Ruff dalmations (102 Dalmatians (DVD))

Member Name: gailsmith

Product:	102 Dalmatians (DVD)
Date:	10/12/00 (188 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: will keep the kids amused

Disadvantages: Adults will have to sit through it as well!!!

Puppies are cute, Especially dalmation puppies - soft, furry things with wet noses and black spots.
But to hang a whole feature length movie around the cuteness of puppies is stretching a point way too far.
102 Dalmations fails to really build on the success of 100 dalmations. It's a sequel that hopes to do the same business by trying half as hard.
It may have an extra dog, but a lot of other things feel scrimped on.
Including the number of laughs, stars and gags. The plot and direction seem to rely far too much on the kindness of a puppy loving audience.
Glenn Close is brilliant in her portrayal of Cruella De Vil, who this time has been freed from prison on account of her successful psychiatric rehabilitation.
She has been cured of her murderous fur fetish and now only wants to do goodly doggy works. now, she loves puppies.
So Cruella uses her wealth to save a bankrupt dogs home, run by cute Kevin (Ioan Gruffudd). It's full of misfit pooches and a talking parrot who thinks he's a dog (voiced by Monty Python's Eric Idle).
Then, of course, the cute wears off and Cruella turns back into her old puppy murdering self.
She is determined, with the help of a fat French furrier (played by Gerard Depardieu), to go forth and skin 102 spotty doggies to make the finest fur coat in the world. Which frankly isn't a bad idea.
I loved the 1996 live-action version of 101 dalmations but this felt much weaker. Mainly because the grand finale seemed like such a step-by-step rerun of the previous one. The highlight for the under-eights is the final sequence where Cruella gets her comeuppance.
In this one she is trapped in a bakery and gets baked into a huge, ugly, fairy cake. It is a moment of inspiration which certainly hit home with the kids.
There's another sequence where Cruella is rapidly losing her marbles as her prison cure is wearing off, and she sees the whole of London and everyone in it covered in huge d
almation spots. This was quite hilarious.
So, there are a few gems but it's mainly the very young who'll find this funny.
The romantic storyline has a naff sweetness to it that can easily set your teeth on edge.
Newcomer Alice Evans takes over from previous star Joely Richardson as the most soppy and annoying multi-dog-owning, do-gooding, butter-wouldn't-melt, God-I-just-want-to-slap-you to evil cruella.
I suppose if you get really fed up over the Chrismas holidays and the kids are already bored with their new games and videos, and you've got the usual repeats on T.V, then take the kids to see this, they'll probably love it, at least you'll get the well earned rest you've been craving for!!.

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