101 Dalmatians (1996)

Featured adaptation of "101 Dalmatians" resembles of a cult "Home Alone", but instead of a forgotten boy, we have a large number of varied animals, who are trying to save the puppies from two clumsy robbers in the service of Cruella De Vil. Cast is made mostly of English actors, who perfectly imitate cartoon characters. One of the bandits is Hugh Laurie, a genius Dr. House, and Glenn Close, six times Oscar nominee, perfectly presented the role of Cruella. There is also Joan Plowright, a widow of Laurence Olivier, who definitely deserves to be more famous for her roles than for her late husband. Special recognition must be given to dog handlers who were in charge of the 250 dalmatians used for filming. Movie objectively probably deserves a lower grade, but animals, which, unlike those in the original, can not speak, impressed me so much with their performance, and even brought me to tears on several occasions, that I can not rate it less than a strong seven. Also pay attention to Dr. John's "Cruella De Vil" track, which is much better than the original from the animated version.7,5/10

101 Dalmatians (1996): Dir: Stephen Herek / Cast: Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels, Joely Richardson, Joan Plowright, Hugh Laurie: Pathetic live action version of the animated Disney classic is a complete failure with lavish production. It regards quantity as these dogs band together to survive. Jeff Daniels and Joely Richardson own two Dalmatians that give birth to fifteen pups and the evil Cruella DeVil wishes to make fur coats out of them. The dogs are a disappointment since they do not talk as they did in the animation. One would think that after the success of Babe that this wouldn't be a problem. This film contains none of the suspense or detail of the animated classic, which makes the plot here seem very basic. It was as if the makers thought that making a live version was enough but without those important details of the animation it just comes off as bland with only an effective villain to carry it. Director Stephen Herek doesn't heed details from the animation. This ranks with The Mighty Ducks as among Herek's worst efforts. Glenn Close steals the film with her icy performance as DeVil making her the film's best asset. Daniels and Richardson sleepwalk through bland roles with Joan Plowright as their maid. Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams play the idiotic henchmen nabbing the dogs. It is yet another bad adaptation that turns into a big budget dog show. Score: 2 ½ / 10

I remember going and seeing this with my Kindergarden class when this came out and I must say I really enjoyed it. Glenn Close gave a wonderful performance as Cruella De Vil and I don't think that Disney could of casted a better actress. Joely Richardson and Jeff Daniels both gave good performances as Anita and Roger and I also thought that Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams gave good performances as Jasper and Horace. The plot was really good and seemed to live up to the original 1961 cartoon. I liked that they made Roger a video game designer and that he designed Cruella as the villain for his new video game at the end. There were lots of funny scenes from both the dogs and some other animals that appeared in the film. In all a good film that the whole family can enjoy and John Hughes did a good job writing the screenplay just like he did for some other of his films such as Home Alone. All in all 101 Dalmatians is a great family movie that anyone can love. 10 out of 10.

So I settled down on a Sunday evening to what should have been a pleasant Disney film. Boy, was I disappointed.This live action version takes the basic elements of the original, but strips out all the charm. There's no cat. There's no scene where the puppies disguise themselves as labradors.Cruella is a mean business woman, who's annoyed that one of her employees (Anita Dearly) wants to get married and have children. Because obviously, you can't mix a career and having a family. The undertones of 'career bad, motherhood good' are just unnecessary in a modern children's film. Cruella is more pantomime than actually scary.The lack of original charm isn't replaced with anything else. It's just boring and predictable.This film has an amazingly talented cast, which is completely wasted here. The jokes are just not funny. Most of the film is taken up with lame, unoriginal slapstick. Part of the first sequence has Roger Dearly accidentally trying to steal Perdy because he has mistaken her for Pongo. That's right. He loves his dog so much, he can't even recognise him. The screenwriter obviously has either never had pets or just assumes children are stupid.The dogs are cute, but have no personality. The puppies have very little screen time at all. If you liked the sequels to Home Alone, you might like this movie. If you liked the original cartoon or any recent children's films that actually have a good storyline, you'll be disappointed. I'm afraid most of the reviewers here are giving this movie a pass because 'it's a child's film and you can't expect that much'. Well I do expect better from Disney and I wouldn't subject my children to this film. Try the book instead.