101 and Counting: Dalmatians in Film and Advertising

Author: Sheen, Erica

Source: Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, Volume 9, Number 2, 2005 , pp. 236-254(19)

Publisher: BRILL

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $35.00 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

In both academic and animal welfare circles, Disney's live action films 101 and 102 Dalmatians have been criticised as a commercial exploitation of the breed. From this perspective, it was widely held that the Dalmatian has been subject to over-breeding and abandonment as a direct result of these films, and that Disney should be held responsible for this abuse. I question these assumptions. I discuss the Hollywood animal image as a form of intellectual property and provide a detailed account of negotiations between Disney and Dalmatian breed associations in America and the UK. In response to critics who described the films as "an advertisement for the breed", I suggest that Disney's animal imagery should be seen as a more complex cultural and economic negotiation between filmmaker and audience, and conclude that our understanding of the commercial deployment of the Dalmatian image must be situated in a more nuanced account of the relationship between advertising and film.

Keywords: DALMATIAN; DOG; DISNEY; FILM; ADVERTISING

Document Type: Regular paper

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1568535054615385

Publication date: 2005-07-01