102 Dalmatians (2000)

 

The makers of 102 Dalmatians tread some familiar territory in this sequel to the 1996 live-action version of the 1961 animated Disney classic. A young man with a Dalmatian, the now-grown Dipstick, and a young woman with a female Dalmatian named Dottie meet cute and decide to marry and start a family—of Dalmatian puppies. The humans are expecting too, of course, but the focus is on the dogs here, and even nanny Joan Plowright knows better that she is more of a dog wrangler. Enter the depraved force-of-nature that is Cruella de Vil, who has been in jail since the events of the 1996 film undergoing behavioral modification therapy under the guidance of Dr. Pavlov. (Yes, someone was having a little bit of fun.) Cruella no longer hates dogs and no longer wants to turn them into a coat…until the chimes of Big Ben bring her back to her previous mentality (cue implied Pavlovian joke here…). She enlists the aid of a French fashion designer, Le Pelt (Gerard Depardieu in a fully ridiculous performance that is upstaged by the nonsensical clothing he wears), to help her, and they and their henchmen (Hugh Laurie!) start rounding up enough Dalmatian puppies to make Cruella’s horrific vision a reality. There are outrageous action sequences where the animals trick the humans, just like in the two previous films, and Close is even more over-the-top in this version of Cruella. She’s in full diva/drag queen mode and, to be honest, is the most compelling part of the film. It’s tough to keep your eyes off her, and when almost anyone else is on the screen, you miss the high level of tension and energy she brings to the role. The costumes she gets to wear are worthy of attention as well and the only source of Oscar attention. Almost all of them are black and white with some red accents thrown in here and there. One of the biggest weaknesses of the film is its reliance on odd circumstances. For example, Dottie’s owner, Chloe (the rather colorless Alice Evans), is Cruella’s parole officer, putting the crazy fur obsessive in the direct path of three puppies to get her murderous intentions underway. And Chloe’s husband, Kevin Shepherd (Ioan Gruffudd), owns the only dog shelter in Westminster, and if Cruella violates the terms of her parole, her entire fortune gets divided up among the Westminster dog shelters. (The costume designer should also receive kudos for keeping Gruffudd in shorts for most of the film.) Once you get past those strange coincidences, though, 102 Dalmatians is rather entertaining, perhaps even more so than 101 Dalmatians from four years earlier since it doesn’t have to hew as closely to the more familiar plot of the 1961 classic.

Oscar Nomination: Best Costume Design