102 Dalmatians

102 DALMATIANS

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: mild crude humor

Rated:

Glenn close revises her role as the devious dog-napping, Dalmatian-loathing Cruella de Vil in this all-new action flick that treads at times on the unbelievable but is altogether hilarious. It has been three years since Cruella's imprisonment for her killing of a white tiger for its pelt, and the kidnapping of Rodger and Anita's puppies. Dr. Palvov is a world-rebound scientist who has spent a number of years testing various shock treatments until he believes he's come across a series of treatments clinically proven to reverse cruel nature; his latest lab rat has been none other than Cruella herself. The once fur-obsessed fashion queen can now not stand even the sight of a fluffy coat and is quietly complacent and the ultimate in dog-lovers, even going so far as to treat her long-suffering valet Alonso with decency.

Impressed, the judge releases her on parole but with a word of caution... if she violates this new disposition her entire fortune of £8 million will go literally to the dogs. Grateful at this second chance, Cruella returns to London society, putting her time and funds into a second-rate and nearly-impounded dog shelter in the upper end. But her parole officer Chloe (Alice Evans) as well as her Chloe's dalmatian, Dipstick smell a rat. And not even the shelter's well-meaning and trusting owner Kevin (Ioan Gruffudd) cannot change their minds. However as time passes and Cruella shows nothing but adoration for the dogs, Chloe begins to give her a little slack, little knowing that something has run amuck and the professor's experiment goes completely array. The toning of Big Ben at a close range reverses the brain waves to their original course and it's only a matter of time before Cruella snaps... and starts seeing spots.

When she does revert back to her original nature, she is once more obsessed with owning a spotted puppy coat. In a daring plan to incriminate the innocent, she engages the aid of her sinister and adoring furrier La Pelt (Gérard Depardieu) and together they devise a scheme to top all others. When puppies start going missing all over London, Chloe instantly places the blame where it belongs... Cruella de Vil! But to her horror, the crime is proven to be Kevin's doing as a setup against Cruella in hopes of gaining her immense fortune. Time is running out. When Oddball and her siblings are dog-napped and shipped to Paris, there's only one thing the dogs can do... fight back before it's too late.

With a hundred laughs a minute, plenty of intense action, and a a cast of adorable puppies and a cocky Macaw, 102 Dalmatians is guaranteed family fun; never again will Cruella be looked at in the same way. Close's acting is magnificent -- she can be quiet and demure one moment and terrifying the next. Her versatility only seems to add more layers to her character. The plot's not a rewashed copy of the original -- it bears little resemblance and in many ways is even better than the first, with more of a devious storyline going into play including several sequences in which Chloe and Kevin find themselves outsmarted by Miss deVil and her cohorts. Special attention was paid to Cruella's costumes, coming up with magnificent results, from beaded gowns to more casual but attractive looks -- and of course fur! Cruella's family manor is positively ghoulish, an ideal setting for generations of de Vils with elaborate staircases and secret rooms. (One hilarious scene involves Cruella's furs being stowed away and boarded up and her returning later to tear away, bare-handed, the barrier to return to her "darlings.")

There's a moderate amount of violence -- poor Alonso gets the worst of the deal, constantly bashed about by Cruella and further impaired by doggy wit. La Pelt, in attempting to dognap the puppies, gets bitten in the posterior regions by Dipstick, as well as falling face-first into a toilet. Cruella is temporarily dispatched by the dogs but not in any way harmed. Someone's fingers are run over by a cart (painful! painful!) and later he's tossed through a window. At a fur fashion show a model wears a fur bikini (much more modest than most two-piece suits) and La Pelt a tight pair of shorts with a lion's head placed in front. Cruella on several occasions shows varying amounts of cleavage.

On the other hand, Chloe and Kevin's relationship is a sweet one without any fooling around, there's no bad language, and the lines between good and evil are very clearly defined. It's a charming film often hilarious and an excellent sequel... if at times a bit corny.