January 22nd, 2021 
Michael Lyons 
When Walt Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians opened on January 25, 1961, it was a “first” in so many ways.
For the first time, a Disney animated feature would have a contemporary setting; it would also be the first “non-musical” animated feature to come from the Studio and the first time Disney was using a new technical process to produce an animated film.
All of these “firsts” came together to create film that, sixty years after its debut, is still regarded as one of Disney’s best and most beloved.
One Hundred and One Dalmatians came to life as a film at Disney as an antidote to all that was Sleeping Beauty (1959), the last animated feature made just prior, which had consumed a tremendous amount of time and money. There was a need to create a story that would be easier to execute in many ways.
In 1957, Walt Disney purchased the rights to the novel, The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith, which had been published the year prior.
Walt gave the book to story artist Bill Peet and tasked him with writing a screenplay, before any storyboarding would be done (another first for Disney!).
In Bill Peet: An Autobiography, the artist remembered:
“Walt wanted me to plan the whole thing: write a detailed screenplay, do all the story boards, and record voices for all the characters. That had been a job for at least forty people on Pinocchio in 1938, but if Walt thought I could do it, then of course there was no question about it.”
Some changes were made from the original book, but the essential elements were still there, as One Hundred and One Dalmatians would focus on a Dalmatian “husband and wife” named Pongo and Perdita and their “pet humans,” husband and wife Roger and Anita, as they await Perdita’s delivery of their litter of puppies.
Anita’s former school-mate, Cruella De Vil, then emerges – all sharp edges, black-and-white hair, reed frame and billowing cigarette smoke – looking to “adopt” the puppies. In actuality, she is looking to make a spotted dalmatian fur coat (!)
Cruella hires two dim-witted henchmen, Jasper and Horace to kidnap Pongo and Perdita’s fifteen puppies, which they do. With the assistance of neighborly fellow canines (through an inventive sequence where they initiate “The Twilight Bark”), Pongo and Perdita run away from home and find their puppies at Cruella’s dilapidated “lair,” along with a slew of other dalmatian puppies (101 to be exact!).
As Pongo, Perdita and all of the puppies make their way back home, they are pursued by Cruella, Horace and Jasper, resulting in an ingeniously animated and very exiting car-chase sequence. Do they all make it home to Roger and Anita? If you haven’t had the chance to see the film in six decades, there will be no spoilers here.
In addition to the story, one unique aspect (and yet another first) to One Hundred and One Dalmatians was the look of the film. As the artists had seen while bringing the rich, epic Sleeping Beauty to life, the Studio’s animated films were taking a tremendous amount of time and money to produce.
One Hundred and One Dalmatians would be smaller in scale, which would make it somewhat easier to produce, but there would still be the task of drawing and animating spots on the Dalmatians…a lot of them. In fact, the grand total number of spots that were animated in the film were: 6,469,952!
To accomplish this, the Disney artists initiated a new process called Xerography, which would allow an animated film to be produced quicker. In this process, the filmmakers were able to directly copy the animator’s original drawings onto animation cels, saving time and money and also preserve the animator’s original drawings, as much as possible.
This made all of those spots so much easier and less tedious to draw and animate, however, it created a look that was very different for a Disney film. The character’s look wouldn’t be as “refined” or “soft” as it had been in previous Disney animated features. Now, the characters would take on much more of a “rougher, sketchier” appearance.
To allow this look to be more at home, Ken Anderson, the art director of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, created backgrounds that were much “looser” in their appearance. Inspired by cartoonist Ronald Searle, the backgrounds took on a contemporary style that would go along with the setting of the film. Here, color would “bleed” outside the line of buildings and props, looking more like modern art, than traditional Disney background paintings.
This style was very prevalent in animation at the time, being first introduced by United Productions of America (UPA Studios) and was seen in almost all of the TV animation done at the time.
Walt, however, was not a fan. He did not care for the more stylized animation and, as author Michael Barrier states in his book Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age, Walt didn’t like the bold, black lines that appeared around the characters in the film (as well as a number of the backgrounds).
Barrier writes:
“However harmonious the result on the screen, Disney knew that it was a step away from the kind of illusion that more traditional backgrounds-and devices like the now dormant multiplane camera-had once furthered.”
Aside from the modern look, the contemporary setting allowed for some pointed satire in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, the likes of which hadn’t been before in a Disney animated feature. This is most prevalent in the sequences in which the Dalmatians watch television. The Thunderbolt TV Show, sponsored by “Canine Crunchies,” is a direct jab at the commercial aspect of television and Horace and Jasper watching What’s My Crime? parodies What’s My Line? and other ubiquitous game shows of the time.
Many criticized these scenes through the years, feeling that it takes away the timeless feel that most animated films from Disney had and “dates” One Hundred and One Dalmatians. While this may have been true in the decade or so that followed the film, it now gives it more of a sense of a “period piece.”
A more traditional element in One Hundred and One Dalmatians is that of the Disney villain…and with this film, audiences got if not the most, then one of the most memorable villains of all time.
Cruella De Vil has become an iconic example of what we expect from one of the Studio’s villains. She was created, designed and animated by Disney Legend Marc Davis, a member of Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” the title Walt had given to his upper echelon of animators.
After bringing to the screen such dynamic characters as Tinker Belle in 1953’s Peter Pan and Maleficent and Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Cruella emerged as Davis’ crowning achievement. The epitome of true personality animation, his work on Cruella is still, rightfully, studied to this very day.
“She’s fascinating to watch,” said animation historian and author John Canemaker of Cruella in a 1998 interview. “She moved in this angular, aggressive way. She’s all over the place, almost like a force of nature. You don’t like her as a person, although you love her as a character.”
When One Hundred and One Dalmatians debuted in theaters, it was an immediate hit with audiences and critics, grossing $14 million in the U.S. and becoming the eighth highest grossing film of the year. Ironically, the success of the film helped ease some of the financial burden of Sleeping Beauty.
The film was re-issued theatrically in 1969, 1979, 1985 and 1991. During its last re-issue in ’91, One Hundred and One Dalmatians went on to become the 20th highest grossing film that year.
The impact of the film has been such that it was the first Disney animated feature to be re-made in live-action (something commonplace today) in 1996 with Glenn Close turning in a wonderful performance as Cruella. The live-action re-make spawned a sequel, 102 Dalmatians in 2000.
There was also an animated TV Series that ran on ABC from 1997-1998. And, in 2011, Disney announced Cruella, a live-action, “origin story” of sorts about a young Cruella De Vil, who will be played by Emma Stone.
Like many of Disney’s most beloved films, this demonstrates the continued impact of One Hundred and One Dalmatians. This “first” in so many ways has definitely had a lasting impact.
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