It probably saved Disney's animation studio
From an article who talks about the movie:
"According to Disney animator Andreas Deja, without "101 Dalmatians," we might never have had "The Little Mermaid," "The Lion King," or any of the other modern Disney classics. We asked Andreas to tell us the story of how "101 Dalmatians" changed the face of animation – and kept it alive at The Walt Disney Studios for the generations to come. Here is what he told us:
"101 Dalmatians" saved the animation department in 1961 when it came out, and that's the truth. A book called "The Art of Animation," by Bob Thomas, came out in 1959 to promote the release of "Sleeping Beauty," and there's a picture in the book with Walt and Eric Larson, one of the nine old men, standing in one of the wings of the animation department, looking at cell setups. After Eric Larson hired me in the early '80s, one of the questions I had for him was "Do you recall what you and Walt were talking about when this picture was taken?" And Eric said, "We were talking about closing down the Studio, because these things have gotten too expensive." "Sleeping Beauty" cost, I think, about six million dollars to make, which was unheard of in those days, and they really had to either close down or come up with some way to make animation cheaper so it would be profitable again.
So, when it came to "101 Dalmatians" the technical wizard, Ub Iwerks, who had been Walt's first real business partner way back in Kansas, got together with art director Ken Anderson. They thought of an idea that would eliminate a very expensive process in animated films – inking, drawing over the pencil outlines on the cells, which would then be painted on the back. This was a very time-consuming process. It made a beautiful image, because it had that delicate soft edge, but Ub said "What if we don't do that – if we take the pencil drawings and just Xerox them on the cells, and then paint them."
It saved a lot of money in creating "101 Dalmatians." And because the movie was such a hit, it saved the animation department.
Walt Disney liked the movie itself – he was very impressed with Bill Peet's story treatment. But when Walt saw the first dailies of what the scenes looked like, he was not only disappointed, but kind of shocked. He had no idea they were going that loose and sketchy with it. He told Ken Anderson he was not crazy about it, and for the next film they should rethink the style and do something else.
But the reviews were glowing. Even critics of previous Disney films, who had said that Walt Disney was just doing the same thing over and over again, had to realize that this picture was fresh and contemporary."
So, the movie saved the studio for two reasons; the xerox process made it cheap enough to allow it to be made, and the financial success made it possible for the studio to continue after its release. Without xerox, and if it had flopped, the animation department would most likely have closed its doors. If it had ever opened again, is hard to say. Espcially since Walt Disney himself died just five years later, and the old Disney generation was gradually retiring the years after that.
And if One Hundred and One Dalmatians had been the last one, would people like John Lasseter, Brad Bird and Tim Burton and others ever decide that they would become animators as adults?
Without a Disney studio, who would have given Pixar enough financial support to make Toy Story, in a time when Pixar itself almost had to close their doors?