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88Director Stephen Herek does an admirable balancing job, though the movie slows whenever the animals solo onscreen. [27 Nov 1996 Pg.01.D]
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80For us dog saps, it is especially nice to see cuddlesomely real pooches instead of drawn ones doing smart-pet tricks.
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80Where the film misses its biggest bet, however, is in depriving the animals of the voices they had in the animated version.
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75Though this film's considerable warmth derives from dalmatian puppies and other animals who take charge of their fates, Close steals the show.
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75Dalmatians proves an apt playground for Hughes as one could surmise that his inspiration for treating comic bad guys in his movies so violently comes from a cartoon sensibility.
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75Since each is more adorable than the one before - and together they're an irresistible mass of squirming speckles - the whole elaborate edifice holds up pretty well.
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75The story seems awfully far-fetched when real people play the characters, but the canines are cute and Glenn Close was born to play Cruella De Vil, the monstrous magnate who sets the plot in motion.
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63What's funny in cartoons is not always funny in live action, and some of the dunkings in unsavory substances left me less than amused.
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60The entire remake has been dumb-dumbed by John Hughes, who wrote the script and produced.
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60If the Disney animated original (1961) -- adapted from Dodie Smith's novel -- tried to approximate live action, this 1996 Disney live-action remake often tries to evoke cartoon.
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50But when it comes to that great puppy pilgrimage, the movie, which was written and produced by John Hughes, falls astoundingly flat.
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Not much reason to see this one, because in 1961 Disney made an animated version called 101 Dalmatians, which is better.
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50Thanks to Glenn Close's delicious villainy, it succeeds in breathing archly theatrical life into the irresistibly monstrous Cruella DeVil. Otherwise, this remake goes to the dogs too often.
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50But the tale has been squeezed to fit the mold of director John Hughes, which for long stretches makes it feel as much like the third "Home Alone" as the second "Dalmations."
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At times, the film feels like one painful, protracted pratfall.
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40Fluffy and mild to the point of somnolence, it can't even get the full benefit of its strongest asset, Glenn Close's performance as the grasping virago Cruella DeVil.
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Annoyingly, the movie is marred by anemic connecting scenes and a seeming disdain for something as simple as logic
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38Even children, who will be enthralled by all the puppies, may have a hard time not fidgeting for protracted portions of the running time.
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20In Hollywood, imitation is the most profitable form of flattery. That is the only plausible explanation for 101 Dalmatians, Walt Disney's disappointing live-action remake of its own 1961 classic.
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10But by the end, the charm and delicacy of the 1961 cartoon have long been replaced by laborious gross-outs. Is this now official Disney policy?
User score distribution:
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Positive: 3 out of 5
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Mixed: 2 out of 5
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Negative: 0 out of 5
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not terrible, but not that good.