101 Dalmations

This was so fabulous. I kept thinking wonderful things to mention while watching the movie and have thought about it for a week. Here goes.

What an interesting concept for a movie! The whole movie rests on the fact that dogs love their puppies like people love their children. That they would go to extraordinary lengths to get them back, no matter what the cost. The other very odd thing to accept is that these children can be killed and made into a coat and that the problem is not the coat itself, but killing the animal.

The movie begins with Pongo playing matchmaker. He sets up his "pet" as he calls him with an attractive woman so that he can get to know the woman's dog. It seems rather weird to me that dogs fall in love, mostly because I have been told my whole life that I attribute human characteristics to animals and I'm trying to move away from that.

We find out that Pongo and Perdita are going to be having puppies just as we learn of Anita's "dearly devoted old schoolmate" - Cruella DeVille. First of all, who names their daughter Cruella? That just sounds "positively prime evil," as Belle would say. In any case, her introduction is so bizzare, with the honking and the insults, that I can't even put it into words. Except for when Anita says "Cruella, isn't that a new fur coat?" and Cruella's response is "Yes darling. I live for furs, I worship furs. I mean, is there a woman on this retchid world who doesn't?" Anita's response should shock us all when she says "Oh, I'd like a nice fur coat, but there are so many other things." Cruella goes onto insult Anita and her house by saying "this horrid little house is your dream castle" and then laughs. She makes Anita promise to tell her when the puppies arrive and then leaves. Anita sighs as though she has been through a terrible ordeal and then we get the rest of the song "Cruella DeVille."

What surprises me in all of that is the following:

1-Cruella assumes herself to be Anita's best friend, meaning she can make rather rude and offensive remarks and not caring of the outcome. A true friend says these things, even though they may hurt, because you love the other. But it seems that Cruella is just that-cruel.
2-Throughout the entire movie when Anita is married, she is wearing an apron. When she is unwed, she does not. Why is this odd you ask? Because they have a housekeeper. Why should Anita have to do any house work if there is a housekeeper? And we never do find out what it is that Anita does.
3-Cruella herself is so very sixties. She has this extremely odd bone structure with her bones poking out of her face. She is almost gaunt looking and incredibly crazy. Why is this weird? The year the movie was made was 1961, but the year in the movie, as we come to find out from Horace and Jasper, is 1952. Just seems to be a continuity error.

The puppies arrive and there are 15 of them. Roger tells Pongo "Pongo, you old rascal," which seems rather strange indeed. It's almost as though he is congratulating his dog on all the sex he had. He says it again later, when all 101 return back to them. In any case, Roger stands up to Cruella and says "you're not getting any of the puppies." And she laughs at him, curses her pen ("blast this pen, blast this retchid retchid pen" [which for some reason cracks me up, probably because I do the same thing by not realizing it's working]) and says "is he serious Anita? I really don't know Roger," as she writes a check for, assumedly, some enormous amount. Anita's response was "he seems quite serious." Why can't she say "yes, we're serious?" In any case, this is when Roger really stands up to her. She gets pissed and tells them to drown the puppies, says "I warn you Anita I'm through with you. I'm through with all of you. You'll be sorry. You fools! You idiots!" gets in her car and drives away. Anita wraps her arms around Roger and says "oh Roger dear you were magnificent darling!" as the housekeeper says "'e was a bloomin' hero mum, a bloomin' hero." I don't really understand why Anita couldn't stand up to Cruella. It really, truly honestly makes no sense. I suppose there's the idea that she used to know a different side of Cruella, but that still makes no sense why her husband had to say 'Anita, you're friend is evil. I'm done with her and so are you.'

A couple of weeks pass, Jasper and Horace show up and steal the puppies. Cruella phones to see how Anita is doing and Roger accuses her of taking them. Anita thanks Cruella for her phone call and when she gets off says "what'll we do Rog? What'll we do?" as though the puppies were their own children. And I get that people think the world of their pets, assume them to be family, etc. But they way they make it sound is though it's something that can break up the marriage. And that seems just so strange to me.

We have the barking train which is how we find out she has 99 puppies to make into coats. The night that everything goes down, Cruella tells Jasper and Horace that she wants the job done tonight because "the police are everywhere" and if they don't do it she'll "call the police." Doesn't that sound a bit weird? She'd turn herself in if she didn't get what she wanted?

Pongo and Perdita show up and rescue the puppies at the right moment, of course. They go trapsing through the snow, bla bla bla. Everyone's seen the movie. My favorite scene in the whole movie is the extremely freaky scene where Cruella is driving and her hair is flying, her eyes are circling and she just looks so freaking crazy. I love it! It is so frightening and wonderful all at the same time. It is the perfect example of the character.

Why Horace pulls the wheel away from Jasper I'll never know (it's Horace who causes the cars to collide). Did he have a change of heart? We'll never know. But in any case, the dogs all get home and everyone is happy. Bla bla bla.

All together, an enjoyable movie. So far, Cruella is the second best villian (second of course to Maleficent) and what I think would have been a good character study. I saw the live action one, but never either second movie. And honestly, that's okay.

Today's is Sword in the Stone, which I'm not sure I've seen all the way through.