DVD Review: 101 Dalmatians (1996); 102 Dalmatians (2000) - Page 3

In 102, it's the Glenn Close show all the way and like Nora Desmond, she finally receives her close-up throughout as she's the only redeeming quality in the nearly unwatchable film. Having been rehabilitated after three years in prison by an unorthodox conditioning method courtesy of Dr. Pavlov, Cruella has transferred her hatred for the “little beasts” into puppy love. That is until the sound of the Pavlovian bell (aka Big Ben) goes off and-- like a switch being flipped-- she's up to her old tricks, longing once again for her spotted Dalmatian fur coat, this time with a stylish hood.  

Setting her sights on the Dalmatians owned by her parole officer Chloe (Alice Evans), De Vil turns to one faithful henchman and one new one.  Tom McInnerny reprises his role as her dutiful sycophantic and long-suffering sidekick, Alonzo (Tom McInnerny) but Gerard Depardieu joins the party as the bizarre furrier Jean-Pierre Le Pelt, who reminded me of a strange cross between a predecessor to Derek Zoolander, blended with 80’s era musicians Billy Idol and A Flock of Seagulls. Much like De Vil herself, Le Pelt seems to be yet another surprisingly fetishistic character.  And due to the increasingly strange behavior of the villains, the film's heroes never fail to hold our interest, looking as bland as the white fur on the film's poor, sad Dalmatian Oddball, who doesn't fit in with the rest because he has no spots.  

While 101 Dalmatians made suitable if uneven fare for the whole family-- despite its frightening band of hopeful dog killers-- 102 seems aimed directly at the much younger set. Obviously unfamiliar with the phrase “less is more” and learning nothing from the overly long Home Alone styled finale of the original film, 102 piles on the juvenile shenanigans.  Soon De Vil is in yet another vat until she’s baked as a cake (in Paris no less) while the puppies exact a gross food fight for revenge and all to the delight of the preschool through kindergarten set and the chagrin of anyone older than seven (yet I'd hesitate to put this on for toddlers). Still, Close looks like she's having a ball but by now the shtick is tired and in dire need of some shaking up.  

Although the handsome Ioan Gruffudd rivals the puppies for the most adorable sight onscreen, despite a few feeble attempts for cuteness as his character and Evans' reenact Lady and the Tramp, it ignores the humans all together in favor of 102's preferred heroes Oddball and Waddlesworth (voiced by Eric Idle), a macaw who thinks he's a Rottweiler. With such a reliance on suspending our disbelief and a talking bird no less, the overly animated, campy and farcical 102 seems like it would've been better off as an animated film altogether. Of course, that would mean we would miss Glenn Close but at least we'd have 101 to fall back on. (View the Trailers for 101 and 102) 

Article Author: Jen Johans

Jen is a life-long film buff frequently dubbed a "Walking Movie Encyclopedia.” While earning a degree in Film Studies, she joined AFI and IFP. A three-time national award-winning writer, Jen also runs her site Film Intuition as well as its Review …

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