Screen Scene

Published: Monday, December 2, 1996

Monday, December 2, 1996

"101 Dalmatians"

Directed by Stephen Herek

Starring Glenn Close

and Jeff Daniels

Disney's modern pinnacle of animated success, "The Lion King," worked a magic with kids that was uncanny but indisputable. You could carp all you wanted about the weak ending and hokey soundtrack, but it all worked wonders for the target audience. Kids couldn't get enough. Yet, in the midst of its biggest hit, the monolith that is Disney planted some seeds of failure.

These seeds have been growing slowly for a while now, at about the same rate that their animated product is declining on critical and commercial standards. With "101 Dalmatians," a live-action adaptation of a cartoon, the problems catch up with them in a big way.

Low on passion and excitement, this Thanksgiving offering should be titled "107 Supporting Characters." It shouldn't surprise anyone; Disney's been headed down this path for a while. Try and remember anything Simba said or did in "The Lion King." Okay, now how about the warthog thing? Disney animated flicks have always been rich in supporting characters, but their void at lead is becoming mammoth. And if you can even identify true leads in "101 Dalmatians," you're reaching to protect your unconditional love for all things Disney.

Things start out OK. Writer/producer John Hughes (yes, once the best thing about the 1980s, now a sad relic unwilling to take chances) does a decent job updating the tale to modern-day London, where Anita (Joely Richardson) works at Cruella De Vil's (Glenn Close) fashion agency, and Roger (Jeff Daniels) struggles to design video games. Both have loving dalmatians (Perdy and Pongo, respectively) who meet in the park and start an elaborate bike chase that passes for momentum in the early going. The shortest courtship in the world ends and everyone gets pregnant.

Enter Cruella, feeling scorned and deliciously evil. In one of the more enjoyable moments of the film, she declares her intention to wait for the puppies in no uncertain terms. It's the one time in the film where Close unleashes her talent on the role. Her participation is, granted, inspired casting, but it feels like slumming when the film turns into an uninspired series of plunges into mud.

That's where the film is determined to end up. But we've still got about a hour to pass getting there. So after 15 puppies pop out, Cruella sends her henchmen (Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams) to ferret them away, and then the entire animal kingdom helps to find, free and protect the dogs. Kids start yawning, the story starts meandering, and everyone who participated in the first half of the film (Daniels, Richardson, Pongo, etc.) gets forgotten about.

Ultimately, the worst of the poor choices Hughes and friends made while adapting this tale was shutting the dogs up. You can't have 101 characters running around without any expressions, personalities or articulation. It's an inauspicious state for one of the charter members of the Disney canon, but hopefully it will show the creative team where they got so off the track. Disney's summer animated opuses and live-action adaptations are still going to be events, so it behooves everyone for them to be of higher quality than this waste of time and dogs.

Grade: C-

By Michael Horowitz

"Sling Blade"

Directed by Billy Bob Thornton

Starring Billy Bob Thornton

and Dwight Yoakam

If you are looking for a feel-good movie, look elsewhere. "Sling Blade" is a darkly moralistic tale of a mentally handicapped man, Karl, who was institutionalized for killing his mother and her sleazy boyfriend when he was 12. The movie begins 20 years later, with his unwilling release from the institution.

It may sound promising by way of a unique premise, but the movie has several shortcomings and plot inconsistencies to keep it disappointing. At first it seems to paint Karl as a dangerous psychopath, but quickly ditches this idea. Karl's mental capacity also changes throughout; one minute he has trouble ordering from a fast food stand, and the next minute he is spouting deep psychological insights.

Billy Bob Thornton, as Karl, turns in a solid performance, but it cannot overcome flaws in the story like the weakly written, one-dimensional characters. Karl's nice friend, Linda, kindly takes him into her home. This seems like a wonderful arrangement until the appearance of Doyle (Dwight Yoakam), Linda's bad boyfriend. Doyle is more of a caricature than a character. He gets drunk, yells and gives people mean sneers, but not much else. There are promising moments when Doyle seems to show a side other than the one-dimensional monster, but these moments seem to slip away the second they arrive.

John Ritter, of "Three's Company" fame, is cast as Vaughn, a gay man trying to live quietly in this small Bible Belt community. His character is little more than a tired stereotype of the passive and quirky gay guy who is constantly picked on. The audience is supposed to associate Vaughn with Karl because they are both misunderstood outcasts, but the comparison is awkward and forced.

The movie is admirable for bringing up some interesting moral questions. And the direction is solid, with intriguingly long camera shots and powerful close-ups that work effectively to create an intensity the script could not accomplish alone. But overall the movie feels contrived to elicit certain emotions from the audience, and the weak characters lack the power to draw the audience in effectively.

Grade: B-

By Ricky Herzog