The unforgettable 101 Dalmatians: Some facts you can’t miss

Disney’s animated feature 101 Dalmatians turned 56 early this year. Many of us have fond memories of the film that was released back on January 25, 1961. The live action version was released 35 years after the original, which also remains to be a favourite of the recent generations.

Let’s see some interesting facts about the trendsetting film about pets:

• According to Oh My Disney, the official site for trivia, facts and news about the famous studio and its movies, the dog characters featured in the film had 6,469,952 spots (on the dot!)
• In all, Pongo sported the most (72), Perdita accounted for 68, and every puppy had 32 spots each
• The author of the book that inspired the movie series, Dodie Smith, raised nine Dalmatians, including one barking to the name of Pongo
• More interestingly, the birth of 15 puppies depicted in the movie is borrowed from a real-life incident of the writer
• Of the original 15 puppies, six are named Lucky, Rolly, Patch, Penny, Pepper, and Freckles
• 101 Dalmatianswas the first Disney movies to use Xerography, a dry photocopying technique, which was later marketed by the Xerox Corporation
• The Rolls-Royce Phantom used by Cruella de Vil and all other cars depicted in the movie were actually cardboard cars
• Dalmatians are typically spotted black on white coats. The film intriguingly had them in black and grey. The reason? White coats against the snow would have bounced off too much of light on screen
• After the film’s release and subsequent popularity, Disney Feature Animation later had ‘The Twilight Bark’ as the name of its internal newsletter
• How many Dalmatians does it take to represent 101 of them? 250! In the live action adaptation of the animated feature, 230 Dalmatian puppies and 20 adult Dalmatians were used