Trivia / 101 Dalmatians

• Acting for Two: There is a scene where The Colonel and Jasper come face to face. They are both voiced by the same actor J. Pat O'Malley.
• Adaptation Sequence: Children's novel —> Animated film —> Second children's novel —> Live-action film —> Traditionally animated television series —> Second live-action film —> Non-canon video game —> Direct-to-Video sequel of animated film —> Flash animated television series —> Live-action prequel. Whew!
• Completely Different Title: In Latin America, the film was renamed La Noche De Las Narices Frías (The Night Of The Cold Noses).
• Creator Backlash: Walt Disney, who always preferred classical romantic art, was very critical of the graphic look which the xeroxing produced and admitted that he only did it to cut costs after Sleeping Beauty bombed.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Lucky and Rolly are both male puppies and voiced by female actors.
• Cut Song: Some alternate songs about Cruella (one of which, "The Creation of Cruella de Vil," is full of terror), a Drunken Song for Horace and Jasper, and some marching songs for the dogs' return to London.
• Disowned Adaptation: A minor case. Dodie Smith, the author of the original novel, was mostly satisfied with how the film turned out, but she was still pretty pissed that the credit she received in the opening was quite small. Walt himself apologized for this, stating that it was a mere technical oversight, and gave her some original prints from the film to make up for it.
• Fake Brit: Cruella, Nanny, the Captain and some of the Dalmatian puppies' voice actors were all American, and Pongo's was Australian.
• Fandom Life Cycle: While not in the upper eschelon of Disney's features, it ultimately became a proven franchise bringing in new fans with works inspired by it, which happened twice (in the mid-90s, with the live-action adaptation and an animated series, and 2019-21, with another animated series and another live-action).
• Kids' Meal Toy:
  • In the 1985 holiday season, Hardee's released a set of five plushes based on Disney movies. Besides one of the 101 Dalmatians, there were also plushes of Lady, Bambi, Dumbo, and Pinocchio.
  • In 1991, McDonald's released a set of four figures as a tie-in with the film's 1991 theatrical re-release. These consisted of Pongo, Lucky, Cruella De Vil, and the Colonel and St. Tibbs together.
  • In 1994, McDonald's released a toy of Pongo, Lucky, and Penny as part of their Happy Birthday Happy Meal, which also featured toys based on Ronald and Friends, Barbie, Hot Wheels, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Little Mermaid (1989), Cabbage Patch Kids, Tonka, The Berenstain Bears, Muppet Babies (1984), Peanuts, Tiny Toon Adventures, Looney Tunes, and the Happy Meal Guys.
• Non-Singing Voice: Bill Lee is the singing voice for Roger.
• Pet Fad Starter: The film made the breed more popular, and as a result, demand jumped up. Like many "fad" animals, several were abandoned a few months later, aided by the fact that Dalmatians are very high-maintenance dogs that many owners aren't prepared to deal with.
• Shoot the Money: Chuck Jones once commented that only Disney would make an animated film about one hundred and one dalmatians: "If I had tried to make One Dog Named Spot for Leon Schlesinger, he would not let me do it. Spots cost money."
• What Could Have Been:
  • Cruella De Vil almost became the villain in The Rescuers. It shows, as the villain of the movie is very similar, both in personality and looks.^{The reason for this...} This is because Milt Kahl was extremely jealous of Marc Davis's masterful animation of Cruella and proposed to beat him at his own game with Madame Medusa, who was Cruella to the extreme. There's a story that says Kahl called Davis into his office to show him the pencil test on a moviola, boasting that he'd finally outdone Cruella. Davis watched the test, then simply put a hand on Kahl's shoulder and said, "Nice try."
  • In the early 90's, former Disney press worker Chris Duffy proposed a series of spinoff books for the Disney movie called "Tales of the Midnight Howl", which was going to be stories told by the various dogs in the movie about other times the dogs of England used the Midnight Howl to help out animals in distress. They were seriously gearing up to do them, but the spinoff was ultimately canned when Disney found out their license with Dodie Smith's estate didn't give them the right to do stories that weren't a direct extension of the movie. (ie, no prequels, sequels).^note Although they eventually resolved this issue around the time they made the animated series, live action movies and the direct-to-video sequel

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