(1961) Disney Adaptation
Not an ideal first meeting, but whatever works, right?
- Pongo's entire opening monologue is really quite funny, from him finding it ridiculous that Roger writes love songs and knows nothing about love, to him looking through Roger's Playboy-type magazines to get an idea of the kind of woman Roger might be interested in. Not to mention when he finally spots (no pun intended) Anita and Perdita, he's so busy checking out the hot lady Dalmatian that he almost forgets to check Anita, too.
- During that scene, the ladies' clothes look a lot like their dogs' fur, with the exception of Anita and the old woman. Prissy's owner's hair even matches Prissy's ears.
- Pongo rejects an elderly woman for being too old and a little girl for being too young.
- Realizing it isn't yet time for them to go for a walk, Pongo purposely turns the time on the analog clock to past five so he can leave and scout for Anita immediately. Even better is that Roger actually falls for it and changes the time on his watch.
- Pongo dragging Roger all over the park in search of Perdita and Anita, while the poor unsuspecting man just wants to smoke his pipe! At one point, Pongo unwittingly wraps his leash around Roger, taking his owner for a brief whirl once he gets going again.
- The scene where the couples finally meet in the park is both this and incredibly adorable.
- Specifically the moment where Anita's handkerchief is soaked and Roger attempts to offer his, not realizing that it'd be equally useless. They look at the thing in silence, then the absurdity of the situation makes them laugh long and hard.
- Perdita tries to save Anita from falling into the pond by biting her coat. She ends up ripping a piece off instead.
- Neither Roger nor Cruella waste any opportunity to poke fun at each other.
- Cruella's Establishing Character Moment; possibly the most relatable thing she's ever said:Anita: Cruella, how are you?
Cruella: Miserable, darling, as usual, perfectly wretched! - Roger singing "Cruella De Vil" before going upstairs to continue playing the song by slamming the piano really loudly. And then playing it on the trumpet. And then on the trombone. All of which can be heard from downstairs while Cruella's visiting. All with a completely mischievous grin.
- Made funnier by the fact that Roger came up with the lyrics right after saying Cruella's name. In that scene, he's giving her the biggest middle finger possible, and she has no idea.
- The funniest part has to be after Cruella leaves and Roger comes back downstairs while singing the song. Anita wordlessly responds with a great facial expression.
◊ She glares at him and raises one eyebrow, but also looks like she's trying hard not to laugh.
- Pongo practically drunk with happiness upon learning he's just become a father 15 times over.
- It's even funnier when in the end, Pongo and Perdita return home with not only their own puppies, but 84 puppies more. Knowing nothing about what had transpired, Roger can only conclude one logical explanation about where the rest came from...
Roger: Oh, Pongo, you old rascal! - After Perdita has her puppies, Cruella arrives to hear that she's had fifteen and happily begins to exclaim over them, until she sees that the puppies have no spots yet.Cruella: Fifteen? Fifteen puppies! How marvelous, how MARVELLOUS, how perfectly(pulls back the blanket on the puppy)...UGHHH!(Throws the blanket back over it). OHHH, the devil take it, they're MONGRELS! No spots! No spots at all! What a horrid little white rat! UGH!
- Nanny shouting just after that the puppies will get their spots, given she's at least three feet shorter than Cruella and Cruella's face screams annoyance.
- Cruella insults Roger's career as a songwriter, complete with a deliciously hammy Evil Laugh. Cut to Roger and Pongo (the former puffing angrily on his pipe) with clearly unamused glowers on their faces.
- Cruella can't get her pen to work, so she says in the most hammy way you can imagine, "Blast this pen! BLAST THIS WRETCHED, WRETCHED PEN!" before inadvertently spraying ink on Roger and Pongo.
- What also makes this funny is that there's almost no change in Roger and Pongo's expressions or poses when Cruella throws ink all over them.
- When the new dalmatian family is watching Thunderbolt, with one of the puppies resting on Pongo's head, and this little exchange:Patch: That old Dirty Dawson! The yellow-livered old skunk! (growls and chews the rug) I'd like to tear his gizzard out!
Perdita: Why, Patch! Where did you ever hear such talk? Certainly not from your mother. (glares at Pongo, who smirks) - Lucky stands in front of the TV while watching their favorite show Thunderbolt, when the laughing villain's face appears, scaring him.
- The bit with the Kanine Krunchies ad ends when Pongo turns off the TV. The spokesman for the ad realizes that he's been turned off and looks utterly shocked as the image disappears.
- Jasper and Horace's shenanigans with Nanny are hilarious... at least until Nanny discovers the puppies are gone.
- When they first arrive...
Jasper: (tips hat) Good evening, ma'am. We're here to inspect the wiring and the switches.
Horace: We're from the gas company.
Jasper: (nudges him) 'Lectric, 'lectric!
Horace: Er, the electric company! (holds up toolbag on which has been hastily scribbled, "ELECTI(R)C COMPANY", complete with a little arrow between I and C.)- Jasper using a new act in Parliament being passed, the Protection of the Realm Act, with some other confusing patter thrown in to try to give a reason for their inspection of the house, while Horace next to him looks up surprised, clearly not informed of the plan, then smiling excitedly as he nods along.
- Even funnier, in 1914, the Defence of the Realm Act was used during wartime in the UK to allow the government to requisition buildings or land for the war effort.
- When Nanny refuses to let them in even after Jaspers attempts, he looks annoyed that she didn't fall for it and just shoulders his way in. As Jasper goes up the stairs and Horace goes the other way, Nanny tries to grab both of them, only to lose her grip on both and fall to the ground.
- Nanny insults them by calling Jasper a "weasel" and a "long-legged lummox" and insults both of them for having "cloth ears".
- Jasper says he wouldn't stay if she asked him to. She throws the teapot at him and he adds, "Not even for a cup of tea."
- Jasper tricks Nanny by holding the doorknob to Rogers study and trapping her inside, letting go when she's yanking at it so she flies backwards.
- Cruella goes ballistic and slams down the phone when Jasper yells, "Ah, shut up, you idiot!" to Horace specifically, but while still on the line with her.
- Immediately after this, Cruella phones Anita to offer her "condolences". Roger answers, thinking it's the authorities. When he discovers it's Cruella on the other line, he gives an uninterested "It's for you" while handing the phone to Anita. Roger is hilariously blunt in his suspicions ("What does she want, is she calling to confess?"), and at one point grabs the phone from Anita and shouts, "Where are they?" to Cruella. Anita grabs the phone back and snaps, "You idiot!", accidentally offending Cruella. Yes, Cruella was accidentally called an idiot over the phone twice in as many minutes.
- During the Twilight Bark sequence, a small terrier is standing on a fence post. He yips to send the message along, but vibrates up and down like a jackhammer, hopping backwards until his back legs slip off the post and he has to stop and hang on with his front legs. Watch!
- The goose that talks to the Bloodhound is named Lucy.
- Sgt. Tibbs and the colonel are having trouble figuring out what Towser is trying to say. They know it has to do with fifteen of something with spots being stolen, but think it's either puddings, poodles, or puddles. The colonel says, "Fifteen spotted puddles stolen? Oh, balderdash!" and tries to leave.
- Jasper throwing darts at an old painting in the de Vil place ("Hey, look, Horace! Watch me pot 'is lordship smack on the conk!") It's most likely a relative of Cruella's, which just makes the whole thing better.
- Jasper attempting to drink Sgt. Tibbs, thinking him to be his bottle of alcohol. And Tibbs' facial expression once he realizes what's about to happen to him: "Oh no, my cover's about to be blown big time."
- As Tibbs tries to count the puppies, he continually has little Oh, Crap! moments as the Baduns shout out for one reason or another, only it's not about him each time. One is for Lucky blocking the TV by standing in front of it and once for Horace asking for a drink
Horace: Hey Jasper! Come on, now, give us a swig! Just a short one!Jasper: (Holding the bottle out of reach) Now Horace, this hogwash ain't fit for a fancy bloke like yourself! Besides, you'd get crumbs in it, ya cabbage head!Horace: (Chewing angrily) Alright! Guzzle the whole works, and I hope it gives you Collywobbles, that's what!- As he is angrily chewing out Jasper, Rolly sneaks away with the meat from Horace's sandwich, also pulling out the other fixings in the process, with the hungry guy oblivious since he was looking at Jasper while trying to get a drink from him to wash down his meal. When he returns to eating, he's confused to find his sandwich is now just two plain pieces of bread. He then turns to Jasper, saying, "Hey, Jasper, did you...?" only for Jasper to offhandedly dump cigar ash onto the bread slices. The Mickey Mousing sound effects of the cartoon the pups are watching sync up near perfectly with this little skit.
- There's also Jasper's silent scream before he start spluttering upon realizing what he just did.
- For those in the audience familiar with the show What's My Line?, the game show "What's My Crime?" that Horace and Jasper are watching is a hilariously accurate parody. And incidentally, Walt Disney himself made an appearance on What's My Line in 1956! In addition, Clarence Nash, the original voice of Donald Duck, made a guest appearance on What's My Line? in 1954.
- The quizmaster explaining the rules to the featured criminal. If he can get ten "no" answers from the panel, he will win a vacation... but only after he's served his sentence. The look on his face sells it as his smile slowly droops along with the Death Glare from the guard who brings him in.
- Even better, Horace and Jasper actually know the convict participating in the show and start laughing at him.
- And when the mook is writing his name on the blackboard, he actually has to stop for a moment to remember how to spell it. "Meathead", indeed.
- The duo straight up ignoring Cruella to watch their show (Jasper even turning up the volume to tune her out). She turns it off to yell at them, but the moment she leaves, Jasper turns it back on and says they'll "get on with it as soon as the show's over".
- In the scene where Cruella and the Baduns are discussing the skinning job, Jasper starts guzzling his drink, before Cruella suddenly yanks the bottle from his hand and tosses it into the fireplace, where the bottle explodes! Made all the funnier by Cruella flailing about with messed up hair and a pissed facial expression. Was Jasper drinking a Molotov Cocktail?
- In this same scene, as they're discussing the morbid topic of killing puppies, Cruella says that they can use whatever method they like as long as they do it right now because they have a deadline for the coats. She asks if they have any chloroform to do the job with; they don't, "Not a drop," Jasper explains. Horace adds, "And no ether eithernote . Jasper bonks him on the head with a new bottle of alcohol and "corrects" him, "Either.note
- After Cruella tosses the bottle, she slaps Jasper and Horace before screaming that if they don't finish the job tonight she'll call the police (nevermind the fact that Jasper and Horace could just give her name to the police if they get arrested). But then on her way out Cruella slams the door so hard, part of the ceiling collapses on top of Horace, who nonchalantly picks it off like he was removing his hat.Horace: I think she means it, Jasper.
- When Tibbs is almost done filing the puppies out of the TV room through a hole in the wall, he looks back and sees Lucky still enthralled by the TV. He hastily runs back and tries to grab him, but Horace and Jasper, exasperated by Lucky blocking the screen, do it for him! They pick him up and toss him away and Tibbs runs to catch him, and does, only to hit a bottle on the floor and run on it for a bit before falling off, inadvertently throwing Lucky, who goes "basketball swish" clean through the hole ahead of Rolly, who has to duck!
- Tibbs, meanwhile, slides face-first into the wall.
- While Jasper and Horace search the house for the puppies:
- This is particularly funny considering all the times Jasper dope slaps Horace for thinking the dogs have human intelligence; if he believes This Is Reality that much, you'd think he wouldn't give Horace's comment a second thought.
- They argue over who'll do the killing and who'll do the skinning.
- The Colonel slips on the ice, then calls Pongo "Pingo".
- Pongo bites Horace's club. Horace swings upwards to get it off and accidentally hits Jasper in the head. Jasper calls Horace a clumsy clod and kicks him.
- When Pongo and Perdita come to the rescue, in the midst of Pongo fighting Jasper, Jasper rolls, then comes face to face with Patch, who is barking at him nearby. He gives him the biggest angry frown, scaring Patch, who runs a few feet away, then starts barking at him again.
- In a scene that doubles as a MomentOfAwesome, the Suffolk Farm unit hold off Jasper and Horace so the Pongos and all the puppies can get away with a head start, and each one gets their chance to shine:
- The Colonel, who up till now has mostly acted as a bystander due to being a Scatterbrained Senior, acts courageously by barking menacingly at the two crooks, luring them inside the barn and distracting them so they don't know they're right behind Captain's rear end.
- Sergeant Tibbs watches quietly from atop Captain's head, and tells the horse to "ready" and "aim." He then gives the signal to "fire" by pulling down Captain's ear like a trigger.
- The Captain "fires" by using his back leg to kick Jasper through the barn wall, then does the same thing to Horace.
- The Captain used his left back leg to "aim," then dropped it and used his right back leg to "fire," all in the span of about three to four seconds. Either that horse is very fast, or the animator goofed up majorly.
- The Colonel's face after Tibbs uses the Captain to buck-kick one of the Baduns through the barn wall. You can almost see him thinking, "What the hell did those two just do?!" and probably rightly so, considering it lets Jasper and Horace glimpse the snow tracks the dogs left behind.
- As Horace and Jasper search the village for the Dalmatians, Horace notices the dogs, disguised as Labradors to avoid being recognized, making their escape, and becomes suspicious:Horace: Look, Jasper. Do you suppose they disguised themselves?
Jasper: Say now, Horace! That's just what they did. Dogs is always paintin' themselves black! [conks Horace on the head] You idiot! - The Truck Driver that the dogs are hitching a ride from gets exasperated as Cruella Drives Like Crazy.Truck Driver: Hey, lady! What in thunder are you tryin' to do? Crazy woman driver!
- What's great about this part is the fact that he doesn't put up with it, and fights back. Though that's more like a Moment of Awesome.
- A somewhat unintentional one, but Perdita's sincere Oh, Crap! reaction when she sees Jasper and Horace joining into the chase....in their chuttering broken down van tailing them at a laughably slow speed compared to Cruella's car.
- The chase to get back the puppies fails because Horace rips off the steering wheel by accident, causing their truck to go out of control. They end up crashing into Cruella's car instead of the truck and both vehicles get busted. The scene afterwards:Cruella: You idiots! You... You fools! Oh, you imbeciles! [sobs hysterically]
Jasper: [bluntly] Ah, shut up!- When Jasper finally tells Cruella to can it, rather than sounding furious, considering all the crap he and Horace had to endure up to that point, Jasper delivers the line as plainly as someone saying an exasperated, "Oh, just leave me alone."
- The deleted song "Don't Buy a Parrot from a Sailor", which was to be sung by Horace and Jasper. In the special features, it plays over sketches of Pongo and Perdita attacking them.
