I’ve seen the original animated 101 Dalmatians movie before. Although I wouldn’t put it up there with my all time favorites, I still found it to be a cute and decent movie with pretty good animation and an amazing Disney villain. I know you're not here to have me talk about the cartoon, where instead gonna go over one of Disney’s first live action remakes they ever made based on 101 Dalmatians called… well 101 Dalmatians.
If you're familiar with the original story, then there may not be much of a point in restating the same plot again for you even though there are definitely some key differences. However just for the sake of this review I’ll go over the basics for those who are unfamiliar. A man named Roger and a woman named Antia meet by chance after they find out their dogs are in love with each other both named Pongo and Perdy respectively. Knowing they can’t keep those dogs apart from each other, they decide to get married and live together with their dalmatians in tow. Sometime later, the dalmatian couple give birth to 15 adorable puppies much to Roger and Antia’s delight. Elsewhere, Antia’s boss, Cruella Devil, is an obsessive fashion designer who secretly wants Antia’s dogs so she can turn their dalmatian spotted skin into a fancy dress design. Cruella sends her evil henchman to kidnap the puppies and put them with the rest other captured dalmations. A search party breaks out both with the police plus the other animal friends and both Pongo and Perdy try to go out on their own to find the missing puppies
I should first point out that this movie was written by the late and great John Hughes. Why is this important? John Hughes was responsible for directing classics such as Ferris Buller’s Day Off and writing screenplays for Home Alone and Christmas Vacation. His style of writing mainly consists of traditional cartoony slapstick but with the addition of witty humor and down to earth dialogue. John’s adaption of the original 101 Dalmatians surprisingly works because the original in itself was a cartoon and they treat this live action movie the same way. This really works to the film's advantage and makes the story as well as some of the characters very memorable. The great thing though is that the cartoonies of the whole movie never overstays its welcome. There are also a lot of heartwarming and gentle scenes that balance out to give the movie weight and calmness when it's not being crazy.
Unlike some of the more recent live action Disney remakes where they put little to no effort into making the story anywhat different from its original counterpart, this movie on the other hand has a few differences that make it stand out from the animated version outside of just being live action. Roger in the original was a struggling pianist. Now in the remake he’s a struggling video game designer which I found rather weird admittedly, but thankfully it's not a common plot point they try to shove in as it only makes an appearance in the beginning and end of the movie. The biggest change they made though is probably the one thing that sets it apart from the original, The animals don’t talk and the film takes advantage of this limitation to show the pets thoughts and feelings visually. The characters are also quite good, especially Glenn Close as Cruella Devil. She is just having a ball in this movie. Her performance is completely over the top and menacing. It goes without saying that Glenn captures the feeling of what made the original villain so entertaining and manages to put her own spin on the character she plays.
The film is shot like a slapstick comedy and the slapstick is quite good for the most part. There's a lot of pratfalls, slipping and sliding and other types of weird over the top nonsense especially in the third act of the movie. You could kind of compare it to the slapstick in Home Alone because both movies go over the top but not quite to the point of implausibility. When it's not being cartoonish and goofy, the cinematography can be quite beautiful especially in the winter scenes. The way they control the pets to do the sort of things they do in the movie is something that would never cross anybody’s mind but it's quite amazing how even without dialogue you can still understand what they're feeling and why they do certain things. Though the only downside to all the visual splendor is that the CGI effects while they were good for the time, they unfortunately are pretty fake looking and just awkward to watch especially when we get to the third act of the movie.
This is currently the standard for Disney live action remakes that for some reason Disney themselves don’t really want to live up to. Sure, it's not a 100% perfect movie but its familiar yet differentially handled storyline, likable characters and even sometimes beautiful cinematography make this remake much more impressive than it really needed to be. Even if you are familiar with the original animated movie and think this may not be worthy enough to be in live action, I would still say watch it because you may be surprised at how well something can be handled when put in the right hands.
(Final Grade: B)