DVD Review: 102 Dalmatians

Movie Info:
Writer: Kristen Buckley, Bob Tzudiker, Brian Regan, Noni White
Director: Kevin Lima
Cast: Glenn Close, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Evans, Gerard Depardieu, Tim McInnerny, Ian Richardson, Eric Idle, Ben Crompton, Carol Macready, Jim Carter, Ron Cook, David Horovitch, Timothy West
Rating: G
Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment

Release Info:
Original Air Dates: November 22, 2000
DVD Release Date: September 16, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $21.99

One of my favorite Disney movies when I was growing up was 101 Dalmatians. I wasn’t sure how much I would like the live action film when it came out, but it wasn’t the worst movie I had seen. Then the second one came out. I was shocked that Disney allowed it to be made and was in disbelief about how bad it was. I don’t know if Glenn Close was going through a bad patch, because she’s definitely showing her talent off these days in her new show, Damages, but this movie definitely didn’t do much to highlight her talent any.

Generally it’s easy to find one bad thing and work from there to explain why something didn’t work. You can’t really do that with 102 Dalmatians because none of it worked. The writing was poor. The acting wasn’t particularly good. The direction was lacking in more ways than I can count. In short, this movie never had a chance.

I hate to say it, but maybe everyone took some drugs together and had a mass delusion that this movie would be good. Glenn Close normally isn’t bad, but not even her best work (this wasn’t it) could have saved this. Likewise, Kevin Lima has directed such films as A Goofy Movie and last year’s smash hit Enchanted. How do you direct good things and then assume something like this is any good? Maybe it was just a bad patch for him too. Apparently there were a lot of those going around.

The 102 Dalmatians Plot
Chloe Simon (Alice Evans) is a nice probation officer that predictably enough is also a Dalmatian owner. Surprisingly, she doesn’t believe that Cruella (Glenn Close) has changed her spots (so to speak) so she objects to the fur coat lover’s choice of community service. You see, Cruella wants to save the 2nd Chance dog shelter and stop them from getting evicted. Kevin Shepherd (Ioan Gruffudd) can use all the help he can get so he welcomes Cruella’s presence and her community service is granted with court-imposed terms.

As you can guess, love will be in the air between Kevin and Chloe. Chloe’s dog, Dipstick also finds love with some of Kevin’s assorted dogs of various breeds. With the amount of dogs there are, not too many stand out from the crowd. Eric Idle does voice an amusing parrot though that swears he’s a Rottweiler.

Like in all other Dalmatian films, there is a kidnapping plot by the bad haired psycho herself, along with her merry band of dimwits. Essentially, this movie is like the other movies, but well…worse. It doesn’t take long for Cruella’s hair to go mad, which signifies her Darth Vader-esque transformation. Soon after that she is joined by her entourage, Alonzo (Tim McInnerny) and fashion expert, Jean-Pierre Le Pelt (Gerard Depardieu).

There isn’t much else to say without giving the plot you already know exists, away. This just doesn’t work and there was no point to it. Sadly, it was made anyway. Now we should just all close our eyes to it and try as best as we can to forget it.

Storyline/Plot:
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:

Audio/Visual:
Neither transfer, be it audio or video wowed me much, but they are acceptable with easy to see picture quality and standard audio. The video is transferred at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. This transfer features fair colors and is generally free from grain or dirt. It’s not too bright or exciting, but it gets the job done for a standard DVD like this. With the movie being what it is, I might have liked it better if it were harder to see.

There are four audio tracks on this disc. You can choose from English in either Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 with Closed Captioning, French Dolby Digital 5.1 or Spanish 5.1 sound. Also included are English and Spanish subtitles. The French viewers will have to hope that they can hear because they don’t get Closed Captioning or subtitles. The sound is not majorly dynamic but things are easy to hear and it works for what it is.

Visual:
Audio:

Bonus Features:
It seems odd that there would be as many bonus features here as there are. The reason I say that is because the original live action 101 Dalmatians had barely any and was a substantially better movie. Things get rolling with a full audio commentary from the director and some animal trainers and coordinators. The commentary isn’t all that exciting so I suppose it fits well with the movie. However, it also means it’s not worth listening to. You can add all the bonuses in the world, but if they are dull it’s rather pointless.

There is a block of featurettes including “Creating Cruella,” “Animal Actors,” “Designing Dalmatians,” and “Visual Effects 102.” The Cruella feature looks at what it takes to turn the villain of the story into a live action villain when she started as an animation. “Animal Actors” is pretty obvious, focusing on the canines in the movie. “Designing Dalmatians” looks at the set design and costumes. Meanwhile, “Visual Effects” has Eric Idle discussing and showing some of the CG movie tricks that happened in the movie.

One rather pathetic deleted scene is included though I will admit it made me chuckle. The reason I wanted to laugh when seeing it is because the thought crossed my mind that the entire movie should have been a deleted scene. Promos for other Disney titles are included for both new movies and ones that have recently been released. Among the previews are The Little Mermaid II, Phineas and Ferb, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.