101 Dalmatians - Page: 2
The movie begins in Roger’s house where he lives with his Dalmatian, Pongo, who displays his talents of turning on the shower, opening the front door, and fetching the milk. Roger develops video games that are inspired by his Dalmatian.
Next, we meet Anita, a clothes designer whose creations are inspired by her Dalmatian. She works for Cruella DeVil, a woman who worships fur. When Cruella sees one of the Dalmatian designs she yearns for an outfit made from Dalmatian puppy coats.
While Roger is inside a corporate headquarters marketing his latest video game, Pongo waits outside tied to a bench, guarding Roger’s bicycle. Anita, with Purdy running alongside, rides her bike past Pongo, who is interested in getting to know this cute Dalmatian. After Roger returns to his bike, Pongo takes his master on a wild ride past several London attractions including Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus before ending up in Hyde Park, trying to catch up to Purdy. The leash snaps and Roger’s bike crashes into a bench and he is flung into a pond. While Roger is taking his unexpected swim, Pongo catches up to Anita and Purdy who are enjoying a game of catch in another part of the park. Eventually a dripping wet Roger arrives on the scene and grabs the wrong Dalmatian, but Anita straightens him out with a clobber over the head with her purse full of bricks. Roger and Anita take their dogs and go their separate ways. But Purdy has other ideas and decides she’d like to spend some more time with Pongo, and takes her mistress on a wild ride through the park. This time Anita ends up in the pond, only to be rescued by Roger. They return to his house to warm up and notice the dogs have fallen in love. Likewise with the humans who end up in a church getting married.
Anita and Pongo both learn they are pregnant with a human baby and Dalmatian puppies respectively. Purdy has 15 puppies and Cruella offers to buy them. After Roger and Anita tell her that the puppies are not for sale, she fires Anita, and hires two men to steal the puppies. One night while Anita and Roger take Purdy and Pongo out for a walk in the snow, the two bad guys, Jasper and Horace, break into the house, lock Nanny in a closet, and take the puppies.
The puppies are whisked away to a farm where they are added to 84 other stolen Dalmatian puppies - total 99 spotted pups.
Unfortunately for the crooks, several dogs witnessed the abduction of the puppies and a network of barking dogs send a message to Pongo and Purdy on the whereabouts of their children. Pongo opens the door and he and Purdy escape from the house and follow the dog grapevine to find their puppies.
As Roger, Anita, and Nanny sip tea and commiserate on the missing dogs, Anita dashes up to check her portfolio and pulls out the Dalmatian coat drawing that Cruella had revised. She figures out that Cruella plans to make a coat out of the puppies and they contact the police with their suspicions.
As Pongo and Purdy are closing in on the farm, a helpful Airedale Terrier (I hope that’s the name of this breed!) breaks into the farmhouse and begins the rescue mission of the puppies. A sheepdog and raccoons have also joined the rescue effort. The raccoons stuff coal up the tailpipe of Jasper and Horace’s truck, then sit in the vehicle honking the horn and flapping the windshield wipers to distract the bad guys while the Terrier leads the Dalmatian pups to safety. One pup, Lucky, sleeps through the escape and is left behind when Jasper and Horace come back into the farmhouse to search for the puppies. The sheepdog takes the 98 puppies on to the next leg of the escape while the Terrier returns for Lucky.
Mr. Skinner, a taxidermist, who can’t talk due to a dog attack that left a huge scar on his neck, has been dispatched to the farm by Cruella to kill the puppies. Cruella arrives at the farm and learns the puppies are gone. She jumps back into her car to look for them, unaware a skunk has gotten into her car, and is hiding in her hat. (Poetic license. There are no skunks in Great Britain.) While Jasper and Horace attempt to start the truck, Skinner arrives at the farm and finds only Lucky there. Before he can grab the whimpering pup, the Terrier runs up and bites him on the butt, effecting the escape of the last puppy.
Cut back to the Jasper and Horace’s truck, which has now caught on fire, and a police search of Cruella’s house that turns up furs of endangered animals.
Pongo and Purdy arrive at the barn and are reunited with their puppies (minus Lucky) plus the other 84 stolen pups. They are just barely ahead of Cruella who is tracking the puppy pawprints in the snow. The puppies hide in the hay while she slops through the manure into the barn to look for them. She grabs a forklift and jabs it into the hay until she thinks she sees a pup and grabs it by its tail only to discover it’s a large pig who ends up sitting on her while all the dogs escape the barn. In a final insult, the barn animals dump Cruella into a vat of molasses.
The police catch up to Jasper and Horace and throw them into a paddy wagon. Skinner is already inside the wagon and not happy to see them. Next stop for the cops is the barn where they capture Cruella and put her into the paddy wagon with the men. The skunk decides to make an appearance and crawls out of the hat to spray all the baddies. The police locate the Dalmatians, count 98 pups and 2 adults, then the Terrier brings along Lucky, making it a total of 101 Dalmatians. The police return the dogs to Roger and Anita explaining that only their dogs had identification, and the young couple agree to keep all the dogs.
Roger sells his latest video game and they buy a huge home in the country where the Dalmatians continue to have puppies, and Anita continues to have babies. And they all lived happily ever after.
Stay tuned for the sequel, "102 Dalmatians", coming soon to a theater near you.
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