So they can't afford to keep a few puppies alive..

If we are to believe Cruella, the couple is so poor that they can't even afford to keep a few puppies alive.

And yet, what do we see?

They live in a relatively fancy place with multiple stories (at least three) and plenty of big rooms, a piano, a bag full of golf clubs (!), multiple expensive instruments, a grandfather clock, a big (for its time) television set, at least two radio sets, a painter's easel (and probably canvases and paints, too), a fireplace, a nice clock on the fireplace mantle, expensive-looking furniture, complete with a Victorian era divan (if I am not mistaken) and fancy lamps and even fancier mirror frames, lots of plants and fancy drapes and curtains - AND they can afford to keep a maid (what poor couple can afford this?)! Plus, Roger has a pipe tobacco addiction. Plus they can obviously afford to pay a photographer to even shoot their dogs. Would poor people prioritize 'taking photos of dogs', or 'trying to get enough food', hmm? AND they can afford to KEEP A MAID. (I know I mentioned this already, but it can't be emphasized enough - I have never been able to afford a maid, and I could easily feed a few puppies plus a couple of adult dogs, for sure!)

They also seem to have multiple newspaper subscriptions, a nice telephone, plenty of nice vases for their nice plants, multiple curtains.. really, there's NOTHING indicating poverty, and they seem to have EVERY comfort imaginable for 1961! I can't realistically imagine ever being able to afford to live in such a luxurious place.

And yet they can't feed a few puppies?

_W_H_A_T_?

I mean, if THAT's how poor people lived on this planet, it couldn't even be called 'poverty' anymore. And I'd hate to see what word would be used to describe how actual poor people live..

Also, the viewers probably also noticed the glass-door booze cabinet. Booze is expensive, and so are those cabinets with such glass doors.

Basically, there's NOTHING wrong with their lifestyle - what more could they really add, when they have all that I listed (and more)? - nothing wrong with that big apartment or their income, from the looks of things, and they should be EASILY able to afford to feed the dogs. Instruments are very expensive - I imagine they were even more so back in 1961, when there weren't alternatives, like VST-instruments and synths (though there would have been SOME kind of synths for sure, but not really as accessible as nowadays) and such - heck, you can even make music with a cheap laptop nowadays, let alone a proper desktop computer.

But in 1961, you really didn't have that many choices - either you bought real instruments, or you didn't play instruments (of course composing on paper would still be cheap).

There are millions of people in the world that would consider their lavish lifestyle something really wealthy and dreamy, and would trade places with them instantly. In some parts of Asia, it's common that more than one generation lives in a very tiny building. So there can be three generations of people living in _M_U_C_H_ smaller area than what Roger and Anita (and Pongo and Perdita and the puppies) inhabit.

And they are somehow considered poor? They somehow can't afford to keep a few puppies?

By the way, it doesn't break a dog's heart to sell their puppies away, the woman is romantisizing and of course antropomorphizing their ANIMALS, DOGS, DALMATIANS... humans on this planet always do this. They think of a dog first as a NAME, then as a BREED, and then.. as a human!

When in reality, the dog is first an ANIMAL, then a DOG, then a BREED, and only after that, a name.

But this whole movie turns things upside down by calling humans PETS and ANIMALS (animalizing humans is even worse, making humans into 'beasts' (or even worse, 'persons') - but with Disney, the notorious devil-worshippers, what else is new).. which is supposed to be cute, but carries sinister undertones.

How many times the word 'devil' is mentioned in this movie? More than once or twice, I can tell ya. Heck, even the name of the antagonist is 'De Vil'. They really didn't want to be too subtle, but wanted to shove it in the viewer's face that they are on the side of the Nazi death cult Skulls&Crossbones moloch-worshippers.. (then again, can you find a movie that doesn't have references like this? It's surprisingly hard)

Anyway, if Roger would sell his instruments and friggin _GOLF_CLUBS_(!) from the attic, I am sure that would guarantee a wealthy future for them, easily.

Well, maybe it can be explained by 'bank loans' that they are trying to pay back, but come on; much much do a few puppies eat? Surely a trumpet and a cello can pay for quite a lot of puppy meals.