48 Fun Facts About 101 Dalmatians

Who wrote the 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians?

Dodie Smith kept Dalmatians of her own, and a friend's remark that one would make a nice fur coat gave her the idea for the puppy-stealing plot.

What is distinctive about Cruella de Vil's hair in the Disney films?

Half black, half white hair is Cruella's trademark, straight from the 1956 novel; the 2021 prequel has her born with it and dyeing it to blend in until she becomes Cruella.

What are the names of the two adult Dalmatians in the Disney film?

Pongo and Perdita are the film's parents; in the novel Pongo's mate is Missis, and Perdita is a separate liver-spotted Dalmatian who helps nurse the litter, the film merging the two.

In One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), who rubs the seemingly stillborn fifteenth puppy back to life?

Roger rubs the lifeless fifteenth puppy in a towel until it stirs, so the litter is 15 after all, moments before Cruella arrives wanting to buy them.

What is Roger's profession in the animated film?

Roger is a songwriter; his novelty number 'Cruella De Vil' becomes a radio hit, and the money lets the family plan a 'Dalmatian plantation' in the country.

How does Cruella know Anita?

They were schoolmates: Cruella calls her 'Anita darling', sweeps in as soon as she hears puppies are on the way, and later tries to buy the whole litter.

What are the names of the two crooks Cruella hires to steal the puppies?

Jasper and Horace Badun are the bumbling crooks Cruella hires; in the novel the brothers are Jasper and Saul Baddun.

What is the name of the nationwide dog gossip network Pongo uses to find the puppies?

The Twilight Bark is the dogs' bark-relay gossip chain; Pongo's alert passes from dog to dog out of London until it reaches the countryside where the puppies are hidden.

What kind of animal is Sergeant Tibbs, who helps rescue the puppies?

Sergeant Tibbs is a tabby cat, the Colonel's second-in-command, who sneaks into Hell Hall and shepherds the puppies out while Cruella's two crooks watch television.

What breed is the Colonel?

The Colonel is an Old English Sheepdog of military bearing, the shaggy farm dog who picks up the barked alert and leads the puppies' rescue with Tibbs and the horse Captain.

How do the Dalmatians slip past Cruella on the way home?

They roll in soot to look like Labradors and board a moving van bound for London; melting snow washes the soot off one puppy, Cruella spots the spots, and she tries to ram the van off the road.

Which cheap animation process, championed by Ub Iwerks, gave One Hundred and One Dalmatians its scratchy outlined look?

Xerography photocopied the animators' pencil drawings straight onto cels, skipping hand-inking; Ub Iwerks adapted a Xerox camera for it, which made 101 spotted dogs affordable to animate.

Which Disney animator, who also drew Maleficent and Tinker Bell, was the sole animator of Cruella de Vil?

Marc Davis animated Cruella single-handedly, one of the few Disney characters left to one artist, and gave her the cheekbones of the actress who voiced her.

Who voiced Cruella de Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)?

Betty Lou Gerson voiced Cruella, giving her a theatrical mid-Atlantic accent; she had also narrated the opening of Cinderella a decade earlier.

Which actor voiced Pongo in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)?

Rod Taylor voiced Pongo, who also narrates the film and introduces his owner as his 'pet'; Taylor had just starred in The Time Machine.

Who was the single writer who developed the story for Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians?

Bill Peet wrote the whole story and storyboards alone; he condensed the novel, dropping Cruella's husband and her white cat, and merged the two nannies into one.

Which dog food is advertised in the TV jingle the puppies watch in One Hundred and One Dalmatians?

Kanine Krunchies gets a cheery jingle in a TV commercial; unusually for Disney, all three of the film's songs were written, words and music, by one man, Mel Leven.

The name Cruella de Vil is a pun on which two words?

Cruella de Vil is a pun on cruel and devil; the joke extends to her country house, which is called Hell Hall.

What TV quiz show are Cruella's crooks watching while Tibbs sneaks the puppies out?

What's My Crime? has a quizmaster and a panel, and Cruella's own voice actress doubles as one of its panelists, Miss Birdwell.

Which organization ranked Cruella de Vil 39th among screen villains in 2003?

The American Film Institute put Cruella 39th of its 50 villains in 2003, behind two other Disney entries: Snow White's Queen at 10th and the unseen hunter of Bambi at 20th.

What is the family's surname in the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, before Disney renamed them Radcliffe?

Dearly is the novel's surname, and its running joke is that the dogs regard Mr. and Mrs. Dearly as their pets, not their owners.

In the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, which runt puppy's traits did Disney's film give to Lucky?

Cadpig is the novel's runt, too weak for the long walk home, so she rides in a toy farm cart lent by a two-year-old boy; Disney gave her traits to Lucky instead.

What is the title of the 1967 sequel novel to The Hundred and One Dalmatians?

The Starlight Barking (1967) is the sequel: every creature except dogs falls into a deep sleep, and the Dalmatians are contacted by Sirius, the Dog Star.

Under what title was The Hundred and One Dalmatians first serialized in Woman's Day?

The Great Dog Robbery was the title when Woman's Day ran the story as a serial; in the book Cruella is married to a furrier, a husband Disney's film left out.

Who plays Cruella de Vil in the 1996 live-action 101 Dalmatians?

Glenn Close plays Cruella as the head of a London fashion house who sacks her own designer, Anita, for refusing to sell her the puppies.

What is Roger's job in the 1996 live-action 101 Dalmatians?

Roger, played by Jeff Daniels, is a video game designer in the 1996 film, reworking the villain of his spotted-dog game into a Cruella figure.

Which writer-producer behind 1990s family comedies wrote the 1996 live-action 101 Dalmatians?

John Hughes wrote and produced the 1996 remake, as he had Home Alone, updating the story so that Cruella runs a London fashion house.

Which actor plays one of Cruella's two crooks in the 1996 live-action 101 Dalmatians?

Hugh Laurie plays one of the bumbling pair opposite Mark Williams; after a string of mishaps the two give themselves up to the police.

Which French actor plays the furrier in 102 Dalmatians (2000)?

Gérard Depardieu plays Jean-Pierre Le Pelt, the furrier Cruella recruits once a clock's chimes undo the therapy that had cured her of loving fur.

What is unusual about Oddball, the puppy in 102 Dalmatians?

She has no spots, and Oddball frets about being different from her family; a few finally appear on her coat at the very end of the film.

Who plays the young Cruella in the 2021 prequel Cruella?

Emma Stone plays the young Cruella, a designer in 1970s punk-era London who goes to war with her boss, a fashion legend known as the Baroness.

What is Cruella's birth name in the 2021 film Cruella?

Estella Miller is the name she grows up with; after her adoptive mother's death the girl flees to London and teams up with two young street thieves.

Which Academy Award did Cruella (2021) win?

Best Costume Design went to Jenny Beavan, fittingly for a film whose plot is a fashion war in which Cruella upstages the Baroness one outfit at a time.

Cruella (2021) hit theaters and streaming simultaneously under which paid early-viewing label?

Premier Access was Disney+'s $29.99 add-on for watching Cruella at home on release day; even so, the film grossed about $233 million in cinemas during the pandemic.

Which three puppies star in the 1997 animated 101 Dalmatians: The Series?

Lucky, Rolly and Cadpig lead the 1997 series, usually joined by Spot, a chicken who wants to be a dog.

The 2019 series 101 Dalmatian Street is set in which London neighborhood?

The series is set at 101 Dalmatian Street in Camden Town, where a houseful of puppies with names beginning with D live with no humans at all, their parents out at work.

What is the name of the TV dog hero the puppies watch, whose villain is Dirty Dawson?

Thunderbolt is the heroic TV dog the puppies adore, forever chasing the outlaw Dirty Dawson; in 2015 Disney made a short showing what follows the river fight their episode breaks off on.

The Dalmatian breed is named after a coastal region of which country?

Croatia's Adriatic coast is Dalmatia, the breed's first definite home; Dalmatians later trotted beside horse-drawn coaches and fire wagons, which made them firehouse mascots.

What was the title of the direct-to-video 2003 animated sequel?

101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure went straight to video in 2003, with Susanne Blakeslee voicing Cruella after the original voice actress's death in 1999.

Which Disney animated feature came just before One Hundred and One Dalmatians and was still in production when work on it began?

Sleeping Beauty (1959) came just before it; after its record cost and weak box office Walt Disney talked of closing the animation department, so the next film had to be made far more cheaply.

Which co-director of One Hundred and One Dalmatians went on to direct The Jungle Book, The Aristocats and Robin Hood?

Wolfgang Reitherman, one of the film's three directors, was directing Disney features on his own two years later, and he took creative charge of the studio's animation after Walt Disney's death in 1966.

In which English county do the Colonel and Sergeant Tibbs find the stolen puppies?

The puppies are held at Hell Hall, the old De Vil estate in Suffolk; the Colonel's farm lies nearby, and the news reaches him through the dogs' bark relay from London.

What is the name of the Great Dane who relays Pongo's alert out of London?

Danny, the Great Dane at Hampstead, picks up Pongo's alert and passes it on out of London, the first link in the relay that reaches the countryside.

Which actress was hired as the live-action reference model for Cruella De Vil?

Mary Wickes, the lanky character actress, was filmed as the live-action reference model for Cruella; Disney animators routinely shot such footage to study movement.

Which actress plays the Baroness, Cruella's fashion rival, in the 2021 film Cruella?

Emma Thompson plays Baroness von Hellman, the fashion legend who hires the young designer and ends up the target of her revenge.

Lucille Bliss, who sings the dog-food jingle in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, later voiced which cartoon character?

Smurfette came three decades after Lucille Bliss's first break as a voice artist, playing Cinderella's wicked stepsister Anastasia.

Cruella de Vil's flamboyant voice in One Hundred and One Dalmatians was likened to which stage and screen star?

Tallulah Bankhead is the star Cruella's voice was compared to; the actress behind it said she never consciously copied her, but both were Southerners with a phony theater accent on top.

How do the animals in the 1996 live-action remake differ from those in the animated original?

They never speak: the remake's dogs get by on barks and looks, though the 2000 sequel bent the rule with a talking macaw voiced by Eric Idle.