101 Dalmations

The kids wanted to watch 101 Dalmations last night while at my folks, so I let them. Was that a bad move?

Glenn Close is absolutley evil. Well, actually, I guess she's more like De Vil. Cruella De Vil. Fashion queen Cruella has the lovely Anita (Joely Richardson) in her employ. Anita owns a Dalmation (Perdita), which is where she draws her inspiration. Cruella, of course, loves her designs. The fact that she also loves wearing animals (and has a rare Siberian Tiger killed and skinned so she can wear it) is a little disturbing at first, but don't worry - it gets worse.

Roger (Jeff Daniels) is a happy go lucker video game designer, who also owns a Dalmation (Pongo). His is trained to get him up in the morning, as well as start the shower, fetch the paper, and turn on his computer.

Anita and Roger both ride their bikes and take their dogs with them to the park. One day, Pongo gets a look (or is it a whiff?) of Perdita and starts dragging Roger through the park, the a shopping mall, through traffic, and into a pond, trying to get his way to Perdita and her master. Once he meets Anita and Perdita and gets Pongo back, they part ways - until Perdita pulls the same stunt and Roger and Anita end up warming up by the fire in Rogers home. They get married, of course.

Anyway, Pongo and Perdita end up having puppies, and Cruella wants them. Badly. When she is refused the chance to buy the puppies, she goes crazy with rage, and hires two bumbling idiots to dognap them. Then you have the ensuing chase scenes to get them back.

What really stood out in this movie was Glenn Close as the insance Cruella. She cackles easily, dresses the part, and has just a hint of that insane gleam in her eye through the whole movie. If she had never appeared in any other movie, I'd probably come away from this movie wondering about her sanity - actress or not, she obviously put a lot of work into this role.

A little scary for younger kids, there is mostly just comedic violence, but the undertones for the scarier stuff are there, and some pretty bad stuff is just implied - meaning that it might be worth watching WITH your older kids, to make sure they understand it all in the right context.