Western Animation / 101 Dalmatians: The Series

"Get those puppies!"^note From left-to-right: Wizzer, Tripod, Rolly, Spot, Cadpig, Lucky, Two-Tone, Patch, and Dipstick

The success of the live-action 101 Dalmatians prompted a spin-off Animated Series that ran in both syndication (as part of what remained of The Disney Afternoon) and as part of ABC's One Saturday Morning lineup in the 1997-98 season. This was produced by Jumbo Pictures, the firm that produced Doug and PB&J Otter.

The series takes place in an odd Alternate Continuity of sorts after the movie where the Dearly Family (originally Radcliffe in the films) have moved to a farm to house their large canine family. Despite the title, the show actually focuses on four characters: Lucky, Cadpig, Rolly, and Spot (who is actually a chicken but nevertheless their friend) and their misadventures interacting with the other puppies and livestock around the farm. While also dealing with Cruella de Vil who, of course, still has her eyes on the puppies for her own schemes.

The television show was seen briefly as part of the Disney Junior lineup on Disney Channel and was one of the shows that launched with the Disney Junior network (albeit in the early morning slot, so obviously it was just considered filler), but as of September 3, 2013, it is no longer airing on the network.

It is available to purchase in the United States on iTunes, Google Play, and YouTube. The full series is also available to stream on Disney+.

Not to be confused with 101 Dalmatian Street, another cartoon spin-off of 101 Dalmatians, which began in 2018.

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101 Dalmatians: The Series provides examples of:

A-D

• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • Dumpling has a very outspoken crush on Lucky which he does not return.
  • Cruella De Vil towards any man that she may develop a fancy for, particularly towards the sailor, Starbuck, as seen in the episodes "Shipwrecked" and "Valentine's Daze" as he is absolutely frightened of her. In the final episode "Dalmatian Vacation Part 3" however, he does admit to having feelings towards her.
• Accidental Art: The episode "The Artist Formerly Known As Spot" has Spot the chicken mistaken for an art genius by a friend of Cruella's after seeing Spot try to get paint off of herself on a canvas, causing Cruella to kidnap Spot and force her to make paintings for an art show.
• Accidental Misnaming: A Running Gag with Cruella is that she usually refers to Roger by other names that begin with "R", generally out of apathy. Interestingly, she actually seems to remember his name when she's particularly scheming against the Dearlys or on one notable instance when she believes Roger to be her secret admirer.
• The Ace:
  • Tripod, despite being one leg short of his ninety eight siblings.
  • Also Lucky to an extent.
• Addiction Displacement: In "Smoke Detectors", Cruella de Vil attempts to quit smoking, and moves in with Anita until she can. When she finally kicks the habit, she takes up gum chewing, and the episode ends with Cruella moving back in with Anita until she can quit chewing gum.
• Aesop Amnesia: For the Yet Another Christmas Carol episode, Cruella is shown the errors of her greedy, selfish ways via the visit from three ghosts and at the end she's being a genuinely nice person. It lasts until the beginning of the next episode because she's the primary villain and Status Quo Is God.
• Afraid of Needles: "Spots And Shots" features Lucky doing everything he can to avoid getting a shot from the visiting veterinarian. This of course comes back to bite him when he comes down with the very unusual condition (pink spots, green fur, and an itchy and blue clown-like nose) that the shot would have prevented.
• American Gothic Couple: The couple who run the local market resemble the American Gothic Couple. The Store Sign even has an Image of the two resembling the Painting.
• And I'm the Queen of Sheba: Used in "Spot's Fairy God-Chicken" when Spot the chicken is transformed into a dog:
  Spot: Hey, guys, guess what? I'm a dog!
  Rolly: Yeah, so?
  Spot: No, you guys, it's me, Spot!
  Lucky: Yeah, right. And I'm Thunderbolt.
• Animal Talk: Played straight for the most part, just like in the original novel and animated movie, but the episode "Virtual Lucky" subverts it. At the beginning of the episode, when Lucky is yelling at Cruella for ruining his stunt, all she hears is barking. But then when Cruella and Lucky get sucked into Roger's new computer game Lucky gains the ability to speak to Cruella, whom is shocked. Lucky tells her that this is because they're in a video game, where anything can happen.
• Animal Testing: In the episode "Food For Thought", Rolly is kidnapped by P.H. DeVil and locked in his lab in which he is fed an experimental food additive to test for any negative side effects. In the lab, Rolly meets several other animals who have also been tested on and deformed in one way or another.
• Animation Bump: The show's animation quality is all over the place, due to multiple animation teams working on the show, usually outsourced from other countries, and the animation directors on what studio animates which episode can vary. Some episodes' animation is noticeably more lavish than others.
• Animorphism: Thanks to the help from her Fairy God-Chicken, Spot is transformed into a dog in "Spot's Fairy God-Chicken".
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • Cruella cousin P.H. DeVil has a sales pitch calling himself an evil genius, mad scientist, and junk food connoisseur.
  • Near the end of "Channels", the Chief of the Grutley Police Department arrests two crooks that Lucky, Cadpig, Rolly and Spot apprehend for prison escape, bank robbery, and disturbing his nap.
• The Artifact:
  • The prominent "One-oh-one"s in the theme song is apparently a holdover from when the show was going to be titled Dalmatians 101 which they changed at the last minute.
  • Patch is featured prominently among the other main characters in the second half of "Prima Doggy" (though with only two lines), as the episode was produced very early in the run and he was initially planned to be a major character. He's a minor character for the rest of the show.
• Author Guest Spot: Jim Jinkins appears in the final episode as the leader of a cult of alien followers. He also provides a Shout-Out by dressing up like his Author Avatar, Doug.
• Babysitting Episode: The series had two instances, which were paired up together. "Rolly's Egg-Celent Adventure" had Rolly taking care of Cornelia's eggs, which hatched at the beginning of the episode when he sat on them. "Wild Chick Chase" was about Spot having to babysit Peeps, a chick who kept getting into danger.
• Badly Battered Babysitter:
  • This happens to Spot in "Wild Chick Chase", when she's forced to babysit Peeps, a baby chick.
  • Happens again in "He Followed Me Home" as the main characters try to take care of a baby elephant as a pet who turns out to be more trouble than they expected.
• Bad Boss: Cruella De Vil towards her henchmen, Horace and Jasper, who she repeatedly abuses and insults anytime they screw anything up.
• The Bad Guy Wins: "Coup De Vil" ends with Ivy getting named Cruella's sole inheritor, and once Cruella's named Malevola's sole inheritor, that means Ivy gets both of their fortunes after they die. Since the bulk of the episode focused on everyone fighting to inherit Malevola's vast fortune, this meant Ivy essentially conned all the adults.
• Bald of Evil: Cruella's cousin P.H. DeVil, who is a twisted Mad Scientist who experiments on animals and occassionally provides Cruella with technological assistance to carry out her schemes. He is also very bald.
• Balloon Belly: Happens a number of times with Rolly in "DeVil-Age Elder", "Double Dog Dare" & "Two For The Show" and with Spot in "Alive 'N Chicken"
• Batman Gambit: Ed Pig did nothing to sabotage Lucky's run for Mayor because he knew it'd be a matter of time until Lucky screwed up and he'd become Mayor again.
• Be Yourself:
  • In "Swine Song", Rolly tries various attempts to woo his crush, Dumpling, however she doesn't reciprocate. At the end of the episode, he gives up and starts acting like himself again, saying that he'd rather pig out on corn fritters for the rest of the night. This is finally what gets Dumpling to like him, as she loves corn fritters as well.
  • The lesson of "Bad To The Bone". Tired of being called a Cremepuff by his friends and being teased by Mooch, Rolly tries to prove that he's tough by fighting Cydne the snake. Rolly ends up faking the fight by fighting one of Cydne's discarded skins and being deemed a tough guy by Mooch and his gang. Rolly changes his look and personality to fit in with his new friends, all the while his old friends rebuke him for his changes. Cydne exposes Rolly for his lie and Rolly learns that it is better to be a Creampuff than to live a lie.
• Beach Episode: The second part of "Dalmatian Vacation" when the Dearlys make a stop to the beach on their vacation. It's only a small part of the episode, but Cadpig and Spot get to build a sandcastle and Lucky and Rolly get to surf a wave on top of Cruella.
• Bears Are Bad News: Subverted in "Snow Bounders". Cruella and the pups stumble into a cave to get out of a blizzard only to be greeted by an angry bear ready to maul them. Cruella wasn't in the mood for any of that, and it only took a few mere moments before the bear ran away with fear. Played straight in the end of the episode when the bear found Horace and Jasper.
• Berserk Button: Rolly gets angry when anyone calls him fat.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Cadpig is usually sweet and innocent, but if she ever gets mad, watch out!
• Big Beautiful Woman: Dumpling thought of herself as this.
• Big Eater:
  • Rolly is the fat one of the three main pups and is also the biggest eater, constantly hungry and always thinking of food.
  • Dumpling and Ed Pig, who are literally pigs, also qualify.
• Binomium ridiculus: "The Making of..." has several shout-outs to other shows, movies, and cartoons. One of them is a scene parodying the Wile E Coyote And The Roadrunner cartoons, with Cruella in the role of Wile E. and Spot in the role of Road Runner. Spot is introduced as Birdae Multi-Spotticae, and Cruella is introduced as Designera Skinabonica.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ivy De Vil, Cruella's young niece, who behaves like a sweet little girl around everyone except Cruella, but is actually incredibly cruel, perhaps moreso than her aunt.
• Borrowed Without Permission: An episode has Spot and co. do this with Cruella's car, arguing that as long they return it in one piece, they should be okay. It really doesn't work out for them.
• Brainwashed: The townspeople (and, for much of the episode, the Dearlys and the puppies) in "De Vil-age Elder" due to a curse placed on the town by the witch that makes them all deliriously happy and unwilling to leave.
• Brainy Brunette: Spot, who was completely brown and black along with being The Smart Girl qualifies for this.
• Brand Names Are Better: In one episode, Dearly Farm runs out of its usual supply of Kanine Krunchies. Lucky, Cadpig, Rolly, and Spot are offended and horrified when they hear that they'll get AnyMutt brand kibble instead, arguing it must be worse because it doesn't have TV adverts. After foiling an attempted robbery on the local store, the pups and chicken are rewarded with dog food. Said dog food is AnyMutt, yet they didn't notice the difference. Or care since AnyMutt is apparently just as good, if not better.
• Breast Expansion: In "Dalmatian Vacation Part 2", Cruela De Vil, tries to seduce Roger by putting on a blonde wig and using inflatable fake breasts. Not only doesn't it work but Spot ends up popping her suit causing her to fly away. This was a children's show mind you...
• Broken Pedestal: Lucky gets to meet his hero, Thunderbolt, when his show decides to film a scene on their farm in the episode "Watch For Falling Idols". Although Lucky is initially star struck to meet him, his opinion begins to change when he learns that Thunderbolt doesn't do his own stunts and that Thunderbolt may actually be a coward. Thunderbolt eventually earns Lucky's respect back when he has to save Lucky from actual danger.
• Broken Treasure: In "It's A Swamp Thing" Lucky loses the Colonel's scarf in the swamp that the Colonel told him never to go. Lucky tries to get the scarf back, putting himself an the other pups in danger, only to find out that the Colonel has several scarfs just like it. The Colonel tells Lucky that scarfs can be replaced but that their lives cannot.
• The Bully: Mooch is constantly taunting and pushing around the other animals on the farm, particularly Lucky.
• Bumbling Henchmen Duo: Jasper and Horace, the two goons who are always working for Cruella doing odd jobs for her, and are usually called in to do some illegal activity to help Cruella achieve her evil plots. The jobs they do usually involve some sort of theft or sabotage, though they usually screw up the job in large part due to the interference of the pups.
• Butt-Monkey: Spot and Rolly tend to get the most abuse.
• Butt Sticker: In "Robo-Rolly", Lucky, Cadpig, and Spot try to convince Mayor Ed Pig to stop the robotic Rolly by saying he didn't vote for him, which makes him angrily sit on the robotic Rolly. This briefly stops the latter in his tracks, until Cruella scares Ed Pig away.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: Happens in "Coup De Vil" when the main puppies and Spot are hiding in Rolly's "fritter hole".
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin':
  • In "Mall Pups," Lucky, Rolly, Cadpig and Spot sneak away from Bark Brigade training to attend a mall event featuring the first lady and first dog. They are eventually caught by the Colonel, do not get to meet either the first lady or the first dog, and the Colonel says he's going to tell their parents to give them a three-week grounding and also implies that Pug is going to make them pay for everything he went through with the Secret Service dogs.
  • In the episode "Snow Bounders", when the pups are denied permission by Pongo to go on the mountain camping trip with him and Roger, they stow away to prove that they can survive. But things go south when they encounter Cruella, who is also camping out in the cold, and a huge blizzard strikes. Hilarity Ensues from there, but the pups still manage to survive the blizzard. But in the morning, Pongo and Roger discover Cruella and the puppies asleep in a cave. When Pongo demands to know what they're doing there, Lucky points out that they were capable of surviving in the wilderness. But Pongo claims that they also disobeyed him, and grounds them for a week, smugly adding that they'll survive if it if they "work together".
• Capture and Replicate: In "The Two Faces of Anita", Cruella locks Anita in her office and continues to impersonate her using plastic surgery.
• A Cat in a Gang of Dogs: Sergeant Tibbs is a feline character among dogs and is one of the top officers of the mostly-canine Bark Brigade.
• Cassette Craze: Cruella de Vil is often seen speaking into one: "Memo to myself:..."
• Casting Gag:
  • In the series, Jasper and Horace are voiced by the actors who played the comic duo Lenny and Squiggy on the TV show Laverne & Shirley.
  • In the Japanese dub, Cruella is voiced by Miyuki Ichijou, who previously voiced Anita, ironically enough, in the 1981 Japanese dub of the animated film.
  • Ed Pig and Dumpling aren't the first time Jim Cummings and Christine Cavanaugh played a father and daughter in a Disney animated series.
• Chain of People:
  • In the episode, "Chow About That", Lucky and Cadpig do this to rescue Rolly from the flowing river, but of course, once Lucky grabbed Rolly, his added weight caused the tree branch to break.
  • In the episode, "Splishing and Splashing", Lucky, Rolly and Cadpig do this as a Tarzan impersonation to rescue Spot from an alligator.
  • In the episode, "Animal House Party", all four of the main pups do this while hanging from a ceiling fan so they can brush Persian Pete.
• Chained Heat: Cadpig handcuffs herself to Pug in "Howl Noon" to get him to face his fears and stand up to his childhood bully who's paying him a visit. Pug does decide to go face the bully, but unfortunately for Cadpig, she doesn't have the keys to the handcuffs and is forced to tag along.
• Character Catchphrase: Rolly has two known catchphrases: "Oh, papa!" and "Are you calling me fat?" The pups have also said, "Holy Chimichanga!" a couple of times, but that one didn't really catch on.
• Characterization Marches On: Compared to the original movie, Lucky is a lot closer in temperament and personality to his book-counterpart.
• Chaste Toons: Anita and Cruella both had nieces. Which really take after their aunts.
• Christmas Episode: "A Christmas Cruella", the inevitable Yet Another Christmas Carol parody. Later released on video.
• Church of Happyology: In the third part of "Dalmatian Vacation", Anita meets "The Society for Achieving Utopian Consciousness via Extra-Terrestrial Rebirth and Desert Operational Lacrosse Team" (or Saucer Dolts) in the desert. They are waiting for the mother ship to take them to another planet but can't agree which one.
• Clip Show: There were two episodes that were clip shows. One was "Humanitarian of the Year", where Cruella attempts to win the mentioned title for publicity, while the pups find photographs she ordered Horace and Jasper to hide of her being her usual cruel self, bringing up clips from previous episodes (Oddly, there were no cameras present to take pictures of these situations). Next was "Horace and Jasper's Big Career Move", where Horace and Jasper try to find new jobs, bringing up events of previous episodes. "The Making Of..." uses a few clips from previous episodes at first, but then goes off on its' own.
• Clockwork Prediction: In "You Slipped A Disk", after Roger finds the disk, a video game of Cruella as the main villain, "The Cruellanator", that he didn't want Cruella to see is missing, he scolds Lucky for not watching it and rhetorically asks him if he knows what Cruella would do if she saw it. He tells Lucky that she'll screech right over here in that hideous car, march up the stairs, and shout, "ROGER DEARLY!" As it turns out, though, she loves the video game, but she made one minor change to it: The Cruellanator is now the Fashionator.
• Company Cross References:
  • In "Mall Pups," Lt. Pug is knocked into a basket of toys which includes a Woody doll.
  • While she doesn't refer to it by name, Cadpig refers to seeing Cinderella when she suggests that the pups should make a dress for Amber, Roger & Anita's niece.
  • The mermaid on Captain Ahab's ship is Ariel.
  • Pumbaa makes a cameo in "Good Neighbor Cruella".
  • Rolly has a doll of Mickey Mouse in "Roll Out the Pork Barrel".
• Composite Character:
  • The whole show is a mix of the animated film and the live-action one. For instance, Cruella still owns a fashion company and employs Anita (like in the remake), but she apparently never went to prison (like in the cartoon... maybe).
  • The series has Cadpig who was in the book, but was never mentioned in either the animated or live action movies.
• Compressed Vice: In "Cruella World", Lucky is said to have the habit of constantly stretching the truth, making it so that nobody believes him when he tries to tell them about Cruella's latest evil scheme. Despite the fact that everyone treats this as an established trait of Lucky's, with all the animals already distrusting any of Lucky's stories by the start of the episode, he's never seen embellishing his stories in any other episode, and he's never had any issue of anybody not believing his stories, especially when they concern Cruella.
• Cone of Shame: Lucky in one episode had to wear a cone after falling from a high tree branch and getting stitches. Cue humiliation from the other dogs.
• Contemporary Caveman: In "Jurassic Bark", Lucky finds a frozen cave pup under DeVil manor, and accidentally thaws him out.
• Continuity Nod: In the pilot episode, when Cruella has the three main pups locked in their old home in the city to use as ransom for the farm, the pups try to escape through the chimney, but they fall and get covered in soot (in the original film (and book) the dogs covered themselves in soot to make Cruella think they were Labradors). Lucky even lampshades this:
  Lucky: This feels very familiar.
• Convenience Store Gift Shopping: done in the Christmas episode "A Christmas Cruella". Cruella has a Christmas Carol Intervention and decides to get gifts for everyone. But, since nothing is open on Christmas except the 'House Of DeVil' (her fashion house), she gives everyone office supplies.
• Cool Old Guy: The Colonel may come off as a tad stuffy and dull in his tone, but he's more more capable and competent than his film counterpart.
• Courtroom Episode: "Twelve Angry Pups", in which Mooch is suspected of stealing from multiple animals on the farm, and Lucky is appointed as his defense attorney despite also believing Mooch to be guilty.
• Covers Always Lie: The VHS cover of the Christmas Episode is a perfect example. The title of the video reads "A 101 Dalmatians Christmas", when it's actually called "A Christmas Cruella". Not only that, but the cover shows Pongo, Lucky, Rolly, Cadpig, Tripod, Wizzer, Dipstick, Patch and Two-Tone playing around with presents and Christmas decorations giving the impression that that is what the special is all about, when really, a majority of it is focused on Cruella.
• Creator Cameo: Willie, the leader of the Saucer Dolts in "Dalmatian Vacation", was modeled after producer Jim Jinkins; he also wears a sweater-vest/shirt combo similar to the main character of Jinkins' other show.
• Crying Wolf: Lucky's constant exaggerations of the truth earns him this reputation in "Cruella World", which makes it so that no one believes him when he tells them that Cruella is using her theme park as a cover to pump for oil in the swamp.
• Cultural Translation: The show is clearly set in the U.S. judging from the accents and the presence of a mailbox reading "US MAIL" at one point. All the characters from the movie jarringly have their British accents and mannerisms altered according to this (this is particularly noticable with the Colonel, originally an uptight Britannic officer parody, now a Southern-Fried Private).
• Curse Escape Clause: The cursed village of DeVil Ville from "DeVil-Age Elder" curses anyone who enters to be mindlessly happy and refuse to leave; however, it has no effect on chickens, Spot to be precise; and anyone kissed by a chicken will be released from the curse.
• Cut-and-Paste Note: In the first episode, Cruella gets a hold of some of the puppies and decides to send Roger and Anita a ransom note. We see her stitching it together on a sewing machine! Later when Roger is on the phone with the police, he says that he's certain it's Cruella because "who else sends ransom notes that are dry clean only?"
• Cute Bruiser: Cadpig. She's the runt of the litter, and thus physically very small, and possesses a usually cheerful demeanor. But when she gets angry, she is a force to be reckoned with. Prominently seen in the episode "My Fair Moochie", who dishes out punishment on nearly every other major character and even manages to win a wrestling match against a foe who managed to clobber every single animal on the Dearly farm.
• Daddy's Girl: Dumpling is this to her father, Ed Pig, due to the latter constantly spoiling her and complimenting her.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Two-Tone, mostly a background character with barely any lines, had a prominent role in "Love 'Em And Flea 'Em" when Lucky asks to take her to the dance.
  • Lt. Pug was mostly the antagonistic authority figure leading drills, in the episode "Howl Noon", he is the central character as he has to stand up against his childhood bully.
  • Jasper and Horace have their limelight episode in "Horace And Jasper's Big Career Move", a clip show in which they apply for new employment by exaggerating all of their odd jobs and criminal activities into huge successes.
  • Mooch, normally just a bully that shows up to make fun of Lucky or one of the other main characters, took center stage in the episodes "Twelve Angry Pups" and "My Fair Moochie"
  • Dumpling is featured as a primary character in "Hog Tied"
• Dead All Along: Subverted in "De Vil-age Elder". Although Spot originally believes Dimsdale De Vil to be a ghost, it turns out that he and the rest of the town was placed under a curse. The village would disappear only to return one day every hundred years, allowing centuries to go by in the rest of the world while everyone in the town would only age a few days.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • This is most apparent with Pongo and Perdita, who were the main characters in the original movie but here, they are rarely given any focus, and even then, it’s as supporting characters, with the show having a greater emphasis on the pups’ relationship with Roger and Anita instead.
  • The large majority of the animal cast from the original movie for that matter, most episodes focusing mainly on Lucky, Rolly, Cadpig and Spot as the leads.
• Denser and Wackier: Compared to the original animated film and the live-action remake, the series is a lot more comical, featuring standard sitcom plots and cartoon slapstick humor. Plots also tended to be less grounded and more fantastical such as characters getting trapped in a video game or accidentally traveling into space.
• Deserted Island: In the episode "Shipwrecked", Lucky and Scorch end up on one after falling overboard on a cruise. The island was comically small with nothing but a dead tree in the middle.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Cruella's niece, Ivy, comes across as a sweet innocent little girl when around other human characters outside her family, but is actually more devious and twisted than her own aunt. Her dolls and baby stroller are actually disguised machinations of destruction and although her plans are nearly always foiled, her evil nature is never discovered by the human characters. The only ones outside the family who know are the Dalmatians and Spot.
• Didn't Think This Through: When the other three express reluctance to skip Bark Brigade to go to the mall, Lucky says they can just get the first dog to give them an official pardon. Of course, that plan hinged on them actually getting to the first dog, which they ultimately fail to do.
• The Ditherer: Two-Tone. A Running Gag with her involves her opinion of someone or something rapidly changing as she talks about it.
• Dog Walks You: At the start of the pilot, when Nanny takes the 99 dalmatians for a walk in the city, she is seen being dragged behind them.
• Don't Ask: In "You Say It's Your Birthday", said by Lucky shortly after Spot goes to pack her things.
  Rolly: What things could a chicken possibly have?
  Lucky: Don't ask.
• The Door Slams You: Happens to Cruella in "He Followed Me Home" when Nanny slams the barn door on her and she ends up flattened on the other side.
• Dub Name Change:
  • Cadpig is Goliath^note an Ironic Name, since Goliath was a giant, and a Cadpig is a term for the smallest animal in a litter in some dubs, others Penny (a character from the 1961 movie).
  • Spot is called Kwoka in the Russian dub. Don't ask why.
  • Cadpig is renamed to Hedvig in the Norwegian dub.
  • In the Dutch version Cadpig is Floppy.
• Duck!: In "The Nose Knows", Lucky, Cadpig, Rolly, Spot, and Lieutenant Pug are riding a mine cart through an Abandoned Mine. At one point, the dogs all shout "Duck!" as they duck into the mine cart. Spot, a chicken, asks them "Duck? What is it with you guys and poultry?" before she gets hit by a low-hanging support beam.

E-I

• Election Day Episode: The episode "Citizen Canine", in which Lucky decides to run against Ed Pig as the farm's mayor, after the mayor makes a few too many unfair laws.
• Elevator Floor Announcement: One episode has a variation of this: the puppies (and Spot) sneak into Cruella's enormous ride-through closet, which shuttles them along as a prerecorded voice points out the various sections along the way. And the last one listed is "lingerie".
• Elongating Arm Gag: In the episode "Chow About That?", Lucky extends his arm off-screen to grab Cadpig. This does not occur in any other episode.
• Embarrassment Plot: The episode "Love 'Em And Flea 'Em", Lucky is accidentally turned pink after food coloring fell into his flea bath, and on the night of the big dance too. He tries to hide his pink coloration from his date using flour, but it eventually comes off.
• Enemy Mine:
  • In "Virtual Lucky", Lucky and Cruella are sucked into a video game together, and though they spend the majority of the episode competing against each other, they realize that the only way to escape is by working together, which they do.
  • In "Shipwrecked", Lucky and Scorch are stranded on an island together and originally they each try to fend for themselves, but their constant fighting ends up sabotaging their efforts to survive. They eventually realize that they have to work together to get themselves rescued.
• Engineered Public Confession: In "Dog Food Day Afternoon", in order to prove that Cruella is putting saw dust in her dog food and selling it to the public, the pups steal Cruella's tape recorder in which she recorded herself admitting to the deception and playing it on the loudspeakers at the fair.
• Episode Title Card: the show used ones with the title on a spotted background. Most episodes alternated between blue and red spotted backgrounds, as well as lighter variants that included white spots as well. The Christmas Episode had an animated title card which was white with black spots.
• Especially Zoidberg: From the episode "Channels":
  Rolly: This was a lot more fun than just sitting around watching TV... even the Gravy Channel!
  Cadpig, Lucky and Spot: Especially the Gravy Channel!
• Even Evil Has Standards: As manipulative and two-faced as Ivy de Vil is, in "Coup de Vil" she's freaked out at the possibility of an asteroid potentially killing Cruella and the rest of de Vils. She manages to redirect the asteroid at the last second and saves everyone's lives, which is especially poignant as she'd been named Cruella's heir and would've benefited from Cruella's death.
• Evil Brit: While the rest of the characters are Americanized, Cruella, judging by her accent, remains British. Hmm...
• Exact Words: In "Devil Age Elder", when Judge Dimsdale DeVil betrays Cruella, he mentions that when the town was cursed, the Witch said that "The Evil DeVil shall be bound within the town's borders". She did not, however, specify which Evil DeVil, so Judge Dimsdale plots to have Cruella take his place in the town.
• Expressive Ears: The dogs' ears droop when they are upset about something.
• Expressive Hair: Cruella De Vil's niece, Ivy, has two pigtails that stick upward and curve like devil horns whenever her bad side shows.
• Expy: Being by the same creators and all, Mooch and his gang are very similar to Roger and his gang.
• Eyedscreen: When Lt. Pug decides to face his nemesis in "Howl Noon," the scene is presented in letterbox widescreen, but then switches box to the normal aspect ratio when Cadpig (who is chained to Pug) pulls them underground to hide.
• Fairy Godmother: Spot has a Fairy God-Chicken in the episode "Spot's Fairy-God Chicken" that transforms her into a dog like she's always wanted.
• Family Disunion: The episode "Coup DeVil" has Cruella hosting a reunion for the DeVils, in which her mother challenges the whole family to try and steal the farm from the Dearlys. In the end, Cruella finally stands up to her mother, finally earning her respect.
• Fantastic Racism: Pug, who constantly expresses his inexpiable hatred of cats, even around Sgt. Tibbs who is a cat. All the Dalmatians and other Animals groan in disapproval when ever he gets like this, often saying "Not this again!".
• Fate Worse than Death: In "De Vil-Age Elder", Dimsdale De Vil is cursed to spend eternity in Devilville with the people he tormented being mindlessly happy and immune to his cruelty.
• Feud Episode: Taken to extremes in "Mooove It On Over". What starts as a typical disagreement between the cows Duchess and Princess morphs into a farm-wide war in which every animal chooses a side and starts fighting when Cadpig decides to get involved.
• Firefighting Episode: In "Hail to the Chief'', Rolly trains with Lieutenant Pug to win a contest for the town fire dog. When one of Cruella's schemes results in the barn of Dearly Farm catching fire, Rolly proves his worth by saving the animals and helping the firemen put the fire out.
• Firehouse Dalmatian: The episode, "Hail to the Chief", has the pups dreaming of working at the fire station and earning the title of chief fire dog, although in later episodes, they remain at the Dearly Farm.
• First Pet Story: Somewhat unusual since the main characters are themselves pets, but in the episode "He Followed Me Home", the pups take in a stray baby elephant that got separated from a circus. They treat the elephant as their pet and they try to feed it, clean it, and keep it out of trouble all while keeping its existence a secret from Cruella. In the end, they realize that keeping a pet is too much responsibility for them, and let it return to the circus.
• Floating in a Bubble:
  • In the episode "He Followed Me Home", Cadpig ends up in a floating bubble while trying to give a bubble bath to the baby elephant they've been trying to keep as a pet.
  • In the episode "Mall Pups", Cadpig, Rolly, and Lucky all end up in bubbles when they get caught in a bubble machine while running from Pug in a toy store in the mall.
• Follow Your Nose: Rolly does this many times throughout the series.
• Forcibly Formed Physique: The main characters fall into this several times throughout the series, such as in "You Slipped A Disk", in which Rolly squeezes himself through a crack in the wall taking a triangular shape for a few seconds. In "Leisure Lawsuit", the 3 puppies and Spot the chicken end up squeezed into a cube shape together trying to squeeze through an air vent.
• Fountain of Youth: In the episode "Fountain Of Youth", Cruella believes that the water on the Dearly Farm is this, due to a series of misunderstandings.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Mostly averted, as most humans we see are shown to have the correct number of digits on their hands. Though, it does get lampshaded, when played straight in "Close, But No Cigar", when a TV announcer used his hands to visualise a $10,000 prize, then realised he was lacking in digits.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: In "A Christmas Cruella", while Cadpig as the Ghost of Christmas Past does pity Cruella for how her parents were never home for Christmas, she still points out that does not excuse the younger Cruella for taking her anger out on others.
• Free-Range Pets: The dalmatians are often seen leaving the farm on their own to go to various places around town, such as the mall, the movie theater, or the fair.
• Friend to All Living Things: Anita's niece, Amber, is universally loved by the animals on the farm due to her kind and caring nature.
• Game Between Heirs: During a Family reunion, Malevola DeVil announced she'd bequeath her whole estate to the relative who takes Dearly Farm for her. Though nobody won the "game", Malevola ends up declaring Cruella her sole heir once she finally stands up to her for all the abuse and criticism she's recieved all her life.
• Game Show Appearance: Lucky appears on his favorite game show, Squeal of Fortune, with Steven the alligator.
• Gang of Bullies: Mooch is usually seen with his gang: Wizzer, who despite having the least speaking roles, seems to be Mooch's right hand, Dipstick, the dim pup, and Two-Tone, who once was Mooch's girlfriend, but left the gang later due to her relationship with Lucky.
• Garage Sale: The episode "Love 'Em and Flea 'Em" begins with Two-Tone looking through a yard sale box for something she can wear to impress Mooch, hoping he'll ask to go to a dance with her. Her quote about yard sales has become quite memetic among fans of the series.
  Two-Tone: Yard sale? I love yard sales! Actually, I hate yard sales. Of course, the pros of a yard sale are the bargains, but the cons of a yard sale are that the items are used! Ick!
• Generation Xerox: The nieces, Ivy to Amber.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: the episode "De Vil-Age Elder" had the three dalmatians, Spot the chicken, and their owners finding themselves in a medieval town that appears every 100 years. It's revealed that Cruella's ancestor ruled the town with an iron fist, and when no one stood up to oppose him, the town's witch (who also looks like the nanny's ancestor) puts a curse on the town that makes everyone and anyone who enters it mindlessly happy, making Cruella's ancestor all the more miserable in comparison. One by one, all the characters (except Spot, who was exempt from the curse because the witch had a pet chicken, and Cruella, who was her ancestor's descendent) fall under the spell, gaining mind control swirly eyes and becoming completely complacent. Spot manages to break them out of their spell by kissing them (also dispelling a fellow medieval puppy who thought Cruella's ancestor was a kind and loving man, who then vows to prevent Cruella's ancestor from making trouble, as he had planned to use Cruella as a replacement for the town so he may escape) and run out of the town before it disappears for the next 100 years.
• Ghost Story: Lt. Pug scares the pups with one while on a camping trip in "Goose Pimples". He tells them of a horrible monster who lives in the woods named Lockjaw. Throughout the rest of the episode, the pups believe that Lockjaw is in the woods with them, and then they start to disappear one by one...
• Gilligan Cut:
  • In the pilot episode, when the pups hear they are moving to the farm:
  Lucky: Let me make this perfectly clear: We. Are not. Moving.
  (Cut to Lucky staring angrily out of the bus window as it departs from their old home.)
  • In "Shake, Rattle and Woof", when the pups notice the animals wearing embarrassing costumes, Lucky says, "You'll never see me in one of those get-ups!" Then comes the Gilligan Cut showing Lucky in an Elvis Presley costume.
  • In "Walk a Mile In My Tracks", Pug's final test is egg-sitting. At first, Cadpig says that will be "easy-peasy"...that is until after the Gilligan Cut when it is revealed that Pug has to sit on the world's largest egg!
• Glamour Failure: When Cruealla uses plastic surgery to impersonate Anita, her disguise isn't water proof and can melt off if Cruella sweats too much, which the pups use to foil her.
• Goo Goo Getup: In "Walk on the Wild Side", Rolly wears a baby bonnet and rides in a baby carriage, with Swamp Rat disguised as his mother to steal a fancy collar from Dipstick. In a later scene, the roles are reversed when Swamp Rat and Rolly steal carrots from Frank the Rabbit.
• Grand Finale: "Dalmatian Vacation", which comprises of the final 3 episodes of the series and is the only multi-parter in the series which can be seen as a full length movie put together. The Dearlys attempt to go on vacation, but it starts to fall apart when Cruella invites herself and forces Anita to work. Eventually, Cruella hatches a scheme to steal the farm by breaking Roger and Anita up and keeping them from getting married.
• Granola Girl: Cadpig is arguably the closest a (non-anthropomorphized) dog can get to this.
• Grass is Greener: In "Lucky To Be Alone", Lucky gets tired of living with 98 brothers and sisters and wants more personal space. Pongo and Perdita get the idea to send him to stay with his wealthy cousins, the Vandercreams, where he gets to stay in a massive mansion with a room all to himself, with a butler and all the luxuries he can imagine. While there are some things he likes and other things he doesn't, the thing he ended up missing the most was being able to spend time with his family.
• Great Detective: Spot's alter-ego — Pullet Marlow, Private Chick.
• Green Aesop: The episode "Oozy Does It" centers around Cruella dumping toxic waste from her jeans factory into Hiccup Hole, leading to the pup's favorite swimming spot being contaminated and them trying to teach Cruella to be kinder to the environment.
• Green Around the Gills: In "The Dogs of De Vil", Lucky and Cadpig turn entirely green in a seasickness moment.
• Green Gators: Steven, the Swamp Rat's alligator henchman is dark green.
• Grocery Store Episode: In "Market Mayhem", the main pups sneak into the grocery store to stop Nanny from buying a cheaper brand of dog food than the Kanine Krunchies brand they're used to. Meanwhile, Cruella tries to convince the owners of the market to retire so she can buy the store.
• Growling Gut: Each one of the four main pups suffers one of these at some point in the series, but it most frequently happens to Rolly for obvious reasons.
• Handicapped Badass: Tripod, the three-legged dog. Despite missing a leg, he is clearly the most athletic and determined of the puppies.
• Harem Ending: To Cruella of all people. In the finale, a whole bunch of men that Cruella has met throughout the series, including a cult who believe her to be their alien leader, all admit to having feelings for her and want to marry her right away.
• Harmless Freezing:
  • Occurs in the episode "Close But Not Cigar" when the main puppies and Spot get frozen inside an ice truck.
  • Also happens in "Jurassic Bark" when Lucky finds a "cave pup" frozen underground.
  • Happens again in "Snow Bounders" to Cruella, Lucky, Rolly, Cadpig and Spot when they are caught in a snowstorm.
  • Happens to P.H. DeVil in "Food For Thought" when he ends up falling in the machinery in his own food factory.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: Rolly gets stuck several times, but most of the time, he manages to get himself unstuck by himself. Only a few times did he require help, most notably in the episodes, "You Slipped a Disk", "Southern Fried Cruella" and "Roll Out the Pork Barrel".
• Hidden Heart of Gold:
  • Cruella showed subtle signs of this at times.
  • Also Horace.
• High-School Dance: A barnyard equivalent occurs in "Love 'Em And Flea 'Em", in which Lucky asks his sister Two-Tone to the dance.
• High-Speed Train Reroute: In "No Train, No Gain", Cruella steals the Dearlys' vintage train car and plots to sell it to a boy billionaire so she can make a handsome profit. However, as this car is the home of the Colonel, he, along with Lucky, Cadpig, Rolly, and Spot foil her plan by uncoupling the car from the train as it reaches the top of the mountain so it will roll back down. When Cruella tries to chase after the runaway car, Rolly switches the points to divert Cruella's train onto a disused track.
• Huge Rider, Tiny Mount: Cadpig has shown several times in the series that she can easily support Lucky's weight despite being much smaller than him.
• Human Ladder: The main pups do this quite regularly. Most traditionally, the lineup is Lucky on top, Cadpig in the middle, and Rolly on the bottom, for obvious reasons. It's even shown twice in the show's opening sequence - curiously, though, in both cases it's Rolly who is on top.
• Hypno Pendulum: Cadpig attempts to use this on Lieutenant Pug in "Howl Noon" to get him to face his fears and stand up to his childhood bully, Persian Pete. In the end, Pug uses Cadpig (Who has been strapped to him with handcuffs) as a pendulum to hypnotize and defeat Persian Pete.
• Hypocritical Humor: Cadpig believes in world peace and preaches non-violent solutions to problems but then beats up other dogs for insulting her friends or family members or attacks Cruella right after stating her opposition to violence.
• Idea Bulb: Lucky gets one in "Barnboozled" when he figures out to drive Cruella out of the barn.
• Idiosyncratic Wipes:
  • One was dalmatian spots appearing, blackening the scene, and then disappearing to show the next scene.
  • Another one used the same format, but with paw prints.
  • One was silhouetted puppies running across the screen, and sometimes it was Cruella's car.
• I Don't Think That's Such a Good Idea: Spot is Closer to Earth than the puppies and will often voice her concern over their latest Zany Scheme, only to be ignored.
• I Just Want to Have Friends:
  • Dumpling in "Hog Tied" who forces herself into the Dalmatians' group because she saw how much fun and excitement they were having on their adventures. In the end, she forms her own group with new friends.
  • Also Cruella on the rare occasion, even if she doesn't want to admit it. As seen in "Valentine Daze" when she feels depressed because no one ever sends her valentines.
• Ill-Timed Sneeze:
  • In the episode "Home Is Where the Bark Is", Lucky, Cadpig and Rolly make many attempts to escape from their old house (which they are trapped inside). In one of these attempts, they form a Human Ladder (or rather, dog ladder) to get out through the chimeny. However, the second after their totem was formed, Lucky (at the top) loosened some soot, which got into Rolly's nose, and his sneeze caused the totem to collapse.
  • In "Goose Pimples", while Pug and Spot are hiding from Lock Jaw, Pug tells Spot that poorly timed sneezes can give away hiding spots and tells her not to do it, but he ends up doing it.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Cruella is downgraded to one for the more slapstick tone of the show (Jasper and Horace are even worse). Several other one shots are also added to the mix.
• Inflating Body Gag:
  • Happens to Rolly in "Food For Thought" after he is fed ice cream with a helium-based additive by PH De Ville. Rolly eventually inflates and is able to float around in the air.
  • Happens to Spot in "Oozy Does It" and "Snow Bounders". In the former it happens when Spot tries to deflate car tires with her beak, causing her to fill up with air. In the latter, it happens when she tries to inflate an inflatable tent but too much air is released the other way.
• Injection Plot: The episode "Spots And Shots" has Lucky being afraid of getting a shot when a veterinarian comes to the farm to give them all vaccinations. He spends the whole episode trying to hide, and in the end succeeds, as the vet leaves without giving Lucky his shot. Unfortunately, Lucky ends up immediately getting the disease that the shot was meant to keep him from getting.
• Inside a Computer System: In "Virtual Lucky" due to a freak power surge Cruealla and Lucky both end up sucked into Roger's video game and must compete against each other in a series of levels to earn the right to return to the real world. Cadpig and Rolly are also eventually sucked into the game. In the end, they all had to work together with Cruella in order to escape.
• Insurrectionist Inheritor: Malevola DeVil (Cruella's mother) named Cruella her sole heir when Cruella finally had the guts to tell how much she despises Malevola.
• Interspecies Romance: Rolly fell in love with Dumpling the pig, and she was also attracted to Lucky.
• Introductory Opening Credits: The theme song features scenes of the four main characters against a colored backdrop riding on a spot with their names displayed behind them.
• I Owe You My Life: In "The Life You Save", Dumpling believes that Lucky has saved her life and then makes herself to be Lucky's slave, annoying Lucky until he tries to get her to save his life.
• Iris Out: Most episodes would end this way, usually with the standard circle. "Love 'em and Flea 'em" used a heart, as did "Swine Song" and "My Fair Moochie", while some used a star, like "Shake, Rattle, and Woof" and "Lucky All-Star". On a few occasions, the iris out was parodied by characters trying to keep the iris out open while trying to say something and other stuff.
• Ironic Hell: DeVil Ville is this to Judge Dimsdale DeVil. As part of the punishment for his crimes of tormenting the townspeople and to keep the world safe from the Evil DeVil, a Witch casts a spell on the townspeople, whose misery Dimsdale DeVil lived for, to be mindlessly happy to make the Evil DeVil all the more miserable in comparison.
• It Runs on Nonsensoleum: When Lucky needs a needle, he finds one by tearing apart the nearest haystack. Cue groans.
• It's All About Me: Cruella, only seems to think about herself at the expense of others. The Christmas episode plays this up especially, when she fires Anita for asking to take Christmas off. When the spirits of Christmas past and present try to get her to think about how her actions affect other people, she admits that she doesn't understand why she should care about other people since other people aren't her.

J-N

• Jerkass:
  • Lt. Pug is the resident Drill Sergeant Nasty who relishes in tormenting his recruits and punishes them with very little provocation. In one episode, he took over the pup's special hangout just because he wanted it.
  • Mooch is The Bully who is constantly teasing the other characters and picking fights with them. In one episode, he tries to ruin Lucky's date with Two-Tone by infecting him with fleas and then by painting his fur pink, out of sheer jealousy.
  • Swamp Rat is a con artist and a swindler always looking to make a deal. He's usually an affably neutral character who assists the main characters by getting them items that they need for the plot, but will also just as likely pose a Deal with the Devil with the main characters, such as in the "High Price of Fame" where Swamp Rat arranges for Spot to be praised as a hero on the farm in exchange for all of her feathers. In the episode "Animal House Party", Swamp Rat kicks the pups out of their owner's house in order to throw a wild party while the humans are gone.
  • Cruella De Vil and her entire family. Cruella is completely narcissistic and self-serving, and when she's not plotting to steal the farm, she's taking advantage of her employees, mistreating her underlings, or trying to swindle her customers with some zany scheme. Her mother and niece are shown to be just as wicked, if not moreso than her. Her cousin P.H. Devil regularly performs horrific experiments on animals.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Inverted with Lucky, a very mild example who was usually nice.
  • Cruella, on the other hand, was quite clearly a lonely Jerk with a Heart Of Gold.
• Just One Extra Ticket: In the episode "Two For The Show", Lucky scores a ticket to compete in his favorite game show, and needs to choose one of his friends to be his teammate. However, he ends up annoying them all with his tests and attitude, that none of them want to go with him.
• Kangaroo Court: "12 Angry Pups," complete with a public defender who openly states that he believes the defendant to be guilty and a judge who doesn't even try to hide that he's taking bribes.
• Kavorka Girl: Cruella managed to attract a lot of men in this series, they all came Back for the Finale.
• Kid Heroes: The main cast were all pretty young after all.
• Large Ham: Cruella DeVil has a flair for the dramatic, wearing over the top outfits, and throwing major tantrums when she doesn't get her way.
• Last Day to Live: In "Alive 'N Chicken", through a series of overheard partial conversations, Spot believes she only has a few hours left to live. The other pups don't believe it for a moment, but decide to use the opportunity to get Spot to live a more full life by getting her to do things she would never do under normal circumstances.
• Laugh Track: In "You Slipped a Disk," one is briefly played after Lucky accidentally pounces Rolly and Cadpig suggests "Um... Lucky? Next time, why don't you tackle the bad guy?" It comes up again in the episode's second half, "Chow About That?," when she suggests that Rolly is having a "psychic sugar rush." It also comes up in "It's a Sawmp Thing" after Lucky says to Spot, "I said a scarf, not a muffler!"
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: During the Grand Finale, Wile E. Coyote (!) briefly stops chasing the Road Runner to answer the Twilight Bark.

• Limited Animation: This show has a more UPA-stylized look than the film it's based on, with the character designs and backgrounds being more abstract. The animation quality is conventional for the most part, but sometimes, since the show contains many animation directors, it may look rough or not depending on how many frames per second.
• Literal Split Personality: The episode "Good Neighbor Cruella" has Cruella DeVil split herself in two in order to improve her public image by having her good side do good deeds for her. The good-Cruella ended up being more obnoxious and intolerable than the evil-Cruella, due to her overbearingness and niavety. The puppies end up fusing her back together, since both her halves are even harder to handle than a single Cruella.

• Little Miss Snarker:
  • Ivy De Vil.
  Ivy: I don't mind, Auntie Cruella can FAIL first!
  • And Cadpig.
• Live Mink Coat: Cruella sometimes wears her ferret, Scorch, around her neck like a boa.
• Long-Lost Uncle Aesop: Cruella's mother Malevola appears in one episode and announces during a family reunion that she will leave her fortune to the De Vil who gets Dearly Farm for her. Cruella wins but, once she hears her mother announcing her intention to move there, undoes it all - no matter how much she loves money, it's not worth having to put up with her mother all the time. Once Cruella gets bold enough to say this to her mother, Malevola is unexpectedly proud of her for finally proving to be a De Vil, and makes Cruella her heiress anyway.
• Lost in Imitation (again): The premise and cast are a motley mix of all three previous versions. The characters all look (more or less) like the ones from the 1961 film, and Cruella apparently never went to jail, but Anita works for Cruella's fashion company, Roger is a video game developer, their last name is Dearly, and all the new puppies from the 1996 film get secondary roles. And Cadpig, who only appeared in the original book, is one of the lead characters!
• Love at First Punch: In the episode "My Fair Moochie", both Mooch and a visiting wrestler fall for Cadpig after she beats them up.
• Luminescent Blush: In "Beauty Pageant Pandemonium", an irate Ivy's face turns red when her chances at winning the contest (due to her aunt Cruella's not-so-full-proof plan) turn bust.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: Cruella's "Memo to myself...[Some reminder, often something related to a new fashion design or an evil plot]"
• Mad Scientist: P.H. De Vil, Cruella's cousin who she often collaborates with to carry out some of her schemes. He's usually inventing some kind of device to accomplish some evil deed, such as an earthquake machine, a personality splitter, and a robotic version of Rolly. He is also willing to test dangerous chemicals on animals without any consideration of the harm he may be doing to them.
• Malicious Misnaming: Cruella has a habit of addressing Roger with other R words like Rupert, Roadhog, Retro, Rudolph, etc. Very rarely does she get his name right.
• Match Cut: Occurs in the first episode. After Roger announces that they're moving from their home in the city to the country, Lucky says, "Let me make myself perfectly clear: We. Are not. Moving." and we see a closeup of his angry face. The scene dissolves into Lucky on the Dalmatian bus with everyone else, still with the same face.
• Mean Boss: Cruella De Vil towards her employees at her fashion company, particularly Anita. She often has her employees work late and for very little pay or credit.
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: Spot claims that "Mystery" is her middle name as part of a spoof Private Eye Monologue.
  Spot: Mystery is my middle name.
  Rolly: I thought it was Irma.
• Mind-Control Eyes: In "De Vil-age Elder", anyone under the curse of De Vil Ville will get swirling pink eyes.
• Mistaken for an Imposter: In "Invasion Of The Doggy Snatchers", Spot believes that her friends have been replaced by aliens.
• Monster Clown: In "You Say It's Your Birthday", Cruella attempts to sabotage the Dearlys' surprise party for the pups while under the impression that it's Anita working for her competitor. She infiltrates it while disguised as a clown. As if she wasn't creepy enough.
• The Movie: The final three episodes of the series were also released as a direct-to-video movie, Dalmatian Vacation (but only in foreign countries), bringing the total number of 101 Dalmatian-themed Disney movies up to five.
• Movie-Theater Episode: In the episode "Film Fatale", the main pups want to go see the Thunderbolt movie at Cruella's movie theater, the Cruellaplex, but can't because the theater won't allow dogs. As a result, they try to sneak into the movie theater without Cruella or her henchmen finding them.
• Multi-Part Episode: The final three episodes of the series string together to tell one big story. The episodes are "Dalmatian Vacation Part 1", "Dalmatian Vacation Part 2", and "Dalmatian Vacation Part 3".
• Mythology Gag: At one point, in "No Train, No Gain", Cruella calls Roger "Radcliffe". In the original movie, Radcliffe is Roger's surname.

• Never Trust a Title: The show may have 101 Dalmatians, but a majority of the show focuses primarily on three pups and a chicken.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Before the series premiered, there was a promo of it at the beginning of the 1996 movies' VHS release, and a few VHS tapes of Disney's Doug showing clips that were never on the show (apparently from an unaired pilot that would become "You Slipped A Disk" and "Chow About That?"); one sketch was shown of a female puppy named Penny who got cut out completely. Some promos on TV (including idents used by then ABC-owned WTVG-13, in Toledo, OH on Saturday mornings) showed unseen clips (presumably also from the pilot) as well.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Among the Dalmatian pup trio (minus Spot Chicken), Rolly is a food-lover, friendly, mild-mannered and laid-back, Lucky is the hot-headed, adventurous ringleader and a TV addict, and Cadpig is a mix of The Cutie, Little Miss Snarker, Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness and Granola Girl.
• Niche Network: Various channels on the pups' TV set included "The All-Dog Network", "The All-Cat Network", "The Gravy Channel", "The Poultry Channel", "Swine TV", "The All-Fashion Network", and various others.
• Noir Episode: The episodes "The Maltese Chicken" and "K Is For Kibble" feature Spot in her Pullet Marlow persona trying to solve a mystery, in a parody of classic film noir mysteries.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Cadpig refers to Spot's "ugly Swiss bell-ringing incident" in "The Maltese Chicken".
  • What happened when Cruella's cousin Dina missed one of their family reunions. Cecil B. de Vil mentioned "Nothing a couple of rabies shots couldn't fix," with the strong implication she was mauled by Malevola de Vil's dogs.
  • The last time Cruella had a mood ring it exploded.
• Not Blood Siblings: This is presumably what was intended with Two-Tone and Lucky. They're love interests despite being siblings. In the original film they're related by blood. It's most likely the creators of the cartoon mistook Two-Tone for one of the adopted puppies.
• Not Me This Time: In "Twelve Angry Pups," Mooch is accused of stealing things from around the farm. The true culprit is revealed to be Lt. Pug, who was "gathering supplies" for the "great cat invasion."
• Note to Self: Cruella de Vil would make these on her tape recorder, despite never actually having lost her memory (well, except that one time).

O-Z

• Out of Focus: Pongo and Perdita are side characters in this show. Lampshaded in "The Making Of".
• Painted Tunnel, Real Train: "The Making of..." has several shout-outs to other shows, movies, and cartoons. One of them is a scene parodying the Wile E Coyote And The Roadrunner cartoons, with Cruella in the role of Wile E. and Spot in the role of Road Runner. Cruella paints a tunnel on a wall and chases Spot towards it. Spot goes through the tunnel, but when Cruella tries to follow her, she slams her car into the wall. Then a train comes out of the tunnel and knocks her off a cliff.
• Parental Bonus:
  • In "Purred It Through The Grape Vine", Swamp Rat tries to sell a magazine called "Eratica", with an image of a rat model. It is a play on the term "erotica", which is another name for a pornographic magazine.
  • In "Cupid Pups", Cruella refers to someone as a "silicone squeak toy"...Which is another term for a breast job.
• Pet Contest Episode: The episode "Best of Show", in which Roger enters Lucky, Rolly, and Cadpig in a dog show. Due to them not showing up on time, Spot had to enter in their place.
• Physical Fitness Punishment: Lt. Pug would frequently make the puppies do push ups any time he gets upset, which is often.
• Picked Last: Lt. Pug picks Lucky and Tripod as team leaders for cohesion drills in one episode. Spot is the last picked and Lucky even tries to pick a bucket instead because she is a chicken and the rest are dogs. She gets her own back later in the episode, though.
• Pink Means Feminine:
  • Dumpling, although this is justified since she is a pig.
  • Rebecca's neck ruff is pink, has pink eyes when hypnotized (they turn blue when she snaps out), and has a pink spot on her cheek shaped like a heart.

• Playing Cyrano: In "Swine Song", Cadpig acts as Cyrano, telling Rolly what to say to Dumpling.
• Playing Sick: In "Easy On The Lies", Rolly pretends to be injured to keep from having to hear one of the Colonol's boring stories, and end up going to extreme lengths to get to the watering hole without being seen by the Colonol and ruining the lie.
• Potty Failure: Wizzer's main character trait is his constant need to relieve himself, sometimes at the worst possible times in the worst possible places. He ends up relieving himself on Cruella in "A Christmas Cruella" and "Dalmatian Vacation Part 1".
• Pounds Are Animal Prisons: The pound that Cadpig gets sent to in "Cadpig Behind Bars" is situated on an island and actually does have cages with bars, a security card system to raise & lower the drawbridge, and a prison yard.
• Previously on…: "Dalmatian Vacation", the three-parter, narrated by Lucky.
• Prison Episode: The episode "Cadpig Behind Bars", where Cadpig is sent to the pound, which is run like a prison.
• Potty Failure: Wizzer (especially in part 1 of the 3-part series finale)
• Punny Name: A three legged dalmatian has the name Tripod, and Cruella's relatives P.H. de Vil (a Mad Scientist) and Cecil B. de Vil (a film director). And, oh yeah, Spot.
• Pyrrhic Victory: In the episode "Fungus Among Us", Cruella succeeds in stealing the mushrooms under the Dearlys' barn despite the pups trying everything in their power to stop her. Turns out, it was a good thing she took all the mushrooms, as they give off a horrific scent at night, which Cruella learns the hard way.
• Rail-Car Separation: In "No Train, No Gain", Cruella steals the Dearlys' vintage train car and plots to sell it to a boy billionaire so she can make a handsome profit. This train car happens to be the home of the Colonel, and Lucky, Cadpig, Rolly, and Spot have to find a way to get the car back to the Dearlys. The Colonel's plan is for them to uncouple the car from the train at the right time when the train goes up the mountain so that they can roll back down it and end up at Stiffle Station. The heroes proceed with their plan, though Cruella becomes aware of their presence and unsuccessfully tries to stop them.
• Real After All:
  • In the episode "Goose Pimples", Lt. Pug scares the pups with a story about a monster named Lockjaw. Throughout the episode, some characters believe that Lockjaw may be in the woods, while others think there's a rational explanation. In the end, what they thought was Lockjaw was just Captain the horse going around the woods trying to give the pups a hay ride. Although in the very last scene, it turns out that Lockjaw was real, and Cadpig is seen trying to mediate a conflict between him and Pug. Apparently Lockjaw didn't like all the mean stories Pug was spreading about him.
  • In the episode "Invasion of the Doggy Snatchers", Spot believes that her friends have been replaced by aliens. Though that turns out to not be the case, one of the chickens that Spot befriends in the episode does turn out to be an alien.
• Red Live Lobster: Cadpig rescues a bright red, living lobster from a seafood restaurant in the episode "Lobster Tale".
• Remember the New Guy?: Spot only appeared in one scene of "Home is Where the Bark Is" (asleep, no less), then in the next episode, she was friends with the main trio.
• Rent-a-Zilla: Chockzilla, rented from an ad agency by Cecil B. de Vil to destroy the Dearly farm.
• Road-Sign Reversal: Occurs in the first episode to lure Cruella away from the three main puppies she's chasing after in her car.
• Road Trip Plot: The three-part series finale "Dalmatian Vacation", in which Roger, Anita, all 101 pups, and even Cruella along with Horace and Jasper, go on a road trip to celebrate Roger and Anita's anniversary. Spot goes on a trip of her own to try to meet up with them.
• Robinsonade: The episode "Shipwrecked" has Lucky and Scorch tossed overboard during a three hour cruise and stranded on a tiny deserted island and have to learn to work together to get rescued.
• Robot Dog: P.H. Devil creates a robotic version of Rolly in "Robo-Rolly".
• The Runaway:
  • In the pilot, Lucky, Rolly, and Cadpig run away from their new home on the farm to continue living in their old home in the city. They realize that their home isn't the same without the rest of the family with them, and decide to return.
  • Spot also runs away in "The Good-Bye Chick" after being made to feel like she didn't fit in with the chickens, nor with the pups, and actually goes to join Cruella's circus, where she is made a part of the freak show.
• Scare Dare: Spot has to complete one in "Double Dog Dare". She has to break into Cruella's house and steal her sleeping mask right off of her face. The other characters reveal that they've also had to complete dares, and then they realize that Lucky has never done one. So Lucky has to help Spot with her dare.
• Scare the Dog:
  • A variation where Cadpig (who is the runt of the litter) was able to emotionally manipulate a group of vicious guard dogs by cruelly pointing out their flaws and weaknesses until they became a whimpering pile with self-esteem issues. Beware the Nice Ones indeed.
  • Cruella has this with most animals, but is especially notable in "Snow Bounders" when she manages to frighten a full grown grizzly bear.
• Scooby-Dooby Doors: Happens when Lucky, Rolly and Cadpig pursue Scorch in "You Slipped a Disk".

• Second Place Is for Losers/Spirited Competitor: Lucky.
  • Also Ivy in her later appearances.
• Seeking the Intangible: In one episode, when Lucky starts to shed and his horseshoe shaped spot disappears, Lucky believes that he has lost his luck. He tried to get it back by finding a new lucky charm, but comes to realize that he makes his own luck and never needed his spot.
• Shaking the Rump: Lucky and Rolly do this to taunt a sheriff. Lucky, Rolly, Cadpig and Spot later do this together.
• Shellshocked Veteran: Lt. Pug will often panic in mundane situations that he mistakes for something much more serious.
• Shout-Out: The episode "The Making of..." has several shout-outs to other shows, movies and cartoons, like The Dearly Bunch, First Bloodhound: Part Two, Doggie Houser, M.D. (Medical Dog), 2001 Dalmatians, a Simpsons-styled couch gag, a Road Runner mockup and The Cruella Show.
• Single-Issue Landlord: Though Cruella isn't technically the Dearlys' landlord, she nonetheless owns a copy of their deed and has on at least one occassion tried to prove that they have broken the terms of the deed so that she can buy the farm herself by proving that they have more animals than the number allowed by their contract. (101 plus the farm animals).
• Skipping School: In "Mall Pups", the pups decide to skip out on a Bark Brigade lesson in order to meet the First Dog at the mall. They spend the entire episode trying to avoid getting caught by Lt. Pug and due to them not knowing how to read maps (Incidentally the lesson they've skipped out on) they were never able to meet the First Dog.
• Skyward Scream: Rolly in "Chow About That?" "We... missed... LUNNNNCH!!!"
• Sleep Learning: In "Smoke Detectors", the puppies try to use this tactic on Cruella when she stays at the Dearly Farm to get her to stop smoking. However, the other side of the Stop Smoking tape is a tape for Dog Training, and since the puppies put the wrong side of the tape in the tape recorder, it results in Cruella acting like a dog.
• Sneeze of Doom: In "He Followed Me Home", a baby elephant the pups are trying to take care of ends up letting out a monster sneeze that sends the pups and Spot flying and crashing against the side of a farm silo.
• Something Only They Would Say: At the end of "Robo-Rolly", Lucky, Cadpig, and Spot go to Cruella's lair to rescue Rolly. Spot is initially suspicious and accuses Rolly of being another robot, but relents when Rolly asks to be let out, adding "I'm starving here!".
• So Proud of You: Once Cruella finally has enough of her mother's relentless criticizing and calls her out for being a hateful, domineering bitch, Malevola de Vil bursts into Tears of Joy and exclaims how proud she is at seeing Cruella's spine.
  Malevola de Vil: At last! The daughter I've always wanted! COME TO MOMMY!
• Space Episode: The episode "Out to Launch" has the pups hijack Cruella's spaceship and fly it into Earth's orbit.
• Spin-Offspring: In a way. Pongo and Perdita, the stars of the film, are Demoted To Extras, while their puppies Lucky, Rolly (both of whom were supporting characters themselves in the film) and Cadpig (who was only named in the book) take the spotlight. Lampshaded in the episode "The Making Of..." with a scene where Pongo and Perdita remark that they thought they were were going to star in the show but were told that the studio "decided to go for a younger look".
• Squashed Flat: Happens to every main character at least once throughout the series.
  • Cadpig has been flattened beneath Rolly's weight at least twice, in the episodes "You Slipped A Disk" and "Market Mayhem". In "Hog Tied", Lucky and Cadpig are both flattened by Rolly.
  • The pups are flattened multiple times in "He Followed Me Home" by the baby elephant they try to take care of. In the same episode, Cruella is flattened by a door.
• Squirrels in My Pants: Happens to Cruella with a jar of ants in "Cupid Pups" turning into an improvised conga line as everyone joins in behind her.
• Stating the Simple Solution:
  • In the Episode "Mooove On Over", The two cows, Duchess and Princess, are arguing that the other is taking up too much room in their stall. Cadpig tries to help, by using her own style of therapy on them, which eventually leads to the entire Dearly Farm at each other's throats. Duchess and Princess then explain what their issue is and Spot suggests they just open the side of their stall up, which they agree would work. Hearing how easy the solution is makes all the other animals enraged at Cadpig.
  • In the Episode "Film Fatale", the Dalmatians learn from a newspaper that the Thunderbolt movie is playing at the Cruellaplex Theater; however, said theater does not allow animals in. Spot suggests simply checking to see if the film is also playing at an animal-friendly theater, but Lucky's impulsiveness interrupts her before she gets a chance to check. After their misadventures in the Cruellaplex, they find the other Dalmatians watching the film at a drive-in theater, with Pongo showing them that the newspaper also said it was playing there.
• Stealth Insult: Cadpig, Lucky, and Spot's defense of Rolly against Mooch's accusation of cowardice in "Bad to the Bone" boils down to Rolly being "allergic to risk", preferring sleeping over fighting, and being a "cream puff". Rolly takes offense with being called a "cream puff".
• Stealth Pun: During one of the group's attempts to break up Cadpig and Mooch in "My Fair Moochie", Lucky sets up a bogus ring toss booth while dressed as an old-timey boardwalk barker.
• Sudden Anatomy:
  • Characters tend to sprout thumbs whenever a pose or action requires them.
  • Dumpling gains fists instead of her usual front trotters briefly in "Mooove It On Over" (possibly due to an animation error)
• Super-Strong Child: A lot of times, the main pups show that they're a lot stronger than they look, mainly Cadpig.
• Surgical Impersonation: In "The Two Faces of Anita", Cruella hires a plastic surgeon to make herself look exactly like Anita in order to decline a fashion design award for Anita and transfer it to Cruella.
• Surprise Party: In the episode "You Say It's Your Birthday", Roger and Anita decide to throw one for all of the dalmatian pups to celebrate the 101st day since their adoption. Though a series of misunderstandings occur leading the pups into believing that they're being given away to Cruella, while Cruella believes that Anita is moonlighting for her rival.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In "Mall Pups" the main pups skip Lt. Pug's Bark Brigade class to go meet the First Dog at the mall. They end up getting lost and do not succeed at meeting the First Dog...because the class they skipped was on how to read maps which they didn't know how to do.
• Sweet Home Alabama: Parodied in "Southern Fried Cruella," in which Cruella tried to convince a magazine editor giving out an award for humanitarianism that she was just a "good ol' sugar borrowing neighbor" of the Dearlys and failing miserably.
• Theme Tune Roll Call: While their names aren't spoken in the lyrics each of the main pups gets their own character title card.
• Thick-Line Animation
• This Is Reality: Spot gives the line "This is real life, not television," in "On the Lamb" when Lucky decides they should pursue Lambo.
• Through a Face Full of Fur:
  • In "Spots And Shots", Lucky's fur eventually turns green and his spots turn pink, as well as his nose turning blue and swelling up. This is a result of him not getting the vaccination needed to prevent these symptoms of a highly contagious condition from happening, after he spent the day attempting to avoid seeing the vet.
  • In "Love 'Em And Flea 'Em", Lucky's fur is turned pink from pink food coloring that Mooch spills intentionally (in an effort to be Two-Tone's date at the dance instead), mixed with water and soap, after being bathed by Nanny. And at the end of the episode/segment, a steamed Mooch gradually turns red from bottom to top and steam comes out of his ears when his sabotage fails and Lucky tells him, "Cheer up, Mooch. You look so blue".
• Time for Plan B: Done in "Cadpig Behind Bars" while trying to break Cadpig out of the dog pound.
  Lucky: Lieutenant! Push the cage release button!
  Lt. Pug: I don't take orders from you!
  Lucky: But that was part of your plan. Plan C. Remember?
  Lt. Pug: Of course I remember. C for..."Cage Release".
• Time-Travel Romance: "DeVil-Age Elder" features the main cast (and Cruella) arriving in a time and space-transcending village cursed by a witch as a response to Cruella's ancestor's harshness. The witch's spell reduces all but Cruella and Spot to become mindlessly happy and never want to leave. During their stay, Lucky meets up with a carriage pup named Rebecca and becomes smitten with her. When the spell is broken and the main cast are making their escape before the village disappears, Lucky still shows legitimate feelings for Rebecca and asks her to come with them. While the feeling is mutual, Rebecca chooses to remain to keep an eye on Cruella's ancestor. And because it wasn't enough of a Bittersweet Ending, Laser-Guided Amnesia kicks in, leaving Lucky completely unaware of her existence not long afterwards.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Two-Tone is rumored to be larger than Lucky (who were potential mates in one episode) partially because of her chubby figure as opposed to Lucky who is slim and slender. This later inspired a lot of fan art of Two-Tone giving Lucky shoulder rides and such.
• Title Montage: The show's opening sequence had the main characters running through a spotted background (Six variants were used with purple, blue, red, teal, orange, and magenta backgrounds) with TVs showing clips from various episodes. The episodes used (Not every episode was used in each variant) were "Dough The Right Thing", "Love 'Em and Flea 'Em", "An Officer and a Gentledog", "The Dogs of DeVil", "You Slipped a Disk", "Chow About That?", "Tic Track Toe", "Lucky All-Star", "Shake, Rattle, and Woof", "Cadpig Behind Bars", "Leisure Lawsuit", "You Say It's Your Birthday", "Two Faces of Anita", "Lucky to be Alone", "Four Stories Up", "It's a Swamp Thing", "Roll Out the Pork Barrel", "Prima Doggy", and "Frisky Business".
• Title: The Adaptation: By adding "The Series" to the end of 101 Dalmatians.
• Title Theme Tune: The theme song ends with the singer singing "One Hundred And One Dalmatians."
• Took a Level in Badass: Spot when she becomes Pullet Marlow.
• Trampoline Tummy: In the episode "Close But No Cigar", Cadpig used Rolly's belly as a trampoline at the end of the episode.
• Treasure Hunt Episode: In the episode "Treasure Of Swamp Island", the pups find a treasure map and compete against one another to find it first. The treasure turns out to be real, but actually belongs to Cruella who has been trying to hide it in order to avoid paying it off to a tax collector. The pups end up returning the treasure to her.
• The Trope Formerly Known as X: Spot in "The Artist Formerly Known As Spot", though only in the title.
• True Blue Femininity:
  • Perdita, Cadpig, and Two-Tone all have blue collars.
• Two Girls to a Team: Cadpig and Spot.
• Unwanted Assistance: Cadpig sees an argument between the cows, Duchess & Princess, about room in their stalls. She tries to help just as the two are apologizing to each other, asking them to express themselves. This help soon causes the entire Dearly Farm to be at each others throats, to Cadpig's horror, before Spot just suggests Duchess & Princess open their stall up a bit, which they agree would work, which then causes a Mediation Backfire from the Dalmatians and the animals of the Dearly Farm on Cadpig.
  Spot: Hey, you were just trying to help a fellow creature. We know your heart was in the right place.
• Urine Trouble: In "A Christmas Cruella", Cruella grabs one of the puppies and hugs him. Roger then shouts, "Cruella, no! Not Whizzer!" Too late...
• Valentine's Day Episode: "Valentine Daze" takes place around and on Vanentine's Day, focusing on Roger's valentine for Anita accidentally ending up with Cruella, causing Cruella to believe that she has a secret admirer. When she learns the truth, she becomes so enrage that she attempts to steal everyone's valentines.
• Vanishing Village: In "De Vil-Age Elder", Roger, Anita, the pups and Spot stumble upon Devilville, a village that was placed under a curse to disappear and reappear for one day every one hundred years. Everyone within the village becomes brainwashed into becoming endlessly happy, except for De Vils and chickens.
• Visual Pun: In "Oozy Does It", when Lucky is making a speech to the other animals of Dearly Farm about how sometimes a small group can make a big difference, he is literally standing on a soapbox.
• "Walk on the Wild Side" Episode
  • "Bad to the Bone" was about Rolly fooling Mooch and his gang into thinking he attacked Cydne the snake after being teased for being "soft", though he really only wrestled an empty snakeskin. After that, Mooch lets Rolly join his gang, and dubs him "Snake Stomper".
  • "Walk on the Wild Side" was about Rolly becoming a con artist under Swamp Rat's wing, after the other pups accuse him of being a "sucker".
• Waxing Lyrical: When Rolly is egg-sitting, the eggs he is laying on begin to hatch. Rolly panics and tries to get the eggs back together, barking, "Get back! Get back! Get back to where you once belonged!"
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • In the final episode, Willie's dog disappears halfway through.
  • In "Full Metal Pullet", Tripod has three friends who never show up again in the series, not even as background puppies.
• What You Are in the Dark: By the end of "Coup de Vil," Ivy chooses to save Cruella and the other de Vils from being killed by an asteroid in spite of the fact that Cruella dying would mean Ivy inherits her fortune.
• Win to Exit: In the episode "Virtual Lucky", Cruella and the dogs get trapped in a video game, with Lucky having to defeat Cruella in every stage before they could escape.
• Whole-Plot Reference: "Devil Age Elder" is one to Brigadoon, with a town and its people vanishing from the outside world, and returning only for one day every one hundred years.
• Win to Exit: The end goal of the episode "Virtual Lucky".
• Yet Another Christmas Carol: "A Christmas Cruella" with guess-who as the Scrooge character. After firing Anita for wanting Christmas off, Cruella gets knocked out and has a Dream Sequence. In it she is visited first by Horace and Jasper as Marley, then by Cadpig as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Rolly as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Spot in a robe as the Ghost of Christmas Future, who only speaks in clucks (except for her one aside: "You know, I had a great song and dance number here. They cut it!"). Lucky, his leg sprained from a recent accident, fills in for Tiny Tim, and Anita's sudden unemployment explains why the Dearlys can't have a nice Christmas. It works pretty well actually, even if Cruella is back to her mean old self by the next episode.
• You Are Fat: Rolly is often prone to these, which usually sets off his Berserk Button.
• You, Get Me Coffee: When Lucky first meets Thunderbolt in "Watch for Falling Idols," Thunderbolt tells Lucky to get him some lunch — "a mineral water and a croissant, if you can find it." Unlike most instances of this trope, however, Lucky is thrilled to do it, because he's so starstruck.

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