One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released 65 years ago, and despite the decades that have passed and how significantly not only Disney but also animation technology and even storytelling have changed, the movie remains a classic worthy of a rewatch. One Hundred and One Dalmatians debuted on January 25th, 1961, making it one of the last Disney movies released before Walt Disney’s death on December 15th, 1966.

Since then, numerous One Hundred and One Dalmatians spinoffs have come out, including the 1996 live-action remake 101 Dalmatians and its sequel, 102 Dalmatians, and the 2021 movie Cruella, all of which cemented the movie’s legacy. While One Hundred and One Dalmatians is reflective of the period in which it was written in some ways, the movie is nevertheless a Disney icon, with one of the franchise’s most compelling villains and a story from before Disney felt formulaic.

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A Timeless Classic That’s Earned Its Spot As One Of Disney’s All-Time Greats

Perhaps the shining star of One Hundred and One Dalmatians is Cruella De Vil, who is so downright evil that her fur coats go one step further than usual, showing off multiple animal tails. In fact, this may be the best part of Cruella as a villain in this movie in particular: she is truly evil, and she has no redeeming qualities. Put frankly, Cruella feels like a Disney villain that just couldn’t be made today.

Perhaps the shining star of One Hundred and One Dalmatians is Cruella De Vil.

In addition to her open love of donning the skins of dead animals, Cruella orchestrates the abduction of nearly one hundred little puppies, and she instructs her two goons, Jasper and Horace, to kill them by any means, including drowning them or bashing their heads in. Sure, Disney has some scary villains these days, but they’re typically far from blatantly plotting the skinning of adorable little animals, and, too often, there’s some twist or full-fledged sequel showing that there’s more humanity to their story.

By contrast, no real explanation for Cruella’s actions is ever given in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, nor is there anything close to a forgiveness arc for the character—although, many decades later, Cruella would indeed give the character a more nuanced backstory. There’s also just no beating Cruella’s villain song, which has its debut in this movie.

The movie likewise feels like a shining example of what Disney once was. Whereas, today, many Disney movies feel redundant or aligned with a particular formula (Anna in Frozen, Moana in Moana, and Rapunzel in Tangled all share the same quirky girl personality, for example), One Hundred and One Dalmatians introduces this new sadistic villain along with an unusual narrative.

With a runtime of a little over an hour, One Hundred and One Dalmatians manages to introduce a Dalmatian named Pongo as the narrator (in a way that feels sweet rather than goofy); have Pongo and his human, Roger, bump into and get together with Dalmatian Perdita and human Anita; position Cruella as the villain; and show Perdita and Pongo’s 15 puppies get dog-napped and have to fight to survive while their parents dash to save them.

Equally surprising, the stakes actually feel pretty high at certain points, even as this is a kids’ movie about dogs. When Cruella’s creepy, sputtering car comes around the corner just as Pongo is rushing to cover up his puppies’ tracks, for example, it feels like a real hold-your-breath moment.

The animation also holds up, although it’s ironically a style that Walt Disney himself was not fond of. According to The Walt Disney Family Museum, Disney took issue with lines showing in animation, which, in this movie, they certainly do. However, the art style used for One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which blended hand-drawn animation and a new (for the time) Xerox process, is now seen as one of the most iconic, successful elements of the movie.

This style and process also came to define Disney for years, with movies like Robin Hood, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and others employing this approach. In fact, it wasn’t until The Little Mermaid in 1989, when computers took over the industry, that Disney dropped the animation style that was used for One Hundred and One Dalmatians.

Yet, there are nevertheless elements of One Hundred and One Dalmatians that make it feel dated, including one scene in which a man is on the road, driving alongside a reckless Cruella De Vil, and yells at her for being a “crazy woman driver,” implying that women can’t drive. In terms of a movie that came out in the early 1960s, however, this misogynistic moment isn’t all that surprising, nor is it necessarily so pronounced that it detracts from the whole movie.

All in all, One Hundred and One Dalmatians continues to be seen as a legacy title among the many, many Disney movies that have come out in the decades since for a reason, and its dedication to a dark, unexpected narrative and truly sinister villain should be applauded (and, arguably, used as a reference point for inspiration in this new era).