Dylan is one of the main two titular protagonists (alongside Dolly Dalmatian) of the animated series 101 Dalmatian Street. He is the eldest of Doug and Delilah's puppies. He is very pedantic and is the responsible one, compared to the adventurous personality of his stepsister Dolly. Both he and Dolly look after their younger puppy siblings while their parents are busy at work.
Background
Dylan is from Delilah's side of the family. He was born as the eldest of a litter of 15 puppies to Delilah and an unknown dog. At some point, Delilah, who was a single parent at the time, remarried to another dog named Doug. When Delilah and Doug married Dylan gained Doug as a stepfather and his multiple children as step-siblings, amongst which was Dolly, who was closest to him in age. Over time, he gained 54 more adoptive and half-siblings, adding up to 98 in total (excluding him). Despite presumably being born in England, he doesn't speak with an English accent. He is 12 years old (in dog years).
According to a line from Dolly in "Walkies on the Wild Side", Dylan and Dolly "aren't actually related", the only confirmation in the series that they are step-siblings, although the pilot does have Daisy (Dolly's original name) saying that he is her stepbrother. According to a line from Dolly in "Balancing Act", he and Dolly had known each other since they were "really little", implying that Doug and Delilah had met and possibly married prior to the adoption of many of the other puppies.
Dylan and his family did have a human owner before the start of the series; an eccentric artist named Dodie McDot, who left them the house and went to live on an island. He is not mentioned in the show, with characters just saying that the Dalmatians do not have a human. Even so, the family is able to adjust just fine thanks to inventions built by Dawkins.
Being the two eldest of the Dalmatian puppies Dylan and Dolly take care of their younger siblings each day while their parents are off at work. One of Dylan's life-long dreams is to become the first (and only) dog on Mars.
Development
In an early pilot for 101 Dalmatian Street, Dylan's ears were both black, his head was a more block-like shape, and he looked like an adult. His head was then redesigned to have a more rounded shape to it, making him look younger, as well as having one black ear with white spots and one white ear with black spots.
Some other pieces of early concept show that Dylan's ears were both going to be white with spots before it was decided that one ear would be black and one ear would be white.
According to the showmakers, the spot pattern on his right ear is similar to that of the constellation Canis Major (the Dog Star). This was directly mentioned in "A Summer to Remember".
According to the initial pitch document for the series, Dylan would have also worked a paper route, using it as a means to socialise with the other animals in the local area.
Personality
Dylan comes from Delilah's side of the family and is the more responsible one between Dolly and him. He is a major stickler for the rules, which in turn can make him come across as pedantic and a bit of a neat freak. While sometimes anxious, Dylan is very protective of his family, willing to charge into situations he finds scary if any of them are in danger.
He can be a worrier and is sometimes shown to overreact from his anxiety, becoming overly protective to those around him, which the other Dalmatians have dubbed as "Classic Dylan".
Dylan is a huge fan of anything space-related. He dreams about being the first dog on Mars, owns a "space helmet", moon rocks and a space telescope, imagines himself as a sort of space marine while doing the household chores, and gets excited when he mistakes a garden gnome for a Martian.
Dylan also loves paleontology, collecting fossils and having a plush Diplodocus which he calls "Dippy". He is a giant fan of Poodlewolf, a multimedia franchise starring the daring canine hero of the same name. Dylan loves the Poodlewolf VR video game and the RPG board game, which is similar to tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Once Dylan got so into Poodlewolf, he thought he was the character.
Dylan has a talent for writing poems. This comes naturally to him. In "Poetry Scam", he was looking at the clouds with Dolly and telling her the words to his poem. It's unknown, though, if the poem is a recent one or not. Dylan wishes the others knew his poems, but he is nervous of crowds, so with the help of Dolly, Dylan's poem was finally revealed.
Dylan is one for cleanliness, with his wash time being precise, such as teeth brushing and sanitary scrubbing. In "Winter Funderland", he mentions that he has a molting journal.
Trivia
- Unlike Delilah, who is their biological mother, Dylan and Triple-D do not speak with an English accent and instead speak with American accents like Doug. It could be possible that their biological father/fathers were American whilst their other siblings' father/fathers were English; or, considering Dolly does acknowledge the two having known each other since they were really little, Dylan picked up his accent from Doug. The only indication of Dylan being English is through his pronunciations of certain words, such as referring to Delilah as "Mum" rather than "Mom".
- According to "The Daily Puppy", a newspaper given out to promote 101 Dalmatian Street, Dylan is twelve years old in dog years.
- The Indonesian and the Malay dubs and the Vietnamese subtitles for 101 Dalmatian Street imply that Dylan is (if only slightly) older than Dolly, as Dylan is referred to as "abang" and "anh", both of which translate to "elder brother".
- In "Walkies on the Wild Side", Dylan learned he has an allergy to cats.
- He has a tendency to breathe like Darth Vader every time he wears a space helmet.
- He uses the World Wide Woof the most times across the series.
- He and Dipper Pines from Gravity Falls both have constellations on their body (Dylan's right ear: Canis Major; Dipper's forehead: the Big Dipper).
Gallery
.png "Dylan Model SheetsDL (1).png (787 KB)")
.png "Dylan Model SheetsDL (2).png (886 KB)")
References
- ↑ 101 Dalmatian Street | Meet the Gang! 👋 | Disney Channel UK - "Dylan is from his mom's side."
- ↑ Walkies on the Wild Side: Dolly to Fergus Fox about her and Dylan: "We are not actually related."
- ↑ 101DS Pilot: Dolly: "...And, here's my stepbro Dylan, the dorkiest."
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "101DS Series Bible" (April 28, 2024).
External links
- Dylan Dalmatian on 101 Dalmatians Street Wiki
