OK, so the 15 kidnapped Dalmatian puppies are brought to Cruella’s place at Hell Hall, along with 84 puppies who were bought and paid for at various pet stores. (Probably more than one.)
If Cruella had the financial resources to buy 84 Dalmatian puppies to kill and make into a dog-skin coat, why in the world would she need to steal the other 15? Just because Roger pissed her off? If she’d bought the other 15 legitimately, Pongo and Perdita wouldn’t have gone out looking for their puppies; Scotland Yard wouldn’t have investigated her; and she would have gotten away with it.
No, no, no. Disney movies have to have a bad person and a good group to try to win over the person. Pongo and Perdita don’t really give a crap about those pups. They are ready to move on to the next litter. It’s the human persons who are the good guys. My problem with whole movie is how many Dalmatian puppies are running around who aren’t already spoken for. Surely those future owners had to be on a waiting list for that cuteness to be born. DeVil should’ve never come close to getting that many puppies. Also why didn’t she just get a few adult Dalmatians for a coat? Seems it would have been easier and more economical.
I never could get past Dr. House being a bad guy. I never could look at him as Stuart Little’s dad either. Just weirded me out.
Yeah, I’ve always read it as her being mad at not getting what she wanted from Roger and her “friend” Anita. It was a personal thing. Hell, I expect that she planned to show up with the new coat and wear it around while implying but not outright saying where it came from.
Though there’s also the fact that the movie is set in the past. I don’t think she had like puppy mills to grab from. It’s possible she just gathered all the purebred Dalmatian puppies she could in the surrounding area, and needed another litter for her coat. Seeing as she insists on using Dalmatians, I could see her also insisting all the furs were the same age–hence why the plan was to kill 'em all at once rather than having killed each set as they got to the optimal size.
In other words, while she’s rich, there may have been a supply issue.
Dalmatians are not in the top 20 breeds in the UK or the top 30 breeds in the world. That means there is not alot of breeders to choose from. Furthermore there is a short window to harvest their coats between the time they start showing spots at one month and the time they lose their puppy fur at 4-6 months. Thus in order to get enough for a coat she had to collect all the dalmatian puppies born in a three month period or lose her considerable investment, dalmatian puppies can cost $1,000 each.
Am I remembering it wrong? I thought she offered to buy them. Basically, opened her checkbook and asked how much, and was turned down. So she stole what she couldn’t buy.
Yes. But the OP’s question seems to be, Why didn’t Cruella just go buy some extra puppies after Roger and Anita turned her down. Why steal and get the police after her when she could just go buy the puppies wherever she bought the other 84 (82 in the book*)?
It seems the answer is either “spite” or “she’d already gotten all the Dalmations in the area.”
*There were two more adult Dalmatians in the book. Perdita was a stray brown spotted Dalmation who had a miscarriage and served as a wet nurse for the 15 puppies, while Missis was the puppies’ mother. Near the end, they find Perdita’s old mate, named Prince, giving a total of four adults: Pongo, Missis, Perdita, and Prince. Hence there were only 97 puppies.
They also stopped at Cruella’s house in the book and destroyed all her furs, with her cat as a helper–because Cruella had be drowning all of her kittens. And they clearly imply that Cruella is somehow related to the actual Devil–that’s why she always needs to be dressed in furs, to keep warm.
Oh, and if you really want bizarre, read the sequel, The Starlight Barking, instead. The Open Library has two copies to loan out digitally. I don’t know if other digital libraries have it.
Frederick: “I thought we liked stripes this year.”
Cruella De Vil: “What kind of sycophant are you?”
Frederick: “Uh, what kind of sycophant would you like me to be?”
