Hamilton Luske
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Leto commands the often hyperbolic storyline as a modern cyber-punk Pinocchio with a dash of the friendlier Terminator and a splash of Star Trek’s Data.
…the script itself alludes to both Frankenstein and Pinocchio…
One of the producers of TRON: Ares likened the film’s concept to Pinocchio because the puppet evolved to become a person.
…than it is about Ares’s Pinocchio-esque transformation into a real boy.
…a predictable mashup of Pinocchio, The Terminator and Robocop…
…heavy-handed references to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” (1818) and “Pinocchio?”
The other, of course, is Cruella de Vil, played by Emma Stone with enough seething, over the top vengefulness to almost make one forget Glenn Close’s memorable Cruella in “101 Dalmatians” (1996) and “102 Dalmatians” (2000), both live-action sequels to Disney’s beloved 1961 animated classic, which is paid brief homage at the end of the new film.
Cruella , with its shoe-horned attempts at referencing 101 Dalmatians , proves just how thrilling but also limiting the exercise can be.
Opening in the UK and US on May 28, while simultaneously becoming available on Disney+, the film radiates a punk-ish spirit that caters to younger viewers who may not know the live-action 101 Dalmatians films which starred Glenn Close about 25 years ago — to say nothing of the 1961 animated original.
Her take on Cruella de Vil, in Disney’s live-action adaptation of its 1961 animated classic 101 Dalmatians , has, for a long time, felt positively definitive.
As a prequel to the 1961 animated feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians and the 1996 live-action movie 101 Dalmatians , Cruella focuses on the early days of the studio’s most despicable villain outside of Mary Poppins.
Written by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara and set in 1970s London, the live-action comedy is based on the “101 Dalmatians” movies and the Dodie Smith novel that preceded them.
Like other films produced by DreamWorks and Aardman Animation (Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit), Flushed Away is loaded with groan-worthy puns ("Pardon me, my fly's undone," says The Toad when an insect he swallowed tries to escape) and pop-culture references (I spotted nods to James Bond, Superman, The Fly, Batman, Lady and the Tramp, Finding Nemo and Mary Poppins, among others), and it playfully mocks horror-movie clichés, as well (the old fisherman who takes Roddy to the docks where Rita can be found speaks into a bottle to make his voice echo).
Sharp-eyed viewers should watch for parodies of and winking nods to earlier Aardman works, as well as "The Lion King," "Lady and the Tramp" and other animated classics.
Kids will recognize throwaway homages to Lady and the Tramp and Finding Nemo , while grownups may blink at the sight of a cockroach reading Kafka’s Metamorphosis.
Ratatouille (2007)
Directed by Brad Bird
influenced by Ben and Me (1953), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Plot
Like Robert Lawson's gradeschool best seller Ben and Me, in which a resourceful colonial mouse helps Founding Father Ben Franklin with his inventions, Ratatouille is a tale of interspecies friendship and inspiration.
"Ratatouille" may just be the most fully expressed animated family movie to come around since "101 Dalmatians" (1961).
How dreary would life be without the animated gifts of the Walt Disney Studios: "Fantasia," "Lady and the Tramp," "Cinderella," "Snow White," "Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King" and dozens more that have enchanted moviegoers for decades.
So, yes, there are familiar elements here -- from children's-lit and children's-film classics as varied as 101 Dalmatians, Stuart Little, and Winnie the Pooh, but there's also a broad-and-bizarre stroke of Monty Python-style absurdity and more than a few welcome, modernized-yet-classical touches like a calypso band, D Lime, acting as a chorus to the film's urban adventuring.
The plot is all predictable, broad-strokes stuff — I mean, it’s basically Mary Poppins meets E.T. meets 101 Dalmatians, but with a talking bear — but the inspired comic setpieces set the movie apart.
In the interest of galvanizing the narrative and amping up the peril, King and McColl have devised a cheerfully silly, action-heavy chase plot that cribs heavily from “101 Dalmatians,” complete with its own Cruella de Vil: bleach-bobbed taxidermist Millicent Clyde ( Nicole Kidman ), who’s determined to nab one particular Peruvian breed of bear for her collection.
Garfield (2004)
Directed by Peter Hewitt
influenced by One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Plot
The hand-me-down story line borrows from "101 Dalmatians," "Toy Story 2" and the animal pound interlude of "Lady and the Tramp."
The hand-me-down story line borrows from "101 Dalmatians," "Toy Story 2" and the animal pound interlude of "Lady and the Tramp."
Based on the 1883 children’s story by Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio is in spirit a classical European fairy tale, full of wonder and terror, implacable moralism and providential hope.
Such was the case with Walt Disney's 1940 release of "Pinocchio."
There’s my Pinocchio!”
The tactile, snow-capped Arendelle landscape, including Elsa’s ice-castle retreat (imagine Superman’s Fortress of Solitude with a more feminine touch), is “Frozen’s” other true marvel, enhanced by 3D and the decision to shoot in widescreen — a nod to the CinemaScope richness of “Sleeping Beauty” and “Lady and the Tramp.”
The Last Days of Disco (1998)
Directed by Whit Stillman
influenced by Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Dialogue Themes
So many times there are scenes in which characters say things that feel rehearsed, lines that they've cooked up and saved for the group, like in one diatribe about Disney's Lady and the Tramp.
Yet, Stillman's direction and dialogue here seem looser, more hip than in his previous outings: Two suitors vying for the same woman engage in a pointed deconstruction of Lady and the Tramp; an impromptu, after-hours dance of flirtation slyly moves from the living room to the bedroom.
They'll argue anything, as evidenced by a psychoanalytical quarrel over "Lady and the Tramp," in which one character opines that the movie encourages women to invest romantically in parolees and bad boys.
When they're not shaking their booties on the dance floor, the trendy friends can be found engaging in idle chatter about everything from the psycho-social ramifications of "Lady and the Tramp" to post-modern reinterpretations of Shakespearean tragedies, occasionally taking time out to vent the romantic and professional insecurities that have become a hallmark of Stillman characters.
Matilda (1996)
Directed by Danny DeVito
influenced by One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
Characters
She is compared to Cruela DeVille in "101 Dalmatians."
Title villain Ultron is well-voiced by James Spader and gets a few wickedly cool characteristics, including his recurring "I've Got No Strings" callback to Disney's 1940 animated feature "Pinocchio," but the longer he is around the more glaringly one-note he becomes.
"There are no strings on me," he says, quoting from Disney's 1940 classic cartoon "Pinocchio" in one of the strangest recent instances of corporate synergy.
"Lady and the Tramp": Robert and Giselle have lunch at an Italian restaurant named Bella Notte, the title of a memorable song from the 1955 tale of puppy love.
The 20th century had Disney's Pinocchio (1940).
Togo (2019)
Directed by Ericson Core
influenced by Lady and the Tramp (1955), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
Themes
Some of its flagship animation studio’s most popular films are all about dogs, from Lady and the Tramp to 101 Dalmatians.
Some of its flagship animation studio’s most popular films are all about dogs, from Lady and the Tramp to 101 Dalmatians.
…but Shapiro’s spot seems like Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island. It’ll be fun for a bit, but instead of being turned into a real chef, Syd is going to end up a donkey.
However, it’s done in no more overt a way than how Lady and the Tramp took on class…
Bridget Fonda provides the voice of a husky named Jenna for a romantic subplot that owes more than a little to Disney's "Lady and the Tramp."
Bacon and Fonda do an adequate job but, for those moviegoers who've seen "Lady and the Tramp," they're no Lady or Tramp.
Aladdin (2019)
Directed by Guy Ritchie
influenced by One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Characters
Disney’s animated villains are wonderfully evil – think Scar in “The Lion King,’’ Shere Khan in “The Jungle Book’’ and Cruella De Vil in “101 Dalmatians.’’
Like "101 Dalmatians," "Alice in Wonderland," "Cinderella," "The Jungle Book," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Dumbo" before it, "Aladdin" (opening in theaters on Friday) comes with the lofty expectation that the audience will get the same feeling watching it as they got from the original.
Of all of the elements directly transferred between versions, the Magic Carpet fares the best, retaining not only the design of the original character, but the “body language” created by the original designer Joe Grant (a legit Disney legend who designed the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Lady from Lady and the Tramp is based on his dog) and supervising animator Randy Cartwright.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Directed by Mark Gustafson
influenced by Pinocchio (1940)
Plot Characters Visuals
It adds an extra edge, which is saying something, considering how wildly impressive 1940’s Pinocchio from Disney still is as one of their best hand-drawn animated features.
The story beats will be familiar to audiences since the movie mostly splits the difference between Carlo Collodi’s source material, The Adventures of Pinocchio, and the classic 1940s Disney adaptation.
Although it’s credited as a direct adaptation of Collodi’s text, del Toro’s Pinocchio owes as much to the 1940 Disney version, including the central presence of a garrulous insect, here named Sebastian J. Cricket and voiced by Ewan McGregor.
And not just any feature, but Pinocchio (1940), one of the most beloved, impeccable, and technically breathtaking films of Disney’s Golden Age.
Perhaps even more so than Disney’s terrifying 1940 Pinocchio, this stop-motion variation—co-directed by del Toro and animator Mark Gustafson—leans into the more unnerving aspects of a wooden puppet coming to life, while still capturing the fairy-tale wonder at the heart of the tale.
And boy, this is not your Disney “Pinocchio” — not the 1940 classic nor the remake of a few months ago.
And that’s a problem, because the cartoon is already basically perfect: the best and most justly beloved film of the 1990s Disney renaissance, and the only cartoon Disney ever made after the mid-1940s that I would rank alongside their early masterpieces, Snow White , Pinocchio , Fantasia and Bambi .