101 Dalmatians is an action-comedy film produced by John Hughes based on the 1956 novel of author Dodie Smith. Because of its worldwide success, the film had a sequel and also an animated series. If you think that making this movie is fun, think again.
Fun 101 Dalmatians facts
1 The popularity of the animation and movie resulted in the production of more than 17,000 pieces of merchandises for the film.
2 101 Dalmatians is also the first ever animation of Disney to be set in a contemporary setting.
3 Some of the puppies were computer generated. This was achieved by the people behind The Secret Lab and Dream Quest.
4 To make Jeff Daniels’ more appealing to the dogs, the set technician had to rub his face with hot dogs so that the pups would lick him on cue.
5 When Glenn Close’s character, Cruella De Vil, first entered the set wearing her full regalia, one of the dogs that played Perdy was truly afraid of her.
6 When Joely and Jeff got married in the movie, there were 100 different dog breeds that sat outside the Church. Hundreds of dogs were auditioned for their sitting skills. The chosen dogs were positioned by their owner trainers. Imagine how many trainers were there behind the scene motioning their dogs to sit and stay.
7 There were more than 20 dogs that played the role of Pongo and Perdita.
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8 The pup that played Wizzer could not be persuaded by his trainer to “pee on demand” so the film technicians’ need to shoot Gatorade when it was his turn to pee.
9 The entire film used more than 200 dogs to film the entire litter (15 Dalmatian puppies). The pups were brought to the set using relay system. This means that they were filmed for one or two weeks before they grew too big and replaced by new pups.
10 Disney hired makeup artists and dog breeders to paint spots on the dogs using vegetable dye so that the new dog would match the pups that they replaced.
11 The movie sequel was based on the original story but did you know that the real sequel of the book was very different? In fact, the real sequel is set in outer space and the Dalmatians need to save the earth against nuclear threats—funny how Disney didn’t use this for the sequel.
101 Dalmatians (1996) Trailer
Check out the official 101 Dalmatians (1996) Trailer starring Glenn Close!
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I’m Natalie Garcia and I started this website to share my love of trivia, facts and fun knowledge tidbits. We cover things like celebrity gossip, historical facts, tv shows, world leaders and just odd and random fun things. I started this site to have some fun with my hobby and share some useful information with you, our community. Please feel to send me your suggestions and feedback through the contact form. And if you have suggestions for things to write about, please shoot me a message!