'101 Dalmatians' is doggone great
Did you know that in Disney's "101 Dalmatians":
• if you could count the dogs' spots throughout the movie, it would total 6,469,952;
• if you watch closely you can see characters from Disney's "Lady and the Tramp" in the "twilight bark" scene and;
• if you could ask the movie's artists you would find that 1,218,750 pencils were used in creating the artwork.
These are among the 202 pop-up trivia facts contained in the bonus features of the DVD release this week of the Disney classic, "101 Dalmatians."
It's been nearly a decade since the 1961 animated feature, one of the last personally supervised by Walt Disney, was available. The new two-disc set, digitally restored in vibrant color with enhanced sound, is doggone great.
Besides the well-known tale of Pongo, Perdita and their 99 puppies — and that cruel villainess with her lust for a spotted coat — the set contains a bonus CD filled with interesting and entertaining featurettes, interviews, activities and facts that will delight both adults and children.
Among them:
Flamboyant actress Tallulah Bankhead, who starred in films starting in the 1920s, was the "inspiration" for the evil Cruella De Vil. However, a young Mary Wickes, the talented character actress (Sister Mary Lazarus in "Sister Act" among scores of films) was the live-action model for the animators.
Also, the familiar Cruella De Vil song was not the original. Songwriter Mel Leven's first version was supposed to sound spooky. While driving to work he decided a bluesy feel would work better. The DVD contains both versions, as well as other deleted songs.
In obtaining the rights to the children's book, "The Hundred and One Dalmatians." Disney carried on a long-distance correspondence, via letter and cable, with British author Dodie Smith. The literary friendship spanned a number of years, even after the movie opened. Smith, by the way, was miffed that animator/storyteller Bill Peet received a larger credit in the film than she did.
Children will enjoy the games and activities such as adopting a virtual puppy, profiling a puppy to find which dog resembles them and using the puppies to learn words and numbers.
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