The thing about animation is that it gives equal time to kids and animals. They get to be important, too--the simplified world of cartoons cuts the adult world down to size. The problem with the new live-action version of “101 Dalmatians” (based on the 1961 feature-length cartoon) is that it's never really able to make the dogs as important as the people. We think we'll see the adventures of some cute puppies, and most of the time we're looking at grown-up intrigues, and the schemes of a couple of bad guys recycled straight out of “Home Alone.” Disney's new version of this good old story stars Jeff Daniels as a London-based computer game author named Roger; Joely Richardson as a dress designer named Anita, and Glenn Close as the steel-edged Cruella DeVil, who admits early in the film, sincerely but desperately, “I worship fur.” It is her only vice, but she makes it do the duty of a dozen.