One Hundred and One Dalmatians
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (also simply known as 101 Dalmatians) is a 1961 American animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution. Based on Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, it is the 17th Disney animated feature film. The film was directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wolfgang Reitherman, written by Bill Peet and produced by Walt Disney. Featuring the voices of Rod Taylor, J. Pat O'Malley, Betty Lou Gerson, Martha Wentworth, Ben Wright, Cate Bauer, David Frankham, and Frederick Worlock, the film's plot follows a litter of fifteen Dalmatian puppies, who are kidnapped by the obsessive heiress Cruella de Vil, wanting to make their fur into coats. Their parents, Pongo and Perdita, set out to save their puppies from Cruella, in the process of rescuing eighty-four additional ones, bringing the total of Dalmatians to one hundred and one. One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released to theaters on January 25, 1961, to critical acclaim, and was a box office success, pulling the studio out of the financial slump caused by Sleeping Beauty, a costlier production released two years prior. Grossing $14 million domestically in its original theatrical run, it became the eighth-highest-grossing film of the year in the North American box office. Aside from its box-office revenue, the employment of inexpensive animation techniques—such as using xerography during the process of inking and painting traditional animation cels—kept production costs down. The success of the film made Disney expand it into a media franchise, with a live-action remake released in 1996, followed by a sequel, titled 102 Dalmatians, in 2000. A direct-to-video animated sequel to the 1961 film, titled 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure, was released in 2003. A live-action reboot, titled Cruella, was released in 2021. Two animated television series based on the franchise were also produced, with 101 Dalmatians: The Series in 1997 and 101 Dalmatian Street in 2019.
