102 Dalmatians

Spotty Record

Dodie Smith's delightful 1956 novel The One Hundred and One Dalmatians has proved to be quite the cash cow for Disney, with varying degrees of quality for each successive installment. The classic animated film of 1961 (which pioneered the use of the Xerox animation process, revolutionizing the art form at that time) inspired the 1996 live action remake. That film (starring Glenn Close as the Grande Dame of Disney Villainy, Cruella de Vil) was a dark, mean-spirited romp that relied heavily on Home Alone-style slapstick violence that stripped the original story of it's simple charms. Nevertheless, the film was successful enough to spawn a mediocre Saturday morning cartoon series, Disney Stores filled with spotted puppy merchandise, and this requisite follow-up. Released as Disney's big holiday film last year (it under-performed and was surpassed at the box office by the black sheep The Emperor's New Groove), 102 Dalmatians is now available on VHS and DVD.

Continuing the story three years later, we find that Cruella, locked-up for her dog-napping shenanigans in the previous film, has undergone a miraculous transformation. Brainwashed to rid her of her insatiable desire for fur, this is a kinder, gentler Cruella. Her two-toned hair neatly coifed into an exaggerated pageboy, clad in animal friendly but still sartorially splendid designer fashions, she insists on being called "Ella" to reflect her new "leash on life". (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

However this is the same woman who snarled the immortal line "I don't care how you kill the little beasts, just do it! Poison them, drown them, bash them in the head ... you got any chloroform?" So any proposed rehabilitation is destined to be short-lived. Allying herself with portly prêt-à-porter peddler Jean-Pierre Le Pelt (Gerard Depardieu, who should lay off the French pastries), she promptly re-hatches her scheme to create a spotted dalmatian puppy fur coat, now hooded, thus the need for one hundred and two dalmatians this time.

Don't expect to see a lot of familiar faces in this installment. No Pongo and Perdita, no Roger and Anita. In fact, besides Cruella, the only other character from the 1996 film is puppy hero Dipstick, now grown with a family of his own: mate Dottie (you knew they would use that name eventually) and their three pups, Domino (white spots on his black ears), Little Dipper (black on his tail like his pop) and Oddball, so named for her complete lack of spots. They are joined by their "pets", Alice Evans as Chloe (Cruella's parole officer) and Ioan Gruffudd as Kevin (owner of a dog shelter). These two actors do a game job of staying out of the way of the fabricated doggie stunts.

While the first film failed due to the unavoidable comparison to the far superior animated version, this one fails on it's own merits. The premise itself is original and had potential, but first time live action director Kevin Lima opts for an overly cartoony feel for the film that progressively worsens as the story slogs along; Lima had more realistic human characters in the animated Tarzan.

For every clever bit (a scientist named Dr. Pavlov, a lawyer named Mr. Torte) you get ten eye-rollers (Cruella's clumsy henchman/valet stutters for no apparent reason; Depardieu's lone attempt at anything remotely comedic is to repeatedly pronounce "puppies" as "poopies"). For every glint of charm (the adorable pups of the "junior" Twilight Bark, which can even make a hardened film critic say "awwww") you get twenty juvenile gross-out gags (cue the doggie drool). And Disney should place a self-imposed moratorium on any further attempts to play homage to the classic spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp. Two meager attempts within six months of each other (this film and the recent video Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure) is quite enough, thank you. By the time we reach the climax (which involves a huge cake-baking machine in an unfortunate parallel to a similar scene in the much-better-and-that-was-a-real-cartoon Chicken Run) all pretenses of reality have gone to the dogs. (Oops, sorry again ... )

By far the biggest misstep is the presence of Waddlesworth, a talkative macaw voiced by Monty Python and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience alum Eric Idle. Admittedly, the film is basically a fantasy, but I couldn't get past the fact that so-called "talking birds" don't actually speak, just mimic the sound they hear. But this bird has a full vocabulary and acts as interpreter between the dogs and humans. Whereas the original story championed the fact that our canine heroes triumphed where humans failed, by putting the dog and human characters on the same level in this outing, not only does it lessen the importance of the dogs, it doesn't say much for the humans either.

Glenn Close was the only reason to sit through the horrid 1996 feature. The film was a way for Close to break loose from her usual repertoire of luminous saints (The Big Chill, The Natural) and sexual connivers (Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons). Borrowing heavily from her brilliant stage performance as Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard (the ultimate diva role if there ever was one), Close brought Marc Davis' animated creation wickedly to life. Unfortunately, 102 finds her shrilly overboard, chewing scenery like it was kibble. Reduced to a a grossly overt caricature, diluted in its pomposity, what we see isn't Glenn Close playing Cruella de Vil, but Glenn Close playing a drag queen playing Glenn Close playing Cruella de Vil.

Toon Talk Grade: D
Running Time: 100 minutes
Available on VHS, Standard DVD, Widescreen DVD, and in a 2-Pack set of 101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians


DVD Extras:
Audio Commentary:
Provided by director Kevin Lima, animal coordinator Gary Gero, animal trainer David Sousa and lead puppy trainer Julie Tottman.

The Top 10 Things We Learn From This Commentary:

1. Dalmatians do NOT make good pets unless you are willing to accept the responsibility for them.
2. Kevin Lima is no Scorsese. Obviously a green horn when it comes to live action film making, he naively marvels at "all the people it takes to make a movie".
3. Glenn Close was Lima's "mentor" on the film. (They did work previously on Tarzan, which Lima co-directed and Close starred as the voice of Kala the mother ape.)
4. Dalmatians do NOT make good pets unless you are willing to accept the responsibility for them.
5. Gerard Depardieu is a messy eater.
6. Animal trainers only talk about animals and how they train them.
7. Dalmatians do NOT make good pets unless you are willing to accept the responsibility for them.
8. The gooey dough that Cruella de Vil is immersed in at the end of the movie is made from the same substance used for milk shakes.
9. Glenn Close did almost all of her own stunts during that scene.
10. And finally.... dalmatians do NOT make good pets unless you are willing to accept the responsibility for them.

Featurettes:

• Creating Cruella: Glenn Close prepares to return to her most famous role. She mentions that she loved working with the puppies, but they weren't to crazy about her when she was in her full Cruella drag. Guess it's a natural instinct.
• Animal Actors: How they wrangled all the dogs, birds, etc. for the film.
• Designing Dalmatians: The most interesting bonus on the disc, it shows the creation of the sets, costumes and effects for 102 Dalmatians. For example, the puppies that played Oddball all had their natural spots; computer artists had to digitally erase each spot from each frame of film, a process that took a year. Other behind-the-scenes stuff explains how they made Waddlesworth talk and how they "spotted" London for Cruella's rebirth.

Visual Effects 102:
An interactive feature for kids, again showing how different effects were done for the film. There is a nifty effect in "Spot Removal" showing a split screen of different Oddball scenes, with and without spots.

Deleted Scene:
A virtual requirement of any DVD nowadays, deleted scenes can be lost treasures (check out this feature on the Erin Brokovich disc to see why Julia Roberts deserved her recent Oscar win), but more often then not one can see why the scissors were drawn. Case in point, this sole scene showing Cruella's release from prison, which would have added nothing new to the film and is merely padding here.

Puppy Overload:
Music video montage of film scenes to the movie's theme song "Digga Digga Dog".

Dalmatians 101:
Once again ... DALMATIANS DO NOT MAKE GOOD PETS UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO ACCEPT THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEM.

Soundtrack Promo:
Brief footage of Britney clones Nobody's Angel performing "Whatcha Gonna Do" from the soundtrack.

Theatrical Trailer:
Where you see some of the cut scenes, such as Cruella snuggling a pup in court and shrieking at her skunk purse.

DVD-ROM Features:
Includes "Cruella's Costume Creator" and DVD Destination Weblink.

Also, in the opening previews, there is a teaser for the upcoming direct to video 101 Dalmatians: The Animated Sequel due next year... guess we'll be seeing spots for years to come.

Toon Talk Trivia:

• Anthony Powell's outrageous costume designs for 102 Dalmatians were Oscar nominated this year. The bangles and bugle beads of Cruella lost to the togas and tunics of Gladiator.
• Interestingly, Waddlesworth shares a characteristic with another bird, the rooster in 101 Dalmatians: The Animated Series: they both want to be dogs.
• Although Pongo does not appear in 102 Dalmatians, Freckles, the dog who played him in the 1996 101 Dalmatians does: he returns in the role of Dipstick, Pongo's son.

-- Originally posted April 6, 2001