So many pups to meet at 101 Dalmatian Street!
101 Dalmatian Street is a British/Canadian animated comedy series spun-off from Disney's 1961 film 101 Dalmatians. The show is the second television series to be based on the animated feature, following 101 Dalmatians: The Series (1997-1998), which was a direct spinoff of the original movie. In contrast, 101 Dalmatian Street is only loosely based on the film, explicitly taking place 60 years after its events. Originally developed by the Finnish studio Gigglebug Entertainment (The Unstoppable Yellow Yeti), the series is co-produced by Atomic Cartoons (Atomic Betty) and the London-based Passion Pictures (Gorillaz).
Taking place in the London neighborhood of Camden Town, the series follows the adventures of a large family of Dalmatians whose names all begin with the letter "D," and live at the titular address. The parents of these 99 pups are firedog Doug (Rhashan Stone) and doctor's assistant Delilah (Ella Kenion), the latter being a descendant of Pongo and Perdita. The eldest of these siblings are Dylan (Josh Brener), a pedantic control freak, and Dolly (Michaela Dietz), a reckless and rebellious tomboy, and this unlikely duo help keep the house in check when their parents are busy at work.
Suburban life is blissful (albeit chaotic) for the Dalmatian family, until a privileged young boy with ties to a familiar foe enters the fore, and our puppy heroes soon realize their lives are a lot more perilous than they could possibly imagine...
Along with The 7D, The Lion Guard, Tangled: The Series, and Big Hero 6: The Series, 101 Dalmatian Street is a part of a resurgence in animated spinoffs of Disney animated films in the latter half of The New '10s.
A few sneak peeks of the series aired early on Disney Channels across Europe (most notably on December 14, 2018 in the UK and Ireland with the episode "Dog's Best Friend" and the short "Merry Pups," and in Germany the day after with "Boom Night"). The series officially premiered March 18, 2019 in EMEA, with the UK and Ireland getting the second segment of the first episode, and Belgium, France, and Germany the first segment of the second episode. In the United States, the show would debut on Disney+ the following year, on February 28, 2020, with a television premiere on Disney XD on March 29, 2021.
Compare with The Loud House, another show focusing on a large family that have alliterative names. A detailed article about the show and an early review can be found here
. The German trailer for the series can be found here, the French one can be found here, and the English version of this trailer can be found here. The theme song can be found here.
On June 17, 2021, the person running the Twitter account Disney Television Animation News claimed that they spoke to a member of the crew, who told them that the series was cancelled due to low ratings in North America, both on Disney+ and Disney XD in the United States. This was confirmed the following day on June 18, 2021, as series director Miklós Weigert revealed that there are no plans to produce a second season.
This show provide examples of:
- Abbey Road Crossing: Done subtly; in the montage of scenes of London in the opening sequence, the Beatles can be seen crossing the street while the pups are running wild. Only their legs are visible but what they're wearing indicates who's who.
- Accents Aren't Hereditary: Dylan is biologically Delilah's son, but doesn't have a British accent like her.
- All in the Manual:
- According to "The Daily Puppy," a newspaper given out to promote 101 Dalmatian Street, Dylan and Dolly are both twelve years old in dog years.
- The full version of a song from the soundtrack of the show called "In the House" names all members of the family, including the non-main ones.
- According to a Japanese television guide site, before meeting each other, Delilah and Doug each had a litter of 15 puppies. They then got together and had another litter of 15 puppies, before then adopting 54 more puppies, be it from strays or rescue shelters.
- Some materials claim that the Dalmatians do have a human owner, but they live on an island. This human is not mentioned in the show, with characters just saying that the Dalmatians do not have a human.
- While never spoken in the show, concept art shows that the human ensemble do have names. One example is that the activist and park vendor who the Dalmatians pair Mister Fuzzy up with in "Dog's Best Friend" is called Lucy.
- Alliterative Name: A lot of the characters, especially all of the Dalmatians, have alliteration for their names, such as Portia the poodle and Sid the squirrel. One exception is Bessie the cow.
- Alternate Continuity: This series is a distant follow-up to only the original film. The creators of this series claimed that they deliberately didn't watch any of the franchise's past sequel and Spin-Off material (the 1996 and 2000 live-action movies, 101 Dalmatians: The Series, or 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure); just the original novel and the first animated film.
- Amplified Animal Aptitude: Despite being dogs, all 101 of the Dalmatians are able to take care of themselves and a house just fine even though their human owner is abroad all the time.
- Animal Talk: As in the novel and the animated film. The episode "Girl's Day Out" suggests that other canines or animals understanding human is like learning a second language.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Dawkins calls Doug by his name instead of "Dad" like the other pups do.
- Camping Episode: "The Longest Night."
- Canine Confusion:
- Dante is a black dalmatian with white and purple spots.
- Dorothy, who is for all intents and purposes a baby, is so young that she doesn't have any spots yet, but she is perfectly capable of walking, and her eyes are firmly open. However, a Dalmatian's spots start to come through just before they open their eyes at around two weeks old. In reality, Dorothy would either have a small amount of spots, or still be unable to walk, see, or be separated from her mother.
- Cats Are Mean: Played with a bit.
- Constantin and other cats are portrayed as considering themselves above dogs... but the reverse is also true, with some of the pups plainly disliking cats on principle (though this seems to be an attitude that canines grow out of, with Delilah and Doug shown helping felines without hesitation, and in "Don't Push Your Luck," Dolly actually hands out some autographs to cats). And unlike Clarissa the corgi, Constantin doesn't try to harm the Dalmatian family, and even takes in Deepak when the latter gets fed up with his brothers' teasing. Ironically, the movie on which this show was based averted this trope.
- Cuddles is an example played straight. Though he began as just following his owner's orders, he proves this in "The De Vil Wears Puppies" where he betrays Hunter and leaves him to go along with Cruella.
- Downplayed with the Show Within a Show, Poodlewolf. In it the main villain, Furball is a cat as opposed to Poodlewolf being a wolfdog, that said Poodlewolf's sidekick, Dogsbody is actually a transformed cat.
- Chaste Toons: Hunter is the great nephew of Cruella de Vil. Of course, with an appearance and personality like hers, it's no surprise Cruella doesn't have children of her own.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: This happens to Hugo in "Prank Pups" after Dolly hits him with his skateboard. Not unsurprisingly, he has pictures of Clarissa on his underwear.
- Continuity Nod: After the puppies get Mr. Fuzzy together with the park vendor in "Dog's Best Friend," future episodes show the two spending time with each other.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- In the episodes "Power to the Puppies" and "The Nose Job" Diesel have a important role in both. In the first, he was the winner of the Top Dog elections, while in the second his keen sense of smell plays a large part in the episode.
- In the episode "All Fired Up", focuses on Dolly following Doug to the fire station, he naturally has a significant role.
- The episode "Girl's Day Out" was focused in Delilah expending time with Dolly during Mother's Day.
- The episodes "The Woof Factor", "A Date with Destiny...Dallas and Deja Vu" and "It's My Party" is this for Triple D.
- The episodes "Dal-Martians" and "Dawkins Strike Back" are this for Dawkins, in the first he team up with Dolly to pranks Dylan and the second he decides to go on strike and the house goes down.
- The episode "The Wow of Miaow" focuses on Deepak who decides to move on with Constatine, also the episode "The Woof Factor" he was (literally) draged by Dolly and Dylan into acting as the third triplet for the acting gig.
- In "Doggy Da Vinci" focuses on Da Vinci, which her art becomes popular with the humans, but she soon starts feeling creatively stifled.
- The episode "Fox In The Dog House" to Fergus, who stays at the dog house after Dylan and Dolly accidentally get him injured.
- The episode "Don't Push Your Luck" focuses on Big Fee, who spends the episode acting as Dolly's good luck charm and using her for room and board and material gain.
- The episode "The Curse of the Ferrydog", was this for Dante, who warns Dylan about a archeology discovery. And the episode "Dante's Inferno", Dante gets depressed because his predictions don't become true.
- In "Ride Along", Pearl gets more screentime along side with Dolly.
- Denser and Wackier: The show has noticeably more slapstick and humor compared to the previous animated adaptations before it.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Subverted in the "Merry Pups" short, Dorothy's Christmas present miraculously survives a ladder falling on it By Wall That Is Holey-style. Then it's struck by lightning out of nowhere. Fortunately, she's happy just play with the ribbon.
- Disembodied Eyebrows: All of the characters has their eyebrows floating.
- Distant Sequel: The show takes place in modern times, almost sixty years after the events of the 1961 film. As the original book the film is adapted from is likely set in the same year of its release (1956), this would mean the show is set in 2014 or 2015, or possibly 2013.
- Dogs Love Fire Hydrants: Averted. Whole fire hydrants have shown up, the dogs don't make many comments about them. This love is instead given to lamposts.
- Episode Title Card: Each episode and short has one.
- Family Theme Naming: The entire family have names starting with "D." There's even a song that names them all.
- Finger in the Mail: In "Ransom Pups," when Clarissa gets her paws on Dolly's rubber chicken, she sends Dolly a package with one of its legs in the box.
- Firehouse Dalmatian: Doug is a firefighter dog who is the husband of Delilah the nurse dog and father of Dylan, Dolly, and their 97 other puppies. In the episode, "All Fired Up," he even takes Dolly to the firehouse on take your child to work day.
- Free-Range Pets: More like free-range dogs in general; the Dalmatians' owner is constantly abroad, leaving them all to care for themselves. Due to Amplified Animal Aptitude, this poses no problem.
- Gadgeteer's House: The Dalmatians live in a "home full of wacky inventions to make the dogs' lives easier," most of which have been invented by Dylan and Dawkins.
- Gentle Giant: Roxy
- G-Rated Drug: Sid the squirrel acts this way about nuts, being obsessed with the hoarding and eating of them, as well as getting twitchy whenever he's thinking about them.
- Goofy Print Underwear: In "Prank Pups," Clarissa Corgi's owner Hugo is revealed to wear briefs with pictures of Clarissa on them.
- Hammerspace: The shorts normally involve a lot of this.
- "Yoga Pups" has Dolly pulling a massive drum set out of somewhere, including a gong, in order to get Deepak to get off her skateboard. In-series, this is justified by being a dream of Deepak's.
- "Ransom Pups" involves Dolly somehow getting hold of a pair of gardening shears and eventually a bulldozer in the middle of urban London.
- Heroic RRoD: A sleep-deprived Dylan falls asleep several times, leading up to passing out after getting rid of Hunter in "Better the De Vil You Know."
- Hijacked by Ganon: As it turns out Cruella de Vil, the Big Bad of the original movie is alive and has been behind Hunter's operations. She is now a much older lady.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Dolly, sort of. She's not a full on bully, but she loves to tease and ridicule Dylan. She doesn't mean any harm by it though; it's just sibling rivalry.
- Dylan can also be this at times. In several episodes, he displays a pompous, Holier Than Thou, Control Freak personality despite his (mostly) good intentions. "A Summer to Remember" also implies that he may be classist, as during the episode he complains about the "locals" of rural Cornwall.
- The Kids Are American: Justified with the pups from Doug's litter. Zigzagged with the others.
- Mythology Gag: Considering that it's a Sequel Series to 101 Dalmatians, the show has its own page.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Cruella sounds absolutely nothing like she did in the film. It's understandable that she has a new voice actor, but her new one mostly gives her a very American accent. (Heck, she sounds almost like a Valley Girl when she says "international waters").
- Overly Narrow Superlative: Cruella calls Hunter her favorite grandnephew. As Hunter points out, he's her only grandnephew.
- Police Are Useless: Not Pearl the police horse, but her human rider, who is always seen playing on his phone and thus completely oblivious to his surroundings. This applies to all other members of the mounted police too.
- Rich Bitch: The puppies regularly have to contend with a group of rich and snobbish dogs who look down on them because of how often their human is abroad. Clarissa is one such snob.
- Running Gag:
- Trigger words. Certain words like "ball," "park," or "sticks" will likely lead to whoever says it getting either glomped or trampled by the other pups.
- Snowball being flung off-screen by her human's retracting leash.
- Quarter Hour Short: It is possible that the series was originally produced this way, given the "part 1" and "part 2" title cards on the 22-minute specials and some episodes airing separately on Disney Channel UK. However, Disney+ and the Copyright Catalog production codes suggest that it was produced as a Two Shorts program.
- Sequel Series: The series takes place almost sixty years after the original film.
- Serial Escalation: When Clarissa has Dolly's rubber chicken hostage in "Ransom Pups," Dolly tries to do likewise to a topiary of Clarissa. This escalates from Clarissa barbecuing the chicken, to Dolly cutting parts off the topiary, to Clarissa dipping the chicken in honey so it gets attacked by bees, to Dolly doing more cutting, to Clarissa putting the chicken on a rack, to Dolly driving a bulldozer towards the topiary.
- Setting Update: The new adventures take place in modern-day London. Even the iconic "Twilight Bark" is updated to become the "World Wide Woof" and is more of an internet parody.
- Shown Their Work: Roxy the Rottweiler defies the usual stereotype of Rottweilers being vicious, mindless brutes by being affectionate, gentle, and intelligent. This is actually what the breed tends to be like in real life.
- All of Deepak's yoga poses, rather than being made up like most cartoons, are all based on real yoga poses.
- "Long Tongue Day" ends with the swan returning to his pond - and he's just as ill-tempered and territorial as swans are in real life, unlike the usual portrayal of swans in fiction.
- All of Deepak's yoga poses, rather than being made up like most cartoons, are all based on real yoga poses
- Show Within a Show: Dylan loves the comic book and game series, "Poodlewolf", which involves a Poodle/Wolf hybrid traveling a fantasy world.
- Source Music: In some episodes, D.J. is shown to provide the soundtrack and/or sound effects to the scene.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Hunter. It's implied at first that he's only pretending he can understand dogs in order to trick the Dalmatians. After losing his mind, he's able to understand them for real.
- Spell My Name With An S: The title is singular Dalmatian, not plural Dalmatians.
- Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: Dolly is a rowdy yet affectionate tomboy who loves hanging with her siblings, whilst her arch-nemesis Clarissa is a spoilt, bad tempered socialite who only cares about herself.
- This Is My Human: The "Dog's Best Friend" has the dogs talk about humans like they're the pets and that the care given by them is training them. It's treated like a big responsibility, especially since they'll live for multiple dog generations.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Dylan is less than half the size of Portia, the poodle he has a crush on. He is likewise compared to Roxy, who had a crush on him in “Perfect Match.”
- Toxic Friend Influence: All three wilds animals in the recurring cast (Fergus, Sid, and Big Fee) are this at least once.
- Trigger Phrase: A RunningGag is certain words like "sticks," "ball," or "dinner" will send all the other 97 puppies to flock whoever said it.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Most of the time, nobody takes much note of 99 Dalmatian puppies running around.
- Wham Line:
- At the end of "London, We Have a Problem!"
Doug and Delilah: (after sniffing an object left behind by Hunter) Definitely a de Vil. Cruella de Vil!- Dorothy speaks at the end of the first season finale:Dorothy: Bye-bye!
*Gasp!*
Dylan: Dorothy?!
Dolly: You talked!
Not a family of rabbits, but the spots fit.
