101 Dalmatians Blu-ray Review

30th Aug 2012

101 Dalmatians Disney Blu-ray™ is out now!
© 2012 Disney

The blu ray release of any Disney film is always a highly anticipated event, not least One Hundred and One Dalmatians, an oddly underrated film in the canon compared with such other anthropomorphic adventures as The Lion King and Aristocats (feline mastery affecting Hollywood, maybe?). Anyway, this spotted spectacular ushered in a new age of Xerox animation and is a masterpiece of quirky, charming ‘British’ style animation if ever there were. Its jaunty angles, typically mellowed ‘60s colours and crooked lines all add to its absolute success, and are one of the reasons it makes the top of my list of best ever Disney films.

So to see it in HD was a huge excitement for me. All the aforementioned angles, colours and lines were sharper, clearer and of course more defined, which was certainly a bonus in terms of realizing the artists’ ideas but I can’t shake the feeling that it removed some of the film’s rough-around-the-edges charm. Still, that’s just me being difficult. It’s a lovingly rendered transfer and, as is the case with many blu ray or re-mastered Disneys, for some reason the water comes out on top and shimmers like a sunset.

It’s difficult to pinpoint any other particular highlights of the transfer; the quality as a whole is vastly improved for your viewing pleasure, although someone needs a stern ticking off for neglecting to fix the strange static snow which you see towards the end of the film as Cruella de Vil’s car slides into a ravine (you know the bit..!). The main disappointment is the extras, or lack of extras. Sadly, these are limited to a strange pop up fact feature, which includes frankly bizarre snippets as “people often misspell Dalmatian to have an ‘o’ instead of an ‘a’” and my personal favourite, “Cockney is a way of speaking in parts of England with characteristics such as dropping an ‘h’.”

There are some interesting bits and pieces from time to time; during the birth scene we learn that Dodie Smith herself actually had a ‘lucky’ situation, where a puppy of her own was stillborn and her husband rubbed it back to life. We also learn that “a total of 1,218,750 pencils were used in creating the artwork” and “Perdita has 68 spots and lovely white spotted ears,” I suppose these are gems for the real enthusiasts.

For blu ray aficionados this is a worthy contribution to the ever-growing high def section in HMV, but for people like me who love the film for its characters, gripping (yes, seriously!) storyline and unique animation style, I’d say stick to the older Diamond Edition, which you can’t beat for its documentaries. These, more than any high definition ever could, are what mark One Hundred and One Dalmatians apart as a true trailblazer of animation.