When it comes to Disney’s “101 Dalmatians,” the de Vil is in the details

Jim Hill

10 years ago

Here's a fun factoid for all you film fans out: Given that Disney's
"Sleeping Beauty" was released on January 29, 1959 and "101
Dalmatians" bowed in theaters on January 25, 1961, that means that this
animated classic was cranked out in less than two years.

Which is pretty impressive unto itself. But then when you
factor in that — in the wake of "Sleeping Beauty" under-performing
at the box office — there were massive lay-offs at Walt Disney Animations
Studios in the late Winter of 1959. With the staff there being cut from 551
artists & animators to just 75.

So how was Disney able to produce "101 Dalmatians"
on that a short schedule with such a small team? To be honest, a lot of the
credit should go to Xerography. Which was this at-that-time brand-new
production technology which would then allow the animators' drawings to be
transferred directly onto cells. Thus eliminating the need for inking.

That technological innovation really helped to streamline
Walt Disney Animation Studios'production process. But at the same time, one of
the main reasons that "101 Dalmatians" came together so quickly is
that Walt had some of his very best men working on this animated classic.

Take — for example — Marc Davis. Quite simply, Marc was
Disney's Renaissance Man (And if you don't believe me, go check out this book
about that Disney Editions published back in October of last year), a talented
artist who started working at the Studios on "Snow White and the Seven
Dwarves" and eventually worked his way up to becoming the lead animator for
such iconic Disney characters as Cinderella, Alice (in Wonderland), Tinker Bell
and Maleficent.

It was actually Marc's masterful work on the Mistress of All
Evil for "Sleeping Beauty" that led to Davis
being assigned Cruella de Vil. But given that "101 Dalmatians" was
Walt Disney Animation Studios' first film to be set in a contemporary setting
… Well, Marc wanted Cruella to be a real departure from everything that he'd
done with Maleficent. He wanted de Vil to be the first modern day Disney
villain.

Mind you, Marc wasn't working from a blank slate. He had the
illustrations of Cruella that had been created for Dodie Smith's "The
Hundred and One Dalmatians" back in 1956.

He also had all of the storyboards that Bill Peet had
created as he was adapting Smith's book to the screen.

But Davis —
because he was determined to make Cruella as contemporary as possible — looked
beyond Smith's book and Peet's storyboards. He began searching for someone in
the real world that Marc could then use as the model for this fiendish fashion
maven. And Davis eventually found
her at a cocktail party that he and his wife Alice attended in the late 1950s /
early 1960s.

Now because this woman was a family acquaintance (More
importantly, because her children are still alive. And let's face it, no one
would ever want to hear that their mother's awful behavior at a cocktail party
over 50 years ago served as the inspiration for the way Cruella de Vil moves &
behaves), Marc and Alice have never revealed the name of this woman. However,
given that Davis' original concept
sketches for Cruella showed her to be a far more attractive woman …

… it's often been suggested that Marc was inspired by one
of the wives of the other artists & animators that he worked directly with
at Disney. That the inspiration for Cruella came from with the Davis
family's very small circle of friends.

That said, in order to further obscure the identity of the
acquaintance who inspired the flamboyant way that de Vil moves & acts, Davis
had veteran character actress Mary Wickes come in to shoot some live-action
reference footage for the film. And a lot of the comic choices that Mary made Davis
then incorporated in Cruella.

But as to who the family friend was who served as the
inspiration for this Disney Villain, Marc took this secret to the grave when he
passed in January 2000. And while his wife Alice is still with us, she honors
Marc's wishes and — to this day — has not revealed who the real-life
inspiration for Cruella de Vil is / was.

But Davis'
modern day Disney Villain proved to be just as big a hit as Maleficent was. In
fact, Cruella was such a memorable character that — when Walt Disney Animation
Studios was developing "The Rescuers" in the early 1970s — they
actually toyed with the idea of making de Vil the main villain of that animated
feature. Have Cruella be the one who forces poor orphan Penny to go down into
that tidal cave in search of the Devil's Eye.

This idea even made it far enough along Walt Disney
Animation Studios' development track that some concept art was actually put
together which was put together that then showed Cruella draped in some
bayou-inspired fashion.

But in the end, de Vil didn't get her animated encore. WDAS
artists eventually decided that "The Rescuers" needed an entirely new
Disney Villain, one Madam Medusa, to drive that film's story.

Which isn't to say that Marc Davis' contemporary creation
entirely retreated to the shadows. Glenn Close memorably brought this animated
character to life in two John Hughes productions, 1996's "101
Dalmatians" and 2000's "102 Dalmatians." And if Disney
development executives have their way, de Vil will soon return to the big screen
in a big way in "Cruella," a live-action film that is being scripted
by Aline Brosh McKenna. Who — appropriately enough — is probably best known
for having written the screenplay for "The Devil Wore Prada."

Of course, what's kind of ironic about all this is that —
whenever any performers have portrayed Cruella de Vil over the past 20 years —
they've always imitated Betty Lou Gerson's distinctive cigarette-tinged vocals.
But as the below video proves, Walt Disney once had a very
different voice in mind for Cruella. One that took its inspiration from Paris
Hilton's great aunt, Zsa Zsa Gabor.

The Diamond Edition of Disney's "101 Dalmatians"
(which is the first time this animated classic will be available in the blu-ray
format) hits store shelves today.

This article was originally posted on the Huffington Post's Entertainment page on February 3, 2015