5

In lieu of recent years' onslaught of Disney live action remakes, this mid-nineties early attempt is quite interesting in how it stays close to the original, but feels free to expand, update and alter where it suits it to. And the first half of the film is really quite good, if you can get on board for the over-the-top/arch silliness. It loses all its steam, though, when the middle of the film spends 15 minutes on no-dialogue scenes of exposition hijinks of dogs and various other trained animals running around on the screen. While (like the rest of the film) technically impressive animal acting, that would not have entertained me, even as a child. After this, the climax of the movie is unfortunately a weak Home Alone-impression of endless slapstick on ice, which is admittedly probably quite entertaining to children, but unlike the first half of the movie holds little merit for older co-viewers. All in all an uneven film, but considering the animated original is one of Disney's weaker classics, it is still a surprisingly solid remake, with an impressive cast list. Unfortunately, excepting perhaps Tim McInnerny and the extreme performance (at least if you're the sort who don't cringe too easily) of Glenn Close, the cast doesn't get too much of interest to do, but they certainly do what they can to keep you interested, even through the weakest of the slapstick gags. I have a soft spot for the quality animation work in the old one, but that concern aside, I'd probably say they are about as good, and can be watched fairly interchangeably. In short -- the film is entertaining enough for younger children, but in the back half falls a rather short of the entertaining-for-the-whole-family ideal that the beginning of the film made a fair attempt at. ( )

Dalmatians Pongo and Perdita settle into their owners' flat in London to become proud parents of 15 precocious pups. It's one big happy dog family until the evil Cruella De Vil kidnaps the puppies, along with every other Dalmatian in the city. It's up to Pongo and Perdita to unite the entire animal population in a mission to help the courageous pups outsmart their captor.