- Released: 25 January 1961
- Directed by: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luke, Wolfgang Reitherman
- Running time: 1 h 19 min
- Rating 3.5/5
Synopsis
When their puppies get kidnapped in order to be turned into fur coats, Pongo and Perdy set out to rescue them, alongside eighty-four other pups.
My Thoughts
This was one of the Disney movies I wanted to see a lot in my childhood, but never ended up watching much due to never acquiring the VHS/DVD for it. So I did see it occasionally, but this always was at my babysitter's house (she had the VHS) or at my friend's place. Therefore, I'm not as nostalgic for this Disney 2D-animated dog movie as I am for some of the others that I did own (Lady and the Tramp, for example). That said, I did still like it the few times I did see it. So now it's time to take another look and see if it still holds up.
Visually, this movie doesn't appeal that much to me. Yes, the animation is obviously good and I really hope the animators didn't go insane with the amount of spots they had to animate, but the whole sketch-like animation style never appealed that much to me. This isn't the only Disney movie of the time that has this, but it is one of the earlier ones, I think. I prefer the cleaner outlines. It can work in some cases (Wolfwalkers utilizes it very well, for example), but it just didn't do much for me here. I also didn't particularly care for the backgrounds, that are often lazily colored. I get that this was some kind of style they were going for, but, again, it didn't work for me.
That said, the character designs are great. My only complaint regarding them would be that maybe a bit more variation in body types for the puppies would've been nice. They literally have the exact same built, just with different spots, except for Rolly. I feel like maybe if they'd had like a few different body types (doesn't even have to be much, three would be enough for me) with different spots they'd set themselves apart a little more. Honestly, the only puppies I could really distinguish in this movie were Patch (due to his eye patch), Lucky (black ears and horseshoe pattern) and Rolly (who is chubby). All of the others just completely blur together other than some of them having a collar and others not having one.
The characters are basic but get the job done. I do really like Cruella de Vil as a villain, she's just so obsessed with her damn coats it's practically insane. She isn't one of my top five Disney villains, but she's definitely somewhere up there with the greats. The Cruella movie coming out soon will probably butcher her with making her a girlboss character or something.
Roger, Anita, Perdy and Pongo are all pretty basic characters, but they get the job done. The puppies don't have much personality, but honestly there's too many of them to be able to develop them. Heck, even our main litter of fifteen only has like five named puppies or so, and Patch is the only one I can make out that has an actual personality. Maybe that's why he got a sequel all to himself. My favorite character was Tibs, the cat, who just stuck by the puppies through thick and thin even at risk of his own life. I don't get why they referred to him as a tabby, though, when he lacks any stripes.
The movie is rather short, and I honestly think it could've been a bit longer with more obstacles along the way. It doesn't need to be huge, but Pongo's and Perdy's journey over to where the puppies are is just kind of glanced over. The puppies' way back has enough conflict, but I feel that the parents' journey could've been more eventful.
I also don't really buy the fact that a bunch of few-weeks-old thin-coated Dalmatian puppies can travel through a snowstorm and not one of them gets sick of exposure, but I guess it's a children's movie so of course that won't happen.
Overall, this is a pretty good classic Disney dog movie. I think I may prefer Lady and the Tramp, but I'd honestly have to re-watch it to be certain.
No comments:
Post a Comment