‘We’ll never do it again’: Walt Disney thought this movie would fail – and he couldn’t be more wrong!
In the early 1960s, 101 Dalmatians was released in theaters to become one of the great classics of Disney studios. Today, it is hard to believe that at the time of its launch, however, the film was far from being considered as such. Disney wasn’t betting on the success of the project at all, and Walt Disney himself wasn’t all that supportive of the feature – and he had his reasons.
As AdoroCinema clarifies, until then, the creator of the studio had released few films like 101 Dalmatiansa film in which there is no defined protagonist, the “lead role” belonging more to the group and to the story itself than to a specific character – as was the case with films about very specific heroines like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or even productions centered on singular animals like Dumbo and Bambi.
THE STYLE OF THE FILM CHALLENGED
However, another big change for Disney was the look of the project. Until then, the studio had used very careful drawing techniques in each of its stories, but 101 Dalmatians had his own style.
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The film indeed offers a much more “messy” animation, in which the traces of sketches are perfectly visible, even in the most worked frames – as you can see in the making-of of the cartoon presented at the end of the article . And this change in visual style did not please waltz disney. In the book Before the Animation Beginshistorian John Canemaker recounts that the latter even said “they would never do a horrible thing like that again” (via ScreenRant).
All of this distrust led the studio and its creator to expect box office failure – which never came. 101 Dalmatians was a smash hit and brought Disney an absurd profit, costing just $3 million to produce and grossing over $300 million at the box office.
The masterpieces that are 101 Dalmatians can be seen streaming on Disney+.