"Leisure Lawsuit" is the first segment of the sixteenth episode of 101 Dalmatians: The Series.
Plot[]
The episode starts with the Dearlys out on a relaxing picnic. Naturally, Cruella invited herself to the picnic without warning, after suspecting that the hang up on her voice mail was them calling to invite her. Meanwhile, Roger is off playing fetch with the Dalmatians, Spot and Mooch. Mooch is able to retrieve the most Frisbee catches (often by knocking whoever caught it and taking credit), so in the next round, Lucky decides to become competitive. On the next Frisbee throw, Mooch and Lucky both catch it at the same time. They tug back and forth, but eventually, Mooch lets go causing Lucky to propel backward colliding with Cruella, causing them to fall down a hillside and into the pond at the bottom.
Lucky and Cruella were both injured in the process, so the Dearlys return home, and Anita insists to let Cruella stay at their house to recover. Roger calls the vet to take care of Lucky's injury. Once she is finished with Lucky, Anita begins taking care of Cruella. Cruella wonders where Nanny is, and Anita tells her that she's visiting her sister. Anita decides to go make lunch and once she has left the room, Cruella calls her lawyer to sue Roger and Anita when in reality she's fine. Secretly unknown to Cruella, Lucky is at the window next to her spying on her (being propped up by Cadpig, Rolly and Spot). Hearing what Cruella is up to, Lucky at first he felt bad that the Dearlys were going to lose the farm, because of him, while Cadpig tries to cheer him up, Rolly and Spot however agree with Lucky that it is all his fault. Lucky tries to come up with a plot to trick Cruella into walking so that they could expose her to Roger and Anita, but has difficulty in what they can use. Lucky then hears Cruella coughing and notices her cigarettes on the table.
In the house, Cruella nags Anita on how she wants her sandwiches, with such demands as them being cut diagonally and having no crusts. The pups sneak in, via the airduct, and stick a piece of chewed up gum and a string of yarn onto Spot. Spot flies up to the cigarette packet and sticks the line onto it. Once attached, Cadpig starts reeling it in, and Cruella starts to chase after it. So far, everything’s going according to plan, so Lucky runs up to Roger and tries to get his attention, but Roger just ignores him (figuring that Lucky is asking to play fetch) and doesn’t even turn to look at Cruella. Desperate to get Roger’s attention, Lucky starts tugging on Roger's trousers, however they rip causing him to land on a food cart on wheels, which rolls uncontrollably towards Cruella. Cruella gets slammed into the front door of the house, which then falls on top of her and Lucky. This results in an even bigger injury, and Cruella demands to have Lucky locked up, When Roger says that he won't do so, Cruella admits her plans to sue to Dearlys for their farm, but now decides to take them for everything they got.
Back at the barn, Lucky is now even more upset because he made things even worse and the pups continue to think of a way to prove Cruella is faking it. Rolly at first admits that he genuinely thinks Cruella is injured. With this comment, Spot comes up with the idea to take a picture of her walking. Agreeing to the idea, Lucky leads the others back into the house into a closet where Roger stores his camera. Roger's camera is on the top shelf of the closet, so the pups stack up to reach it. Rolly (who is on top of the tower) sees the camera, but there is a bowling ball in front of it, so he decides to grab it to move it out of the way, but the weight of the bowling ball causes the pups to start losing their balance. Lucky overhears Cruella making a Memo revealing that her injuries are fake, but this throws off his concentration, and the pups' tower collapses. The bowling ball that Rolly was holding falls and crashes right into Cruella's face.
Cruella is now up in the bedroom in a full body cast and on a frame. Back at the barn, Lucky explains his next plan to the other pups, which is to snag Cruella's tape recorder and play her message to Roger and Anita. The pups sneak into the bedroom and see Cruella’s tape recorder on the side table. Lucky jumps onto Cadpig's back and reaches for the tape recorder. Once he gets it, the pups make a run for it, but Cadpig notices Rolly is missing, and they turn around seeing him eating out of Cruella’s bowl of oatmeal. Lucky grabs him and pulls him away, but as they try to make their escape, Rolly trips over one of the anchors for the bed frame, which causes Cruella to be flung out of the bed.
Seeing the pups get away with her tape recorder, Cruella gives chase and chases them down the stairs, and grabs Lucky, however her recorder has landed and play Cruella's confession at Roger and Anita's feet. At first Cruella tries to claim her injuries are genuine, but Roger points out they have evidence which proves that she attempted to commit Insurance Fraud. Realising this incriminating evidence, Cruella offers to make some kind of deal to keep the Dearly’s from telling the authorities. They decide to make Cruella their maid and order her to make sandwiches with no crusts.
Cruella's Memos[]
"Tell my doctor I'm not paying him real money for bandaging fake injuries!"
Trivia[]
- This episode is adapted in the Disney chapter book, Cruella Returns. However, the story also is mixed into the premise of "Cone Head".
- In Cruella Returns, various changes that the story featured is that the reason that the pups are going into the closest is to get a pair of scissors to cut Lucky's cone off. Lucky is flung onto the lunch trolley and into Cruella after Mooch unravels a scarf, which they use to cover the cone up. Cruella is standing to get chocolate off the table rather than her cigarettes, and an aftermath of it is that Cruella turns cones into a new fashion design (which Rolly later comments were wanted by Dipstick and Two-Tone).
- When Cruella is hit with the lunch trolley and then crushed by the door, the trolley seems to disappear as this happens.
- Cruella reads a magazine entitled Vague, which is likely based on the fashion and lifestyle magazine, Vogue.
- The Dalmatians also compete against Cruella and Vendella to get on the cover of said magazine in "Best of Show".
- This is one of the rare occasions in 101 Dalmatians: The Series where Cruella is shown to be a smoker (other examples of claiming she does are "Home is Where the Bark Is", "Smoke Detectors", and "Hail to the Chief").
- Cruella's lawyer can actually be heard through the phone when she calls him.