Patch's London Adventure takes place in that brief period from the first movie after Cruella De Vil has been defeated and the Radcliff's move to the Dalmatian Plantation. In fact, when the movie opens up, the family is packing up and getting ready to move. Pongo is tired of constantly counting his pups (both natural and adopted) and constantly loses count (I guess he won't have to count as much when they have acres of free space?), and one of the puppies, Patch (Bobby Lockwood), is having problems because he doesn't feel special. In fact, several times in the movie, he refers to himself as simply "1 of 101".
But, besides the black spot over his eye, one of his defining characteristics is that he knows every episode of his favorite show, "Thunderbolt the Wonderdog." And when, on the eve of their move, he sees a chance to meet Thunderbolt (Barry Bostwick) in person, he gets really excited. Unfortunately, he ends up sleeping rather late the next day and finds the house empty. When he runs to the window, he sees the Radcliff's loading up the truck with all the puppies and Pongo once again losing count (finding that there are some 107 pups in the vehicle). When the car drives off, Patch feels even less like a one-of-a-kind pup since his own family doesn't even notice when he is missing.
But he also sees this opportunity as a chance to go to the Thunderbolt event and meet his idol, the ultimate "One-of-a-Kind Wonderdog." Meanwhile, Cruella's not been having a good time, no one lets her near fur and every time she turns on the radio, she hears that horrible song about her. But her day turns around when she walks into an art gallery and sees a painting... actually, it is a giant white canvas with a single black spot in the center. She is stunned and reawakened. After a brief conversation with the painter, they realize they are on similar wavelengths, at least as far as appreciating spots are concerned.
She contracts him to make spotted paintings left and right, and for the most part, her desires are squelched. But it isn't long before even these black and white artworks aren't enough. When she sees a photo of Patch in the paper at the Thunderbolt event, she recognizes him and decides to make yet another play for the puppies (this time to use their hides as canvas... how odd).
As far as Patch's story is concerned, when he meets his hero, he finds it hard to impress him, especially since the little Dalmatian has such a weak bark. But when Thunderbolt's sidekick, Lightning (Jason Alexander) tells the show's star that they are planning on writing him out of the series, Thunderbolt gets convinced that showing himself as a real hero will cause the director to change his mind. What Thunderbolt doesn't realize is that Lightning is just trying to get the bigger dog out of the way so that he can take the spotlight. Thunderbolt quickly realizes he doesn't know what to do in a real heroic situation, but when Patch tags along spouting out solutions from the series, Thunderbolt realizes he can use this little pup to tell him what he did before. Now if only there were some news crews around.
By the end of the episode, the two storylines (Cruella's and Patch's) will collide and Patch will, of course, show that he is more than just a single pup in a litter of 99. Thunderbolt will have to confront Lightning, and who knows, he might prove himself a real hero as well. And, of course, Cruella will get her just desserts. Like I said, 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure isn't bad. It teaches a few good life lessons and its entertaining. But it definitely feels like another one of those sequels. At least this Special Edition also comes with quite a few features like a couple of DVD games, a pair of music videos and some behind-the-scenes featurettes.
If your family is big into Disney and you tend to get these sequels anyway, then this is the version of Patch's London Adventure to grab since its special features should keep the kiddies entertained for just a bit longer than the movie's 71 minutes playtime. Otherwise, 101 Dalmatians is rent-worthy at most.
