Cadpig is a Dalmatian puppy who only appears in 101 Dalmatians: The Series, voiced by Kath Soucie. Of the original fifteen puppies born to Perdita and Pongo, she is the youngest and the runt of the litter. In the original book, she was also the puppy who almost died at the beginning and was revived by Mr. Dearly (in the movies, this scene was given to her brother Lucky).
Background
Cadpig is the runt of her litter and she is the smallest dog on the farm. She is very much into New Age philosophies and does her best to promote her ideals and spread goodwill throughout the world. While her small stature has prevented her from obtaining the same level of strength as her brothers and sisters, she is much more learned than them and has a better understanding of the world. She also has an extensive vocabulary and often makes use of what Spot refers to as "metaphysical metaphors," which those whom she is speaking with are seldom capable of understanding.
Despite her positive vision for the world, Cadpig is considered to be an antagonist by many of her fellow denizens on the Dearly Farm, as her efforts to generate harmony often generates animosity. This is primarily due to the fact that she sticks her nose into the conflicts of others when her assistance hasn't been requested; she tends to ignore the obvious and instead favors psychoanalysis in order to discover the root cause of their conflict, which is something that everybody she has met has intensely disliked. However, she is incredibly gifted at doing just that and has proven on numerous occasions that she can talk to animals and completely break their spirits, discovering their emotional scars within moments and exploiting those emotional scars in order to achieve her objective.
While Cadpig has proven that she is a kind individual who strives to be as good as possible, her underlying hostility has caused her desire for peace and harmony to be something of a façade, as even though she has a genuine desire to do the right thing, she often fails to practice what she preaches and has proven on multiple occasions that she can be quite ruthless. Not only has she physically assaulted various individuals on the Dearly Farm, including her own family members, she has also expressed a desire to manipulate the President of the United States' dog so that she could tell him what to do and in effect take over the world. While such remarks are seldom taken seriously, her friends are often left bewildered by them, as they appear to come out of nowhere.
Personality
She is noted for keeping up a constant chatter of relentlessly upbeat, self-inspirational philosophy. However, Cadpig's New Age-ness really masks a passive-aggressiveness that's much more aggressive than passive, as her upbeat, cheerful and positive outlook on life is merely a thin veneer for some underlying hostility. Cadpig is one-fourth of a group of misfits led by her brother Lucky, which includes another sibling, Rolly, and a chicken named Spot who believes she's really a Dalmatian trapped in the body of a chicken. Outside of the gang, she's good friends with Two-Tone.
Despite Cadpig's naive belief that she can view the world through rose-colored glasses (as the axiom says), she is quite capable of facing a daily barrage of life's problems, especially those caused by Cruella De Vil and her lackeys, Jasper and Horace Badun, as well as the discipline inflicted by Lt. Pug of the "Bark Brigade," and Mooch the Mutt and his gang of rowdy pups.
Appearances
101 Dalmatians: The Series
In September, 1997, Disney released a television series, which was a reboot in their 101 Dalmatians franchise rather than a continuation. In the series there were four main characters: Lucky, Cadpig, Rolly, and Spot. Cadpig is voiced by Kath Soucie (who also voiced Rolly).
In original concept art for her, she is shown to have had black ears (slightly different to her official model) and also had a pink nose and bow. Eventually, her design was changed so she have white floppy ears, black nose and a blue collar instead. Her concept design can still be seen on the business card of a Disney cartoonist.
Cadpig was the youngest of the ninety-nine Dalmatian puppies, and she was also the runt of the litter, being physically smaller than her brothers and sisters. Her physical appearance also has some characteristics that are unique to her, as she has a larger head than most of the other Dalmatians, along with floppy ears and blue eyes. Despite her small stature, however, Cadpig can perform feats of strength that her brothers and sisters often cannot do (such as being able to lift another character who is twice her size), though she usually only exhibits such strength when she is angry; she also has an adept sense of hearing, which is stronger than that of her brothers and sisters. Cadpig also seems to have an extensive knowledge of (fictional) tribes and cultures.
Many of the denizens on the Dearly Farm have trouble understanding what Cadpig says, since she loves to speak in what Spot calls "metaphysical metaphors," though she once mentioned that she got a thesaurus for Christmas, which she implied has helped expand her vocabulary, especially when it comes to synonyms of stupidity such as moron.
Cadpig also displays a great gift for sarcasm. The remarks are usually used to bring Lucky back to earth when he is on an ego-trip. Some examples are:
- "Attention, Flight Director Lucky, your ego-trip has been cancelled."
- "Welcome to Lucky's rich fantasy life, and now, back to reality!"
- "Yeah, and maybe the Tooth Fairy will fly away to Lollipop Land and get a cavity!"
- "Of course Rolly's a robot! We're all robots! Whirrr! Whizz!"
Cadpig has had several alternate personalities in various episodes of the series, each of which is a manifestation of her true personality. In one episode, when Cruella De Vil took over all the television networks, the Dalmatians decided to imagine how an episode of "Thunderbolt P.I." would end, in which Cadpig’s ending involved an alien known as Gipdac, "Gipdac" being "Cadpig" spelt backwards. Gipdac was dedicated to finding peace in the universe; she speaks with others, not through oral discussion, but through a form of telepathy. She travels the universe in her heart-shaped spacecraft that is disguised in storm clouds, and she has her two assistants, who appear to be Horace and Jasper, assist her in her endeavors to teach the way of peace to others.
In the Christmas special, when Cruella De Vil was visited by the ghost of Jasper and Horace, he warned Cruella that she would be visited by three spirits. Later in that episode, Cadpig came to Cruella as the Ghost of Christmas Past, who told Cruella that she was going to take her on a journey trough her childhood. When Cruella initially refused, Cadpig resorted to using special effects in an attempt to scare her into changing her mind, which ultimately succeeded. As the Ghost of Christmas Past, Cadpig did her duty and she showed Cruella why she is evil today, though Cruella’s lack of caring over her past misdeeds only frustrated Cadpig, she cuts their journey into the past short, claiming her hour is up (despite Cruella insisting that it's only been fifty minutes and wanting the full hour).
However, some of Cadpig's "alter egos" aren't really alternate egos, but rather, a shift in her personality to achieve a greater goal. In the three-part series finale, when Cadpig realizes that she had to do what she could to save Anita, she decided to dress up, with green algae and a headband with two planets, as the Shaggy Green Messenger, a prophesied being that the "SAUCER-DOLTS" (Society for Achieving Utopian Consciousness through Extraterrestrial Rebirth & Desert Operational Lacrosse Team) are looking for, as they believe that the Shaggy Green Messenger would take them to the Mother Ship, and to their (disagreed upon) planet such as Squignon, where the rivers run with cream soda, or Dripnon, where the rivers run with gold, and many other planets. Cadpig's antics managed to free Anita from the group in question and through such, Cadpig was ultimately responsible for saving Roger and Anita’s marriage, though it was later revealed that in doing such, the "SAUCER-DOLTS" managed to find the Mother Ship, which suggested that she really was the Shaggy Green Messenger.