101 DALMATIANS

The film had a budget of US$67 million and grossed a whopping US$320 million worldwide; an impressive feat for 1996. A lot of the film's success has to do with the simply perfect casting of Glenn Close as the villainous Cruella. She appears in far less of the film than most of us remember, but her performance is captivating and perfectly brings the animated character to life, coming off as both haunting and campy at the same time - plus her costumes are to die for. Without her performance, the film is your pretty run-of-the-mill dog family film, but Close's scenes are what made this a success and still memorable 25 years later.

'101 Dalmatians' is a stranger franchise than most realise. On top of the 1961 animated version, the two Glenn Close films, the direct-to-DVD film and 'Cruella', Disney has also produced two animated series - one in 1997 and another in 2019 - as well as seven video games. It's strange just how much these puppies have been pushed for their merchandise; for the 1996 film alone, over 17,000 different pieces of merchandise were produced.

Another fun fact: in order to get the Dalmatians to lick Jeff Daniels' face, they rubbed him with hot dogs, which is just a bit gross, and seems like there could have been some better methods.

Considering how much of a financial success the film was for the studio, it's strange that it wasn't until 2010 with Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' that Disney would jump back into the remake game. '101 Dalmatians' was a simple remake - it remained grounded and didn't need the big names and budget to draw crowds in, unlike Disney's current splurging with its bloated live-action films.

'101 Dalmatians' is nowhere near as good as you remember, but Close is the real reason to revisit. It's interesting to look back at how Disney remakes began a little more humbly, but 1996's '101 Dalmatians' isn't anything to bark about.