48 Fun Facts About 101 Dalmatians

Who wrote the 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians?

Dodie Smith wrote The Hundred and One Dalmatians in 1956; she also wrote the novel I Capture the Castle and the play Dear Octopus.

In what year did Disney's animated One Hundred and One Dalmatians open in theaters?

It was Wolfgang Reitherman's feature directing debut alongside Hamilton Luske and Clyde Geronimi.

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.

How many puppies are in the adult Dalmatians' own litter?

Perdita's litter is 15 puppies; one seems stillborn until Roger rubs it back to life.

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', turns up the moment she hears Perdita is expecting, 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, the shaggy farm dog who runs the rescue with Tibbs and the horse Captain, voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft of Tony the Tiger fame.

How do the Dalmatians disguise themselves to slip past Cruella?

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 the 1961 film its scratchy outlined look?

Xerography photocopied the animators' pencil drawings straight onto cels, skipping hand-inking; Iwerks adapted Xerox technology for Disney, and the process gave the film its sketchy outlined look.

Which Disney animator was the sole animator of Cruella de Vil?

Marc Davis animated Cruella single-handedly; he also created Maleficent and Tinker Bell, and he based Cruella's look on a gallery of grand Hollywood divas.

Who voiced Cruella de Vil in the 1961 film?

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 the animated film?

Rod Taylor, the Sydney-born star of The Time Machine and Hitchcock's The Birds, voiced Pongo.

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.

Who wrote both the words and music for the film's songs, including "Cruella De Vil"?

Mel Leven wrote both words and music for 'Cruella De Vil', 'Kanine Krunchies' and 'Dalmatian Plantation', the film's three songs.

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?

The crooks are glued to 'What's My Crime?', a parody of the panel show What's My Line?, while Tibbs hustles the puppies out of the room behind their backs.

Where did Cruella rank among the villains on the AFI's 100 Heroes & Villains list?

Cruella came in 39th on the villains side of the AFI's 2003 list of 100 heroes and villains, one of only a handful of animated characters on it.

What was the family's surname in the original novel, before Disney renamed them Radcliffe?

Mr. Dearly is a "financial wizard" given lifelong tax exemption for wiping out the government debt.

What was the name of the runt puppy in the novel whose traits were given to Lucky in the film?

Cadpig is the novel's runt, the tiny puppy who adores television; the film gave those traits to the puppy who nearly dies at birth, and in the book she rides in a toy cart on the long walk home.

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 novel first serialized in Woman's Day?

The Great Dog Robbery was the title under which the story ran as a serial in Woman's Day before it was published in book form; the book's Cruella is married to a furrier.

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

Glenn Close plays Cruella, a performance that earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy; she returned to the role in the 2000 sequel.

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

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 Home Alone screenwriter wrote the 1996 live-action remake?

John Hughes wrote and produced the 1996 remake, as he had Home Alone; Stephen Herek directed, and the film was a big hit despite tepid reviews.

Roughly how much did the 1996 remake gross worldwide?

The 1996 remake grossed about $321 million worldwide, placing it among the top ten films of that year despite lukewarm reviews.

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

Gérard Depardieu plays Jean-Pierre Le Pelt, the Parisian furrier who helps Cruella; Ioan Gruffudd and Alice Evans are the young couple, and Eric Idle voices the macaw Waddlesworth.

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

Dalmatian puppies are actually all born white and get their spots within about ten days.

Who plays the young Cruella in the 2021 prequel Cruella?

Emma Stone plays the young Cruella, opposite Emma Thompson as her rival the Baroness, in a 1970s punk-era London.

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

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?

Cruella won Best Costume Design for Jenny Beavan's punk-era wardrobe at the 2022 Academy Awards; its only other nomination was for Makeup and Hairstyling.

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 Doug and Delilah raise a houseful of puppies, all with names beginning with D; Delilah is a descendant of the original film's parent dogs.

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; the show's commercial break is the Kanine Krunchies jingle.

The Dalmatian breed traces its origins to which country?

The breed is named for Dalmatia, the Adriatic coastal region of Croatia; Dalmatians were bred as carriage dogs, running alongside horse-drawn coaches and later fire engines, hence the firehouse tradition.

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 film immediately preceded 101 Dalmatians and was still in production when it began?

Sleeping Beauty (1959) came immediately before it; that film's huge cost and disappointing returns pushed the studio to cut corners, which is why the dogs were drawn with a cheaper photocopy process.

Which co-director made his feature-length directorial debut on the 1961 film?

Reitherman went on to direct The Jungle Book, The Aristocats and Robin Hood for the studio.

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.

In which year's theatrical re-release did the film gross $60.8 million in the United States?

The 1991 reissue, the film's fourth, took $60.8 million in the US, thirty years after its debut and enough to rank it among that year's top twenty films.

The Kanine Krunchies jingle is sung by Lucille Bliss, who voiced which Cinderella character?

Lucille Bliss voiced Anastasia Tremaine, one of Cinderella's two stepsisters, a decade before singing the Kanine Krunchies jingle; she later voiced Smurfette.

Cruella's animator named Rosalind Russell, Tallulah Bankhead and which actress as inspirations?

Bette Davis was the third name, alongside Rosalind Russell and Tallulah Bankhead, that Cruella's animator cited; he also worked in the bony features of the character's voice actress.

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

The 1996 film also had a sequel, 102 Dalmatians, in 2000, and both kept the animals silent.