Story development The children's novel
The Hundred and One Dalmatians by
Dodie Smith had been published on November 19, 1956, to an immediate success. By February 1957, screenwriter
Charles Brackett brought it to the attention of
Walt Disney, who acquired the film rights to the novel on November 26 of that year (after lengthy negotiations) for $25,000. The project was set to be Disney's next animated feature after
Sleeping Beauty (which was still in production at the time) When Peet sent Dodie Smith some drawings of the characters, she wrote back saying that he had improved her story and that the designs looked better than the illustrations in the book.
Casting The filmmakers deliberately cast actors with deeper voices for the roles of dogs, so they would have more power than those of the human characters.
Rod Taylor, who had extensive radio experience, was one of the first actors cast in the film; he got the role of Pongo.
Lisa Daniels was originally cast as Perdita and recorded about the third of her lines but then got married and moved to
New York; Disney agreed, and, after they read the script for a second time, she landed the part.
Betty Lou Gerson, who was previously the narrator for
Cinderella (1950), auditioned for the role of Cruella De Vil in front of
Marc Davis, the character's supervising animator, and sequence director
Wolfgang Reitherman, and immediately landed it. While searching for the right accent of the character, she landed on a "phony theatrical voice, someone who's set sail from New York but hasn't quite reached England." During the recording process, Gerson was thought to be imitating
Tallulah Bankhead, Gerson finished her recording sessions in fourteen days. Meanwhile,
Ken Anderson, the studio's art director, learned a television production studio—Hurrell Productions—was using Xerography to produce television commercials featuring Disney characters. Inspired by the aesthetic, Anderson experimented with a Xerox copier to directly transfer the animators' drawings onto
transparent cels, thereby eliminating the inking process. Anderson screened an animation test to Disney and the animators; although Disney expressed concern at the graphic style, he gave his approval stating: "Ah, yeah, yeah, you can fool around all you want to." For the stylized art direction, Anderson took inspiration from British cartoonist
Ronald Searle, who once advised him to use a
Mont Blanc pen and
India ink for his artwork. In addition to the character animation, Anderson also sought to use Xerography on "the background painting because I was going to apply the same technique to the whole picture." Along with color stylist
Walt Peregoy, the two had the line drawings be printed on a separate animation cel before being laid over the background, which gave the appearance similar to the Xeroxed animation. Disney disliked the artistic look of the film and felt he was losing the "fantasy" element of his animated films.
Mary Wickes, who had played the maid Katie in
The Mickey Mouse Club serial
Annette, was hired as a model for Cruella De Vil.
Music One Hundred and One Dalmatians was the first Disney animated feature film to be a non-musical. To have music involved in the narrative, Peet used an old theater trick by which the protagonist is a down-and-out songwriter. However, unlike the previous animated Disney films at the time, the songs were not composed by a team, but by
Mel Leven who composed both lyrics and music. Previously, Leven had composed songs for the
UPA animation studio in which animators, who transferred to work at the Disney studios, had recommended him to Walt Disney. His first assignment was to compose "Cruella De Vil," of which Leven composed three versions. The final version used in the film was composed as a "bluesy number" before a meeting with Walt in forty-five minutes. The other two songs included in the film are "Kanine Krunchies Jingle" (sung by
Lucille Bliss, who voiced Anastasia Tremaine in Disney's 1950 film
Cinderella), and "Dalmatian Plantation" in which Roger sings only two lines at its closure. Leven had also written additional songs that were not included in the film. The first song, "Don't Buy a Parrot from a Sailor," a
cockney chant, was meant to be sung by Jasper and Horace at the De Vil Mansion. A second song, "Cheerio, Good-Bye, Toodle-oo, Hip Hip!" was to be sung by the dalmatian puppies as they make their way into London. A third song titled "March of the One Hundred and One" was meant for the dogs to sing after escaping Cruella by van. Different, longer versions of "Kanine Krunchies Jingle" and "Dalmatian Plantation" appear on the
Disneyland Records read-along album based on the film. The
Sherman Brothers wrote a title song, "One Hundred and One Dalmatians", but it was not used in the film. The song has been released on other Disney recordings, however. ==Release==