While Disney's 101 Dalmatians is an undisputed classic, it's also a little bit strange. Plenty
of unexpected shenanigans go on in the movie that you likely never noticed as a kid. With
that in mind, here's a look at some of the things that only adults notice in 101 Dalmatians.
Before he and his human companion Roger Radcliffe settle down into blissfully happy and parallel
partnerships with Perdita and Anita, respectively, Pongo reflects on his "bachelor" lifestyle.
But Roger is more than just a single guy living a carefree life — he also might be considered
a slob who has an issue with hoarding. Just take a look at his apartment before he finds
love and gets his act together: dirty dishes are everywhere, as are stacks of newspapers
and a smoldering pile of used matches overflowing out of an ashtray. The whole place likely
also smells of Roger's roommate and best friend, who is a dog. It's not exactly the type of
living environment that's generally conducive to the lifestyle of a cool and single man
about town. Between the state of his apartment and his utter, inflexible adherence to his
own routine, it's actually a bit of a shock that Roger even manages to take care of Pongo's
basic needs.
"It was a problem, a real problem."
Not only does 101 Dalmatians fast-forward through almost the entirety of Roger and Anita's
early relationship and courtship — one second they're falling into a bog together; the next,
they're getting married in a quite, tiny ceremony — but the two of them seem to have no connections
in life other than each other. Take a close look at their wedding scene: They're getting
married in front of absolutely nobody. The witnesses are apparently their dogs. It's
nothing that the kids in the audience would notice, but this may seem both sad and strange
to adults who might be curious as to the whereabouts of the bride and groom's families and friends.
An older viewer may start wondering why nobody came to the wedding, and why Roger and Anita
don't seem to have any friends or professional contacts. Perhaps associates on both sides
of the blessed union don't approve of what seems to be a quick, rushed wedding.
Although we can safely assume Anita wasn't living in filth before they got engaged, she
is even more mysterious than Roger. What did she do before she met him? The only other
person in her life besides her new husband appears to be Cruella de Vil and she's not
exactly popular in their home.
"It's her. It's that devil woman."
Sure, she might be an openly unhinged, fur-obsessed demon lady who's more than willing to kill
dogs and looks like an evil skeleton to boot, but it's undeniable that Cruella dresses fabulously.
This is to say nothing of her exciting choices in hairstyle, makeup, and accessories. With
that black-and-white mullet, the green eyeshadow, and the huge jade ring, worn over long red
gloves that matches her earrings and cigarette holder, Ms. de Vil would be right at home
in the front row of a New York Fashion Week runway show, or in the editorial offices of
Vogue. Plus, she's evidently unmarried, fabulously wealthy, and tools around at will in the world's
coolest luxury car, all while commanding a pair of utterly devoted henchmen to execute
her every impulsive whim.
To a kid, Cruella is a one-dimensional caricature of evil, but as adults, we can't help noticing
that she seems to have a lot of personality, including a really cool if menacing name — either
her parents named her Cruella, or she adopted it. Plus, grown-ups will readily realize that
"de Vil" is a thinly-veiled adaptation of "devil."
As kids, we simply accepted that a wealthy, eccentric woman would kidnap her old schoolmate's
15 puppies, on top of the dozens more she'd already purchased, for the specific purpose
of killing them and turning them into coats.
"Coats? Dog skin coats?"
But in the cold, grownup light of day, the central premise of 101 Dalmatians is chock
full of plot holes from the moment it kicks into gear.
For one, it's very heroic when Roger and Anita insist on keeping Perdy's pups, but it's frankly
bizarre that they never discuss why Cruella wanted to buy them all to begin with. And
it's beyond unbelievable that nobody finds it weird when Cruella just appears in the
doorway 60 seconds after the puppies are born, wearing the exact same clothes she had on
the last time she visited.
And as anyone who's ever touched a short-haired dog knows, their fur isn't particularly luxurious.
So why is Cruella in such a rush to own a wardrobe made out of Dalmatians? And even
if Roger and Anita never suspected her of dog-napping, wouldn't they figure it out when
they see her wearing a coat made out of spotted puppy skins? Of course, she doesn't seem overly
concerned about what they think of her.
"You fools! You...you idiots!"
Even if we take at face value that the dogs in this film speak to each other with regional
accents, engage in twilight gossip sessions in doggie morse code, and are members of an
elite, secret, interspecies military force, the fact remains that 101 Dalmatians is highly
unrepresentative of the actual experience of owning a dog in a number of ways.
For one thing, the Londoners of the film barely walk their pups at all; every dog Pongo sees
at the start of the film is just sitting politely in the park. For another, if they actually
had that many dogs in the house, Roger and Anita and their housekeeper and everything
they own would be covered in dog hair.
And it goes without saying that the biggest thing about dogs is that they need to heed
the call of nature. So while it's nice that 101 Dalmatians made a perfunctory nod to basic
doggie biology by showing a few sheets of newspaper on the floor in the area where the
pups are watching television, that wouldn't be enough to soak up the output of one puppy,
let alone fifteen. And that room in Cruella de Vil's house where she was keeping more
than eight dozen non-housetrained dogs? In reality, it would have made the space completely
unlivable… unless you're into that sort of thing.
"I always wanted to get good and dirty."
The London depicted in 101 Dalmatians is a peculiar place. It's a city where a struggling
musician and his spouse can afford a parcel of park-side real estate in a well-to-do neighborhood,
as well as a full-time housekeeper. It's also a place where hardcore criminals are occasionally
sprung from prison for seemingly the sole purpose of participating in a TV quiz show
called What's My Crime? The premise of this show is similar to What's My Line? or I've
Got a Secret, in that a panel of so-called experts ask a slew of leading questions to
try to guess the prison-worthy felony committed by the subject.
The most interesting and frustrating thing about this little bit of color from the Disney-verse
is that we never find out what kind of bad act contestant Percival "Meathead" Fauncewater
committed. And that's a shame, because based on the process of elimination and the tease
from the show's host, it had to be something really weird. Although probably nothing as
strange as what Cruella has cooked up.
"She's going to make coats out of us."
If Roger looks shell-shocked while waiting outside for the birth of the puppies, it might
be because he doesn't seem to have any concept of how the doggie reproduction process actually
works.
When Pongo and Perdy arrive home at the end of the film with ninety-nine puppies in tow,
Anita asks...
"Well, where did they all come from?" "Pongo, you old rascal!"
It's clear that Roger is implying that he thinks Pongo is the father of all these puppies.
But even if Pongo did somehow find a dozen female Dalmatian baby mamas with whom to mate
while he was away, the movie's timeline simply doesn't allow for it.
Assuming the puppies were kidnapped six weeks after their birth in October and considering
that Pongo and Perdy arrive back home on Christmas Eve, the two of them were away from home for
two weeks at most. Basically, Roger needs a refresher on simple biology.
"Oh, Roger. You are a fool."
Well before the canine character population of 101 Dalmatians balloons to out-of-control
numbers, the home of Roger and Anita is already pushed to its dog occupancy limits. Pongo
and Perdita are the parents to a litter of astounding size: 15 puppies are born early
in the movie. However, viewers paying close attention may notice that only six seem to
have names: Patch, Penny, Pepper, Freckles, Dolly, and Lucky. This implies that Pongo
and Perdita, or Roger and Anita, couldn't be bothered to come up with names for more
than 60 percent of their offspring. Perhaps Perdita was, understandably, too exhausted
from giving birth to or having to constantly nurse all those puppies to name them all.
That, or they're so tired and frazzled from chasing around 15 rambunctious puppies that
they just can't remember the names of those otherwise nameless nine.
Adults have obviously been watching movies a lot longer than children, and so they're
more media-savvy, and they've been conditioned to consume movies in a different way. Older
viewers are much more likely to notice and understand references to other movies buried
by filmmakers, even if they only appear on screen for a few seconds. In the case of 101
Dalmatians, animators included some brief and amusing cameos of characters from Disney's
other, earlier movie centered on the secret life of pets: 1955's Lady and the Tramp.
During the "Twilight Bark" sequence, in which Pongo puts out an "all dog alert" for help,
one of the first to take action is a Scottish terrier — that's Jock from Lady and the
Tramp. Among a group of dogs in a pet shop window are Peg and Bull. This duo also played
memorable roles in the timeless film when they were locked up with Lady in the pound.
Plus, after a poodle barks from the roof of a moving car, two dogs in the street take
notice: they're none other than Lady and Tramp.
Unless younger viewers are big-time Lady and the Tramp fans, these special canines will
look like a collection of random dogs and they'll miss out on these classic references.
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