Movie Review: 101 Dalmatians (1996)

101 Dalmatians (1996) ☆☆☆
[G] Fashion designer Anita and computer-game writer Roger meet, fall in love and marry along with their dalmatians Perdita and Pongo. But the proud dogs’ puppies are kidnapped by Anita’s boss Cruella De Vil, who is stealing young dalmatians to make the coat she has set her heart on. Enlisting the help of the British animal kingdom, Pongo and Perdita set out to find and rescue all ninety-nine pups from their fearsome captors, Jasper and Horace.


* * * * *

I was about five when this movie came out, and I still get a good laugh from it. Glenn Close is an awesome Cruella, and I remember always being fascinated by all the little gadgets that the dogs were able to work. While the movie no longer holds the same wonder it did when I was five, (some of the stuff is cheesy, and seriously? Roger and Anita decided to get married the same day they met) there are a few things that do catch my eye now that I’m older.

For one, I’m starting to recognize the actors and actresses from other movies I’ve seen. Anita is played by Joely Richardson, who was in The Patriot, and is the sister of Natasha Richardson, the mother in The Parent Trap, and who passed away from her skiing accident last year. (I was very sad.) Jeff Daniels was that guy in Softly Nothing in My Ear, which I saw in ASL 2 class and thought was pretty good. Jasper is played by… OMG! Hugh Laurie, who plays House. I didn’t even recognize him until my brother Kevin pointed it out. And then Horace is played by that guy who plays Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter movies and the stuttering guy in Shakespeare in Love. And I was on IMDB and saw that the Nanny, whom I’ve always loved as a character and wanted as my nanny in real life, was “Daisy” in “Driving Miss Daisy”, which I’ve never seen but heard was really good, and besides, had Morgan Freeman in it. And Morgan Freeman is just awesome.