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This charming original animation cel showcases Pongo, the clever and devoted canine hero of One Hundred and One Dalmatians (101 Dalmatians), a 1961 full-length animated feature film by Walt Disney Productions. Adapted from Dodie Smith's 1956 novel of the same name, the movie stars Rod Taylor as the voice of Pongo and Cate Bauer as the voice of Perdita, with Betty Lou Gerson delivering an iconic performance as the voice of the evil and villainous Cruella de Vil. In this expressive scene, Pongo stands alert near a doorway, his mouth open in an expectant smile that highlights his playful yet determined character. Pongo famously opens the film observing London life from his window, musing, "My name is Pongo. Perdy calls me Pongo, but the pet calls me Pongo too." Desperate to break his human Roger's dull routine, he famously remarks, "As far as I could see, the old boy needed a mate," leading him to orchestrate the meeting that brings their two families together. The animation of all the characters from the film was quite extraordinary, giving Pongo a warmth and expressive range that immediately captured audiences' hearts.
The creation of 101 Dalmatians came at a pivotal moment for Walt Disney Studios. The film Sleeping Beauty (1959) was very expensive to make and took a huge financial loss at the box office; as a result, the Disney animation studio was considering closing. During the production of Sleeping Beauty, Walt Disney told animator Eric Larson: "I don't think we can continue, it's too expensive." Because Disney's entire company was based on animation, he was looking for a way to continue with animation and at the same time significantly reduce costs.
A revolutionary technological breakthrough solved this crisis. The animator Ub Iwerks had been experimenting with Xerox photography to aid in the animation process. By 1959, he had modified a Xerox camera to transfer the drawings by the animators directly onto animation cels. The process would preserve the spontaneity of the penciled drawings but eliminate the inking process, thus saving time and money. However, the limitation was that the camera was unable to deviate from a black scratchy outline, and the resulting cels lacked the fine lavish quality of hand inking. Despite this change in style, it gave 101 Dalmatians a distinct, modern, graphic aesthetic that suited its contemporary London setting perfectly.
One of the enormous benefits of the Xerox process was that it was a tremendous help towards animating the spotted dalmatian dogs. According to famed animator Chuck Jones, Disney was able to complete the film for about half of what it would have cost if they had had to animate all the dogs and spots by hand. To achieve the spotted dalmatians, the Disney animators envisioned the spot pattern as a star constellation. Once they had an "anchor spot," the next spot was placed into the pattern, and so on until the fully spotted dalmatian was achieved. All totaled, the film featured 6,469,952 spots, with Pongo having 72 spots, Perdita 68, and each puppy 32.
Pongo was animated by legendary animator Ollie Johnston—one of Disney's "Nine Old Men"—and voiced by Rod Taylor, an Australian TV and movie actor who appeared in over 50 films. Taylor's warm, charismatic vocal performance complemented Johnston's expressive animation, bringing Pongo's courageous spirit to life as he embarks on the Twilight Bark to rescue his stolen puppies, declaring, "We'll find 'em, Perdy. I don't know how, but we will." Capturing both the technological innovation and artistic brilliant of Disney's golden age, this artwork would certainly make a great addition to any animation art collection!
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