Movie Type: Animal Picture, Family-Oriented Comedy
Themes: Man's Best Friend
Main Cast: Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels, Joely Richardson, Joan Plowright, Hugh Laurie
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 103 minutes
MPAA Rating: G
Plot
There are more puppies than you can shake a rolled up newspaper at in this live-action remake of the Disney animated favorite 101 Dalmatians. Roger (Jeff Daniels) is a designer of computer games who shares his home with his pet dalmatian, Pongo. One day, Roger takes Pongo for a walk in the park and the dog sets his eyes on a beautiful female dalmatian named Perdy. Perdy likes Pongo as much as he likes her, and thankfully Perdy's mistress, a fashion designer named Anita (Joely Richardson), is quite taken with Roger. Romance blooms between the human and canine couples, and Roger and Anita tie the knot (Pongo and Perdy are apparently still living in sin). Anita works for Cruella De Vil (Glenn Close), an intense fashion maven whose lust for fur doubtless places her high on PETA's hit list. Inspired by her dogs, Anita finds herself working up a design for a fur coat made with spotted fur, and Cruella leaps on the idea of making garments out of real dalmatians. But where to get the animals? Cruella has two nasty but not especially intelligent henchmen, Jasper (Hugh Laurie) and Horace (Mark Williams), who've been known to kill the odd endangered species at madame's request. Now they're sent on a mission to round up dalmatians, and when they fall a bit short of their goal, it comes to Cruella's attention that Perdy has just given birth to a litter of 15 pups. For this version, a number of real dalmatian puppies were combined with computer-generated animation and animatronic creatures from Jim Henson's Workshop, who respond better to direction (and are doubtless easier to clean up after) than the real thing. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
John Ralph - Art Director, Alan Tomkins - Supervising Art Director, Rebekah Rudd - Associate Producer, Celestia Fox - Casting, Marcia Ross - Casting, Simon Crane - Coordinator, Rosemary Burrows - Costume Designer, Anthony Powell - Costume Designer, David Tringham - First Assistant Director, Stephen Herek - Director, Micky Moore - Second Unit Director, Trudy Ship - Editor, Ed Feldman - Executive Producer, Michael Kamen - Composer (Music Score), Harvey Harrison - Camera Operator, Assheton Gorton - Production Designer, Adrian Biddle - Cinematographer, John Comfort - Producer, John Hughes - Producer, Ricardo Mestres - Producer, Joanne Woollard - Set Designer, Clive Winter - Sound/Sound Designer, Michael Owens - Special Effects Supervisor, Callum McDougall - Unit Production Manager, John Hughes - Screenwriter, Roger Schumacher - Animal Trainer/Wrangler, Dodie Smith - Book Author
Roger Dearly (Jeff Daniels) is an American video games designer, who shares his home in London with his pet dalmatian, Pongo. One day Roger takes Pongo for a walk, and the dog sets his eyes on a beautiful female Dalmatian named Perdy. After a frantic chase through the streets of London, Roger and Pongo discover Perdy likes Pongo; and Perdy's owner, fashion designer Anita Campbell-Green (Joely Richardson), is taken with Roger when they meet in St. James Park. Romance blossoms between both human and canine couples and Roger and Anita walk down the aisle. Anita works for Cruella de Vil (Glenn Close), a fashion maven with a great love for cigarettes and fur.
Anita becomes inspired by her dogs and designs a fur coat made with spotted fur, causing Cruella to leap on the idea of making garments out of actual Dalmatians. When Cruella learns that Perdy has given birth to fifteen Dalmatian puppies she offers the couple a decent price for the newborn puppies ("Two pounds per spot!"), but the couple refuses. Flying into a maniacal rage, she fires Anita and vows to get even. She has her henchmen, Jasper and Horace (Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams respectively), steal the puppies and deliver them to her ancient estate, De Vil Mansion.
With the help of the other dogs and animals scattered throughout London, the puppies manage to outwit Jasper and Horace and escape to a farm where their parents have been called to wait. But shortly after, Cruella shows up and tries to retrieve them; she ends up having a pig sit on her and flatlet in her face, after which she falls into a vat of molasses (caused by raccoons) and is kicked into a pig pen by a horse. All of the Dalmatians get home by the Metropolitan Police Service, who then arrest Cruella and her henchmen. The family adopts the other Dalmatians Cruella stole, bringing the total to 101. Roger designs a successful video game featuring dalmatian puppies as the protagonists and Cruella as the villain, and they move to the English countryside with their millions.
The film performed well at the box office, earning $136,189,294 in the U.S. and $184,500,000 overseas, bringing its worldwide total to $320,689,294.[1] Reception was generally mixed, with critics at Rotten Tomatoes giving the film a "rotten" rating of 40%.[2]
