In 1961, Walt Disney was in a tight spot. Sleeping Beauty (1959) had been a massive financial flop, and the studio was on the verge of closing its animation department entirely. Enter a litter of spotted pups and a revolutionary new technology that changed the face of animation forever. A Radical New Look

: This tech kept the energy of the animators' original pencil lines, giving the film a sketch-like, contemporary feel.

: Animators didn't just guess the spots; they estimated there are exactly 6,469,952 spots throughout the film. An Icon of Evil: Cruella de Vil

You can’t talk about this movie without mentioning the "Devil" herself. Cruella de Vil remains one of Disney's most visceral and terrifying villains. The Making and Impact of One Hundred and One Dalmatians

Unlike the lush, painterly style of previous classics, One Hundred and One Dalmatians embraced a modern, graphic aesthetic.

The Spots That Saved an Empire: A Look Back at 101 Dalmatians (1961)

: This was the first feature to use the Xerox process to transfer drawings directly to cels.