101 Dalmatians - Live Action (Bonus Footage) (DVD)

...always loved the original animated 101 Dalmatians Disney film but, when the non animated film was brought out it really was a brilliant film in my eyes. I love Dalmatians and after owning one year' s back it is one of those films that as a Dalmatian owner you can truly appreciate how much work has gone into making this film so special!

The story:
The story of the film is the same as that of the animated one. Pongo and Perdy ...
...owner's, Roger and Anita decided to get married. Perdy eventually gives birth to 15 gorgeous puppies but, Cruella De Vil, who is Anita's boss and loves fur, is determined to get her hands on them and the rest of London's Dalmatian puppies to enable her to make her latest fur coats. She sends in her men, Jasper and Horace to steal the puppies. However they hadn't reckoned on the forces of the doggy world!

The cast:
I think this ... more

I have always loved the original animated 101 Dalmatians Disney film but, when the non animated film was brought out it really was a brilliant film in my eyes. I love Dalmatians and after owning one year' s back it is one of those films that as a Dalmatian owner you can truly appreciate how much work has gone into making this film so special!

The story:
The story of the film is the same as that of the animated one. Pongo and Perdy are two Dalmatians that live happily together after their human owner's, Roger and Anita decided to get married. Perdy eventually gives birth to 15 gorgeous puppies but, Cruella De Vil, who is Anita's boss and loves fur, is determined to get her hands on them and the rest of London's Dalmatian puppies to enable her to make her latest fur coats. She sends in her men, Jasper and Horace to steal the puppies. However they hadn't reckoned on the forces of the doggy world!

The cast:
I think this is a great film and even more so because of how much effort went into the production of it considering the amount of animals involved. The main human cast is below and include a variety of famous names -

Anita - Joely Richardson
Roger - Jeff Daniels
Cruella - Glenn Close
Nanny - Joan Plowright
Jasper - Hugh Laurie
Horace - Mark Williams

I think everybody knows at least one of the above actors from one film or another and each quite good in their own right. However I think they chose really well picking Glenn Close as Cruella as she plays the slightly kooky and evil woman perfectly - who can ever really forget her in 'Fatal Attraction'? Joely and Jeff do a really good job as the couple in love who are true animal lovers and I can't really think of anyone else who would have played the parts quite as well as they do - especially when I found out the initially Hugh Grant was offered the role of Roger which he declined. As much as I love him as an actor I think Jeff Daniels was a much better suited.
There were many dogs involved in the film and altogether there were apparently 217 dogs used to make this film - that's a lot of handling and training going on! I have to mention the two trainers for Perdy and Pongo personally as I think they did a wonderful job! Perdy was trained by Roger Schumacher and Pongo was trained by Mark Forbes. Overall I was very impressed by the cast especially in general on how well they worked with animals and vice versa.

Extras:
My DVD has a variety of extras which are listed below -

The magic is real - special effects featurette
Connect the dots - interactive game
Cruella de Vil - Music video by Dr John
Theatrical trailer
Dog Stars Featurette

The best by far in my opinion is the dog stars featurette which is really interesting to watch - the rest is mainly geared at young children.

Overall opinion:
I do really think that this is a fabulous film - it has been so well done and created from the choice of actors through to how well they trained all the dogs to how much work was involved - that is what makes me appreciate the film all the more. I think the cuteness of the film too is perfect - as is mentioned in the featurette it is something I believe many animals lovers will imagine or maybe even like to believe could be true that our pets could be this way and we will look at them in a different way after watching this. Do our pets really communicate in such a way and we just don't realise it?? It'd definitely a nice theory but on the whole a really enjoyable family movie that I'm sure everyone will love.

The DVD is widely available from high street to online stores with prices varying but I have seen this at its cheapest at around £5 so a bargain price if you ask me! It is rated 'U' so is suitable for everyone. 

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