Spoilers for 101 Dalmatians are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
The Radcliffe family and their Dalmatians are preparing to move their "Dalmatian Plantation" out in the countryside, but Patch feels ignored amongst his 98 siblings. After being accidentally left behind on moving day, Patch decides to visit his TV hero Thunderbolt, who has just been told that he is set to be killed off in the next episode. Desperate to stay on the show, Thunderbolt decides to pull some real life heroics and recruits Patch's help due to his knowledge of his feats on the show. However when Cruella de Vil plans to steal the Dalmatian puppies again, Patch and Thunderbolt must become real heroes and save the day.
This film provides examples of:
- 1-Dimensional Thinking: Partly justified when the villains are running away from the double decker bus in the alley, as they have no other place to run. However, once they exit the alley, they continue to run from the bus in a straight line and even jump into the river right ahead of them which requires them climbing over a fence.
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Most of the animation is hand drawn, but objects such as cars and trains are down in 3D animation.
- Actor/Role Confusion: Patch is completely unaware that Thunderbolt's show is all make-believe and that he's just an actor.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Two times in the film, Patch is laughed at for his pitiful attempt at mimicking Thunderbolt's heroic bark, first by his many siblings, and then by a whole crowd of spectators, both dog and human. Each time he gets called a Squeaky Toy.
- Antagonist in Mourning: When Thunderbolt fakes his death in Lightning's arms, Lightning cries and seems to legitimately be in mourning, despite being hostile towards him up to that point.
- Ascended Extra: Patch and Thunderbolt, a background and a one-scene character respectively in the first film, are now primary characters in the sequel.
- Bail Equals Freedom: Cruella pays bail to have Horace and Jasper released from jail...after they have already been sentenced, implying that bail is a fine you can pay to get out of serving your sentence.
- Beatnik: Lars, the spot-obsessed, German-esque artist that Cruella hooks up with was initially a stereotypical, eccentric beatnik, until near the end of the film when we find out he's capable of being a hyperactive animal-lover.
- Becoming the Mask: Thunderbolt. At first, he just wants to use Patch's fanboy knowledge of his show to get some press but ends up becoming genuine friends with the pup and helps him rescue his family.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Cruella and Lil' Lightning are both antagonists, but they have different agendas: the former wants to steal the Dalmatian puppies again, the latter wants to take Thunderbolt's place as star of the show. They actually never interact, even though their actions are indirectly helping the other.
- Big Damn Heroes: Played with when Thunderbolt arrives to save the puppies.Thunderbolt: I always arrive in the nick of time...(whispering to Patch) Hey, I may not be a real hero, but I can act like one.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Cruella repeatedly shouts this at her car's radio (while kicking it in rage) when it plays Roger's song about her.
- Brick Joke: The Newspaper headliner of Patch at the Thunderbolt audition. The Ratcliffe's fetch the paper, but Roger is too distracted by his piano to read the headliner and he tosses the paper aside. It's only after he looks at the paper does the family realize Patch is in London and not at the plantation with them.
- Broken Pedestal: Patch undergoes with when Lightning reveals and Thunderbolt sadly confirms that, not only is Thunderbolt's show just pure fiction, but Thunderbolt was just using Patch as a way to become more popular. It quickly becomes a Rebuilt Pedestal after Thunderbolt jumps in to help save the Dalmatians in the end, showing that he can be genuinely heroic.
- Brutish Bulls: In the Thunderbolt show, the villain falls into a train car that is holding a ferocious looking bull. It is then implied that the villain gets beaten by the bull as the heroes return home.
- The Cake Is a Lie: Thunderbolt is convinced by his co star Lil-Lightning that he needs to do some heroic work in order prove he's still a capable host in order to retain his position on his show (Lightning in actuality was attempting to get him to leave the studio so he could take his place on the show) but is hopeless without someone to guide him. So he tricks his avid fan Patch into helping remind him of his heroic antics on the show under the guise that it is a "junior deputy test" to see if he's capable of starring in the series with him (as Patch believes that all of the heroic stuff Thunderbolt does on the show is real). When the two of them get captured while attempting to rescue the other puppies from Cruella, Lightning cruelly reveals Thunderbolt's true intentions to Patch, to which Thunderbolt sadly confirms, much to Patch's dismay.
- Cats Are Mean: Only one cat makes an appearance, and while he's not an antagonist or is shown being mean to any of the main characters, he was shown trying to eat a bunch of baby birds, but was inexplicibly foiled by Thunderbolt trying to "save" him, and also crushed.
- Cat Up a Tree: Thunderbolt attempts to rescue a cat that he assumes is stuck in a tree. In actuality, the cat wasn't the one in trouble, as the cat was looking to eat a bunch of baby birds.
- Chekhov's Gun: The dog tags Nanny makes for the puppies have the name of their new farm. Patch has his picture taken with Thunderbolt while wearing the tag which makes the front page of a newspaper. Cruella sees Patch's dog tag on the newspaper and uses it to look up the farm.
- Chekhov's Skill: In show the dalmatians watch at the beginning of the movie, Thunderbolt outwits Dirty Dawson by jumping onto a train going in the opposite direction, hopping back onto the same train behind Dawson and wrapping him up with his own whip. During the car chase, Patch sees that Cruella is waving a banner like a whip. He incapacitates Cruella by using the same tactics he learned from the show.
- Deadly Dodging: When Thunderbolt fakes that he's dying and Cruella attempts to kill him with a crowbar, Thunderbolt repeatedly dodges her attacks and she ends up hitting Jasper and Horace instead.
- Demoted to Extra: In a similar vein to the TV series, Pongo and Perdita are largely secondary characters with their puppy Patch taking the foreground.
- Determinator:
- Lars claims to be this when he tells Cruella that he will not rest until he has managed to create a piece of art that satisfies her. This is subverted, however, as Lars eventually does give up once he runs out of ideas and considers himself a failure.
- Thunderbolt proves himself to be an actual determinator, spending an entire day trying and failing to get the attention of reporters and photographers by committing heroic acts. He only gives up briefly when his lie is exposed to Patch, but eventually does return to help Patch save his family and actually does get his name in the paper for an heroic deed.
- Dinky Drivers: The Dalmatian Puppies do this to a London double-decker bus at the climax of the movie.
- Disguised in Drag: Jasper is dressed as a woman in order to steal a Kanine Krunchies delivery truck.Horace: You look just like Mum!
Jasper: Shut up, you! - Disney Death: Thunderbolt initially thinks that this is what Lightning means when he tells him that his character will die in the next episode, before learning that he's being Killed Off for Real and being replaced with a new dog (which is all a lie of course).
- Evil-Detecting Dog: The first sign that Lars isn't truly evil is the fact that the puppies like him.
- Evil Twin: Thunderbolt tells Lil' Lightning he'd like to have one in one of his adventures.
- Exact Words: When Lars finds out what Cruella and her henchmen want to do with the puppies, he declares nobody will harm them for as long as he has something to say about it. The next scene features him bound and gagged.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Patch is blue screening after his Broken Pedestal for Thunderbolt when one of his siblings references an episode of Thunderbolt's show where Thunderbolt escaped a cage like the ones they're trapped in, misidentifying the number. Patch dully corrects them before realizing that he can use his memories of the show to get out of his cage.
- Failure Montage: Two failure montages are actually spliced together during the song "Try Again". First, there's Thunderbolts many attempts to do heroic deeds and get his name in the paper, each attempt failing due to his misunderstanding of the situation around him and that there never was any catastrophe for him to stop. Then there's Lars trying and failing multiple times to impress Cruella with his art.
- Faking the Dead:
- Patch thinks that Thunderbolt is doing this after Cruella clobbers him with a paint can. But he was actually knocked unconsious.
- Thunderbolt actually does try this during the climax in order to distract the villains so that the Dalmatians can get away. He also seems to do this to troll Lightning too.
- False Friend: Lil' Lightning the Welsh Corgi. He informs Thunderbolt that his character is being killed off the show, when in fact, he was lying just to trick Thunderbolt into getting out of the picture so that Lightning can have the spotlight for himself, having grown tired of being in Thunderbolt's shadow. Then upon hearing about Thunderbolt potentially still gaining fame while on a real heroic mission, Lil' Lightning then decides to join forces with him, along with the pup, obviously just to stop them from succeeding as to prevent Thunderbolt from reclaiming the spotlight. Once they reach the bad guys' hideout, Lightning persuades them to go for an open attack to rescue the puppies instead of a stealth plan—which predictably fails and gets Patch and Thunderbolt locked up in cages along with the other puppies. He even reveals to them his true nature and intentions before leaving them behind in their cages.
- Foreshadowing: Early in the film, Thunderbolt tells Lightning that he wants to do a death scene, after which he can make a miraculous recovery. During the climax, he does just that, faking a heart attack in order to distract the villains.
- Freudian Excuse: To put it frankly, Thunderbolt wasn't exactly the nicest to Lightning when the cameras were off, which caused Lightning to grow increasingly resentful of him until he decided to remove Thunderbolt from the show by any means necessary and finally get the recognition he thought he was due.
- Frying Pan of Doom: Nanny attempts to use a frying pan against the Baduns when they try to kidnap the puppies.
- Glad I Thought of It: When Lil' Lightning tells Thunderbolt that he's getting replaced and Thunderbolt panics, we get this exchange between them:Lil' Lightning: Well, I did have this one crazy thought... What if you went out and did something heroic, like you do on the show, but in the real world? You know, get your name on the paper! Prove to them that you still got it!
Thunderbolt: Wait a minute. What if... I went out and did something heroic in the real world?
Lil' Lightning: Or that could work too. - Glass Smack and Slide: Lil Lightning smacks against the windshield of the pups' bus as they run through the TV set.
- Good Night, Sweet Prince: Lightning says this word for word as he believes Thunderbolt is dying before him.
- Group Picture Ending: The movie ends as Patch, Thunderbolt and the Dalmatians get their picture taken for the newspaper.
- Groupie Brigade: Thunderbolt has one that follows him to his trailer from the auditions, but they mostly disappear for the rest of the movie, even as Thunderbolt is going around trying to get the public's attention.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Patch and the other pups steal an entire double decker bus in order to get away from Cruella.
- Idea Bulb: When Thunderbolt gets the idea to use Patch's knowledge of his show to help him do heroic deeds to get his name in the paper, the camera is framed in a way that a sign shaped like a light bulb in the background appears above his head.
- Improvised Catapult: Thunderbolt creates one to save a cat from a tree after Patch makes the suggestion. He uses a trashcan, a ladder, and a window washer.
- Institutional Apparel: Horace and Jasper wear black and white striped suits when they are locked up in jail.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Patch, a puppy, forms one with Thunderbolt, who is an adult dog.
- It's All My Fault: Pongo blames himself for Patch being left behind during the move. Perdita tells him not to and instead focus on finding their son before Cruella does.
- Jump Scare: Cruella's face suddenly coming out of the door and right in front of the camera during the cut from the puppies going to bed the night to the scene where she shows up might count as one because you don't expect it, especially with the loud sound from the door.
- Just Following Orders: Horace and Jasper's excuse. They claim Cruella forced them to do her bidding.
- Karma Houdini: Jasper and Horace. It is revealed by a news headline shown during the credits that they are somehow released from custody after getting arrested and end up starting their own business, opening up a boutique selling dresses.
- Kick the Dog: No pun intended. Lightning not only leaves the puppies to be hauled off to what grim designs Cruella has in mind for them just because Thunderbolt is also imprisoned with them, but he callously reveals to Patch that Thunderbolt was just using him to boost his fame.
- Knife Outline: At one point, Cruella has Lars tied up to one of his own paintings, and in a fit of rage, she tosses a handful of knives at him, all of them missing and sticking to the painting around him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The last we see of Lightning, he's being hauled away to the pound after being mistaken for an accomplice of Cruella.
- Living Crashpad: After Thunderbolt launches himself from a homemade catapult to rescue a cat from a tree, he lands on top of the cat that he was trying to rescue.
- Logo Joke: The dogs bark along to "When You Wish Upon a Star".
- Musical Chores: Both Roger and Anita sing while packing up the house, though they sing different songs. Anita sings "Dalmatian Plantation" and Roger sings a new song he's written, "I See Spots".
- Never Going Back to Prison: Inverted—after some slapstick-filled hijinks involving Nanny and the pigs on the farm, Horace asks Jasper, "Can we go back to jail now?" in a similar tone to a kid asking to go home.
- Nice Character, Mean Actor: Lil' Lightning. He is portrayed as the clumsy and loyal sidekick on TV, but the real Lightning very clearly has a chip on his shoulder regarding Thunderbolt for always taking the spotlight. It turns out that he resented him so much that he plotted against Thunderbolt to get him off the show. Thunderbolt is a downplayed one, being portrayed as heroic on TV while he's more of glory-hog in real life who doesn't treat Lightning all that well. He's still a Jerk with a Heart of Gold at worst at the end of the day, however, and the friendship he forms with Patch is legitimate.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Patch appearing as the lucky dog in the front page headline photo at the Thunderbolt audition unfortunately ends up biting him, as reading the Radcliffe's new address on his collar from the photo allows Cruella De Vil to know where Anita and Roger moved to and steal the puppies again. She even sadistically thanks him when he appears at her warehouse to rescue the other puppies.Cruella: Well, well, well. What do we have here? Oh, it's you! (chuckles) I owe you a debt of gratitude, my photogenic little friend. If it wasn't for you, I'd have never found your brothers and sisters! And now I have you all! (cackles evilly)
- Oh, Crap!:
- The sight of Cruella evokes several such reactions.
- Patch's family gets a big one when they finally realize they left him behind.
- Jasper and Horace have one upon realizing the puppies escaped on their watch (again).
- One Head Taller: Cruella with Lars. Gender reversed from the usual form of this trope and avoiding stereotypes associated with taller woman shorter man pairings, actually!
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Thunderbolt attempts to sneak off of his set by wearing a mop head and a rug, but it doesn't fool Patch, since it's the same disguise he used in an episode of his show.
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Rolly when Patch volunteers him to try out his method of escaping from Cruella's warehouse first.
- Remake Cameo: An In-Universe example. When Lil' Lightning tells Thunderbolt that the writers plan to kill him off, he adds that Thunderbolt's not even going to get a cameo in the remake.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Lars learns Cruella wants to turn the puppies into canvases for his art work, he asks her and her henchmen how they can do something like that. Each bad guy gives a suggestion.Jasper: Poison 'em.
Horace: Drown 'em.
Cruella: Bash them in the head! - Running Gag: Patch trying to replicate Thunderbolt's signature barking, but it comes out as a mild squeak. He finally succeeds in the end.
- Sanity Slippage: By the film's end, Cruella's obsession with getting the puppies has driven her completely insane to where she starts literally seeing spots everywhere, and she is promptly committed to a mental institute.
- Scared of What's Behind You: Thunderbolt barks loudly at Jasper and Horace and they shriek in alarm. Thunderbolt thinks he got Horace and Jasper right at his mercy as "villains always cringe in fear whenever Thunderbolt is here." Well, not in this case, as the Baduns actually screamed because Cruella is standing right behind Thunderbolt, holding a paint can. She whacks Thunderbolt on the head with the paint can, and the German Shepherd falls to the floor, unconscious.
- Schmuck Bait: The Baduns capture the puppies by leaving several boxes of Kanine Krunchies in their truck, then luring them out with a recording of the Kanine Krunchies jingle broadcast through a stereo.
- The Stinger: The last scene after the credits is an episode of Thunderbolt's show with Patch as the new sidekick, and the other puppies as extras as they chase Dirty Dawson into the sunset.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Cruella's car, which was somehow rebuilt after being totaled in the first movie's climactic Chase Scene, is barely holding itself together regardless and falls apart around her as she drives down the street. She herself barely avoided jail time after her past crimes, being on probation and a restraining order when she first appears.
- Take the Wheel: While driving after the pups, Cruella tells Jasper to take the wheel from her so that she can climb out onto the hood of her car.
- Taught by Television: Patch has every episode of "Thunderbolt" memorized and uses the show's plots to first help Thunderbolt do "big hero stuff" and then to rescue his family.
- Tempting Fate: After being denied entry to a fur store due to her probation, Cruella asks out loud in her still-totaled car if things could "possibly be any worse". About one minute later (after hearing Roger's song about her play on the radio, to her fury), the car has crumbled and gives out for good.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: During the auditions to have a guest spot on Thunderbolt's show, a bunch of dogs are shown trying to give their most heroic barks, to varying degrees of success, ending with Patch's attempt, which actually gets him laughed at.
- The Unfavorite: Apparently, Jasper and Horace's parents never liked the former.
- Think Nothing of It: After the puppies are safe and sound, Pongo thanks Thunderbolt for saving his family, to which he responds "Oh, don't thank me. Thank your son. He's the real hero."
- Traintop Battle: In the Show Within a Show that the dalmatians watch featuring Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt confronts the villain, Dirty Dawson, on the top of a train. A variation occurs later in the film with Patch confronting Cruella on top of moving automobiles, with Patch using his memory of Thunderbolt's train battle to figure out how to beat Cruella.
- Villainous Breakdown: A minor one at the end, as Lil' Lightning is led away by a pair of police dogs, dramatically begging to try to get the dogs to let him go on the claim he was trying to help Thunderbolt, but they don't buy it for one second.
- We Need a Distraction: To give the pups time to escape from the bus as the villains close in on them, Patch attempts to hold them off by barking at them. It doesn't seem to work until Thunderbolt arrives, and continues to distract them by faking that he is dying.
- Wham Line: Lil' Lightning reveals the truth about Thunderbolt after the latter has been captured by Cruella along with Patch.Patch: I knew you were faking it!
Lil' Lightning: Oh, he's been faking it alright.
Thunderbolt: Lightning, little buddy.
Lil' Lightning: I an not your little buddy! And you are no Wonder dog! This kid trusted you, and look where it's got him! - "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: As the credits roll, they are intercut with different tabloid and newspaper articles showing the fates of various major characters. These include Roger winning an award for his new song, "Seeing Spots", Jasper and Horace opening up a store and starting a line of sundresses, Cruella committed to a mental institute, and even Lars being hailed as a genius for a piece of art that was accidentally created by Patch who splattered paint on the canvas when Jasper and Horace were on it, leaving their silhouettes surrounding by a splash of colors.
- Would Hurt a Child: The villain of the Thunderbolt show, Dirty Dawson, kidnaps a child, Wholesome Tommy, and ties him to the stack of a train.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Thunderbolt completely recognizes that he is just an actor, but he mistakenly believes his show works the same way as the real world does when attempting to reproduce his "heroic acts" to get noticed, which not only never works but ends up with him obliviously causing even more trouble.
