Disney's 101 Dalmatians Unleashed At McDonald's

Without question, 101 Dalmatians was Disney's Top Dog at McDonald's.

With promotions for the animated movie, TV series and live action "101 Dalmatians" and "102 Dalmatians," there have been more individual McDonald's premiums based on the spotted canines than any other Disney creation.

There have been so many 101 Dalmatians items at McDonald's worldwide that it would be extremely difficult to collect everything that was produced.

The fun began in the Summer of 1991, when McDonald's promoted the theatrical re-release of Disney's 1961 animated Dalmatian adventure.

This Happy Meal featured four different "action figures." Pongo has always been my favorite character in the film.

When Lucky watches TV, he enjoys chowing down on some Kanine Krunchies.

How is it that no dog food company makes a real brand of "Kanine Krunchies" using Lucky as a mascot?

The Colonel (a sheepdog) is friends with Sergeant Tibs, a rare Disney cat hero. Tibs was written out of the 1996 live action movie. Boo Hiss!

Tibs did appear with The Colonel in the 101 Dalmatians Animated Series in 1997.

Cruella looks fetching in her coat.

You've got to give a hand to the designers of these toys, as they did a great job capturing the essence of the characters in small pieces of plastic.

In 1994, Pongo and two Dalmatian pups were guest stars in Ronald McDonald Presents Happy Birthday Happy Meal.

This was sort of the "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" of McDonald's Happy Meals. This Birthday Train set honoring 15 years of Happy Meals also included cars featuring Ronald McDonald, The Happy Meal Guys, Barbie, Hot Wheels, E.T., Sonic the Hedgehog, Berenstain Bears, Cabbage Patch Kids, Tonka, Snoopy, Muppet Babies, The Little Mermaid, Looney Tunes, and Tiny Toon Adventures.

In 1996, Disney released a live action version of 101 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close.

For this Happy Meal, 101 different toys were sold in white packages, making each toy a surprise (by the way, the pup wearing Mickey Mouse ears is named "Fidget" per the embroidery on the back of his hat).

McDonald's understood that this promotion could potentially drive collectors stark raving mad, so complete 101 Dalmatians sets were sold through a mail-away offer.

The Dalmatian toys also double as Christmas ornaments.

The figures in the boxed set were not in packages, so I guess no collector can have a truly "Mint In Package" 101 Dalmatians collection.

The characters in this set are primarily generic Disney Dalmatians, but aside from Fidget, you can also "spot" Jewel here.

Wow, I wonder how long it took to design this set.

It is interesting that the cartoon Dalmatians are used to promote the live action film.

Notice how similar many of the toys are.

Were there any variants or chasers in this set? I'm not sure.

Pongo and Perdita weren't in the Happy Meal, but they could be found in the Dalmatian Snowglobe set McDonald's also offered.

There were four of these, but I only got two of them.

In 1997, Disney TV Animation launched a 101 Dalmatians Animated Series. Perdita was voiced by actress Pam Dawber, who played "Mindy" on the TV series "Mork and Mindy" with Robin Williams.

In the Animated Series, the Dalmatians live in the country next door to Cruella. Scorch the Ferret is Cruella's loyal pet.

The TV show is a mix of the animated film and the live action one, plus something different.

Two-Tone the Dalmatian was originally a character from the live action film. Lt. Pug was created for the TV series.

Lucky (voiced by Pamela Adlon and Debi Mae West) is the leader of the Dalmatians.

Cruella (voiced by April Winchell) is more of an annoying neighbor in the show than a real threat to the dogs.

Rolly (voiced by Kath Soucie) is quite the chow hound. The pigs on the farm might want to watch their backs.

The "Flipcars" used for this Happy Meal were first seen in the "Tiny Toon Adventures" Warner Brothers Happy Meal circa 1990. Kath Soucie was the voice of Fifi the Skunk on that show.

Dipstick the Dalmatian was portrayed as a rather goofy character.

Notice that the character names are not found on the packaging. I had to do some research to figure out that the snake is named Cydne.

Tripod the three-legged Dalmatian was new for this show.

Dumpling the Pig was voiced by Christine Cavanaugh, who also voiced Babe the Pig in the movie "Babe".

Like Rolly, Cadpig the dog was voiced by Kath Soucie.

Spot the Chicken (voiced by Tara Strong) thought she was a dog.

Like all the characters from the original "101 Dalmatians" film, Pongo was redesigned with a new look for the Animated Series.

The Swamp Rat is a character that I don't really remember much about.

In 2000, Disney released a sequel to the live action film called "102 Dalmatians."

This was the first big live action movie directed by Kevin Lima, who had previously directed "A Goofy Movie" and "Tarzan" for Disney.

Once again, McDonald's was the promotional partner for "102 Dalmatians." This time, the toys did all sorts of tricks. Some were wind-up toys, pull-back vehicles, light-up toys, train cars, had fabric features or other specialties.

The "102 Dalmatians" Happy Meal must have been very expensive for McDonald's to create.

This time, Cruella and other characters made an appearance in a movie set.

The movie characters each have a special feature. Cruella has two faces, Oddball has spots that magically appear, Fluffy has hair, Waddlesworth has sound, and Little Dipper is a squirt toy.

McDonald's and Disney really upped the game for 102 Dalmatians. Each week, a couple sets of different types of toys were released. Here we see the Movie Set, the Wind-up Set, and the Ice Set.
The Wind-up Set includes an acrobatic Dalmatian similar to the Little Brother the Dog toy seen in 1998's Mulan McDonald's Happy Meal. It also features a roll-over Dalmatian similar to the Thomas O'Malley cat from the European AristoCats Happy Meal.

Here we see Dalmatian Spinning Tops, Light-Up Dalmatians, and Flocked Dalmatians.

We also see Pull-Back Dalmatians and Rolling Dalmatian Vehicles.

Here we have Dalmatians with Clothing, the Dalmatian Train Set and Dalmatian Water Globes.

Don't forget the Dalmatian Village and the Dalmatian Band (with Sound!).

In the Land Down Under, things were appropriately turned upside down.

In Australia, McDonald's had toys that looked like the live action movie characters.

101 Dalmatians were also part of another really big set of McDonald's Happy Meal toys. The 100 Years of Magic Walt Disney World promotion celebrated 100 years of Disney with 100 different toys. This promotion is a bit confusing, since Walt Disney World opened in 1971, so it is clearly not 100 years old.

Walt Disney World in Florida does not have a 101 Dalmatians attraction, but you can stay in a Dalmatian hotel of sorts when you visit Disney's All-Star Movies Resort.

There have been even more 101 Dalmatians Happy Meal Promotions at McDonald's all over the world (Pongo was even in a Euro Disney Resort Happy Meal in 1992). If you ever try to track down all of them, use Lucky the Dalmatian to help you. Because you're gonna need all the luck you can get trying to find everything.

Disney's One Saturday Morning On ABC (Circa 1997)

Monday morning, wake up time, get to work and you stand in line. What would make you feel real fine? One Saturday Morning!

Coming up next is Tuesday's grind, the week is young, but I'm out of my mind! What would make you feel real fine? One Saturday Morning!

Wednesday, Thursday jammed in the middle, once again make you pose a riddle. What's strung real loose, but plays like a fiddle? One Saturday Morning!

Friday has an exit sign, but getting there still takes some time. What would make you feel real fine? One Saturday Morning!

(Illuminating Television!)

Five hours of Summer, once a week---One Saturday Morning! Yeah! Five hours of Summer is what we need---One Saturday Morning! Five hours of Summer, once a week---One Saturday Morning! Whoa! Five hours of Summer---One Saturday Morning!

That's the theme song (or something close to it) to Disney's One Saturday Morning, the block of shows that aired on ABC TV in the Fall of 1997. If I remember correctly, during summertime, the word "Summer" was changed to "Sunshine."

After enjoying that intro, real actor kids (some of whom I remember seeing on David E. Kelley's "Boston Public" TV show from 2000), often joined by the wacky costume character, Miss Moose or a live African elephant named Jellyroll (voiced by Brad Garrett as part of a segment called "How Much Stuff Could An Elephant Crush?") and the wild and wacky Manny the Uncanny (Paul Rugg, known for his writing and voice work on "Freakazoid" and "Animaniacs" for Warner Brothers) hosted live action and animated segments linking the cartoons of One Saturday Morning.

So after a week of school, what do kids get to watch on One Saturday Morning? Well, they get to watch cartoons about kids in school. Doug, Pepper Ann and Recess were the first shows to be part of the One Saturday Morning block. The one non-Disney show on the ABC Saturday morning schedule was The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show from Warner Brothers.

Warner Brothers would later make their own "Kids In School" cartoon for their Kids' WB lineup called "Detention" in 1999.

101 Dalmatians: The Series was produced by Disney TV and Jumbo Pictures, the same company that created the series "Doug" for Nickelodeon. We'll get to Doug in a minute.

101 Dalmatians followed the adventures of pups Lucky, Rolly and Cadpig, plus their chicken friend, Spot. Of course, there were a bunch of other Dalmatians in the series (but unlike "The Smurfs" we did not really get to know many of them), and they were always trying to avoid their neighbor, Cruella De Vil. This show also aired in syndication.

When Disney bought animation company Jumbo Pictures in 1996, Doug became a character somehow shared by Nickelodeon and Disney. For Nick, Doug Funnie was voiced by Billy West on the show "Doug" (1991-1994). For Disney's "Brand Spanking New! Doug" the character was voiced by Tom McHugh.

In 1999, Doug starred in "Doug's 1st Movie" and appeared a stage show called "Doug Live!" at Disney MGM Studios (now Disney's Hollywood Studios) at Walt Disney World in Florida.

Disney's Recess, created by Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere, somehow reminded me of the Jon Lovitz animated series "The Critic" (1994) in its character design and comic timing. The show had an impressive voice cast, including Dabney Coleman as Mr. Prickly.

This "Where's Waldo?" type game is interesting because it looks like the artist who created it never actually saw an episode of "Recess." All the "extras" seen playing with the Recess kids look like characters from old Dennis the Menace comic strips.

Recess was popular enough to get a McDonald's Happy Meal promotion, and I think it may have been the only One Saturday Morning show to get one.

Recess later hit the big screen with the movie "Recess: School's Out" in 2001. The characters also appeared on a few direct to DVD releases in 2003 and on an episode of "Lilo and Stitch: The Series."

Who's that girl? What's her name? Is she cool? Is she lame? Oh, you're talking about "what's-her-name"---Pepper Ann! Pepper Ann was created by Sue Rose, and originally appeared as a comic strip character. Sue Rose was responsible for another popular character named "Fido Dido" who appeared on all sorts of merchandise and on animated bumpers for CBS Saturday Morning cartoons in the 1990s.

Pepper Ann was voiced (and her theme song was sung) by actress Kathleen Wilhoite (who also voiced comic strip character Cathy in animated specials in the 1980s). P.A's pal, Milo, was voiced by Danny Cooksey, who starred on Diff'rent Strokes and Tiny Toon Adventures (as Montana Max). Pepper Ann and her Mom (April Winchell) were the only characters from One Saturday Morning to make a cameo appearance on Disney's House of Mouse TV series (2001) starring Mickey Mouse.

I think that the characters in the Pepper Ann "world" are the most fun to draw of all the One Saturday Morning shows.

Disney's Jungle Cubs was the second TV show to spin-off from Disney's 1967 animated feature, "The Jungle Book." The first was Disney's "TaleSpin" (1990). The two shows were totally different.

When Jungle Cubs debuted, Baloo (Pamela Segall Adlon), Bagheera (Elizabeth Daily), Hathi (Rob Paulsen), Shere Khan (Jason Marsden), Kaa (Jim Cummings) and Louie (Jason Marsden) were young friends with minor squabbles.

Jungle Cubs is a show that, as they say in "the biz" went through "re-tooling" in its second season. Characters were re-designed and the whole tone of the series changed as friendships faded away. Some voices were re-cast, including Louie (Cree Summer), Bagheera (Dee Bradley Baker) and Hathi (Stephen Furst).

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh were hardly new by 1997.

The show had its Saturday Morning premiere on ABC way back in 1988.

Nobody has to tell animated TV stars that life isn't always fair. Since many of these shows are no longer seen, their characters risk being forgotten or totally unknown.

Jungle Cubs had not been seen on TV for many years, but it looks like it recently started airing again on Disney Junior. Maybe some more of these characters will return to TV so they can be introduced to a new generation.

Per regulations of movie theater chains, the trailer for any new possible One Saturday Morning spin-off movie made must include Tone-Loc's song, "Wild Thing."

Phineas and Ferb, start saving your money right now. You just never know what could happen to you in ten years.

Just ask Kim Possible. I know some people may be wondering, "Kim Who?"

Cruella De Vil And The DogHouse Of Horrors: Part 101

They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky. It's the Addams Family and Cruella De Vil, and if they don't scare you, no evil thing will.

On issues of Disney Adventures Magazine, it was not unusual to see Disney characters rubbing elbows with then-current stars of stage and screen. In November of 1993, Cruella posed with Wednesday Addams (Christina Ricci) and her brother Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) as seen in the movies "The Addams Family" (1991) and "Addams Family Values" (1993) for a frightfully fun cover. Inside this special 3D issue, one of the big stories was a feature on a brand new movie called The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The Addams Family was created by cartoonist Charles Addams and started appearing in The New Yorker back in 1938. The live action TV show debuted in 1964, starring John Astin as Gomez and Jackie Coogan as Uncle Fester (Coogan's grandson, Keith Mitchell, was the voice of Tod the Fox in Disney's 1981 film "The Fox and the Hound").

Disney's 101 Dalmatians, based on a story written by Dodie Smith, debuted in theaters in 1961. It's easy to imagine Cruella being friends with The Addams Family.

Fashion conscious Cruella likes things with flair. She even has special lamps in her house.

See the glass in this picture? I wonder what kind of beverage Cruella is drinking.

Cruella has a warm and inviting bedroom.

Here, Cruella chats on the phone to her gal pal about the wild night she just spent with Edgar the Butler from "The AristoCats."

Cruella goes shopping at estate sales for the furniture in her home. Much of her furniture is from The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Larger-than-life Cruella has her mind set on making a dalmatian coat. What a mean lady.

Appropriately, Cruella has a b*tchin' car.

When Cruella learns that her friend Anita's dalmatians are having puppies, she quickly pays them a visit.

Anita and her husband Roger met each other because of their dogs, Pongo and Perdita.

Scratch that. Pongo and Perdita make it clear in the movie that Roger and Anita are THEIR pets.

Pongo and Perdita have fifteen of their own puppies.

Roger and Anita are secretly known as "that crazy dalmatian couple" by their neighbors.

Over the years, The Disney Catalog has sold some great 101 Dalmatians items. Many of the items seen here were sold between 1989 and 2005.

These plush toys were sold during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and I think they're the best versions of Pongo and Perdita that I've seen.

Cruella (voiced by Betty Lou Gerson) shows up to buy Pongo and Perdita's puppies, but Roger and Anita insist that they aren't for sale.

Luckily for Cruella, she can still find all sorts of Dalmatian items for sale after all these years. You can frequently see the dalmatian pups grouped with other Disney dogs on pet merchandise at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

When Cruella can't get her way, she creates all kinds of problems, which is a good thing for a movie to be interesting.

Cruella was brought to life by legendary animator Marc Davis, who would later work at Walt Disney Imagineering. He helped to create amazing attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, The Country Bear Jamboree and America Sings for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

In 1996, Glenn Close starred as Cruella in a live action version of 101 Dalmatians.

The dogs in the movie did not talk. So the film was basically silent dogs running across the screen for an hour. Luckily, Glenn Close did the talking, and the new version of 101 Dalmatians did well at the box office.

Glenn Close played Cruella again in "102 Dalmatians".

102 Dalmatians (released in 2000) was the first live action film directed by Kevin Lima, who had previously directed "A Goofy Movie" (1995) and "Tarzan" (1999).

Glenn Close was the voice of Kala, Tarzan's gorilla mother.

102 Dalmatians introduced some new characters. The Dalmatian parents were Dottie and Dipstick, and their offspring were Domino, Little Dipper and Oddball (who had no spots). Cruella was given a Chinese Crested Hairless named Fluffy. The characters were helped by shelter dogs named Digger, Drooler and Chomp, and their parrot pal, Waddlesworth.

102 Dalmatians had a big marketing push, but the film was not a big hit in theaters.

Kevin Lima went on to direct a great Disney movie called "Enchanted" (2007) starring Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey.

In 1997, Walt Disney Television Animation launched a 101 Dalmatians TV series. It was sort of an alternate universe version of the story that mixed elements from the original animated movie, the live action movie and the book by Dodie Smith.

Cruella De Vil (voiced by April Winchell) lived in the country next door to Roger and Anita. The three main dalmatians were Lucky (Pamela Segall Adlon), Rolly and Cadpig (both voiced by Kath Soucie). They were often joined by a new character named Spot the Chicken (Tara Charendoff Strong). The show aired in syndication and on the One Saturday Morning block on ABC.

In 2003, another sequel called "101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure" was released on video and DVD.

I never saw this movie, but I know Cruella was in it, and the story was about Thunderbolt the German Shepherd.

Cruella is in good company with the Disney Villains.

Look for these ladies to star in a new "Real Housewives" TV spin-off soon.

Cruella stands out among the Disney Villains to me because I feel like I've met Cruella in the real world twice! One of the Cruellas was a real estate agent, and the other was someone's mother-in-law. Scary, but hilarious and entertaining.

As for Ursula: I've had a co-worker tell me that they had Ursula as an English teacher in high school.

In 2002, Hasbro and Disney launched the Disney Wild Racers die cast car line. One of the first sets of cars was a Dalmatian and Cruella.

Yes, there is an ultra-rare black Dalmatian chaser car! The Wild Racer line eventually became Disney Racers, which have been sold in the Disney theme parks for years now. I don't think the Dalmatian Chaser has been available in the parks.

Cruella is not a morning person. Naturally, Disney Villains are night owls.

Ugly mugs like these can't help but make your mornings brighter. You drink will seem tastier when you sip between Cruella's hair curlers.

Cruella's job as a fashion designer wasn't really explored until the live action movie with Glenn Close, but she's been the subject of clothing for many years now.

Smart ladies know that wearing an oversized shirt with a picture of a haggard, old Cruella De Vil on it will attract handsome, rich men.

What is scarier than a bunch of Disney Villains? The fashion sense of people living in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Nice Tic-Toc Croc slippers! That gives Cruella an idea...

Yes, they actually made these slippers:

I think someone saw this movie and got the wrong message from it.

Over the years, they've also made fake dalmatian fur coats, and other misguided products.

Poor Lucky isn't so lucky after all.

Mr. Jones likes to dress up like a Dalmatian, and his wife likes to dress up like Cruella. Whatever floats your boat.

Mr. Jones really likes the fact that Mrs. Jones knows more than one way to skin a Dalmatian.

Mr. Jones and Mrs. Jones better get busy, because it looks like they need 98 more dalmatians.

Everyone has seen an ugly baby. Yet, you always hear people say "every baby is beautiful." Those people have not yet seen Baby Cruella.

Truly horrific!

Baby Cruella will forever haunt your dreams.