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101 Dalmatians Fun Facts

Mar 05, 2008

Disney has released the digitally restored Platinum Edition of the classic animated feature, 101 Dalmatians. Kidzworld has some top secret info on the newest flick from your Disney collection.

Main Characters

  • Pongo - Pongo is the father of the Dalmatian puppies and Perdita's mate.
  • Perdita - Perdita is Pongo's mate and mother to a litter of 15 puppies.
  • Roger Radcliffe - Roger is Pongo's owner and a songwriter who gets rich by writing a song about Cruella De Vil.
  • Anita Radcliffe - Anita is Perdita's owner and Roger's wife and is an artist.
  • Cruella De Vil- Cruella is an eccentric rich woman who kidnaps Dalmatian puppies to make a fur coat.
  • Jasper and Horace Badun - Cruella's bungling henchmen are brothers and kidnap the Dalmatian puppies.
  • Nanny Cook - Nanny Cook is Roger and Anita's motherly maid and is very attached to the puppies.

Evil Cruella De VilEvil Cruella De VilCourtesy of Disney

Puppies

Pongo and Perdita's 15 puppies are named Lucky, Thunder, Rolly, Patch, Pepper, Penny, Cadpig, Freckles, Purdy, Wizzer, Jewel, Dipstick, Two-Tone, Fidget, and Spotty. They are mostly named after their individual personalities or the way their spots look.

Pongo and his puppies in 101 Dalmatians Pongo and his puppiesCourtesy of Disney

Fun Facts

  • 101 Dalmatians is based on a popular children's book. The book has a slightly different title: The Hundred and One Dalmatians. It was written by an English author named Dodie Smith.
  • Animator Marc Davis drew Cruella De Vil in every scene of the film, which is extremely unusual in the collaborative process of animation.
  • If you added up all the spots on every drawing or cel of all 99 puppies plus Pongo and Perdita, you'd have a total of 6,469,952 spots. There was a team of artists whose job was just to draw spots on the dogs.
  • The first public showing of 101 Dalmatians was on January 25, 1961. At the time of its release, it was the top-grossing animated feature of all time.
  • A total of 1,218,750 pencils were used in creating the artwork for 101 Dalmatians.
  • 800 gallons of paint were used in producing the animation cels and backgrounds - enough to cover 15 football fields!
  • Look for some familiar characters from Lady and the Tramp who appear during the "Twilight Bark" scenes including Jock, the Scottish Terrier. At the pet shop, you can spot Peg, the Pekingese show dog and Bull, the Bull Terrier, along with Lady herself!
  • Artist Dick Lucas built a live-action model of Cruella De Vil's car, which was shot, and appears in the final film, combined with animation and painted backgrounds.
  • More than 300 artists worked on the film. It is estimated that one artist, working reasonable hours, would need 186 years to draw all the images of this feature.
  • Lisa Davis, the voice actress of Anita, spent an hour a day for several weeks playing with Dalmatian puppies at the Disney Studio so she could really get into her part. Fun job, huh?

Pongo and Perdita in 101 Dalmatians Pongo and PerditaCourtesy of Disney

Quotes

"Oh Pongo, it's her! It's that devil woman." - Perdita

"The humans have tried everything, now it's up to us dogs, and the Twilight Bark!" - Danny

"We want to see What's my Crime?" - Jasper

"There they go in that van. After them!" - Cruella

Nanny, Anita, Roger, Pongo and a new dalmation puppyNanny, Anita, Roger, Pongo and a new dalmation puppyCourtesy of Disney
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