Platinum Edition for Disney's 101 DALMATIONS(2008).
© Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Title: 101 Dalmations Platinum Edition
Rating: G
Starring (Voices): Rod Taylor, Ben Wright, Lisa Davis, Berry Lou Gerson
Written By: Dodie Smith, Bill Peet
Directed By: Clyde Geronimi, Wolfgang Reitherman
Distributor: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 1961
Extras: Virtual Dalmatian, Puppy Profiler, Pop-up Trivia, Music Videos, making of documentary, Cruella De Vil: Drawn To Be Bad, deleted song
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101 DALMATIONS
By: Tim JansonDate: Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The latest film to get the Platinum DVD treatment is one of Disney’s biggest hits, 101 Dalmatians. 101 Dalmatians signaled several major changes in the typical Disney animated feature. It was completed using the new Xerography photocopying process. The new process was less expensive and allowed the animation to be done faster, although it wasn’t quite as fluid as earlier Disney features. While Walt Disney wasn’t happy with the look, the film was a major box-office hit when it was released in 1961. The film was the first Disney feature to be set in a modern, urban setting, moving out of fairy tale realms of films like Cinderella and Peter Pan. There is also a less reliance on songs in 101 Dalmatians with only three in the entire production.
Rob Taylor voices Pongo, the Dalmatian who lives with his owner, songwriter Roger Radcliffe in a London Flat. Pongo plays matchmaker after he sees a pretty female Dalmatian named Perdita, and gets Roger to meet her owner, Anita. Roger and Anita wed (and so do Pongo and Perdita) and later Perdita gives birth to lots, and lots of puppies. Wealthy and twistedly evil socialite Cruella De Vil wants the puppies for her own and offers to buy them from Roger and Anita. When they refuse to sell them, she has a couple of henchmen kidnap the puppies. With the aid of other animals, Roger and Anita race to rescue the puppies and return them all back home, safe and sound.
101 Dalmatians was not based on a popular fairy tale but rather adapted from an original novel written by Dodie Smith in 1956. Disney was enamored with Smith’s novel and started up a lively correspondence with the English writer, eventually securing the rights to turn the book into the animated hit. While the film makes a number of changes to Smith’s original story, she was said to have been very happy with the film. Budgeted at $4 million dollars, it was the highest grossing film of 1961 and one of Disney’s most profitable films ever.
Other than those cute, spotted puppies, the undoubted star of the film was Betty Lou Gerson who voiced Cruella De Vil. Gerson’s wicked rendition of De Vil has made the character one of the great Disney villains of all time. She makes the previous wicked witches and stepmother look like nursemaids. Imagine…using puppies to make a Dalmatian skin coat! It doesn’t get much more vile than that.
While songs played a very minor role in 101 Dalmatians, the “Cruella De Vil” song has gone on to become one of the more well-known Disney tunes. What I enjoy most about the film is its more modern look. This is maybe the first Disney film that wasn’t aimed entirely at children. The jazzy sound track also represented a shift in Disney’s usual production style. It’s also kind of strange seeing Cruella walking around chain-smoking throughout the film. You’d never get away with that today. 101 Dalmatians is easily one of the best Disney films of the 50’s and 60’s.
Extras
As you would expect, the Platinum Edition comes with a number of extra features:
Disney’s Virtual: Dalmatians Adopt, name, train and care for your very own virtual puppy where there are over 101 possibilities.
Puppy Profiler: Find out which dog you’re most like!
101 Pop-Up Trivia Facts For The Family & Collector Discover 202 amazing things You Never Knew about the movie as you watch it – with 101 pop up facts for the family and 101 for the collector
All-New “Cruella De Vil” Music Vide: The classic song “Cruella De Vil” gets a contemporary twist when multitalented teen Disney Channel star Selena Gomez performs the song in a brand new video!
Redefining The Line: The Making Of 101 Dalmatians: 101 Dalmatians is considered by critics to be one of the best and most innovative Disney animated films. Go behind the scenes with its creators to find out about everything -including the technological innovation of the Xerox process in animation.
Cruella De Vil: Drawn To Be Bad: Inspired by flamboyant actress Tallulah Bankhead, Cruella De Vil has become a villain that movie fans love to hate. Marc Davis, an animation legend and one of Disney’s immortal “Nine Old Men” reveals how this iconic character came to be.
Sincerely Yours, Walt Disney: Experience Walt Disney and Dodie Smith’s (author of the book The Hundred and One Dalmatians) actual correspondence during the movie’s production.
