Word: disneyized
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...charming new live-action remake of "101 Dalmatians" is more than a keen marketing ploy, although Disney is sure to accumulate plenty of doggie dollars. Director Stephen Herek has smartly chosen to remain faithful to the cartoon, maintaining the story's buoyant wit and inherent cuddliness. One hundred and one adorable Dalmatians are difficult to resist, and the film works well even without the luxury of canine dialogue. But the best reason to see "101 Dalmatians" is the wickedly entertaining performance of Glenn Close, who is perfectly cast at the dastardly Cruella...
...film's sunny beginning is soon shattered by Cruella De Vil, who hatches a plot to steal the puppies in order to satisfy her obsessive desire for a Dalmatian fur coat. De Vil is Disney's wildest villain: slinky, sophisticated, overbearing, and utterly deranged. Given the chance to indulge herself by playing such a comically evil figure, Glenn Close delivers a masterful and unrestrained performance. Close gets to verbally abuse every character in the movie, shouting her insults with contempt and devilish glee. She also perfects the look of materialistic dementia that defines Cruella's character. Because the puppies...
Space Jam's biggest competitor on the paraphernalia front will be Disney's new 101 Dalmatians, which hits theaters this week. The movie has a more traditional, if no less disheartening, provenance: it is a blowsy John Hughes-produced remake of the gently witty 1961 Disney cartoon--a live-action remake that would have no reason to exist except that Disney knows the sight of 99 Dalmatian puppies will be irresistible to children and licensees alike. That would seem to be borne out by the fact that more than 130 companies are involved in various Dalmatians products and promotions...
...testament to how big movie licensing has become." Other contenders this December include--perhaps inevitably--two films about toys: 20th Century Fox's Jingle All the Way, which tells the Christmas Eve story of a father who can't find a TV-based action figure for his son, and Disney's Toy Story, which is being given an especially big push to coincide with its video release because Disney--this may surprise anyone who's visited a Disney store in the past year--felt it had underestimated the marketing possibilities when the film was released in theaters last fall...
Primary colors and primal emotions, innocently resourceful heroes and comically scary villains--these have always been animation's basics, and Dalmatians (directed by Stephen Herek) remains blessed with the wickedest of all Disney witches, Cruella De Vil. She's as determined as she was in 1961 to have a coat made of puppy-dog skins, still employs variously addled henchmen to work her will and is still thwarted by the combined wit of what appears to be most of the Britain's fauna. For us dog saps, it is especially nice to see cuddlesomely real pooches instead of drawn ones...