There isn’t really anything outstandingly wrong with this inevitable afterthought to the $300 million-earning 1996 original. Glenn Close is back, enthusiastically, as Cruella DeVil, the garish fur-ophile whose bichromatic fright-wig coif makes her look like a younger, distaff version of Gary Oldman’s beehived Dracula. The dogs are great, of course – really great, filmed with a bright, cheery look from returning director of photography Adrian Biddle (The Princess Bride, The Mummy). There are some new twists, too, including Gérard Depardieu as an equally heartless furrier with the Flock of Seagulls look, and a gabby macaw (voiced by Eric Idle) whose Rottweiler delusion is kind of annoying at first but gets to be funnier after a while. Everything is put together in textbook manic Disney fashion by director Kevin Lima, who had a huge hit last year with the animated Tarzan and brings that same energy to his first live-action movie.
But 102, though undeniably eyecatching, has sort of a sterile, prefab, boardroom-assembled feel to it. Maybe it’s because the supporting-human story isn’t as sweet. I’d forgotten, until someone reminded me, that the live 101 was scripted by John Hughes; this one was pounded out by a Mouse committee. The romantic leads, played by upcoming British actors Alice Evans and Ioan Gruffud (“YO-an GRIF-ith – like the Monty Python line, “Yes, it’s spelled ‘Jones,’ but it’s pronounced ‘throat-warbler mangrove.’”) aren’t given the same opportunity to shine as were Jeff Daniels and Joely Richardson last time around. Still, the opening credits sequence, featuring a puppy chasing animated spots to a tune by funkmeister George Clinton, is charming enough to be a Fantasia segment in its own right, and together 203 Dalmatians (that’s 101 plus 102) are the best live adaptations anyone’s done yet of an animated series or feature. Besides, it’s the most kidsafe thing around right now, unless you don’t mind taking your children to see Rugrats in Paris and encouraging their body-fluid obsessions. B-
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