It’s not every
day you get to see a movie filled with the warmth and joy of naivety—where
things so unlikely to happen, happen, with good people finding each other,
falling madly in love, and getting married. When such movies come along, with a
screenplay tuned to almost perfection the way the late John Hughes is known to
do, you can’t help but marvel at his work. Written and produced by John Hughes,
this 1996 screenplay is based on Disney’s 1961 animation, 101 Dalmatians, which
was based on Dodie Smith’s 1956 novel, The Hundred and One Dalmatians. They
decided to remove the talking dogs and the singing, and in its place, filled
the movie with action. You have to respect the work done by the dog trainers,
although the puppetry was not the best.
The movie is
fantastic, and no matter how old I get, seeing this movie at any point in my
life is always a welcome experience.
The plot places
Roger (Jeff Daniels) as a video game maker (in the animation, he wrote music),
and Anita (Joely Richardson) works for Cruella (Glenn Close) in her fashion
studio. Like in the animation, Pongo (Roger’s dalmatian dog) spots Anita and
her dalmatian in the park, chases after them, and many things lead to both of
them getting married.
Now, the two
dogs are expecting puppies and give birth to fifteen of them. Cruella shows up
at their house and offers to buy them all for a substantial amount of money.
Roger and Anita refuse, and Cruella leaves angry.
Still wanting
the puppies to make fur out of them, Cruella hires Jasper (Hugh Laurie) and his
partner Horace to steal as many Dalmatian puppies as they can find, including
Roger and Anita’s. How the animals all came together to save the pups and what
Roger and Anita did to get them back is all in this movie that I want you to
see again.
The movie was a
huge box office success, which led to a sequel (which was nowhere near as good
as this one). Close’s magnificent performance earned her a Golden Globe
nomination.
The movie is
getting a prequel, set to be released sometime in 2021. I guess Disney doesn’t
want to do a remake of a movie that’s so well done. A remake would be a
daunting task to surpass what this movie represents, especially when it comes
to classic Disney live-action adaptations of their classic animations.
If you haven’t
seen this movie at all, well, there’s still time now that you’re alive to
remedy that error.
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