| | | So many dogs. So little time.
Features: Live, Special Edition, DVD
Unleashing every ounce of Disney magic, 101 Dalmatians thrills audiences of all ages with fast-paced adventure and comedy -- featuring a brilliant performance by five-time Academy Award nominee Glenn Close (including Best Actress, Dangerous Liasons, 1988) as Cruella De Vil. Achieving new heights of hilarity, Disney's all-time classic puppy tale comes to life as a worldwide box office sensation. In their small London flat, Dalmatians Pongo and Perdy, and their human "pets" Roger and Anita, are overjoyed by the arrival of 15 puppies. But when the spotted-fur-loving Ms. De Vil and her clumsy cohorts, Jasper and Horace, dognap the litter -- along with every other Dalmatian pup in London -- Pongo and Perdy must rally the town's animals to the rescue. The plan hurls them towards a thrilling climax filled with uproarious moments as the puppies attempt to outwit their captors and bring on a final showdown with Cruella! Packed with one of the largest and cutest collections of puppies ever brought to film, 101 Dalmatians also features a superb cast of talented humans, including Jeff Daniels, Joely Richardson and Joan Plowright. Now you can bring home Disney's live-action comedy hit, praised by critics as nothing short of "phenomenal!" (CBS-TV)
"...the canines are cute and Glenn Close was born to play Cruella De Vil, the monstrous magnate who sets the plot in motion." David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
"The dalmatians get 101 on a scale of 10. Glenn Close gets 101 zillion!" Joel Siegel, Good Morning America
"Though this film's considerable warmth derives from dalmatian puppies and other animals who take charge of their fates, Close steals the show." Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
"For us dog saps, it is especially nice to see cuddlesomely real pooches instead of drawn ones doing smart-pet tricks." Richard Schickel, Time
"...delivers at least 101 reasons to be amused. And, with the incredible Close, one very big reason not to miss it." USA Today
Editor's Note
Slapstick kingpin John Hughes translates the classic animated children's tale into a campy live-action slugfest. The fur-loving, sadistic Cruella De Vil (Close, at her most outrageous) pants after the pelts of the titular puppies, hoping to sew them into a fabulous coat, but the dogs outsmart her and her bumbling henchmen.
Plot Summary
The live-action version of one Disney's most popular animated films.| When dalmatians Pongo and Perdy meet in a park, it's love at first sight for them AND their owners, Roger and Anita. The humans marry, and soon the spotted pooches become parents to 15 puppies.| Unfortunately, Anita's boss is the aptly-named fashion designer Cruella De Vil, an incredibly grandiose, maniacal diva. Cruella wants to make a coat of (gulp!) dalmatian fur, and although she already has 84 of the canines in captivity, she wants Anita's. When Anita refuses to sell her pups, Cruella sends her two ever-bumbling henchmen on a dog-napping mission.| Can Pongo and Perdy save all 101 dalmatians -- and send Cruella and her minions to the doghouse in the process?
| Features | Audio: English, French, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French, Spanish | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Buena Vista |
| Release Date: 9/16/2008 |
| Running Time: 103 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1996 | | Catalog ID: 05786500 | | UPC: 00786936769586 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Golden Globe (1997) | | | Glenn Close, Nominee, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical | |
British Academy Awards (1997) | | | Lynda Armstrong, et. al., Nominee, Best Make Up/Hair |
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| | Professional Reviews | Variety
"...Close delivers show-stopping line readings that are simply non-pareil....Daniels and Richardson prove winning and well-matched..." 11/25/1996ReelViews 5 of 10
Conventional wisdom suggests that Walt Disney Pictures produces some of the best available animated films and some of the worst available live-action films. 101 Dalmatians, a shamelessly sickening example of on-screen marketing, is neck-and-neck with Space Jam for the most obvious, feature-length commercial of the 1996 holiday season. The difference is, for all its attempts to hawk merchandise, Space Jam still manages to be sporadically entertaining. 101 Dalmatians, on the other hand, is a one-hundred-plus minute bore. Even children, who will be enthralled by all the puppies, may have a hard time not fidgeting for protracted portions of the running time...This is a despicable motion picture. Not only is it completely unnecessary (the animated version is perfectly adequate), but it's a blatant example of Disney's commercialism run rampant. Simply and succinctly put, 101 Dalmatians has one overriding aim: to sucker parents into buying spotted paraphernalia for their children. Worse still, thousands of real Dalmatian puppies purchased in pet stores this year will end up being destroyed by animal shelters when their new owners tire of, then discard, them. The movie is bad, but the mentality behind it is worse, and, for that reason, 101 Dalmatians belongs in the dog house. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
The thing about animation is that it gives equal time to kids and animals. They get to be important, too--the simplified world of cartoons cuts the adult world down to size. The problem with the new live-action version of ``101 Dalmatians'' (based on the 1961 feature-length cartoon) is that it's never really able to make the dogs as important as the people. We think we'll see the adventures of some cute puppies, and most of the time we're looking at grown-up intrigues, and the schemes of a couple of bad guys recycled straight out of ``Home Alone"...Their exploits are recycled directly out of the adventures of the hapless thieves in the ``Home Alone'' movies, and indeed ``101 Dalmatians'' was written by the creator of the ``Home Alone'' films, John Hughes. It would be unfair to make the link with Hughes if he didn't force it by ripping himself off so obviously that he might just as well have gone ahead and *cast* the ``Home Alone'' villains in this movie, and made an in-joke out of it. What's funny in cartoons is not always funny in live action, and some of the dunkings in unsavory substances left me less than amused...That's not to say the movie doesn't have its pleasures, and one of them is the unaffected, warm relationship between Roger and Anita...I know a lot of little kids who can't wait to see this movie, and no doubt the cute Dalmatian puppies will enthrall them. - Roger Ebert
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