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101 Dalmatians Movie Review

101 Dalmatians is a 1996 family film directed by Stephen Herek and starring Glenn Close. It’s such a weak remake.

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“We lose more women to marriage

than war, famine, and disease“

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The original 1961 flick is one of Disney’s ultimate classics so of course remaking it was going to be a tough task, but I still expected better things from it. What I got is pretty mediocre with only a couple of saving graces which bring the whole film up a notch toward an okay, passable grade for me.

I am talking about the first act. It was excellent. I found both Jeff Daniels and Joely Richardson absolutely wonderful as Roger and Anita. They fitted the role so well and the casting is strong across the board in this instance. That entire beginning was excellent as it was changed a bit, but it retained that charm of the original in the two meeting for the first time in a couple of very romantic and sweet sequences.

And another positive is of course Glenn Close who’s absolutely fabulous in the role of Cruella de Vil. This was perfect casting and she fits the role stupendously well. Yes, her costumes and hair styling are simply fantastic, but it is her over-the-top, simply terrific, very amusing performance that brings life to this otherwise lifeless movie. All of her scenes are great, except the ending as how she finished her journey was simply infinitely better and cooler in the original film.

But yes, 101 Dalmatians is otherwise lifeless if you discount those two great aspects. The dogs themselves simply weren’t all that great. Yes, I appreciate that they trained and used real Dalmatian dogs and that led to some needed authenticity here, but the dogs ended up not having much of a personality and that animal component was simply miles inferior to the original.

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This movie is one of those annoying 90s kid flicks which feature too much annoying action sequences, too much goofy, stupid slapstick humor and not enough substance. The entire second half is action-oriented, but never as memorable as it was before, and that charm and sophistication was simply lacking. It sucked the joy out of me pretty much and I expected so much more judging by the promising beginning.

The beginning of the 101 Dalmatians remake is promising as it’s charming and very strong, but afterwards the movie quickly crumbled and became annoyingly action-oriented, unsophisticated and simply bland and unadventurous. The dogs themselves are underutilized, but at least it’s worth watching for Glenn Close who is absolutely delightful in the role of Cruella.