Post by Cuddly Dearly on Sept 26, 2009 13:14:45 GMT -5
I can finally write a general review about „101 Dalmatians“ after I've seen all 4 the movies and the whole series, read both novels and played all 3 computer games.
As we know, there are five versions of the original „101 Dalmatians“ story. Those are:
- „The hundred and one Dalmatians“ – the novel written by Dodie Smith in 1956
- „One hundred and one Dalmatians“ – animated movie from 1961
- „101 Dalmatians“ – live action movie from 1996
- „101 Dalmatians – Escape from DeVil manor“ game
- „101 Dalmatians – animated storybook“ game
My favorite one happens to be the original novel written by Dodie Smith. The novel is always better than movies. I really love the romantic story of Prince and Perdita, and their eight liver puppies. The other special characters that I like are Cruella's cat and Cruella's husband known just as Mr de Vil, excluded in every movie. It also includes some other interesting special characters like Splendid Wet, the Spaniel and his pet, Colonel's pet Tommy, the Staffordshire... And this version definitely has the best ending of Cruella de Vil – her fur collection getting ripped apart, her hair turning into white&green. I think that imprisoning her is too ordinary and trivial. On the other hand, the book has it's disadvantages. In one moment Cruella mentions that she has killed every single kitten that her white persian cat ever had. It's too brutal, especially for the young children this book is written for. I also disliked the personality of Missis – she is presented as a little bit too dumb dog who can't differ left and right. I also dislike her theory that biting a human is the worst dog's sin. When a kid hurt Pongo's leg by throwing a stone, she blessed the brat, instead of biting him and ripping him apart.
The animated movie was also cool, but in comparison with the novel and the live action movie, it's not so good. Still, it has it's very good points, like Roger's song „Cruella de Vil“ which is so catchy and cool. I must say that it makes me sing all the time, even while I'm not watching this movie. It's most famous special character is the TV star – german sheepdog Thunderbolt. But my favorite character still seems to be Cruella de Vil. She maybe seems a little bit scary, but we must admit that she is one of the sexiest Disney's villains. I like her ending which was probably the most exciting part of the movie. If you look at her carefully at the end, you can see that her coat is ripped apart, which is obviously a reference from the book. Speaking of Cruella, I don't like the color of her car which is red, instead of black&white zebra stripes mentioned in the novel. Otherwise, I like the fact that Mr and Mrs Dearly got their names – Roger and Anita. I just don't like the surname Dearly being changed into Radcliffe, because I really can't see Roger and Anita with any other surname than Dearly. What I really disliked about this movie was the exclusion of some very good characters from the novel – Prince and Perdita, Mr de Vil, Cruella's cat and Cadpig. There are also some other excluded characters, but these are the ones I mostly miss. We don't have Mr de Vil and Cruella's cat at all, while Missis is renamed into Perdita, and Lucky has Cadpig's personality. These points are really bad from my point of view. After reading the book, „Pongo and Perdita“ seems as such an horrible couple, even though I know that animated Perdita is actually Missis with another name. A good point is that the animated Perdita is not as dumb as Missis from the novel. The book shows Lucky as the bravest puppy of the litter, while the animated Lucky has Cadpig's personality – he was born dead and revived, he is bashful and loves TV. Cadpig is very cute and lovely character, but her personality really doesn't fit Lucky, and Disney ruined the both of them down in this animated movie. But still, this movie gives us two more puppies that we can't find in the novel – Penny and Freckles. Penny might be a replacement for Cadpig, but she hasn't played such an important role in the movie as Cadpig in the book. The movie also mentions Pepper, although we never really saw that puppy.
I especially have to criticise the digital remastering of the Platinum Edition DVD. The changing of the colors is so stupid and useless. Cruella's skin is pale, almost zombish grey. She looks enough evil without that, and she doesn't have to be presented as ugly. But still, this DVD is worth to be bought because of very cool bonus material included on the main DVD, and it even includes a special bonus DVD with bonus material.
The live action movie was fabulous, but still not as good as the novel. The only disadvantage in comparison with the book is the exclusion of Perdita, Prince, Cruella's cat, Mr de Vil and Cadpig (just like with the animated movie). But I really like the plenty of new characters this movie gives us. We have five never earlier mentioned puppies – Jewel, Dipstick, Fidget, Two Tone and Wizzer. It also gives us more human characters like Alonso and Skinner. I also like some scenes we haven't seen in the animated movie – Roger presenting his game to Alan and Herbert, Anita working in the House of DeVil, Roger's romantic proposal to Anita, Cruella finding out that the puppies ran away... This movie also gives us the best version of Cruella de Vil. Glenn Close did a magnificent work playing this role. This Cruella is much better than the animated one. I like the fact she doesn't always wear the same clothes, and her outfits are so extraordinary, so extravagant, so stunning... She also has a plenty of great quotes that you simply must love. I'll mention some of them:
- „Your work is fresh and clean, unfettered, unpretentious. It sells.“ – simply said „Modesty sells well“. It's so amazing and so true. When you pretend to be modest, people give you whatever you want.
- „More good women have been lost to marriage than to war, famine, disease and disaster“ – shows Cruella's feministic attitude which is very cool.
- „You've just won gold, silver and bronze in the moron olympics“ – Cruella is so great at putting everybody down; the villains as well as the heroes.
Besides her outfits and her clothes, I like her car Panther de Ville. Even though it's not striped like in the novel, it's black&white again, and looks really extraordinary. This car really fits Cruella. Besides Cruella, I like the characters of Jasper and Horace. Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams in the roles of two stupid criminals remind me very much on Harry and Marv, the burglars from the famous christmas comedy „Home Alone“. An interesting fact is that you can find some similarities between animated and live action puppies. In both movies we have Lucky, so he is obviously the same one. The animated Rolly has an impulse to eat too much and it's hard for him to control it. His match could be Wizzer, who has an uncontrollable impulse to piss. Then we have the animated Patch, who was named after the big black spot on his eye, that looks like an eye patch. His match could be Jewel whose spots look like jewelled collar. Or instead of Jewel, it could be Dipstick, whose tail looks like a dipstick. The animated Freckles is named after the freckles on his face. It's not a characteristic shape (like eye patch, jewel, or dipstick), but rather a pattern, a special arrangement of colors. So, his match could be Two Tone with her one black and one white ear. And it remains Penny and Fidget. They are the only ones with no similarities.
Sounds incredible, but this movie still has some disadvantages in comparison with the original animated version. That is the exclusion of TV shows like „Thunderbolt's adventure hour“ and „What's my crime“ and the characters like Rolly and Patch, Colonel and Sergeant Tibs. I also disliked the ending of Cruella. It was really disgusting when she fell into the molasses. And that's not all, she had the trivial ordinary ending – going to the jail. But I can still say that this movie is better than the animated version.
The story of the game „Escape from DeVil manor“ is based more on the live action movie, although the characters' look is based on the animated movie. The references to the live action movie is a picture of the killed tiger in the zoo, Cruella's black&white „Panther de Ville“ car and Wizzer as one of the two main characters. If you've watched the live action movie and played this game, you can see that „Escape from DeVil manor“ is the game that Roger created in the live action movie. That's notable in the moment when Patches and Wizzer are driven through the tunnel and throw a TNT on Cruella. The story of this game is really very special. It shows Patches and Wizzer as the heroes who trapped Cruella and the Badduns, so the rest of the puppies actually never escaped from DeVil manor. After the arrestment of the villain, the Hell Hall (DeVil manor) was bought by the Dearlys, and the puppies stood with them. I like the special puppy character Patches. He is similar to Patch, but unlike Patch, Patches has the „eye patches“ on his both eyes, and both white ears. Unfortunately we have never seen Patches after this game. But this game has a really bad disadvantage. You go through the whole mansion and you have no use for it. The only thing you have to know to pass the game is to push down the flowerpot. If you know that, you can pass the whole game, from the beginning to the ending, in less than 20 minutes. So going through the whole mansion is useless. There are actually only two rooms that you have to visit to be able to get to the end.
Then we have „Animated storybook“. This is a good game version of the story. It's also based mostly on the live action movie, but includes some references from the animated movie. The characters' look is obviously based on the animated movie, except Cruella's outfits which are taken from the live action movie. Just like in the live action movie, Roger is a video game creator and Anita is a fashion designer. The references from the animated movie are „Thunderbolt's Adventure Hour“ as the puppies' favorite TV show, and the scene of the puppies covering themselves with soot. This game offers no special characters besides a terrier who gets into the Hell Hall to save the puppies. But this game gives us an animated version of Cruella's butler Alonso. It also offers several mini games and songs.
„101 Dalmatians“ has also it's four different sequels:
- „101 Dalmatians II – Patch's London Adventure“ – a sequel to the animated movie (2002)
- „102 Dalmatians“ – a sequel to the live action movie (2000)
- „102 Dalmatians – puppies to the rescue“ – game
- „The starlight barking“ – a novel written by Dodie Smith (1967)
- „101 Dalmatians“ – the series (1997)
„101 Dalmatians II – Patch's London Adventure“ has a little bit too short story, but it's worth of being watched. It starts right after the ending of the first animated movie, with the Radcliffes moving to the country. It shows us that Cruella is not defeated, because she didn't really go to the jail. Her destroyed fur coat is fixed again and no damage is seen. But her car is totally destroyed and useless. I like the fact that Patch met his favorite TV star Thunderbolt. It's just so magic and enchanting. Meeting a celebrity is the biggest dream of so many people. I like the new characters Thunderbolt, Little Lightning and Lars. We have actually seen Thunderbolt in the animated movie, but this movie shows his real personality. It presents him as a dog who doesn't know anything about the real world out of his TV show, and with Patch's help he learns about the real life. We can say that Little Lightning is a villain of the movie, but he is more victim than villain, because most of the people would do the same thing if they were in his shoes. But my favorite special character happens to be Lars. At first he seems to be a villain because of painting for Cruella de Vil who he falls in love with. But later we discover that he is not a villain and that he is a big animal lover who was too naive to see what Cruella really wanted. When he realised her real intentions, he got over his love for her and opposed her. Still, this movie has a big mistake. The first animated movie clearly mentions that the show „Thunderbolt's Adventure Hour“ runs every Sunday, once per week. In this movie, Patch claims that he watched all 72 episodes. If he had watched it for 72 weeks, he wouldn't be a puppy anymore. Anyway, this fact doesn't bother me too much. This movie has other disadvantages. I don't like Patch's black & white ears being reversed, and Lucky's ears being white instead of black. I also dislike Cruella's clothes which are the same all the time again. She wears the same clothes through the whole movie, even the same ones from the first movie, despite of the coat being ripped apart at the end. At least they could have given her another outfit, different from the one in the first movie. I feel sorry for Little Lightning who ended as the most miserable villain, and the unjustice towards him was never resolved. Thunderbolt was mean to him, and Lightning's rage towards Thunderbolt is justified.
„102 Dalmatians“ is one of the very rare sequels in the movie world that are almost better than their first part. It happens to be my favorite sequel. I really love Cruella's new extraordinary outfits. It shows that she looks great, with or without the fur. This movie gives a lot of new animal characters – adult Dipstick, his wife Dottie, their children Little Dipper, Domino, Oddball, a macaw Waddlesworth, Kevin's dogs Chomp, Digger, Drooler and Cruella's dog Fluffy. It also gives new human characters – Chloe, Kevin, Ewan, Alonso and Jean Pierre LePelt. We have actually seen Alonso in the first movie, but he was just an imperceptible Cruella's butler, not important at all. In this sequel he played a very important and interesting role. I absolutely like the new animal character, especially the Dalmatians and Waddlesworth. Still, I think that my favorite one is Waddlesworth, because of his funny quotes that make me laugh every single time. Speaking of humans, my favorite character is still Cruella. She keeps her fabulous style, cool attitude and amazing quotes. My least favorite character is definitely LePelt. Although I love villains, LePelt is so disgusting and not cool at all. I was so terrified when he said „Skinning is one thing... but stealing?!“ He is a rotten coward who can kill tiny and feeble animals, but can't do anything what could get his fat ass into the jail. I especially like some obvious references from the Smith's original novel „The hundred and one Dalmatians“. In this movie Dipstick unbolts the door of Cruella's dressing room, like Pongo did in the novel. Another reference is Cruella's pet. In the novel it's a white persian cat. In this movie it's a tiny dog called Fluffy. In both mentioned story Cruella hates her pet. The last reference is a man in love with Cruella. In the novel, it's her husband known as Mr de Vil. In this movie it's Jean Pierre LePelt. They are both in love with her, but their love is unrequited. And they are both furriers who work for her. This movie still has one disadvantage – I really miss the characters from the animated movie like Pongo and Perdita, Dipstick's brothers and sisters, the Dearlys and the Badduns. Still, I like this movie very much. It could almost be better than the first part. But just almost.
The game „102 Dalmatians – Puppies to the rescue“ is a mixture of everything. It's not really based on any movie. The only reference to „102 Dalmatians“ are Oddball and Domino as the main characters, Waddlesworth as their friend, Dipstick and Dottie as their parents, and LePelt as one of Cruella's henchmen. The look of the characters is absolutely based on the animated movie, but made in 3D graphics. It includes also Horace and Jasper, and Sergeant Tibs as a hint giver in some levels. The story of the game is very special. It doesn't show Cruella's passion for fur. In this game, Cruella owns a toy factory and she imprisons the Dalmatian puppies because the children love them more than her toys. The small irritating villains in the game are Cruella's robot toys. While you're going through the 20 levels of this game, you rescue the puppies imprisoned by Cruella. The story ends with Cruella going into the jail, and Horace, Jasper and LePelt getting lost together on a deserted island. This game is a good fun for every age, even for the adults. Something I really dislike about this game is „Game over“. „Game over“ is something I generally hate in the world of video games.
We could say that „The starlight barking“ is the 'true' sequel to the original story because it's written by Dodie Smith. At first I had prejudices because Cruella is not an important character. But when I started reading it, I just couldn't stop it. From the same beginning it shows that it's not an ordinary sequel with Cruella's new chance to get her spotted fur coat. „The Starlight Barking“ doesn't really have much in common with „The hundred and one Dalmatians“. The only link between those two novels are Pongo, Missis and Cadpig as the main characters. It also contains Cruella, Mr de Vil, Lucky, Roly Poly (Rolly in the movies) and Patch as non important, almost static characters. From the same beginning, the story makes you think about a mystery. It's exciting and while you read it, you're trying to solve the mystery by yourself, but it's simply impossible. You get shocked to see that the mysterious sleeping is caused by an extraterrestrial dog called Sirius, the lord of the Dog Star. The biggest shock is that the story has no real villain. It offers a lot of new characters – Cadpig's new pet, the Prime Minister of UK and his other dogs and Lucky's girlfriend called Gay. I just dislike the fact that the story lasts for only one day. It means that you read one day in 200 pages. A little bit too much text for only one day. The biggest disadvantage is the exclusion of Cruella. She's shown in only one scene, sleeping as the rest of the world. But it's still exciting and worth of being read.
And what to say about the series „101 Dalmatians“. It's the longest and the funniest sequel to the original story, which made us all crazy about 101D. It's based more on the live action movie than the animated movie. We can see that because Roger is a video game creator and Anita a fashion designer working for Cruella. It's very interesting that Anita works there, because in the live action movie she got fired after refusing to sell the puppies to Cruella. The characters' look is significantly different from the standard animated versions of the characters, but still more similar to the animated, than to live action characters. The interesting fact is that in this version Cruella gave up her passion for fur and her main goal is to steal the Dearly farm. It's incredible that she has two pets who she doesn't hate. She really loves her ferret called Scorch. She uses her dog Vendella for dog exhibitions and other similar events. She doesn't like her very much, but also doesn't treat her very bad. The series „101 Dalmatians“ gives us a lot of never before seen animal characters – Cornelia, Spot, Mooch, Tripod, Lieutenant Pug, Dumpling, Mayor Ed Pig and already mentioned Cruella's pets Scorch and Vendella. I find Spot as a really funny non Dalmatian character. She is so funny because she pretends to be a dog. Reminds a bit of Waddlesworth. The series is the only version that contains animals as true villains – Swamp Rat, Cydne the snake and Steven the alligator. It also offers the animated version of three live action puppies: Dipstick, Wizzer and Two Tone. I just don't like the physical appearance of Two Tone. It's too unreal, because no Dalmatian has a half body black with white spots, but she is an OK character. I love the fact that the series contains puppies from the book, the animated movie and the live action movie. It contains Lucky, Rolly, Cadpig, Patch, Dipstick, Wizzer and Two Tone (and Tripod who is actually not one of the original 15). I just loved to get Cadpig back after losing her in the movies. Her spiritual and antimaterialistic attitude is sometimes annoying, but she is so tiny and cute, and make you feel like cuddling her. And Lucky finally got his true personality, he is the bravest puppy, just like it was said in the novel. He loves TV, but he is not bashful as Cadpig, he doesn't have her personality that doesn't fit him at all. The series also shows new human characters – Anita's niece Amber, Cruella's rival Ralphie St. Laurent and Cruella's family: her brother Cecil B, her cousin P.H., her niece Ivy and her mother Malevola. P.H. and Ivy are really cool, Cecil B not enough evil for a De Vil, and Malevola is an irritating old hag. Anyway, my least favorite and most annoying character is Lt Pug. He is an annoying shizofrenic jerk who tortures the poor Dalmatian puppies, and he is too ugly for a pug. The biggest disadvantage of the series is the movement to USA. London is replaced with a fictional city called Gruteley. One more disadvantage is that it has no real end. The 65th episode really doesn't seem like an ending. It could have been continued, because nothing happened to Cruella, her henchemen and her evil family.
Generally speaking, I'm fascinated with „101 Dalmatians“. Dodie Smith and Walt Disney company did wonderful work that you just must love. My favorite story is the original novel „The hundred and one Dalmatians“, my favorite movie is the live action movie „101 Dalmatians“ and my favorite game is „102 Dalmatians – Puppies to the rescue“. When we put all the characters together, my favorite one is everywhere the legendary villain Cruella de Vil. It's not that I like torturing animals or that I love clothes. Actually, I love animals and I hate to hear about somebody killing them. But I'm still so fascinated with Cruella and I adore her. I admire her because of several reasons. She's so persistent. When she wants something, she simply must have it. I also love her temper tantrum, when she gets mad when the things don't go her way. Her fashion style in the live action movies is absolutely stunning and wonderful. She's so extraordinary and loves to be the center of attention. She is so freewilled and cold-blooded. She doesn't care about what anybody thinks about her and no human can emotionally hurt her. I also love her quotes, her way to put everybody down, both heroes and villains. And of course, she is so self-confident. She believes she's the most beautiful one, the most smart one, the absolutely best one, bigger than life... That's why Cruella is my exemplar in the real life. I'm as persistent as her when I want somebody. Temper tantrum is in my blood since I was born. I also love to be the center of attention. I'm freewilled and I don't care about what anybody thinks about me. And I'm trying to learn to be so unhurtable, self-confident and cool as Cruella de Vil.
But there is something I really dislike about „101 Dalmatians“. That is contradictions. That especially reffers to the different ending of Cruella de Vil. In the animated movie she doesn't go to jail, while in the live action movie she does go to the jail. That actually means that „101 Dalmatians II – Patch's London Adventure“ and „102 Dalmatians“ couldn't both have happened. There is also the already mentioned UK/USA contradiction in the series. But „101 Dalmatians“ and it's all versions and sequels are my magnificent obsession and passionate collecting hobby.
As we know, there are five versions of the original „101 Dalmatians“ story. Those are:
- „The hundred and one Dalmatians“ – the novel written by Dodie Smith in 1956
- „One hundred and one Dalmatians“ – animated movie from 1961
- „101 Dalmatians“ – live action movie from 1996
- „101 Dalmatians – Escape from DeVil manor“ game
- „101 Dalmatians – animated storybook“ game
My favorite one happens to be the original novel written by Dodie Smith. The novel is always better than movies. I really love the romantic story of Prince and Perdita, and their eight liver puppies. The other special characters that I like are Cruella's cat and Cruella's husband known just as Mr de Vil, excluded in every movie. It also includes some other interesting special characters like Splendid Wet, the Spaniel and his pet, Colonel's pet Tommy, the Staffordshire... And this version definitely has the best ending of Cruella de Vil – her fur collection getting ripped apart, her hair turning into white&green. I think that imprisoning her is too ordinary and trivial. On the other hand, the book has it's disadvantages. In one moment Cruella mentions that she has killed every single kitten that her white persian cat ever had. It's too brutal, especially for the young children this book is written for. I also disliked the personality of Missis – she is presented as a little bit too dumb dog who can't differ left and right. I also dislike her theory that biting a human is the worst dog's sin. When a kid hurt Pongo's leg by throwing a stone, she blessed the brat, instead of biting him and ripping him apart.
The animated movie was also cool, but in comparison with the novel and the live action movie, it's not so good. Still, it has it's very good points, like Roger's song „Cruella de Vil“ which is so catchy and cool. I must say that it makes me sing all the time, even while I'm not watching this movie. It's most famous special character is the TV star – german sheepdog Thunderbolt. But my favorite character still seems to be Cruella de Vil. She maybe seems a little bit scary, but we must admit that she is one of the sexiest Disney's villains. I like her ending which was probably the most exciting part of the movie. If you look at her carefully at the end, you can see that her coat is ripped apart, which is obviously a reference from the book. Speaking of Cruella, I don't like the color of her car which is red, instead of black&white zebra stripes mentioned in the novel. Otherwise, I like the fact that Mr and Mrs Dearly got their names – Roger and Anita. I just don't like the surname Dearly being changed into Radcliffe, because I really can't see Roger and Anita with any other surname than Dearly. What I really disliked about this movie was the exclusion of some very good characters from the novel – Prince and Perdita, Mr de Vil, Cruella's cat and Cadpig. There are also some other excluded characters, but these are the ones I mostly miss. We don't have Mr de Vil and Cruella's cat at all, while Missis is renamed into Perdita, and Lucky has Cadpig's personality. These points are really bad from my point of view. After reading the book, „Pongo and Perdita“ seems as such an horrible couple, even though I know that animated Perdita is actually Missis with another name. A good point is that the animated Perdita is not as dumb as Missis from the novel. The book shows Lucky as the bravest puppy of the litter, while the animated Lucky has Cadpig's personality – he was born dead and revived, he is bashful and loves TV. Cadpig is very cute and lovely character, but her personality really doesn't fit Lucky, and Disney ruined the both of them down in this animated movie. But still, this movie gives us two more puppies that we can't find in the novel – Penny and Freckles. Penny might be a replacement for Cadpig, but she hasn't played such an important role in the movie as Cadpig in the book. The movie also mentions Pepper, although we never really saw that puppy.
I especially have to criticise the digital remastering of the Platinum Edition DVD. The changing of the colors is so stupid and useless. Cruella's skin is pale, almost zombish grey. She looks enough evil without that, and she doesn't have to be presented as ugly. But still, this DVD is worth to be bought because of very cool bonus material included on the main DVD, and it even includes a special bonus DVD with bonus material.
The live action movie was fabulous, but still not as good as the novel. The only disadvantage in comparison with the book is the exclusion of Perdita, Prince, Cruella's cat, Mr de Vil and Cadpig (just like with the animated movie). But I really like the plenty of new characters this movie gives us. We have five never earlier mentioned puppies – Jewel, Dipstick, Fidget, Two Tone and Wizzer. It also gives us more human characters like Alonso and Skinner. I also like some scenes we haven't seen in the animated movie – Roger presenting his game to Alan and Herbert, Anita working in the House of DeVil, Roger's romantic proposal to Anita, Cruella finding out that the puppies ran away... This movie also gives us the best version of Cruella de Vil. Glenn Close did a magnificent work playing this role. This Cruella is much better than the animated one. I like the fact she doesn't always wear the same clothes, and her outfits are so extraordinary, so extravagant, so stunning... She also has a plenty of great quotes that you simply must love. I'll mention some of them:
- „Your work is fresh and clean, unfettered, unpretentious. It sells.“ – simply said „Modesty sells well“. It's so amazing and so true. When you pretend to be modest, people give you whatever you want.
- „More good women have been lost to marriage than to war, famine, disease and disaster“ – shows Cruella's feministic attitude which is very cool.
- „You've just won gold, silver and bronze in the moron olympics“ – Cruella is so great at putting everybody down; the villains as well as the heroes.
Besides her outfits and her clothes, I like her car Panther de Ville. Even though it's not striped like in the novel, it's black&white again, and looks really extraordinary. This car really fits Cruella. Besides Cruella, I like the characters of Jasper and Horace. Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams in the roles of two stupid criminals remind me very much on Harry and Marv, the burglars from the famous christmas comedy „Home Alone“. An interesting fact is that you can find some similarities between animated and live action puppies. In both movies we have Lucky, so he is obviously the same one. The animated Rolly has an impulse to eat too much and it's hard for him to control it. His match could be Wizzer, who has an uncontrollable impulse to piss. Then we have the animated Patch, who was named after the big black spot on his eye, that looks like an eye patch. His match could be Jewel whose spots look like jewelled collar. Or instead of Jewel, it could be Dipstick, whose tail looks like a dipstick. The animated Freckles is named after the freckles on his face. It's not a characteristic shape (like eye patch, jewel, or dipstick), but rather a pattern, a special arrangement of colors. So, his match could be Two Tone with her one black and one white ear. And it remains Penny and Fidget. They are the only ones with no similarities.
Sounds incredible, but this movie still has some disadvantages in comparison with the original animated version. That is the exclusion of TV shows like „Thunderbolt's adventure hour“ and „What's my crime“ and the characters like Rolly and Patch, Colonel and Sergeant Tibs. I also disliked the ending of Cruella. It was really disgusting when she fell into the molasses. And that's not all, she had the trivial ordinary ending – going to the jail. But I can still say that this movie is better than the animated version.
The story of the game „Escape from DeVil manor“ is based more on the live action movie, although the characters' look is based on the animated movie. The references to the live action movie is a picture of the killed tiger in the zoo, Cruella's black&white „Panther de Ville“ car and Wizzer as one of the two main characters. If you've watched the live action movie and played this game, you can see that „Escape from DeVil manor“ is the game that Roger created in the live action movie. That's notable in the moment when Patches and Wizzer are driven through the tunnel and throw a TNT on Cruella. The story of this game is really very special. It shows Patches and Wizzer as the heroes who trapped Cruella and the Badduns, so the rest of the puppies actually never escaped from DeVil manor. After the arrestment of the villain, the Hell Hall (DeVil manor) was bought by the Dearlys, and the puppies stood with them. I like the special puppy character Patches. He is similar to Patch, but unlike Patch, Patches has the „eye patches“ on his both eyes, and both white ears. Unfortunately we have never seen Patches after this game. But this game has a really bad disadvantage. You go through the whole mansion and you have no use for it. The only thing you have to know to pass the game is to push down the flowerpot. If you know that, you can pass the whole game, from the beginning to the ending, in less than 20 minutes. So going through the whole mansion is useless. There are actually only two rooms that you have to visit to be able to get to the end.
Then we have „Animated storybook“. This is a good game version of the story. It's also based mostly on the live action movie, but includes some references from the animated movie. The characters' look is obviously based on the animated movie, except Cruella's outfits which are taken from the live action movie. Just like in the live action movie, Roger is a video game creator and Anita is a fashion designer. The references from the animated movie are „Thunderbolt's Adventure Hour“ as the puppies' favorite TV show, and the scene of the puppies covering themselves with soot. This game offers no special characters besides a terrier who gets into the Hell Hall to save the puppies. But this game gives us an animated version of Cruella's butler Alonso. It also offers several mini games and songs.
„101 Dalmatians“ has also it's four different sequels:
- „101 Dalmatians II – Patch's London Adventure“ – a sequel to the animated movie (2002)
- „102 Dalmatians“ – a sequel to the live action movie (2000)
- „102 Dalmatians – puppies to the rescue“ – game
- „The starlight barking“ – a novel written by Dodie Smith (1967)
- „101 Dalmatians“ – the series (1997)
„101 Dalmatians II – Patch's London Adventure“ has a little bit too short story, but it's worth of being watched. It starts right after the ending of the first animated movie, with the Radcliffes moving to the country. It shows us that Cruella is not defeated, because she didn't really go to the jail. Her destroyed fur coat is fixed again and no damage is seen. But her car is totally destroyed and useless. I like the fact that Patch met his favorite TV star Thunderbolt. It's just so magic and enchanting. Meeting a celebrity is the biggest dream of so many people. I like the new characters Thunderbolt, Little Lightning and Lars. We have actually seen Thunderbolt in the animated movie, but this movie shows his real personality. It presents him as a dog who doesn't know anything about the real world out of his TV show, and with Patch's help he learns about the real life. We can say that Little Lightning is a villain of the movie, but he is more victim than villain, because most of the people would do the same thing if they were in his shoes. But my favorite special character happens to be Lars. At first he seems to be a villain because of painting for Cruella de Vil who he falls in love with. But later we discover that he is not a villain and that he is a big animal lover who was too naive to see what Cruella really wanted. When he realised her real intentions, he got over his love for her and opposed her. Still, this movie has a big mistake. The first animated movie clearly mentions that the show „Thunderbolt's Adventure Hour“ runs every Sunday, once per week. In this movie, Patch claims that he watched all 72 episodes. If he had watched it for 72 weeks, he wouldn't be a puppy anymore. Anyway, this fact doesn't bother me too much. This movie has other disadvantages. I don't like Patch's black & white ears being reversed, and Lucky's ears being white instead of black. I also dislike Cruella's clothes which are the same all the time again. She wears the same clothes through the whole movie, even the same ones from the first movie, despite of the coat being ripped apart at the end. At least they could have given her another outfit, different from the one in the first movie. I feel sorry for Little Lightning who ended as the most miserable villain, and the unjustice towards him was never resolved. Thunderbolt was mean to him, and Lightning's rage towards Thunderbolt is justified.
„102 Dalmatians“ is one of the very rare sequels in the movie world that are almost better than their first part. It happens to be my favorite sequel. I really love Cruella's new extraordinary outfits. It shows that she looks great, with or without the fur. This movie gives a lot of new animal characters – adult Dipstick, his wife Dottie, their children Little Dipper, Domino, Oddball, a macaw Waddlesworth, Kevin's dogs Chomp, Digger, Drooler and Cruella's dog Fluffy. It also gives new human characters – Chloe, Kevin, Ewan, Alonso and Jean Pierre LePelt. We have actually seen Alonso in the first movie, but he was just an imperceptible Cruella's butler, not important at all. In this sequel he played a very important and interesting role. I absolutely like the new animal character, especially the Dalmatians and Waddlesworth. Still, I think that my favorite one is Waddlesworth, because of his funny quotes that make me laugh every single time. Speaking of humans, my favorite character is still Cruella. She keeps her fabulous style, cool attitude and amazing quotes. My least favorite character is definitely LePelt. Although I love villains, LePelt is so disgusting and not cool at all. I was so terrified when he said „Skinning is one thing... but stealing?!“ He is a rotten coward who can kill tiny and feeble animals, but can't do anything what could get his fat ass into the jail. I especially like some obvious references from the Smith's original novel „The hundred and one Dalmatians“. In this movie Dipstick unbolts the door of Cruella's dressing room, like Pongo did in the novel. Another reference is Cruella's pet. In the novel it's a white persian cat. In this movie it's a tiny dog called Fluffy. In both mentioned story Cruella hates her pet. The last reference is a man in love with Cruella. In the novel, it's her husband known as Mr de Vil. In this movie it's Jean Pierre LePelt. They are both in love with her, but their love is unrequited. And they are both furriers who work for her. This movie still has one disadvantage – I really miss the characters from the animated movie like Pongo and Perdita, Dipstick's brothers and sisters, the Dearlys and the Badduns. Still, I like this movie very much. It could almost be better than the first part. But just almost.
The game „102 Dalmatians – Puppies to the rescue“ is a mixture of everything. It's not really based on any movie. The only reference to „102 Dalmatians“ are Oddball and Domino as the main characters, Waddlesworth as their friend, Dipstick and Dottie as their parents, and LePelt as one of Cruella's henchmen. The look of the characters is absolutely based on the animated movie, but made in 3D graphics. It includes also Horace and Jasper, and Sergeant Tibs as a hint giver in some levels. The story of the game is very special. It doesn't show Cruella's passion for fur. In this game, Cruella owns a toy factory and she imprisons the Dalmatian puppies because the children love them more than her toys. The small irritating villains in the game are Cruella's robot toys. While you're going through the 20 levels of this game, you rescue the puppies imprisoned by Cruella. The story ends with Cruella going into the jail, and Horace, Jasper and LePelt getting lost together on a deserted island. This game is a good fun for every age, even for the adults. Something I really dislike about this game is „Game over“. „Game over“ is something I generally hate in the world of video games.
We could say that „The starlight barking“ is the 'true' sequel to the original story because it's written by Dodie Smith. At first I had prejudices because Cruella is not an important character. But when I started reading it, I just couldn't stop it. From the same beginning it shows that it's not an ordinary sequel with Cruella's new chance to get her spotted fur coat. „The Starlight Barking“ doesn't really have much in common with „The hundred and one Dalmatians“. The only link between those two novels are Pongo, Missis and Cadpig as the main characters. It also contains Cruella, Mr de Vil, Lucky, Roly Poly (Rolly in the movies) and Patch as non important, almost static characters. From the same beginning, the story makes you think about a mystery. It's exciting and while you read it, you're trying to solve the mystery by yourself, but it's simply impossible. You get shocked to see that the mysterious sleeping is caused by an extraterrestrial dog called Sirius, the lord of the Dog Star. The biggest shock is that the story has no real villain. It offers a lot of new characters – Cadpig's new pet, the Prime Minister of UK and his other dogs and Lucky's girlfriend called Gay. I just dislike the fact that the story lasts for only one day. It means that you read one day in 200 pages. A little bit too much text for only one day. The biggest disadvantage is the exclusion of Cruella. She's shown in only one scene, sleeping as the rest of the world. But it's still exciting and worth of being read.
And what to say about the series „101 Dalmatians“. It's the longest and the funniest sequel to the original story, which made us all crazy about 101D. It's based more on the live action movie than the animated movie. We can see that because Roger is a video game creator and Anita a fashion designer working for Cruella. It's very interesting that Anita works there, because in the live action movie she got fired after refusing to sell the puppies to Cruella. The characters' look is significantly different from the standard animated versions of the characters, but still more similar to the animated, than to live action characters. The interesting fact is that in this version Cruella gave up her passion for fur and her main goal is to steal the Dearly farm. It's incredible that she has two pets who she doesn't hate. She really loves her ferret called Scorch. She uses her dog Vendella for dog exhibitions and other similar events. She doesn't like her very much, but also doesn't treat her very bad. The series „101 Dalmatians“ gives us a lot of never before seen animal characters – Cornelia, Spot, Mooch, Tripod, Lieutenant Pug, Dumpling, Mayor Ed Pig and already mentioned Cruella's pets Scorch and Vendella. I find Spot as a really funny non Dalmatian character. She is so funny because she pretends to be a dog. Reminds a bit of Waddlesworth. The series is the only version that contains animals as true villains – Swamp Rat, Cydne the snake and Steven the alligator. It also offers the animated version of three live action puppies: Dipstick, Wizzer and Two Tone. I just don't like the physical appearance of Two Tone. It's too unreal, because no Dalmatian has a half body black with white spots, but she is an OK character. I love the fact that the series contains puppies from the book, the animated movie and the live action movie. It contains Lucky, Rolly, Cadpig, Patch, Dipstick, Wizzer and Two Tone (and Tripod who is actually not one of the original 15). I just loved to get Cadpig back after losing her in the movies. Her spiritual and antimaterialistic attitude is sometimes annoying, but she is so tiny and cute, and make you feel like cuddling her. And Lucky finally got his true personality, he is the bravest puppy, just like it was said in the novel. He loves TV, but he is not bashful as Cadpig, he doesn't have her personality that doesn't fit him at all. The series also shows new human characters – Anita's niece Amber, Cruella's rival Ralphie St. Laurent and Cruella's family: her brother Cecil B, her cousin P.H., her niece Ivy and her mother Malevola. P.H. and Ivy are really cool, Cecil B not enough evil for a De Vil, and Malevola is an irritating old hag. Anyway, my least favorite and most annoying character is Lt Pug. He is an annoying shizofrenic jerk who tortures the poor Dalmatian puppies, and he is too ugly for a pug. The biggest disadvantage of the series is the movement to USA. London is replaced with a fictional city called Gruteley. One more disadvantage is that it has no real end. The 65th episode really doesn't seem like an ending. It could have been continued, because nothing happened to Cruella, her henchemen and her evil family.
Generally speaking, I'm fascinated with „101 Dalmatians“. Dodie Smith and Walt Disney company did wonderful work that you just must love. My favorite story is the original novel „The hundred and one Dalmatians“, my favorite movie is the live action movie „101 Dalmatians“ and my favorite game is „102 Dalmatians – Puppies to the rescue“. When we put all the characters together, my favorite one is everywhere the legendary villain Cruella de Vil. It's not that I like torturing animals or that I love clothes. Actually, I love animals and I hate to hear about somebody killing them. But I'm still so fascinated with Cruella and I adore her. I admire her because of several reasons. She's so persistent. When she wants something, she simply must have it. I also love her temper tantrum, when she gets mad when the things don't go her way. Her fashion style in the live action movies is absolutely stunning and wonderful. She's so extraordinary and loves to be the center of attention. She is so freewilled and cold-blooded. She doesn't care about what anybody thinks about her and no human can emotionally hurt her. I also love her quotes, her way to put everybody down, both heroes and villains. And of course, she is so self-confident. She believes she's the most beautiful one, the most smart one, the absolutely best one, bigger than life... That's why Cruella is my exemplar in the real life. I'm as persistent as her when I want somebody. Temper tantrum is in my blood since I was born. I also love to be the center of attention. I'm freewilled and I don't care about what anybody thinks about me. And I'm trying to learn to be so unhurtable, self-confident and cool as Cruella de Vil.
But there is something I really dislike about „101 Dalmatians“. That is contradictions. That especially reffers to the different ending of Cruella de Vil. In the animated movie she doesn't go to jail, while in the live action movie she does go to the jail. That actually means that „101 Dalmatians II – Patch's London Adventure“ and „102 Dalmatians“ couldn't both have happened. There is also the already mentioned UK/USA contradiction in the series. But „101 Dalmatians“ and it's all versions and sequels are my magnificent obsession and passionate collecting hobby.