Rating: G
Genre:
Children's/Family
Release Date: 09/16/2008
Flags: Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Walt Disney Video
There are more puppies than you can shake a rolled up newspaper at in this live-action remake of the
Disney animated favorite
101 Dalmatians.
Roger (
Jeff Daniels) is a designer of computer games who shares his home with his pet dalmatian,
Pongo. One day,
Roger takes
Pongo for a walk in the park and the dog sets his eyes on a beautiful female dalmatian named
Perdy.
Perdy likes
Pongo as much as he likes her, and thankfully
Perdy's mistress, a fashion designer named
Anita (
Joely Richardson), is quite taken with
Roger. Romance blooms between the human and canine couples, and
Roger and
Anita tie the knot (
Pongo and
Perdy are apparently still living in sin).
Anita works for
Cruella De Vil (
Glenn Close), an intense fashion maven whose lust for fur doubtless places her high on PETA's hit list. Inspired by her dogs,
Anita finds herself working up a design for a fur coat made with spotted fur, and
Cruella leaps on the idea of making garments out of real dalmatians. But where to get the animals?
Cruella has two nasty but not especially intelligent henchmen,
Jasper (
Hugh Laurie) and
Horace (
Mark Williams), who've been known to kill the odd endangered species at madame's request. Now they're sent on a mission to round up dalmatians, and when they fall a bit short of their goal, it comes to
Cruella's attention that
Perdy has just given birth to a litter of 15 pups. For this version, a number of real dalmatian puppies were combined with computer-generated animation and animatronic creatures from
Jim Henson's Workshop, who respond better to direction (and are doubtless easier to clean up after) than the real thing.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide