With the live-action Cruella newly arrived on Disney+ via Premier Access, it’s worth looking back on 1996’s 101 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close as Cruella. Critics at the time were not fans of the film, but they were favourable of Glenn Close’s performance. Cruella is one of Disney’s iconic villains and she goes about it by trying to break one of the cardinal “No”s in films.
When I was in film school I had a teacher who told us one of the big “No”s in film is “don’t kill the dog.” You can kill as many people as you want but you can’t kill the dog unless it’s your emotional climax, like in Old Yeller. I don’t know why this is, but I’ve seen the theory in action during a screening of Independence Day. The dog in the film is put in danger, and there are multiple human casualties in the sequences, but when the dog survived, the audience cheered.
When 101 Dalmatians came out, I was the target demographic. I was at opening night at my local theatre and I was equal parts enraptured and terrified of Glenn Close’s performance. Watching now what I admire about it is the full commitment to the villainy. The hair, the makeup, the laugh, the wardrobe. She is the animated character come to life. She swans in and out of scenes, her presence much larger than her screen time.
As a child the story made complete sense to me but as an adult the humans falling in love and getting engaged one the same day the meet is just so hilarious to me. Cruella’s scheme, insane and evil as it is, comes off as more realistic.
Now to anyone that hasn’t seen 101 Dalmatians, there isn’t a mythic dog that gives birth to 99 puppies. Perdy, whose owner Anita (played by Joely Richardson) gave Cruella the idea for her dalmatian puppy-inspired frock, only gives birth to 15 puppies. A very large number of puppies in a litter, but not out of the realm of the possible. The rest of the puppies come from other sources. When Cruella tries to buy the 15 puppies from Anita and her husband Roger (played by Jeff Daniels) she initially offers only £500, and £7500 is her overvalue offer meant to make them cave. As a dog owner of today, this makes me laugh. This would maybe get you half the litter today. A quick perusal at prices for dalmatians in the 90s determines that people were selling dalmatians for less than half of today’s price back then so it would turn them a little profit but not nearly as much as Cruella implies had they intended to sell their litter. But story-wise this is moot as she steals them anyways, the movie set up that she would do this in the opening scene when they talk about an animal skinned at the zoo. Cruella will steal and skin to get what she wants in the name of fashion. To paraphrase from another classic villain, “she’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog too.”
The movie relies a lot on its animal actors to carry the middle part of the film, the rescue, becoming almost silent film for a period, aided by a beautiful score by Michael Kamen that drives the action and makes the dogs look like epic heroes.
Cruella may be the villain but for the first 2/3rds she doesn’t get her gloved hands dirty, she leaves that to her henchmen Horace and Jasper (played by Mark Williams and Hugh Laurie). If they remind you of the robbers in Home Alone, it’s probably both scripts were crafted by John Hughes. Just like in Home Alone, Horace and Jasper, find themselves being played the fool, though they must face off against the dalmatians and their animal rescuers. The whole rescue sequence is a reverse Home Alone as the bad guys are the ones trying to keep the protagonists in the house.
Act three Cruella takes a more active role in the pursuit of her current dream attire, giving evil zingers like, “I love the smell of near extinction,” and “You won the battle but I’m about to win the wardrobe.” That’s the other thing you need besides the look and the attitude to be an iconic villain, you need the lines. Cruella has the lines and Glenn Close has the delivery.
My main complaint with the movie (besides Roger and Anita’s insta-marriage) is that Mr. Skinner is an unnecessary character. The movie would’ve been better served relying on Cruella, Horace, and Jasper for the villainy.
Additional Thoughts:
As a kid, I think I always thought she fell into something kind of like poop. It’s molasses. Though now I’m confused as to what molasses was doing in that kind of barn.
Dipstick is the name of one of the puppies. It’s ostensibly because his tail looks like it was dipped in paint, but I do wonder if this was one of the jokes meant for the adults. Anyway, I got in trouble for saying dipstick on the playground after this movie came out.
Available on Disney+
Score: B
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