My Movie Review on 101 Dalmatians (1996) (Plus, a Bonus) · 5:44pm Jul 18th, 2023
Greetings and salutations, my friends.
This is your top-of-the-line film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, I'm gonna give you guys my take of Disney's "101 Dalmatians". The 1996 live-action remake, to be precise.
Here's the rundown of it:
Pongo and Perdita are two dalmatians who immediately fall in love upon first seeing each other. In the process, their individual owners, Roger & Anita, also fall in love. Roger is a struggling video game author from America, and Anita is a fashion designer who work at the House of de Vil.
Many months later, after the two couples are married, Pongo and Perdita have 15 puppies. Roger and Anita are also expecting a child.
However, Anita's diabolical yet glamorous boss, Cruella de Vil, has a plan in mind for the puppies that could make an animal rights activist's skin crawl. And she has the help of two henchman named Jasper and Horace, and a taxidermist named Mr. Skinner, to aid in her scheme.
As with a great many other movies, the 1996 live-action version of "101 Dalmatians" was a film that I initially planned on making a review of a long time ago. But, I often put doing so off to the side because there were other things I was interested in reviewing more.
Since my review-list has gotten smaller, I was able to make room for finally giving this movie an analysis. In fact, many of the movies I'm gonna review next are ones that I prepared posts for on my personal website long before, because I want to get them out of my drafts.
As for whether I'm familiar with the live-action "101 Dalmatians" film, that'd be a yes. I watched both it and the sequel, "102 Dalmatians" quite a bit as a child, so the two films were ones I grew up with. By the time I wanted to eventually recollect and rewatch the two films, though, I noticed that they were hardly available on home video. So, I bought the two films on AppleTV, and started with the first film.
So, what are my personal thoughts on "101 Dalmatians (1996)" in words? Especially after all these years?
Well, after finally giving this movie a rewatch recently, I'm proud to say that "101 Dalmatians (1996)" is truly one of the best live-action remakes Disney churned out. A severely underrated one too! Granted, it was made long before Disney went into their remake bonanza starting from 2010, but still...this movie was excellent in its own right.
For instance, the direction by Stephen Herek, and the screenplay by John Hughes, were extremely well-done.
Looking back, this 1996 remake was one of the very few I noted where, despite the concept being similar to the animated version, it successfully pays homage to the original while being inspired and completely its own. It had moments of nostalgia, but they were executed in a good way and didn't feel out of place. There were elements that both this movie and the animated version had in common, but refreshingly, there's no sense of uncanniness between them. It was clear to me that John Hughes was going all-out in with giving his personal spin on the overall concept, and he wonderfully succeeded in doing so. Plus, Stephen Herek did a brilliant job translating Hughes's vision for the screen, and he obviously wasn't afraid of adding his own flair and sense of fun to it all.
When it came to the overall comedy, I thought each and every gag was deeply entertaining. Herek's direction for the humor may not have had the same kind of spice Chris Columbus gave Home Alone 1 & 2, but he executed and handled the jokes with a neat flavor of his own. The emotional and heartfelt aspects were excellent too, the particular originators being the romances between the main couples, and the family bonds.
The music by Michael Kamen was magnificent, if I may add.
Kamen is definitely no John Williams, but the melodies he created for this motion picture were enchanting to the ears. They carried a spirit and tone reminiscent of George Bruns's work in the animated version, yet they had a sense of something grand and unique. The crescendo Kamen incorporated was perhaps his music's most defining feature, because it helped his score feel larger than life.
Finally, the acting, characters, and character development were spectacular.
Even though the animals in this movie don't talk, I don't think it caused any kind of takeaway from them as characters. Each animal featured still showcased great personality, and they carried the film with splendid style. When the dalmatian puppies were sliding down the large drain pipe, it was easy to tell that CGI was used for that moment; and in many parts of the movie, animatronic puppets were clearly used for the raccoons. But, they worked quite well for the moments I mentioned, mainly on the grounds that it'd be impossible to use real dalmatian puppies and raccoons for such things.
As for the onscreen performances and human characters, they were all deeply spot-on.
Among the things I found to be most interesting were the character upgrades given to Roger and Anita. Each of their career choices were changed as part of modernizing the story, and their backgrounds were also changed, but their spirits and personalities were retained. The two characters also had a greater amount of depth and development, and the performances of Jeff Daniels as Roger and Joely Richardson as Anita were amazing.
In addition to this, the performances and castings of Joan Plowright as Nanny, Hugh Laurie as Jasper, and Mark Williams as Horace were marvelous. Not only were their characters faithfully portrayed, but the three cast members successfully made the roles their own as well. Jasper and Horace in particular bursted with development at the scenes where they try to catch the puppies, and Laurie & Williams took on the slapstick gags with style. Plus, Mr. Skinner was an excellent new addition to this remake, and John Shrapnel gave a fantastic performance as the character. Regardless of the character having no dialogue, Shrapnel outstandingly managed to translate Mr. Skinner as an intimidating and three-dimensional individual.
If I were to choose which human cast member gave the best performance, though, it'd be Glenn Close as Cruella de Vil. Not only did she have the best lines out of everyone, but she captured Cruella so well as a psychologically unstable individual who obsesses over fur like a drug addict. On top of this, she portrayed this movie's version of Cruella as even more intimidating, unpredictable, & three-dimensional than her animated counterpart, with a well-defined sense of humor on the side. It was amazing how Glenn Close took on all of the slapstick gags too, because it showed that she was wanting to take risks. Plus, Cruella herself had dynamic development throughout this film.
In conclusion, "101 Dalmatians (1996)" is among the live-action remakes by Disney I actually enjoyed. It pays homage to the animated version while standing as its own thing, the acting and characters were terrific, everything!
So, I rate "101 Dalmatians (1996)" a solid five out of five stars.
As a special bonus for you guys, I'd like to share with you three new original paintings I created a while back:
So, what do you guys think? Of this review? The film? And my art pieces?
5 Stars indeed!
Totally agreed with your review. The 1996 live-action version matches the classical animated film but keeping the spirit of its predecessor.
Also, nice pictures there. Keep it going with your art and always improve.
Despite how many times I say about these live reboots of Disney Classics this was actually a pretty good one but I felt like everything started with this one then they kind of went overboard what does live reboots in 2010 then so forth
I liked how they only re-used certain lines to cement character's personalities.
Like Cruella saying, "Poison them, drown them, club them in the head! Got any Chloroform?!", because it's central to the character. And Glenn Close just owned the role.