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Since its release in 1961, ‘101 Dalmatians’ has held an important place in Disney history, even prompting a live-action remake in 1996 starring Glenn Close .

Now the adorable dogs will be unleashed on our screens once again in new animated TV series 101 Dalmatian Street on the Disney Channel , in the hopes of enchanting a new generation of children.

Set in modern-day London in the borough of Camden, the show will follow eldest siblings Dylan and Dolly, their parents Doug and Delilah, and 97 younger puppies, whose names also begin with ‘D’.

With two working parents and no human owners, it's up to Dylan and Dolly to keep the house tidy and look after the youngsters.

“Inevitably because they are still kids too, they get themselves in all kinds of scrapes that they have to extricate themselves from.

“It’s sort of a mad-cap family comedy”, executive producer Cara Speller tells the Mirror.

But fans expecting to see the return of fashionista and villainess Cruella de Vil, may be left disappointed as Disney look to make the show more relatable.

“They've got enough challenges on their plate just with their neighbours,” she jokes.

“It's a contemporary take on the series, so the puppies are dealing with the things that kids do nowadays.”

The paw-fect voice cast

The show has managed to secure an all-star line up of voicing talent including Josh Brener (Silicon Valley), Michaela Dietz (Steven Universe), Miriam Margolyes (Harry Potter), Ben Bailey Smith (Doc Brown), Tameka Empson (EastEnders) and BRIT Award-winning singer Paloma Faith .

“I think that's all credit to the writing actually.

“The scripts are so much fun that when you're approaching a very well known actor and asking them if they would consider being involved they do actually go for it”, reveals Speller.

101 challenges

For the animators, the project was a little more daunting.

“I think the biggest challenge was that legacy of the movie”, says episodic director Jez Hall.

“The original 101 Dalmatians is famous in our eyes for the artistic style, it was the first time they came along with the process of xerography, which maintained the linework of all the drawings, so it looked like it was created and crafted by an artist.

“That's something that we wanted to do here, so we had to make all the drawings look a bit like they had a pencil line to them and all the backgrounds had like brush strokes and washes.

“And of course, it was 101 dogs to draw, which is a lot to keep in mind when ensuring were always dogs in the background too.”

Looking for help from man’s best friend

Another challenge for the artists was capturing the natural movement of a canine, which required a rather unique solution.

“We always had dogs in the studio to see what they did because the dogs in our show aren't little humans.

“Obviously, being four-legged animals they'll fall if they stick their hand in the air.

“So it was how dogs looked, turned a corner, what physical things they do like when they listen or what their tail does.

The veteran animator says he even started to use his own dogs when helping to create the series.

“I developed a habit of videoing my own dogs, which never goes according to plan,'' he laughs.

“My biggest dog Buster had a chew toy and I wanted to illustrate the noise levels that a dog can make, so I just played it back in a meeting today.

“It's quite incessant when a dog gets hold of a squeaky chicken chew toy, so yeah they were always a good reference.”

But the dog's weren’t the only thing the studio had to reference.

According to 101 Dalmatian Streets series director Miklós Weigert, Disney also gave his team access to their archives and the original drawings for classic film.

“It was like having a time machine and being able to go back and work with someone from 60 years ago.

“We had access to a lot of concept art that normally you wouldn't and it helped us completely enhance the visuals for the show,” he says with a grin.

Spotting the Easter eggs

While the series is aimed at young girls and boys, the animators were keen to throw in a number of Easter eggs for the parents to try and spot.

Miklós says: “Sometimes it's in the staging, like for example using a door or a window or a gesture in a way that gives a nod to the original movie.

“But there's also a bunch of stuff, hidden in the background, so if you follow the episodes very closely and you have the time to pause some frames you can discover some funny illustrations or gags.

“I think, one of the easiest ones is to look around in the hallway, there's a lot of pictures hung on the wall that has some of the obvious Easter eggs. And I highly recommend pausing an episode to look around the attic.”

101 Dalmatian Street launches on Monday, March 18 at 5pm on Disney Channel.