am2xAnimated Movies was launched by Olivier Mouroux in 1999. In addition to a daily news report, he also created a database of information about past, current, and upcoming films. In 2003, he took a job in the industry and had to give up his work on the site. Several fans of Animated Movies decided to take on the task of keeping the news portion of his site going, and founded what is now Animated Views.

As AV turns 15, let's take a look back at the site we descended from. Below you can explore the database Olivier compiled at Animated Movies during its existence, as it last appeared online in October 2003.

Cast * Interesting Facts * Production Details



Directed by: Clyde Geronimi & Hamilton Luske
Written by: Bill Peet
Original Music by: George Bruns & Mel Leven
Perdita meets Pongo!
Released on: January 25, 1961
Running Time: 79 minutes

Budget: $3.6 million
Box-Office: $153 million in the U.S., $316.4 million worldwide
 
 

CAST

Pongo... Rod Taylor
Perdita... Cate Bauer & Lisa Daniels
Cruella de Vil & Miss Birdwell... Betty Lou Gerson
Colonel Jasper Badun... J. Pat O'Malley
Rover... Barbara Luddy

  Rod Taylor, a rugged Australian actor, supplied the voice for Pongo, the picture's hero. He is most famous for his leading role as Mitch Brenner in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).

  Betty Lou Gerson [1914-1999] got the role of her life as Cruella de Vil.  She was also the narrator in Cinderella (1950) and Nurse Andersone in the cult-movie The Fly (1958) starring Vincent Price.

  J. Pat O'Malley was responsible for four of the "character" voices and a good deal of the authentic Cockney slang -he was also the voice of "Col. Hathi" the Elephant in The Jungle Book.
 
 





INTERESTING FACTS

  During the "Twilight Bark" sequence, you can see four canine stars from the Disney-Doggie film. In order, you will see: Jock, Peg, Tramp and Lady.

  When Jasper gets hit on the head with a club, he rolls his eyes and says "Whoa!...OW!" which is the exact same line that Arthur's brother Wart would say 2 years later, when he gets hit on the head in the kitchen scene of The Sword in the Stone (1963)!

  This was the first animated feature to gross over $10 million on initial release. The film since grossed well over $200 million worldwide. Its 1985 release alone earned $32.1 million!

The 2002 direct-to-video sequel 101 Dalmatians is based on a successful British novel by Dodie Smith; it was Oscar-Nominated for Best Adapted Score.

  Several of the characters from Lady and the Tramp (1955) can be seen in a pet shop window during the twilight bark sequence.

  At one point Jasper and Horace's TV set features Disney's award-winning cartoon short Flowers and Trees (1932).

  When the Baduns are talking on the phone to Cruella, they are holding a newspaper. The only headline on the front page (apart from the dognapping) is CARLSEN SPEAKS, and a picture of a capsized ship. This helps us to date the story, since the Carlsen in question is Kurt Carlsen, captain of the freighter Flying Enterprise, which sank after a prolonged struggle in the Atlantic. This was the media event of the year in 1952.
 
 

PRODUCTION DETAILS

  Walt Disney did not approve of the look of this picture: Ub Iwerks, whether he realized it at the time or not, had a great impact on the future of Disney animation with the invention of the use of the Xerox process to transfer animation drawings to celluloid: the artists' drawings were transferred directly to the cells (transparent overlays on which the  characters are drawn), and from them to the film.  The laborious hand-inking of thousands of cells was, therefore, no longer necessary.

It set the visual style of Disney animation (a scratchy, hard outline look) for years until the technology advanced enough -with the production of The Rescuers (1977)- to allow a softer look.  At first, it must have seemed preposterous to even suggest that these images with thick, black, scraggly lines could ever replace the refined, colorful lines of all Disney animation up to that point.  But, the animators appreciated the vitality this medium would bring to their work.

Now then, with this thick black line dominating the animation, something had to be done to the world which the animation would inhabit.  It wouldn't work to place these Xeroxed characters in a lush, colorful, painted background.  So, designer Ken Anderson created a look for the backgrounds and props which would blend beautifully with this modern animation style.  After painting the backgrounds with flat shapes, Anderson carefully inked-in all of the detail the background needed to present.  This way, the important parts of the background stand out and blend beautifully with the stylized characters.

  During the course of filming, Disney used more than 200 dogs to film the basic litter of 15 Dalmatian puppies. The pups, all roughly eight weeks old, were brought to the set in a relay system. Most were filmed for only one or two weeks before they had grown too big and had to be replaced by younger ones. With all those dogs shuttling in and out during filming, how did Disney ensure continuity? They hired a makeup artist and dog breeder to paint on spots using vegetable dye. Thus, the newcomers always matched the pups they replaced!
Cruella DeVil!
  The picture was released in 1961 after nearly three years in production, at a total cost of $4 million. It is possible that the 150 studio artists labored so long because of the unique nature of the characters.  Dalmatians wear white coats with black spots, and, according to Studio statistics, the creation of 101 of them entailed the laborious painting of a total of 6,469,952 spots!  Pongo, the leading canine character, wears 72 black spots while Perdita, his mate, sports a coat with but 68; each of the 99 puppies wears 32.

  One of the most impressive comic effects was the smoke emanating in curls and clouds from the villainess Cruella De Vil's ever-present cigarette.  Waved about in a slinky long holder, the cigarette created its own calligraphy of evil.  The special effects technicians used so much smoke that, if it were compressed into a single cloud, they estimate it would blanket a city of one hundred thousand souls.



Animated Movies original content © Olivier Mouroux