Friday, May 31, 2024
The 101 Dalmatian Street Series Bible!!
A Deep Dive in the Early Concepts of the Show
We continue with our coverage of the early artwork from the pilot episode of 101 Dalmatian Street. Where we last left off, the whole 101DS fandom was blown away by the leak of the entire pilot episode of 101DS, specifically, an early iteration of "London We Have a Problem". For today's Daily Puppy newspaper article, we're going to break down the good stuff, and that is the 101DS series Bible! We'll taking a look at all the exciting content and interesting character/story details and how much it differs compared to the final product! We hope you Dalmatian fans are ready for this!
Here it is. The main cover of the series Bible, with the logo for The Walt Disney EMEA company! You can tell that the logo had a slightly different look compared to the final version, with the addition of the one of the backgrounds from the early pilot! (Spoilers for those who haven't seen the 20-minute pilot episode)
So, the first three pages goes over the premise of the story, and what life is like in the 101 Dalmatians Universe 50+ years later (Though the Bible never mentions the continuity before the final product). Basically, the bible gives us what viewers would expect out of this underrated gem, and what the direction the show would take. Pretty much the basic stuff we know about 101 Dalmatian Street honestly.
Next up, we get a look at the basic formula of the show, introducing the main four characters, being Dylan, Dolly, and their parents Delilah and Doug. In these set of pages, we also learn about how the recent generation of the 101 Dalmatians came to be, with Doug bringing 15 pups of his own, and Delilah bringing the same number of hers. Another 54 would be rescued from the streets, pet shops and animal shelters later on. This would no doubt be the most canon origin story of favorite rascal of Dalmatians, should the show be revived for a second season.
In the next set of pages, we get a better look at the earlier design of the Dalmatians' residence. The home of 101 spotted rascals was supposedly at an entirely different location rather than being a modern reconstruction of Roger and Anitta's former home before the staff decided to connect to the original film. In addition, we come across the unused story element that some in the 101DS fandom might remember.
Apparently, the human who lived far away on an island was actually Dodie McDot rather than Dodie Smith herself as we previously thought. According to the unseen character's bio (Literally, no one's ever seen this character as the Bible states) Dodie is an eccentric, eldery artist with a life-long obsession with polka dots, particularly Dalmatian spots and is the owner of 101 Dalmatian Street itself. He made a living with his spot-based work, and only interacts with the dogs through smartphone/app devices. After the world grew bored of his artwork however, he ended up becoming bankrupt. We don't know who this character is, and why the people behind the show never brought him up in the actual series, but this tidbit of information is definitely something we 101DS fans are eager to see in a potential second season.
Aside from what we know in the bios about Dylan and Dolly from the final version of the show, we get a deeper look into their personalities and relationships with their siblings and friends, with Dawkins' sometimes protesting if Dylan makes a request that's almost impossible to accomplish, and Dolly is also known to struggle with her own insecurities.
Next up, we get a little bio of the of the Dalmatian family, and that's Delilah and Doug!
As told in their bio, they pretty sum up Delilah and Doug's character. An interesting tidbit though explains how Doctor Dave struggled as a doctor before she met Delilah. It goes out of the way to show how canine/feline companions can make a significant impact on a person's life through co-existence!
There's also an interesting fact that Dylan struggles with his self-esteem to impress his mother, even Delilah is very proud of Dylan's efforts to take care of the family no matter what.
Now, let's go through the main sixteen-- err... thirteen main siblings of the Dalmatian fam! There's really nothing new to learn from them, but these bios give you a clear understanding of each character and their personality! There are certain characters who had slightly different designs that are closer to the final version, like Dorothy have a blue collar, Deja Vu having a question mark on her collar instead of a circular one, and one DJ's eyelids being black!
Next up, we take a look through the the rest of the main 97 siblings of the Dalmatian fam! As we had known about the early iterations of the show, the Dimitrio were the only three in the final product that had yet to receive their own unique design during the final phases of production. You might recognize some of the names in the "Puppy Name Song" (A.K.A. In the House) too! Also, did anyone else notice that Delilah was added in the list by mistake?
Now that we blew our way past the character bios of today's generation 101 Dalmatians and learned some new things about them, let's go over the road map/drafts of how the street location, 101 Dalmatian Street came to be, accompanied by real-life photos as inspiration.
As the show is based off of old real-life Camden, we get better understanding of where the architecture of the suburban flats of the Dalmatians', Clarissa's and Constantine's were inspired from.
Now for the actual design and map for Dalmatian Street itself. These pages give us more detail about the Dalmatians' residence.
Throughout the first season, we've only seen half of every room in the Dalmatians' home, but we do get a better confirmation of the house have a network of secret passages within the walls and floors. Again, there is SO much we have yet see left in the three floors of the Dalmatians' residence.
That's not all we can dissect. There's also some concept artwork of certain props for the show like the Kibble pump, the bowl flinger, and of course an early design of the stroking machine, as seen in the bottom right of the second page of the house reference.
Once again, there's even early concept of certain rooms like the main floor, and the bathroom mostly seen in "My Fair Dolly" and "A Fox in the Dog House".
Now for the exciting part of the Bible, and that is, the supporting/rival characters in 101 Dalmatian Street. Aside from what we know about Clarissa, we get to know a bit more about her entourages, Arabella and Prunella! Arabella seems to have a much different color scheme compared to her final look, with the addition of a pink accessory she was originally meant to wear around her waist. Furthermore, we find some new info about the two power-puffs. It appears that despite their snobby exterior, they actually secretly enjoy the rowdy, mud-tracking antics of the Dalmatian family!
It's no surprise, since we've seen Arabella and Prunella mingle with whatever antic our favorite spotted pups ensue in "My Fair Dolly"!
Oh, but that's not what you should be intrigued by as we turn to Constantine next! According to his original bio, Constantine makes YouTube videos about the meaning of life, alongside the mind-blowing fact that he in fact DOES have a pet human, supposedly confirming that he does NOT live alone in the house! Apparently, his pet human is Russian who serves his career as an architect, traveling the world for ancient artifacts, and mystic locations, which likely explains why we never see him in the show at all.
On the next set of pages, we have the ever-so troublemaking Canal Crew, Portia's side-kick Spencer, and the cool-but-adorable Husky, Hansel! You may notice that in Fergus' early design in the pilot, his eyes were practically red, something that even 101DS fans might be a bit put off about, due to that fact that . As for Hansel, apparently, he was originally written to be the supposed leader of teenage Huskies and being to intimidating for Dylan and Dolly to interact with (It could be similar to how Dylan was intimidated by Roxy due to her size and body proportion in "The Perfect Match").
We don't see ANY of Hansel's members in the series, and how he was portrayed in the final version is a big contrast to how he was originally portrayed. And the fact that not only Dolly was an idol to Hansel, but Dylan as well is no doubt interesting. Our belief is if the final product of the show stuck to the original portrayal of Hansel, it would be interesting to see Dylan and Dolly be competitive with each other to get Hansel's attention.
Next up, Snowball and Roxy! For Roxy, we learn that her pet human is a gamer, which may explain why she jumped in on the opportunity to play Poodlewolf with Dylan in "A Perfect Match". Nothing much to learn from Officer Pearl from the Bible, but we DO get to see an early character design of Godfrey! It appears he was originally designed to be a much younger Golden Retriever in the early iteration of the show, and according to his character, he's an overly cautious high-alert guide-dog who sees trouble wherever he looks. (Which explains his over-the-top reaction in hearing the mention of the fictitious Camden Kraken in "Long Tongue Day") It makes us wonder what would've been if Godfrey kept his younger look, but our best guess is that he would be among Dylan and Dolly's friends like Hansel, Fegrus, Roxy and Snowball.
Now, let's take a look at the most overarching villain of the first season, and that is Hunter De Vil himself. There's a LOT of interesting info that we don't know about Hunter, or at least his early iteration of him. Apparently, we now know of his possible age, being somewhere at 12-years-old! We even get a deeper look into his backstory, which is a HUGE breeding grounds for theories and head-canons!
As we have known from Hunter, he was a lonely young boy whose only thing he ever wanted in life was a family. According to the bio, Hunter supposedly had real parents, as his DNA and personality comes from his unseen father, who also had an interest in fluffy puppies! We did get to see a peak at what Hunter's parents were supposed to look like in the 20-minute pilot episode (Spoilers to those who haven't watched it)
We also get a little backstory between him and his great aunt Cruella, where she would tell him bedtime stories about Dalmatians in a twisted and scary way possible!
We also get a better look of the De Vil Season Arc from the first half of season one, pretty much basic stuff most 101DS fans know by now. Also, does anyone NOT notice the early wardrobe design Hunter is wearing? It actually makes him feel more like a supporting character than an overarching antagonist, but honestly, we would actually love to see this kind of spotted wardrobe for Hunter in a potential continuation of the series!
Next, we learn more about human behavior in 101 Dalmatian Street. Humans are apparently oblivious to what activities pets they do. They're apparently so distracted with their own hobbies like smartphones/video games that they hardly notice that there is a civilized society built by their own dogs/cats!
Another page, that 101% confirms that the World Wide Woof is indeed the modern and faster version of the Twilight Bark from the original One Hundred One Dalmatians animated film!
More early designs for 101 Dalmatian Street's London, including the barge, the barista, and even the Canal where Fergus and his Canal Crew members reside.
On the final two pages is the first 26 episodes of the first season listed left and right. The first thing you'll notice when you skim through these pages is that the order of episodes was laid out differently. Apparently, "It's My Party" originally held the spot for Episode 12A alongside episode 12B "Doggie Da Vinci". Looking at the set, it actually aligns for chronically than the final order of episodes, considering Dylan's new Dogstar Helmet 2000 was spoiled early on before we got to see it in action in the "London We Have a Problem" 2-parter! Why these episodes were re-arranged in favor of episodes out of the chronological order like "Long Tongue Day" and "A Summer to Remember" 2-parter is unknown, but our guess is that it was decided at the last minute, since the show would be running during the Summer.
And that, Dalmatian fans, concludes the official series bible of 101 Dalmatian Street! We hope this series of mind-blowing revelations of the early concepts for the show has left you inspired to create such fantastic 101DS fan-content based on what you have seen. It still blows away over how much we would've loved to see in the show! Next time, we'll be looking through the original show pitch from 2016, so we hope all of you are looking forward to that! Until then, have a pawtastic day!