About four years ago, I began a crusade to gather as many of the classic Disney films as I could, as well as the decent modern ones. Back when I was a kid, Disney would only release their films on VHS for a limited time, one at a time, every seven years (I learned this when I was working at a video store). Then after that limited time had expired they'd all be pulled from the shelves. So you'd have to snap them up when you saw them. When DVDs started to take hold they seemed to be doing the same thing for a while there, so when I began collecting them on DVD, I'd pounce on any I saw. These days they seem to be staying on the shelves for much longer, so the urgency has diminished somewhat.
Anyhow, it turns out that there's quite a few Disney movies that I just assumed I had seen as a child, but upon watching them as an adult, it turned out that I'd never seen them before. I think I may have been confused by the fact that I also had picture books of their films, and tapes of song collections so I knew many of the songs, or maybe I just couldn't remember much of it. But I was quite moved watching these films for what felt like the first time at the age of 24, and there were several occasions where I rang my partner (let's call him The Bassist) in a bit of a state over it. He'd hear my crying on the phone and be very concerned for my wellbeing, until I explained that the reason I was emotional was due to the exploits of an animated dog and then... Well, then he was just baffled. But to me that's the beauty of a classic film, regardless of whether it's animated or whatever. If it's done well, it moves you.
I also really love the old Disney voice actors. There's a lot of animated films lately that seem to count on using a big name movie star as a voice in order to get attention. I suspect it may have started with the success of Robin Williams in Aladdin, but I could be wrong. I feel like voice acting is a separate art though, and while some of your big name actors seem to understand that (Jeremy Irons, Ellen Degeneres, Rowan Atkinson...), most of the time they don't. If you can't separate the character from the awareness of who is voicing it, then I don't think it is entirely successful. And I love that Pixar for the most part seems to be aware of this, however Disney lost sight of it for a while there.
Back to this film.
So many people are so aware of the Disney movie that the fact it is based on a book gets lost. Dodie Smith wrote The Hundred And One Dalmatians, and its even lesser acknowledged sequel The Starlight Barking, and as a dog-obsessed child I adored them both. I read them over and over. That is possibly why I assumed I had seen the Disney film, because if I was that in love with the books, I must have sought out the film as well. But it seems that I didn't get around to it until four years ago.
101 Dalmatians is a beautiful movie. It strays from the book, as so many films do, but I forgive it because they've created their own lovely story. The music is great, the animation elegant, the baddies classic, and it leaves you feeling content. I'm so sentimental for great animated films, which is bound to come up every time I watch one on this project. Watching 101 Dalmatians makes me want to watch every other classic Disney movie in my catalogue immediately, but I must abide by my rules.
Final Thought: How great were old credit sequences at the start of films?
Up Next: 500 Days Of Summer (2009)
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