101 Dalmatians (1996)

November 27th, 2015 · 2 Comments · Movies

Girl holding a movie camera - stock image to accompany movie reviewReview By JENNIFER KALI

I was home sick with two kids (ages 2 and 6) by myself and took care of them the only way I could manage – an all day movie marathon. I was interested in showing them the super cute animated “101 Dalmatians” that I remember enjoying as a child, positively reviewed on this blog previously. But the live action version was available for free on Netflix, so that is what we watched.

The movie is sweet enough, with a cute love story paralleled between the dogs and the owners. The puppies are super swoon-worthy. There were some hard parts for my daughter to get through. Fur is a tough subject matter and once she realized what Cruella De Vil’s intentions were with the puppies, she was reduced to a sobbing mess. She had me reassure her throughout that no one would die, and in the end declared it a great movie. It was an emotional journey but she enjoyed it.

My son, only two years old, didn’t follow the movie but he liked the dogs and enjoyed the slapstick comedy of the dog thieves, yelling “CRASH!” every time they crashed into something.

Overall, this is a nice movie. Not movie of the year great, but an enjoyable time. There are some great stars that make the movie shine – Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels, and Hugh Laurie as a surprisingly comedic dog thief. I would recommend it for your next rainy day.

Rated G. Common Sense Media recommends this for ages five and older. My six-year-old enjoyed it but was very emotional throughout.

Tags: ·······

2 Comments so far ↓

  • Jenn K

    I watched this again with my kids now 3 years later. My kids are now 5 and 9. They both liked the movie, though my 5 year old was scared through parts. What struck me this time is how Cruella De Vil is presented as an evil career woman, where as Anita, the dog mom in the film is the opposite. Anita has a very promising career as a fashion designer working for De Vil. She gives up that career when she gets married. De Vil is evil in many ways, but says some very relavant things about women giving up their potential and drive because they are getting married. But since De Vil is so evil, her point of view comes off as evil. I was surprised to see such an old fashioned anti-career woman slant on a movie from 1996. I still recommend this movie, but while watching it with my 9 year old daughter I felt the need to say a few words about the craziness of that plot line.

  • Kristin Wald

    It feels like that’s so true for a lot of our childhood favorites. 🙂

Leave a Comment