Metacritic Film

102 Dalmatians

Starring Glenn Close, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Evans, Tim McInnerny, and Gérard Depardieu

MPAA RATING: G for General Audiences

Buena Vista Pictures
Family/Kids
101 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters November 22, 2000

Just when it seemed safe to come out of the kennel, Cruella De Vil is back and this time she's not alone. (Walt Disney Pictures)

WRITTEN BY
Dodie Smith (novel The One Hundred and One Dalmatians)
Kristen Buckley (also story)
Brian Regan (also story)
Bob Tzudiker and Noni White

DIRECTED BY
Kevin Lima

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

35 / 100

Critic Reviews

75 Boston Globe
It is Close's performance that gives the movie its oomph and will leave adults with smiles as wide as the kids'.
75 San Francisco Chronicle
In every kids' picture, there are going to be sections that only kids will enjoy. Fortunately, 102 Dalmatians has enough for the adults, too.
75 New York Post
The kind of movie that is beyond criticism.
75 New York Daily News
The floating, flailing, flying puppies in the inspired opening credits of 102 Dalmatians set the tone for an adorable sequel to the live-action version of the famously spotted cartoon.
63 USA Today
Though 102 Dalmatians digs up little new ground and muzzles its villain, it does have a fetching sense of functional fun now and then.
63 Philadelphia Inquirer
The film, which is amiable, undemanding family holiday entertainment, is more a tribute to the astonishing skills of the dog trainers than anything else.
63 Chicago Sun-Times
Doesn't really seem necessary.
50 Baltimore Sun
It should come as no surprise that the dogs are as cute as caninely possible. But is it conceivable that, once you've seen 101 adorable dogs, 102 seems redundant?
50 Variety
A pale reworking of its predecessor.
50 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Harmless and thoroughly unmemorable: colorful, cute, fast paced, and about as involving as an amusement park ride.
50 Portland Oregonian
Hollow, frequently boring picture.
40 TV Guide
Adults -- even the die-hard dog lovers -- will just have to resign themselves to being bored silly whenever the cartoonish Cruella is absent from the screen.
38 Chicago Tribune
How is it possible that actors as expert as Close and Depardieu can wind up together in a mostly brainless big-budget stinker?
35 Mr. Showbiz
A film without mirth or magic.
33 Entertainment Weekly Bruce Fretts
This sequel adds more insults and injuries that could traumatize little ones. Most frightening of all, the ending leaves the door open for ''103 Dalmatians,'' which would certainly constitute Cruella and unusual punishment.
30 Los Angeles Times
You can't help but feel that Disney has delivered a turkey for Thanksgiving.
30 Austin Chronicle
Spotlessly dull.
30 The New York Times
May have had the unintended effect of obscuring the original it meant to honor.
20 Village Voice Richard Gehr
Cruella is once again bent on collecting enough puppy skins to fashion the frock of her dreams. And once again, yawn.
20 Chicago Reader
The elaborate climax set in a Paris bakery is the least boring part of this trained-animal movie.
20 Salon.com
The whole movie is overbright, overloud, antic, telling us the characters and animals are endearing rather than allowing them to reveal themselves as such.
10 LA Weekly Paul Cullum
An unnecessary remake.
10 Washington Post
So dull and formulaic, it ought to be leashed and led directly to the doghouse.
10 Film.com
A sequel from hell.

CLOSE THIS WINDOW

©2009 CNET Networks Inc. All rights reserved.