Release Date: January 25, 1961
This film is about Pongo that is make Dalmatian, Perdita that is a female Dalmatian
and their puppies. Pongo is living in London with Roger who is his master and a songwriter. Pongo arranges meeting Anita who is beautiful and has female Dalmatian which is Perdita. Pongo's arrangement succeeds and Roger and Anita get married after not long later they meet for the first time. A few months later, Perdita gives birth to 15 puppies. Cruella De Vil who is a wicked boss of Anita wants the puppies to make her own coat of Dalmatian pelts. However, Roger and Anita reject her offer so Cruella kidnaps and buys Dalmatians including the 15 puppies of Pongo and Perdita. When Pongo and Perdita realize that their puppies are kidnapped, they run away from the house to find the missing puppies. They communicate with all dogs in the city with barking and plan to save the puppies from Cruella's house.
I still remember when I watched this film for the first time. I do not remember how exactly old I was but it was when I was in kindergarten or first grade. I LOVED this film so much. At my parents house, we had a dog at that time and he was a Japanese dog. Until that time, I have seen only Japanese dogs. Therefore, I did not know Dalmatian dog. In this movie, the puppies are really cute. I also loved the name of the puppies. After I watched this film, it instantly became my alternate favorite film forever. My dream dog is Dalmatian too. However, I do not know nor remember how I felt or thought during I was watching this film. Only one thing that I remember is that I hated Cruells De Vil so much. I did not think about any issue by watching this film. I did not think about stereotypes, well I did not know anything about stereotypes at that time thought... Although this film is one of Disney's old and classic film, I believe that this film still would be a hit for young children in this century. Children would love how Pongo, Perdita, and other animals save the missing puppies all together. I believe that the scene when they beat Cruella is the best scene in this film.
I believe that people think Cruella De Vil is the most controversial character in this film. From my research, I saw a lot of articles and blogs talking about Cruella. In most of the Disney films, the "bad guy" is mostly male. However, Cruella is female character and is a classical example of middle-aged villain. This category refers to what has been called, Disney's femme fataes (defined as powefu; women defined by their sexuality). From many of Disney movies, I realized that Disney depicts beauty as being good. Leach states that "physically attractive characters were more likely to achieve positive life out comes at the film's end and were more likely to be romantically involved." I totally agree with this statement. For most of the heroines from Disney films are "beautiful", "cute", "innocent" teenage girls. On the other hand, "bad" female characters are more likely "ugly", "overweight", and have "vicious" looking.
The nanny also describes the stereotype and the gender role. In Disney film, older women are defined as fairies, godmothers, and servants. In this film, the nanny serve food and drink for Roger and Anita, and clean and take care of the house. She takes care a lot of Roger and Anita when their dogs and puppies are gone by serving some tea to comfort them.
In conclusion, I did not realize these stereotypes until I read the articles and blogs. I really enjoyed this analysis since I could see different perspectives, not only just enjoy the film. I am interested in watchid other Disney and children's film to evaluate the stereotypes, gender roles, and other controversial issues.
References:
Leach, B. (2010. Disney characters portray 'beauty is good' stereotype. The Telegraph, Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/8098733/Disney-characters-portray-beauty-is-good-stereotype.html
(n.d.). (2012). Disney's depiction of stereotypes in 101 Dalmatians. Wordpress.com, Retrieved from: http://daliadiscoversdigitalmedia.wordpress.com/disneys-depiction-of-stereotypes-in-101-dalmatians/
I have to say that I agree with your analysis of this movie. Cruella is absolutely not depicted as your beautiful Disney princess, and thus she ends up being the villain in this film. As with most of the other female villains, many young girls aspire to be their princess-y counterpart whether in costume or real life,
ReplyDeleteI love 101 Dalmations too and like your story of seeing it for the first time. I grew up around animals and dogs and can only imagine how cool it must have been to see this movie having exposure to only 1 kind of dog your whole life. The opening scene where all the different types of dogs are kind of parading along the street in front of Pongo comes to mind! Your analysis of the characters is excellent as well. One thing I like about Anita is that she's a bit older and not QUITE as stereotypical as many other Disney Heroins.
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