By Jake Friedman

The recent March 4th release of 101 Dalmatians: Platinum Edition will join the ever-growing list of classic Disney films to get the royal treatment. Expect complete digital restoration in picture and sound for this 1961 gem, no to mention a new making-of documentary, deleted songs, and a discussion of the famed villainess, Cruella De Vil.

Apparently, Walt was initially less than satisfied with the final product. It was Disney’s first feature to use the experimental Xerox process, copying the animators’ pencil marks directly onto cells. Sure, this made it possible to render all 6,469,952 spots on the dogs, but the pencil scratch marks were in conflict with the painterly storybook aesthetics that Walt strived for. Walt reportedly didn’t acknowledge the film’s artistic merits to production designer Ken Anderson until weeks before his death.

Nonetheless, the film is widely praised by animation buffs and film critics alike as one of the brightest jewels of the Disney library, with Marc Davis’s rendition of Cruella reaching legendary status. “It is perfection,” says “Anita” voice Lisa Davis (no relation to Marc), “It has good people and bad people, and nobody’s really fighting. It’s simple, but it has heart, and you find yourself totally involved in it.”

Within the bonus features of the DVD, Davis, along with others, shares many memories of working on the film. “Before I even started on the picture, they brought me into a little bungalow on the lot and allowed me to play Dalmatian puppies all day,” says Davis. “When you were working for Disney, you were definitely working for the Rolls Royce of the studios. I was doing a lot of television at the time and they would send a limousine for me and pick me up and take me to Disney for each recording session. It was lovely.”

Interestingly, Davis was originally contacted years before Dalmatians was even a proposal. “I was brought to America by Walt Disney to do the original version of Alice in Wonderland, as a live Alice with the characters animated around me. I came over from England, very, very excited. He had seen me in a movie that I had done for Sir David Lean, and he had me here for several weeks while I did wardrobe tests and voice tests. But he changed his mind, because he realized it would be too great an expense at the time. So he sent me back to England and I left a very, very disappointed 12-year old.”

Davis did a few B movies, including The Queen from Outer Space, where her experience working with Zsa Zsa Gabor inspired her to perfect an imitation of the star. Finally, Walt contacted her once more. “When Mr. Disney first thought of Cruella de Vil, thinking of her character loving fur and luxury, he thought of a Zsa Zsa Gabor-type voice, and actually called me in to read the part for Cruella. I was twenty-one years old and totally wrong for Cruella. I wound up sitting up in a room above the studio with the great Walt Disney, and he was actually reading Anita, and I was struggling to read Cruella. As I heard the character of Anita being read, I knew it was me. So I plucked up my courage and asked, ‘excuse me sir, would it be all right if I read Anita, because I feel so much more like Anita than I do Cruella.’ And he let me read Anita, and he became Cruella – a very good one, I might add. And that’s how I became Anita.”

Davis also contributes to a separate special feature titled “Sincerely Yours, Walt Disney,” in which she reads letters as Dalmatians author Dodie Smith which were written during the pre-production and making of the film. “The letters are delightful,” says Davis, “and you can see how excited both she and Walt Disney are about making this film.”

Today, Davis has her theories as to the film’s lasting success. “I think today,” she says, “we live in a world that’s so tough and hard, and when you watch something that’s so captivating and pulls you in and touches the heart, it shows you how wonderful it can all be.”

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