This is one of those films where its reputation definitely precedes it. I dare say that the film even increased the popularity of the dog breed itself. It’s a movie that holds up pretty well with fun characters and solid pacing. It has quite a bit of action as well and a good amount of stakes. As long as you find dogs to be charming then you should have a good time with this one.

The movie starts with a dog named Pongo trying to find a wife for his owner Roger. Roger is always busy with his music and so the guy hasn’t made any kind of a real effort in order to find someone. Pongo doesn’t want this guy to end up being lonely so he takes Roger to the park and gets him married to a lady named Anita. Roger marries Perdita as well and they have a lot of cubs, but unfortunately the villain Cruella shows up and demands the puppies. Roger is able to block her but she has two hooligans break in to steal them anyway. The cops are unable to find any leads and so Pongo figures that it is all up to him and Perdita. Will they be able to catch the criminals or is this really game over?

As always with these classic Disney films, they do a great job with the color and vibrant tone of the world. There is always something going on here. The characters are very expressive and so the animation looks far better than something you would expect from the 60s. Although at this point I say that for a lot of old films so perhaps I just need to start thinking of the 60s as a great time for pure animation. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side but you won’t see me complaining about the fact that they decided not to go the musical route with this one.

Pongo makes for a good lead because of his sheer confidence. It’s rare to see the main character being the one to play matchmaker. Pongo wasn’t embarrassed or overly shy; he was just out there getting results. That is exactly what you want to see from a character like this. He was also quick to fight when he had to defend the little pups from the enemies. All in all a very strong performance and he absolutely ends up being one of the more memorable leads.

Perdita also did well. She was right there with Pongo fighting off all of the enemies. While Pongo was the one with the plans, she was always there as good support. So she gets full credit all the way. The owners are a little less impressive, but hey that’s why they aren’t the main characters. Roger did well in standing up to Cruella even if he was super nervous the whole time. In his own house he really ought to be able to muster up a bit more courage than that. Perhaps I’m being a little greedy here.

Anita had less of a role but unfortunately it wasn’t a very strong one for her since she wasn’t taking Cruella’s threats very seriously. Cruella isn’t exactly a subtle character after all so you just have to follow your gut there. What Anita could have used was one really standout scene where she confronts Cruella and shows how aggressive she can be.

The romance may have been on the weak side but as it’s mostly off screen we can try to say that a lot of it was just not seen by the audience. I don’t have any big quarrels with it at any rate since it’s not a big focus on the film. Cruella appears far less than I would have expected though considering how popular she is as a villain. The design is certainly memorable and it can be nice to just have an overt antagonist like this. She has no dreams of helping the planet or some kind of random sob story. No, she just wants more fur coats and is willing to murder everyone in order to get it. That’s just her style.

Her two henchmen get a big role but they’re your general bruisers. They aren’t too smart and are just good at throwing things and picking fights. Technically that’s more or less all that you need for henchmen though so in a way I’d say they do their job well. They had accumulated quite a lot of Dalmatians as well although apparently the rest of the owners had just sold them so I guess that’s less impressive. Either way, it’s good that the main dogs could fight or this would have gotten real ugly real fast.

The puppies didn’t tend to be the smartest guys around but they’re young so I’ll cut them a bit of slack. It was also fun to see them all watching the cartoon early on in the movie. It was a rare chance for the characters to all catch their breath and we got to see some happy scenes as a family. Generally, in a film like this the plot is moving at all times so there isn’t much downtime. I appreciated having this scene before things got crazy. The movie also did a good job of showing how powerful community can be with every dog pitching in to help out and do their best.

Now while the soundtrack may have mostly been forgettable, I did enjoy the Cruella song near the beginning. It was a very catchy song and using all of the lyrics just to bash her was pretty fun. You get the feeling that Roger wouldn’t be brave enough to say it to her face but the thought is what counts here.

Overall, One Hundred and One Dalmatians is definitely a fun film. It’s the kind of title that has a lot of replay value and really goes by quickly. The characters are all handled well and the film’s animation is super clear. The movie never drags on nor does it have any real weak points. I could easily recommend this to anybody and it ends up being a really timeless film. It’ll be tough for the other Dalmatian films to try and top this one so we’ll see how that goes. In the meantime don’t let the 1960s date scare you, the film certainly doesn’t feel old and the writing is on point from start to finish.

Overall 7/10