101 Dalmatians: Draw Cruella de Vil!

How to Draw Cruella de Vil, the world's worst woman villain, thanks to Disney's master animator, Andreas Deja.

101 Dalmatians by Walt Disney Studios (Diamond Edition [DVD, Blu-Ray, Digital HD], 2015 [originally 1961], $36.99, 79 minutes, Rated G)

101 Dalmatians: How much do you know about the 101 Dalmatians? (Part 2)

And the answers are. . . .!

Here are the answers to yesterday's 101 Dalmatians quiz. How did you do?

Answers to yesterday's quiz

1.     Dogs who bark messages at sunset or in the evening or night from one to another from town to town or from city to country farms

2.     They join with other pups (84) from pet stores (at the old deVil mansion) who were bought and paid for

3.     Patch, Pepper, Rolly, Lucky, Spot, Rover, Freckles, Spotty, Lucky, Penny

4.     Pongo

5.     Yes, at the beginning of the Twilight Bark, in the city.

6.     “Mom, I'm hungry!”

7.     Red

8.     To look like Labradors so Cruella wouldn’t notice them

9.     Fur coats

10. Roger

11. Anita

12. Fur coats

13. He writes songs.

14. They watch TV. This is the first Disney animated movie to show TV.

15. Probably not. Probably yes.

16. Cruella de Vil. Her last name, deVil or DeVil, can be spelled Devil. Does that help?

101 Dalmatians by Walt Disney Studios (Diamond Edition [DVD, Blu-Ray, Digital HD], 2015 [originally 1961], $36.99, 79 minutes, Rated G)


Tomorrow: Learn to draw Cruella de Vil here!

101 Dalmatians: How much do you know about the 101 Dalmatians? (Part 1)

Take this quiz and find out. (answers tomorrow)

101 Dalmatians Quiz

1.    What is the Barking Chain?

2.      How do Perdita’s 15 puppies turn into 99 puppies?

3.     How many puppies can you name?

4.     Who is telling the story?

5.     Did you see Lady and the Tramp in The 101 Dalmatians? Where?

6.     What is Rolly's favorite question?

7.     What is Cruella’s favorite color?

8.     Why did the puppies roll in coal dust?

9.     What is Cruella’s favorite piece of clothing?

10. What is the name of Pongo’s pet?

11. What is the name of Perdita’s pet?

12. What does Cruella want the puppies for?

13. What does Roger do for a living?

14. What do the puppies do in their living room in the evening with their human family before bedtime?

15. Is Cruella a good driver? Would you like to have her car?

16. Bonus question for adults: what is the significance of Cruella’s name?

101 Dalmatians by Walt Disney Studios (Diamond Edition [DVD, Blu-Ray, Digital HD], 2015 [originally 1961], $36.99, 79 minutes, Rated G)

101 Dalmatians Available Today for Adoption

101 Dalmatians by Walt Disney Studios (Diamond Edition [DVD, Blu-Ray, Digital HD], 2015 [originally 1961], $36.99, 79 minutes, Rated G)

EverythingDogBlog is back and so are Disney’s Dalmatians – all 101 of them. Now you can get the Diamond Edition of 101 Dalmatians with a DVD, a Blu-Ray and HD Digital access for viewing anywhere and everywhere (see yesterday’s blog).

Family Entertainment

Who doesn’t like puppies? And Roger and Anita have their priorities right: the family photos on the wall include their dogs Perdita and Pongo, just like your family photos include your own Rover or King or Spot (and Kitty).

Told from Pongo’s point of view, the story of the 101 Dalmatians and their adventures has withstood the test of time and remains one of Disney’s all-time favorites with kids and grown-kids, both! Now it is available to bring home!

Quaint villages, sunrises and sunsets for Mom, a chase scene and crash for the kids, plus a “Dalmatian plantation”!

Oh, No! A Dognapping! Another one! And another and. . . .

Share the unforgettable story of the puppies and that most malevolent woman, Cruella de Vil. After all, a movie is only as great as its villain and Cruella de Vil is the greatest. Would you believe that Cruella and Anita actually used to be schoolmates?

Educational, too

Speaking of school, 101 Dalmatians is also educational with foreign (British English) vocabulary and locations kids can guess at (successfully), such as ‘pulling a snitch,’ ‘blimey,’ and ‘torch’ for flashlight.

Girl pups and dogs wearing collars wear blue collars while boys wear pink-red! Must be the convention in England!

Disney Magic

You will learn that Dalmatians are born spotlessly white. Plus you’ll learn how to change a Dal into a Labrador Retriever. And back again.

And, stay tuned for the sequel! “Descendants” – where we meet Cruella’s (cute) son this summer.

Plus, with this Diamond Edition, you also get:

Cruella’s music video with Selena Gomez

Cruella: Drawn to be Bad (the devil personified)

101 Dalmatians, the Movie you can Bring Home!

101 Dalmatians by Walt Disney Studios (Diamond Edition [DVD, Blu-Ray, Digital HD], 2015 [originally 1961], $36.99, 79 minutes, Rated G)

Available Tuesday – 101 Dalmatians for your kids and you!

Take Home a Pup This Week – on DVD

Who doesn’t remember 101 Dalmatians? Cruella de Vil is a staple villain in children’s vocabularies as they call their least favorite babysitter “Cruella,” the woman they love to hate (inspired by Tallulah Bankhead and perhaps also Joan Rivers).

Puppy Lovers Watch it Again (and again and again)

It’s time to see 101 Dalmatians again, this time with the kids and grands. For them, it’s an exciting story to identify with Lucky and Spot and Rolly and Rover and Pepper and Freckles and Spotty and Patch and Penny and of course, Perdita and Pongo.

Simply Stupendous Scenery

For you, the mamas and the papas - fabulous artwork of foggy-gray /black stark park scenes and beautiful dark blue watercolor rooftops of turn-of-the-century London replete with gingerbread houses at dusk in greens and blues.  Leafless black and gray trees silhouetted against the moonlight with fog creeping in – Big Ben and the Thames River neighborhoods.

Puppies and Spots and Puppies and Spots and. . . .

Dodie Smith’s 1956 book soon became a classic: What’s more fun than puppies and spots? More puppies and spots! And 101 Dalmatians has even more puppies and even more spots.

Think You’re Seeing Spots?

You are!

How Many Spots?

Would you believe 6,429,952 spots? Almost too many to count!  Pongo has 72 spots, Perdita has 68 and each of the 99 puppies has 32 unique spots. Whew!

Fantasy. Comedy. Sentiment. Adventure. Suspense. Snow. And, Spots!

Entrancing enough for adults and exciting enough for kids, 101 Dalmatians is sure to make a comeback with this release. And this Diamond Edition has the DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital HD so you can take it with you everywhere!

Fun Facts

-For every second of this animated film, 24 drawings are required; each, identical except for a smidgeon of a difference. Thank goodness we have computers today.

-101 Dals took 3 years of work by 150 artists to complete using 1, 218, 750 pencils.

Bonus: Learn to draw Cruella here later this week in a future blog. Test your knowledge of Disney villains here, starting tomorrow.

Note: Release date - available in stores and for digital download on February 10 (Tuesday) as Blu-Ray and digital for the very first time. Also available on February 15 on Amazon.

On Facebook here.

Caveat: This DVD was sent to me for review.

Book Review: Ask Anna (dog, advice column)

Ask Anna: Advice for the Furry and Forlorn, by Dean Koontz* and his dog Anna (Center Street/Hatchette Book Group, 2014, $20, 96 pages)

Golden Advice

Surely you have heard of the very prolific Dean Koontz*, seemingly inexhaustible author of numerous (130 or more) books, many of them bestsellers, and his former best friend (dog) and fellow bestselling author Trixie Koontz**, who wrote three books herself.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Anna Koontz, also a Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) wonderdog drop-out (like Trixie) and now, advice columnist for canines with her first book, Ask Anna. And it is amazing how Anna resembles her favorite human, Dean Koontz in photos.

Although Anna is a golden retriever who wears pink ribbons on her ears, she inherited the Dear Abby gene and advises all breeds of dogs, even All-American dogs (America’s favorite kind, the mixed breed or dog of unknown origin [DUO]). Chances are that you will first thumb through to find the letters written by dogs like yours (or at least dog-ear those pages).

What can be better than pages and pages of dog photos? All proceeds***will be donated to Canine Companions for Independence, a nonprofit organization that trains service dogs for people with disabilities.

Although it is hard to carry brilliant questions and answers throughout an entire 96-page book, Koontz does a remarkable job, starting with his inadvertent discovery of Anna’s talent. She was using a computer, hidden away in the family exercise room and remained undiscovered for quite some time until one day Koontz happened to glance in as he passed by and saw Anna helping a Boston Terrier from - Boston!

Dear Anna

My favorite letter is from a height-challenged Dachshund named Shrimp who feels short and asks about leg extensions, exercises, vitamins or yoga. Anna replies that Shrimp is not short when height is measured from nose to tail and dogs don’t have to worry about their looks because they are all humungously cute!

From ‘Obsessed in Omaha’ to ‘Not Cute Enough in Cleveland’ to ‘Confused Puppy’ to Anna’s buddy, Buddy, these letters will entertain and even astound you with the cleverness of this canine counselor.

Bonus: A rather-contrived ‘Brief (2-page) History of Canine Advice’ and the rather strange 3-page ‘Take my Paw in Times of Trouble (A Dog Day in Koontzland)’

*Midnight; Darkest Evening of the Year; A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog; Trixie and Jinx; I, Trixie, Who is Dog (reviewed here); . . . .

**Life is Good: Lessons in Joyful Living; Bliss to You: Trixie’s Guide to a Happy Life; and Christmas is Good: Trixie’s Guide to a Happy Holiday

***The only other book I know of to donate all its proceeds is Katenna Jones’ Fetching the Perfect Dog Trainer (reviewed here). 

Book Review: I, Trixie, Who is Dog (dog, children's book)

I, Trixie, Who is Dog, Dean Koontz (Putnam/Penguin, 32 pages, 2009, $16.99, ages 5 and up)

 I, Trixie, Who is Dog is another must-have book in the Trixie ‘series’ (some were even written by Trixie the Golden Retriever herself).

Although it is hard to make absolutely every single page in a children’s book specially fun and funny and unique and thought-provoking, Koontz manages to do a good job on many pages – enough to make the book memorable.

With the unique sentence structure (or unstructure) that is unique to Trixie and which drives this reviewer crazy at times, Trixie is glad she is a dog and sorry that you aren’t but there have to be people to feed and pet and scratch dogs, and there have to be cats to entertain dogs, and there have to be sheep so dogs can herd them, and there have to be coyotes to sell milk shakes in cactus cafes. The lesson here: Whatever you are is the best thing to be!

Your child will soon have this book and its rhymes memorized!