15 Stolen Puppies! A Walt Disney Classic!

As we wind down our celebration of 100 Years of Disney, I predict that this is the last movie on this list of Walt’s Classics that I will enjoy. I already have strong reservations about The Sword and the Stone as well as The Jungle Book, but 101 Dalmatians is a mixed bag. The animation always freaked me out as a child, but the live-action movie that came out in the early 2000s had me watching it on repeat. I already know how I’m going to react to Cruella and her bumbling henchmen, but let’s dive right into a journey of love, puppies, and puppy kidnappers who need to have their license revoked.

The opener is refreshing and reminds me of the opener of Monster’s Inc. From the font, to the music to the animations themselves, we are once again in the world of woofs, backs, and belly rubs. You can tell that the animators had fun making this opener and it sets the stage for the kind of story we’re about to jump into. A quick tour of London and we’re immediately dropped in the scene of lightly sketched houses dipped in pastels.

I love how this movie starts with a narration from Pongo. It once again sets the stage for many animated movies to come and seems to pick up from the wonder that was left behind by Lady and the Tramp. Poor Rodger the musician is a man married to his work and Pongo is determined to find him a mate. The animators leaned into the phrase “dogs look like their owners” and painted a hilarious point of view of Pongo scouting a mate for his “pet”. The determination that Pongo has is admirable. He’s on the hunt for the booty. But leave it to Pongo to sniff out true love.

Honestly, the life that Pongo and Perdy have is the kind of life I aspire to have. A modest house by the park with enough room for me, my husband, and the maid that brings me tea at teatime. And then, in rolls Cruella, an old schoolmate of Anita. You can already tell how this is going to go the way that Perdy hides herself under the furnace long before Cruella even gets out of her car. Cruella stinks the whole house up with her smoke and doesn’t even greet Anita as she frantically looks for the unborn Dalmatian puppies. Rodger's obnoxious music playing above them is hilarious and it’s impressive that he knows how to play both the piano and the trombone so seamlessly.

I have no idea why Anita is even friends with Cruella. She comes over to both terrorize and berate Anita and her family all while smoking her cigarettes and talking about her one true love: fur coats. Rodger is spot on about Cruella and the fact that Anita doesn’t believe a word of it makes me wonder what Cruella has over Anita. Poor Perdita is so nervous about Cruella taking away her puppies that she doesn’t even want to have them anymore. But of course, the puppies come and both Pongo and Rodger are a nervous wreck. Pongo nearly passes out from the news of there being fifteen puppies.

Leave it to Disney to make me cry in the first half of a movie. Rodger saves the life of Pongo's fifteenth puppy who almost dies after being born and is later named Lucky. Cruella spoils the celebration by barging into their home in the rain and yelling angrily that the brand-new puppies have no spots.

Putting the fact that Cruella wants to purchase brand new puppies to kill and make into a fur coat, she isn’t anything else but a rich, rude, and bitter woman of fashion. She laughs at the fact that Anita is married to a musician, giving me the impression that Anita is the one of higher status in this relationship. And yet Anita is as polite as ever. I’d have had that woman out of my house so fast, like, absolutely not. Rodger is so terrified of standing up to Cruella, but he manages to send her off after she has a tantrum and promises revenge, of course.

Imagine having fifteen puppies sitting in the living room watching TV. That scene was so adorable and wholesome. It makes me wonder how anyone could go to such great lengths just for a fur coat. I never caught the dialogue between Jasper and Horace before. One of them says that they’ve already gone to jail twice, and if they get caught again, they’ll be in jail for life. But the other doesn’t have time for things like “thinking” so they end up just going on about their task to steal the puppies for Cruella.

Poor Nanny tried her best but failed to stop them from saving them. This is the second time that this movie has pricked my eyes with tears, but it doesn’t last long once Cruella starts trolling Rodger and Anita as she reads the morning papers. As someone who owns a dog, I firmly believe in the Twilight Bark. Every single dog from Lady and the Tramp was showcased in the travel in the Twilight Bark and it has warmed my heart to literal tears how these dogs work together all across London to help Pongo get his puppies back. They bark in morass code, I think, and the efficacy of their search and rescue is better than that of humans.

Cruella has a whole family mansion in the countryside that she isn’t living in and instead decides to house ninety-nine Dalmatian puppies. This movie tugs at the heartstrings as you watch Pongo and Perdita travel an ungodly amount of miles in the snow and ice river to save their puppies from Cruella. This is the first movie in the Walt Disney chain that has me overly emotional and heavily invested. Cruella is so convinced that the police are going to find the puppies that she wants them all killed that night and she doesn’t care how. When the two goons she hired become lazy, she throws half a bottle of wine right into the fire and the fireplace explodes. She doesn’t even flinch as Jasper and Horace cower in fear and she smacks the shit out of them before yelling that she will be back in the morning for her fur pelts.

I know she’s a villain, but I need her kind of no-nonsense determination to get shit done. I’m just saying. She threw AN ENTIRE BOTTLE OF LIQUOR into a burning furnace OF A WOODEN HOUSE. She could’ve died and didn’t give a shit. You can say a lot about the other Disney Villians, but she is running up at the top right under Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dam. But I digress.

Sergent Tibbs is a hero and deserves a medal for saving those puppies. Rolly nearly gets everyone caught because of his chunky booty and The Pongos manage to make it in time. The fact that they were seen as spotted Hyenas shows you how angry Pongo and Perdy were at these two. Do not mess with a parent and their puppies.

A Personal Side Note:

So…..I’m going to go off on a bit of a mini-tangent here and say that it has taken me a few weeks to find the courage to watch this movie and I couldn’t figure out why. I basically know what’s going to happen next, so what’s the fuss? Interestingly enough, I always seemed to block out the trek back home until they reached the city. The trek in the snow unexpectedly triggered some ancestral trauma, as it reminded me of The Trail of Tears. I found myself sobbing as I saw history itself depicted before me through dogs and cows. I’m going through these movies to learn from the past, not to bash them. But if I see things that are triggering, I’m going to obviously warn you about them. Especially when they jump out at you from the shadows like this one. Honestly, this was the last place I expected to find something like this, and this could obviously be my storyteller brain putting the pieces of the larger wholes of the universe together. Especially after they dye themselves black and hide in the back of a van to get to the city far away from the prying eyes of Cruella. Nonetheless, it happened, so I thought I’d share. Maybe seeing slavery as the story of 101 Dalmatians will give more empathy and less racism to the people of the world. Maybe not. Who knows.

Anyway, Cruella doesn’t give up on her puppies for anything in the world and eventually catches up with The Pongos. The way she sneers in the window is both terrifying and hilarious. That car chase had my eyes glued to the screen and I felt a little bad for Cruella at the end. The way she got hit, she technically should’ve died but instead, she was crying in the snow in her ripped-up furs.

Not to go back to my triggering point from earlier but when Rodger literally says that they’ll "move to the countryside and have a Dalmatian Plantation where their population can roam…." I’m not going to say that I was right but…

The dogs celebrate that everyone made it home and it is a wholesome ending to a very intense story. It ranks high on the list of original Walt Disney movies and may even outrank some of my favorites like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. This is one of those movies that I challenge you to watch with a more discerning eye and make your own conclusions. One that makes you see Disney in a new and powerful light. I look forward to seeing you in whatever form I appear. Until next time.

About the Author

Crystal Cabrae is a storyteller who specializes in writing dystopian, romantic, and adventurous worlds for animation and fantastical fiction. She is a proud graduate of Full Sail University, AMDA, and New World School of the Arts. Her six years of acting training in both New York and Miami gives her a unique perspective when approaching her characters. She has a passion for sharing how to create stories with the world and inspiring the storyteller that lives within all of us. Follow her on IG or Pinterest to know the latest.