HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS
Cartoon film directed by Disney Studios from Dodie Smith's book
Identification Sheet:
1960, USA
Running time: 75 minutes
Direction: Ben Peterson
Draughtsmen: Wolfgang Reitherman, Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi
Scénario : Bill Peet
Production : Walt Disney
Sound Track : George Bruns
Main characters:
Five main charcetrs shape the story: a human couple, a dog couple and Cruela de Vil, a woman whose caricaturist face looks animalistic. Roger and Anita, named from Shakespeare's heros, are a bohemic couple, fan of Dalmatians. Perdita and Bongo are the true heroes of the story, together with their tormentor, of course!
A part from this five main characters, we find 99 white Dalmatians (their pure coloured skin is the reason why Cruella is after them), many dogs, a cat, a horse and two gangsters (Jasper and Horace) rather pathetic.
A technical discover promises a good film: Xerox process.
After Snow-white there had been no other technical improvement in cartoon films. Christopher Finch, author of "Our Frien Disney" 1985, talks about this mini-revolution thet Xerox brought about.
"In cartoon films, new formats like cinemascope and technirama 70 mm have caused more problems than brought progress. Hundred and One Dalmatians calls to a more successful new technique. In the 50s Ub Iwerks, in charge of special effects, tried the Xerox Photographic Process to adapt the drawings directly on the cellulloide, eliminating the ink drawing..."
That allowed the draughstmen to save time and money. Also the Xerox process enables special effects and the creation of 99 dalmatian puppies who litterally invade the screen. "Bring to life such a scene would have been almost impossible"
Is Glenn Close feeling up to it?
As Alfred Hitchcock said to François Truffaut in their famous interviews, "what is important in a story is to succeed with the bad guy". Needless to say, Cruella de Vil (notice the pun with "devil") ranges among the most successful bad guys of Disney's productions. Moreover, being this production so rich in bad guys, you can wonder whether Walt Disney conceived devil in feminine terms... when thinking of Morgan, Maleficent or Cinderella's step mother.
In 1997 Hundred and One Dalmatians is filmed with real actors and Glenn Close personifies Cruella. Has she been chosen for her roles as destructive and manipulative women, her very convincing role in "Fatal Attraction" and Stephen Frears' wonderful "Dangerous Liaisons", where she played an implacable Marquise de Merteuil.