmatians reunite with their owners after they escape from Cruella.[54]
Although Disney had not been as involved in the production of the animated films as frequently as in previous years, he was always present at story meetings.[55] When Peet sent Dodie Smith some drawings of the characters, she wrote back saying that he had improved her story and that the designs looked better than the illustrations in the book.
Casting[edit]
The filmmakers deliberately cast actors with deeper voices for the roles of dogs, so they would have more power than those of the human characters.[56] Rod Taylor, who had extensive radio experience, was one of the first actors cast in the film;[22] he got the role of Pongo.[57] Lisa Daniels was originally cast as Perdita and recorded about the third of her lines but then got married and moved to New York;[22] Cate Bauer replaced her for the rest of the film.[57] J. Pat O'Malley, who was a regular voice actor for the studio and one of Disney's personal favorites,[22] got the roles of Jasper and Colonel,[58] and also voiced several minor characters in the film.[57] David Frankham was cast as Sergeant Tibbs in the spring of 1959 and finished his recording within three sessions from May 1959 to January 1960;[59] he was also asked to record the part of Scottie, the Skye Terrier who appears early in the "Twilight Bark" sequence.[30]
Disney originally had Lisa Davis read for the role of Cruella De Vil, but she did not think that she was right for the part, and wanted to try reading the role of Anita instead.[60] Disney agreed, and, after they read the script for a second time, she landed the part.[31] Davis also provided live-action reference for the character.[61] Betty Lou Gerson, who was previously the narrator for Cinderella (1950), auditioned for the role of Cruella De Vil in front of Marc Davis, the character's supervising animator, and sequence director Wolfgang Reitherman, and immediately landed it.[62] While searching for the right accent of the character, she landed on a "phony theatrical voice, someone who's set sail from New York but hasn't quite reached England."[63] During the recording process, Gerson was thought to be imitating Tallulah Bankhead,[19] but she later disputed that she "didn't intentionally imitate her ... We both had phony English accents on top of our Southern accents and a great deal of flair. So our voices came out that way."[64] Gerson finished her recording sessions in fourteen days.[62]
Release[edit]
Original theatrical run[edit]
One Hundred and One Dalmatians premiered and was released in theaters on January 25, 1961,[83] accompanied by the documentary The Horse with the Flying Tail (1960).[46] To promote the film, an updated version of the 1957 Disneyland episode "The Best Doggoned Dog in the World" was aired on ABC on February 12, 1961,[28] featuring the footage from One Hundred and One Dalmatians instead of scenes from Old Yeller (1957).[84]
During its initial theatrical run, the film grossed $14 million in the United States and Canada,[85] which generated $6.2 million in distributor rentals.[86] It was the first animated feature to earn more than $10 million on its initial release,[87] as well as the most popular film of the year in France,[88] with admissions of 14.7 million ranking tenth on their all-time list.[89] The box-office success of One Hundred and One Dalmatians allowed to pull the studio's animation department out of the financial slump caused by the underperformance of Sleeping Beauty two years prior;[90] despite this, it did nothing to rekindle Disney's fading interest in animation,[91] with him being more focused on working on Disneyland and producing live-action films by then.[92]
Re-releases[edit]
One Hundred and One Dalmatians was re-released theatrically in 1969, 1979, 1985, and 1991.[93] During its first re-release in 1969, it earned $15 million.[94] In 1979, it grossed $19 million while playing on a double bill with another Disney film The Last Flight Of Noah's Ark, and in its 1985 theatrical re-release, the film earned $32 million.[94] During its fourth re-release in 1991, it grossed $60.8 million,[95] becoming the 17th highest-grossing film of the year for domestic earnings.[96] By 1995, the film had earned $86 million internationally,[97] and in the same year it grossed $71 million overseas, bringing its international total to $157 million.[98] The film's total domestic lifetime gross is $145 million,[99] and its total worldwide gross is $303 million.[4] Adjusted for inflation, and incorporating subsequent releases, the film has a lifetime gross of $936.2 million.[100]
Home media[edit]
One Hundred and One Dalmatians was first released on VHS on April 10, 1992, as part of the Walt Disney Classics video series;[101] 11.1 million copies had been sold by June of that year.[102] At the time of its release, it was the sixth best-selling video of all time.[99] The film was re-released on VHS and LaserDisc on March 9, 1999, as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection[103] for a limited 101-day time period.[104] The DVD edition was originally scheduled for release in the spring of that year,[103] but was delayed until November 11; it was released as a Walt Disney Limited Issue for a limited 60-day time period before going into moratorium.[105]
By 2007, One Hundred and One Dalmatians underwent a digital restoration[106] and was released as a two-disc Platinum Edition DVD on March 4, 2008.[107] The set included a behind-the-scenes documentary Redefining the Line: The Making of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, two additional featurettes – Cruella de Vil: Drawn to Be Bad (dedicated to the talents behind the creation of the eponymous character) and Sincerely Yours, Walt Disney (covering Disney's correspondence with Dodie Smith), deleted songs, a virtual gallery of concept art and other production photos, theatrical trailers, radio and TV spots.[108] It returned to the Disney Vault on January 30, 2010.[109]
One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released for the first time on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2012.[110] In North America, it was released on Diamond Edition Blu-ray and Digital HD on February 10, 2015,[111] featuring a new making-of featurette Lucky Dogs,[112] the animated short The Further Adventures of Thunderbolt (based on the Thunderbolt TV show in the film),[41] a 1961 version of the Disneyland episode "The Best Doggoned Dog in the World", and several bonus features from the previous DVD release.[111] The set was re-released as a limited Blu-ray/DVD combo pack for the Disney Movie Club on November 6, 2018.[113] On September 24, 2019, One Hundred and One Dalmatians was re-released for HD digital download and on Blu-ray as part of the Walt Disney Signature Collection.[114]
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
In its initial release, One Hundred and One Dalmatians received acclaim from critics, many of whom hailed it as the studio's best release since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and the closest to a real "Disney" film in many years.[115] Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote, "While the story moves steadily toward a stark, melodramatic "chase" climax, it remains enclosed in a typical Disney frame of warm family love, human and canine." However, he later opined that the "[s]ongs are scarce, too. A few more would have braced the final starkness."[116] Variety claimed that "While not as indelibly enchanting or inspired as some of the studio's most unforgettable animated endeavors, this is nonetheless a painstaking creative effort."[117] A review in Time magazine praised the film as "the wittiest, most charming, least pretentious cartoon feature Walt Disney has ever made."[118] Harrison's Reports felt all children and adults will be "highly entertained by Walt Disney's latest, a semi-sophisticated, laugh-provoking, all cartoon, feature-lengther in Technicolor."[119] Dodie Smith also enjoyed the film where she particularly praised the animation and backgrounds of the film.[47]
Contemporary reviews have remained positive. Reviewing the film during its 1991 re-release, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, while giving the film three stars out of four, asserted that "it's an uneven film, with moments of inspiration in a fairly conventional tale of kidnapping and rescue. This is not one of the great Disney classics - it's not in the same league with Snow White or Pinocchio - but it's passable fun, and will entertain its target family audiences."[120] Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel, in his 1991 review, also gave the film three stars out of four.[121] Ralph Novak of People wrote "What it lacks in romantic extravagance and plush spectacle, this 1961 Disney film makes up for in quiet charm and subtlety. In fact, if any movie with dogs, cats, and horses who talk can be said to belong in the realm of realistic drama, this is it."[122] However, the film did receive a few negative reviews. In 2011, Craig Berman of MSNBC ranked it and its 1996 remake as two of the worst children's films of all time, saying that, "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."[123]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 53 reviews, with an average score of 8.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "With plenty of pooches and a memorable villain (Cruella De Vil), this is one of Disney's most enduring, entertaining animated films."[124]
Cruella De Vil ranked 39th on AFI's list of "100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains".[125]
