Toon Talk
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(c) Disney

While the first film failed due to the unavoidable comparison to the far superior animated version, this one fails on it's own merits. The premise itself is original and had potential, but first time live action director Kevin Lima opts for an overly cartoony feel for the film that progressively worsens as the story slogs along. (Conversely, Lima had more realistic human characters in his animated Tarzan.)

For every clever bit (a scientist named Dr. Pavlov, a lawyer named Mr. Torte) you get ten eye-rollers (Cruella's clumsy henchman/valet stutters for no apparent reason; Depardieu's lone attempt at anything remotely comedic is to repeatedly pronounce "puppies" as "poopies"). For every glint of charm (the adorable pups of the "junior" Twilight Bark, which can even make a hardened film critic say "awwww ... ") you get twenty juvenile gross-out gags (cue the doggie drool ... ).

And Disney, should place a self-imposed moratorium on any further attempts to play homage to the classic spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp. Two meager attempts within six months of each other (this film and the recent video Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure) is quite enough, thank you.

By the time we reach the climax (which involves a huge cake baking machine in an unfortunate parallel to a similar scene in the much-better-and-that-was-a-real-cartoon Chicken Run) all pretenses of reality have gone to the dogs. (Ooops, sorry again ... )

By far the biggest misstep is the presence of Waddlesworth, a talkative macaw voiced by Monty Python and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience alum Eric Idle. Admittedly, the film is basically a fantasy, but I couldn't get past the fact that so-called "talking birds" don't actually speak, just mimic the sound they hear. But this bird has a full vocabulary and acts as interpreter between the dogs and humans. Whereas the original story championed the fact that our canine heroes triumphed where humans failed, by putting the dog and human characters on the same level in this outing, not only does it lessen the importance of the dogs, it doesn't say much for the humans either.

Glenn Close was the only reason to sit through the horrid 1996 feature. The film was a way for Close to break loose from her usual repertoire of luminous saints (The Big Chill, The Natural) and sexual connivers (Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liasons). Borrowing heavily from her brilliant stage performance as Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard (the ultimate diva role if there ever was one), Close brought Marc Davis' animated creation wickedly to life. Unfortunately, 102 finds her shrilly overboard, chewing scenery like it was kibble. Reduced to a a grossly overt caricature, diluted in it's pomposity, what we see isn't Glenn Close playing Cruella de Vil, but Glenn Close playing a drag queen playing Glenn Close playing Cruella de Vil.

Toon Talk Grade: D
Running Time: 100 minutes
Available on VHS, Standard DVD, Widescreen DVD, and in a  2-Pack 101 Dalmatians & 102 Dalmatians

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Toon Talk Trivia
Anthony Powell's outrageous costume designs for 102 Dalmatians were Oscar nominated this year. The bangles and bugle beads of Cruella lost to the togas and tunics of Gladiator.

Interestingly, Waddlesworth shares a characteristic with another bird, the rooster in 101 Dalmatians: The Animated Series: they both want to be dogs.

Although Pongo does not appear in 102 Dalmatians, Freckles, the dog who played him in the 1996 101 Dalmatians does; he returns in the role of Dipstick, Pongo's son.