Miserable, Darling, As Usual, Perfectly Wretched

Sleeping Beauty was a failure at the box office, so Disney had to scale back on the scope of their animated films and 1961’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians was the result. Experimenting with the new Xerox process allowed the animators to skip the step of hand inking when transferring their drawings from paper to cell. With the artist drawing being directly translated on the cell the animation became sketchy, with visible pencil marks all over the movie. While the look is very messy, there is something to be said about the fluidity and life these movies have over the rigidity and structure of the Disney Animated movies of the 1950’s. So I usually see this movie as a successful experiment the studio tried that would dictate the look of the next two decades of movies.

This is the story of Songwriter Roger, his wife Anita, and their Dalmatians Pongo and Perdita. Anita’s old college friend, Cruella DeVil, is a fabulous fashionista obsessed with fur and wants the new litter of puppies to make a new fur coat. It’s a really simple, straight forward story that I would describe as cute and entertaining enough.

The biggest highlight of the movie is, again, its villain. Cruella is an absolute hoot to watch. She’s animated with such gusto by Marc Davis. Her body looks so pale and weak yet she has the movement and attitude of someone three times her size. And she’s not one of those calm, collected villains whose emotions turn on a dime, she is just always mean and in a bad mood. I think she’s actually the first Disney Villain to wield the weapon of passive aggression as she is never slow on a backhanded compliment. Being set in a modern time of the mod 60’s, it’s pretty fun to see a car chase in a Disney Movie. Another fun touch is that you can almost see Cruella delve deeper into insanity as she’s chasing the puppies in her car. Her eyes become wilder, her hair is more disheveled. It’s a super fun sequence. 

As I grew older and started to get a fondness for graphic design of the Mid Century, I notice that these backgrounds are wonderfully 1960’s. When you look at the 50’s and 60’s you’ll notice the colors are simple and they usually bleed over the lines due to the printing process of the time. The artist who painted the backgrounds of the movie achieved this same effect. It’s pretty fascinating considering this the backgrounds were most likely hand painted. 

It’s not that I dislike the movie. Not by any measure. In fact, I used to watch this movie over and over again when I was a child. It’s a fun movie with lots of cute doggy characters and a fun villain. There’s not much to say other than it’s a whole lot of fun. The simplistic nature of the movie helped Disney recoup its losses from Sleeping Beauty, thus keeping the Animation Department from dissolving. Seems like a big trend with the Studio, Fantasia bombed and little Dumbo saved the day. So the 60’s ushers in a new era for Walt Disney Animation Studios. Goodbye to the polished looking fairytales and hello to hipper, more free flowing stories.

One Thing That Money Can Not Buy… To Wit – The Wag of a Dog’s Tail

1955’s Lady and the Tramp, or Everything I Learned About Romance I Learned From 2 Dogs. Beauty and the Beast is often sighted at the first Date Movie released from Walt Disney Animation Studios but I tend to feel that this is more appropriate. Sure there were princess falling in love at first sight and even twitterpated deer, but never has a relationship been developed from meet-cute to making babies before Lady and the Tramp. And of course there is the iconic spaghetti scene that is synonymous with a perfect date. 

This is your typical uptown girl and wrong side of the tracks (literally) guy fall for each other but told through the eyes of a dog. What I really love about the way this story is told is that they don’t like each other at first. Lady learns that her family will soon welcome a baby and as the Tramp simply strolls into the conversion she is having with her neighbors Jock and Trusty, uninvited. Noting that life will never be the same once the baby arrives, Lady takes immediate dislike to him and he just leaves. Throughout a series of events they meet up again and eventually fall in love. 

Tramp has a wonderful arc from a carefree bachelor to a family man. He’s got this great speech where he looks onto the world as a big place to be explored as a opposed to being tied down the leash of one family. And Lady could have actually used a little more devolvement.  She learns to like the Tramp, but she didn’t really learn much else. This is very much more Tramps story than hers.

Trusty and Jock are a great set of supporting characters. I have a Scottish Terrier, and they got the personality of the little Scottish Die Hard down pact. He’s a loyal friend but as protective as Hell to Lady. There is an odd innuendo where they infer that Lady might have gotten pregnant by Tramp and Jock steps up to the plate to offer his paw in marriage. Despite watching this movie many times as a kid I didn’t realize what this interaction was until I was much older. And I still find it kind of strange. And then there’s old Trusty the Blood Hound. He has a great running gag about him regaling stories about his uncle, Old Reliable, but never remembering if he has mentioned him before. Trusty has lost his sense of smell in his old age. At the climax of the movie, the Tramp is redeemed in the eyes of Jock and Trusty after killing a rat that entered the house and threatened the baby but is apprehended by the dog catcher shortly after and it’s Trusty who is able to track down the truck, nearly sacrificing himself, and save the Tramp. 

I also really appreciate the lack of a defined protagonist in the film. Aunt Sarah is more of a busy body and her cats, Si and Am, are just mischief makers. Neither of them are really trying to get anything out of their dislike for Lady or the Tramp. And a rat is introduced as more a plot convenience than a villain. 

Animation wise, the artist are still at the height of their game. As I mentioned, I am a dog lover, and I’ve seen my own dogs make so many of the same expressions that the characters on screen make, only my pets never had the defined eyebrows. I strike that, my Scotty has very pronounced, old man eyebrows. This was also the first Disney Animated feature presented in Cinemascope so the backgrounds are gorgeous and rich with detail. One of my favorite being the neighbor where Lady lives, with Lady and her family living in a quaint Victorian home, Jock living a brick Tudor style home, and Trusty living in an southern plantation style manor. It reflects their background and it’s something that didn’t really have to be there. Not to mention many of the Disney Artist were probably rushing to complete Disneyland, which would open not even a month after the release of the film, so to put out this caliber of art on film at the time was quite an accomplishment.

I know that there are plenty of romantic comedy clichés, but it’s really hard for me not to love this movie. Next time you want to cuddle up with your loved one, be it human or canine, I would highly recommend putting this gem of a movie on and make it a perfect bella notte. Spaghetti and Chianti bottle candle holder not included.