Rent 101 Dalmatians (1961)

A genuinely wonderful & perfect film, with some of the best voice acting ever - 101 Dalmatians review by Timmy B

Like many people, I watched 101 Dalmatians when I was a kid, mainly remembering it for Cruella Di Vil, a villain whose aura and menace almost screamed out of the screen at you. She was a genuinely terrifying creation, joining the rogues gallery of eccentric British antagonists. Recently, I found myself thinking about it again so decided to take a trip down memory lane. And I absolutely loved every part of it.

Pongo is a Dalmatian dog who lives with his owner (or "pet") Roger, an ambitious but luckless musician. After Pongo forces a meeting with the attractive Anita and her Dalmatian Perdita, they fall in love and move to a house. Perdita becomes pregnant with puppies, but these are stolen by Cruella Di Vil, Anita's demonic & wealthy friend, who plans to kill and make coats out of them. Pongo and Perdita then desperately run away from home with the aid of the dogs of London to locate the puppies and bring them back.

Trying to single out the best bits of one of Disney's greatest animated films is almost a fool's errand, but for me the voice acting is probably the highlight. Whilst Betty Lou Gerson as De Vil is the one that will stick with you, I think that there is not one mediocre performance across the cast. Even the animals who only have a few seconds of dialogue make an impact, such as Tom Conway who voices the Collie, desperately calling out to the dogs in an awful snowstorm, or George Pelling as the Great Dane.

Having not seen the film for 30+ years, the other thing I hadn't remembered was just how funny it was. At times, there was a genuine belly laugh every 30 seconds or so. My own favourite was probably the cat Sgt. Tibbs creatively using the Captain (a horse) to brutally dispatch Jasper and Horace, De Vil's gormless goons. But, as much as the film can make you laugh, it can break your heart in the very next frame. As much as this is a children's film, it doesn't shy away from the peril & difficulties the puppies/animals face.

And, like every Disney film, the animation is a combination of classic drawings alongside more experimental art. I particularly loved the way London was able to be portrayed one minute as a beautiful city, deserving of it's name "The Big Smoke," then turning into an ominous and dangerous city, such as during the birth of the puppies or after they are stolen.

I loved this film. It is a masterful and brilliantly told adventure, using the wonders of animation to tell a gripping story about the love parents of any type, whether human or animal, have for their children. I also loved the indirect but extremely powerful message of adoption and how, irrelevant that the vast majority of the puppies not being theirs, both dogs and humans take all of them in without a second thought.