101 Dalmatians

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When compared with Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians feels a lot more scaled down. The story, whilst not being epic, is fairly cute - the animation fares similarly, showing an interesting style whilst not matching the beauty of its predecessor.

Its greatest asset is its villain. Cruella De Ville is iconic for a reason- she has a brilliant design and is just so much fun to watch, really bringing the entire thing to life. The song ‘Cruella De Ville’ is also brilliant, even if it is the only song in the film. Another great touch is something that also really worked in Lady and the Tramp a few movies ago. That touch is the storytelling from the dog’s perspective, as the way that the dogs think of the humans and their pets is a charming addition. As a result of this, the bait and switch opening is probably one of the best scenes in the film. 

Other than that, there isn’t really much else to add- nothing about this film is particularly awful, but other than the points stated above, there is nothing particularly special about it either- it just sort of plods along without anything particularly ground-breaking being added. The only other note is that the animation on all of the puppies is technologically impressive for the time in which the film was made.   

Overall, it’s a bit of harmless fluff- it’s not particularly special, but it sure is a fun ride.

Rating

Good guys: The main characters are all fairly bland and generic here, resulting in a score of 4/10

Bad guys: Not only is Cruella one of the best Disney villains in general, she is also the most fun part of the film, meaning that the bad guys get 7/10

Animation: It has a charming style, whilst not being particularly pretty- the backgrounds are especially nice, resulting in the animation getting 6/10

Music: Cruella De Ville is a fun and catchy song, so the music gets 7/10

Plot: There is nothing particularly great about the story, but there is nothing particularly terrible about it either, so the plot gets 5/10

Overall Rating: 29/50

Next review: The Sword in the Stone