Deep Dive Disney: Wes Looks at Cruella

Well my friends, we’re finally here. In an ironic twist, my article on the original 1961 101 Dalmatians film dropped the very same week as the first trailer for the new film focused on its legendary villainess, Cruella De Vil made its debut. Since then, my excitement for this movie would only grow until the day it finally arrived on Disney+, and friends, I’m pleased to say the wait was more than worth it because this movie was awesome. Since this is a recent movie I’ll warn you all about this right up front, this article is going to heavy spoilers. So, if you have any plans on seeing this movie, go and do that before reading this article. For those of you still here, Cruella, as you’ve likely already discerned, tells us the origin story of Disney’s favorite psychotic fashionista. Before Cruella became the Evil Thing we all hate to love and love to hate, she was a little girl named Estella who had a bit of a wild and aggressive side that her mother always told her to repress, an aspect of her personality she’d come to call Cruella. When her mother falls to her death at a party for society types, young Estella runs for it and makes her way to London. Over the course of the next ten years, Estella, along with her new friends Jasper and Horace, make their way in the world as petty thieves and con artists. When Estella is given an opportunity to pursue her dreams of becoming a fashion designer, she leaps at the opportunity and actually proves to have a talent for it. However, when it turns out Estella’s narcissistic new employer, the Baroness Von Hellman, is responsible for her mother’s death, it’s time for Cruella to come out and play. As Cruella, our protagonists begins systematically upstaging and sabotaging the Baroness as part of a scheme for delicious revenge. It’s easily one of the most fun and exciting live action films Disney has given us in a very long time and I personally loved every minute of it. So why don’t we dive right into, Cruella.

Main Character:

While I think it can be difficult to see how this character, who is presented as more of an anti-hero in this particular story, becomes the truly irredeemable monster we see in the original 1961 film or the 1996 live action movie starring Glen Close (which this film is rumored to be in continuity with). That having been said, Emma Stone nails this character and makes her feel every bit like the Cruella we know and love to hate, just a more sympathetic version of that character in a different environment. Since the character has two distinct personas, there’s really two characters to analyze here. The more reserved Estella and the absolute force that is Cruella. We’ll start with Estella. Estella is depicted as kind, caring while still very ambitious and determined. She may make her way in the world as a thief, but you get the sense that she wouldn’t go out of her way to hurt anyone unless she really had to. While she’s significantly less extreme than her alter ego, she still has a bit of an edge to her and will get her hands dirty if it’s necessary. Still, Estella was ultimately a decent person who loved the person she believed was her mother and wanted to see justice done but lacked the killer instinct to do what was necessary to do it. That’s when Cruella comes in. Cruella is someone who can go to the extremes that Estella cannot. Emma Stone imbues her with several of the familiar mannerisms of her 1961 counterpart and Cruella’s campaign of sabotage and upstaging of the baroness is quite a sight to see. Cruella is a force of nature that commands every room she walks into. She is not only someone who can challenge the Baroness on her level, but she can actually outdo her in almost every regard. I love every second of Emma Stone going full blast Cruella. She’s so over the top that you can’t help but enjoy her. Cruella is far more driven than Estella but this comes with the unfortunate drawback of her being much more abrasive with her subordinates, who, as you may recall, are shown to have much more of a strong, almost familial bond in this version. What I find very interesting here is that when Cruella reaches her lowest point later in the film, she declares that she is Cruella and always has been, no matter how hard she tried to be Estella. At the end, Cruella, Jasper and Horace even hold a symbolic funeral for Estella (Cruella having faked Estella’s death in order to frame the Baroness). However, it is my interpretation that the Cruella personality does not fully take over. What actually happens, as I see it, is that the two personalities merge, taking the best traits of Estella and Cruella. The new Cruella is still her driven and bombastic self, but this is now tempered by Estella’s better nature and strong bonds forged with her friends. Is this Cruella as memorable as others who came before her? Well, it all depends on what you’re in the mood for, the irredeemable monster from the original or the still cruel but more sympathetic badass played by Emma Stone. For me, my favorite is still Victoria Smurfit from Once Upon a Time, but I can safely say this new version has become a close second.

Villain:

I pose a conundrum to you. When a horrible woman who gets off on slaughtering innocent puppies so she can make a fashion statement is now the main character of your film, how do you go about getting the audience to get invested in them. While there are many solutions to this problem, several of which the film utilizes, one of the most effective ways to do so without causing your character to lose some of their edge is to make the antagonist of the piece even worse. Enter The Baroness, played by Emma Thompson. I think at some point, we the human race need to come together and just make it a universal fact that Emma Thompson can do no wrong. She is one of the most likable actresses on the planet, as we saw when she played my new animated crush, Captain Amelia Smollett from Treasure Planet. Here, Emma brings that same wonderful charisma to the role of Baroness Von Hellman that causes us to be invested even though the character is utterly despicable. Carrying herself like a version of Miranda from The Devil Wears Prada dialed up to eleven, The Baroness is a complete narcissistic sociopath who believes that caring for others only gets in what’s way. As the head of London’s most prestigious house label, the Baroness is ruthless and anyone who even remotely rubs her the wrong way is fired on the spot or worse. Worse yet, she’s the one responsible for the death of Estella’s adoptive mother and did so having her dalmatians maul her over a cliff. Yikes! Things get even worse when we learn that the Baroness is actually Cruella’s biological mother and ordered her assistant to KILL HER OWN CHILD just days after she was born. Since the assistant, you know, isn’t a monster, he instead leaves her in the care of one of the Baronesses household servants. So yeah, utter narcissistic sociopath who puts a kill order on her own infant daughter, yeah, this bitch has to go down. Fortunately, Cruella knows exactly how to hit her where it hurts, her ego. The Baroness prides herself on being the biggest fashion icon in London, so she becomes a bigger one, getting in the Baroness’s head and robbing her of everything she holds dear in the process. The back and forth between her and Cruella is probably the biggest highlight of the film, more on that later. For now, just know that The Baroness is an excellent villain and the perfect foil for this new Cruella.

Side Characters:

Since this movie is meant to be in the same Universe as 101 Dalmatians, naturally, this movie features a few characters from 101 Dalmatians. The most noteworthy are, naturally, Cruella’s minions, Jasper and Horace. While the family dynamic the form with Estella doesn’t quite line up with the original movie, they still very much feel like the same characters, again, just in a different situation. The two have some pretty great comedic timing and some excellent chemistry both with each other and Cruella. Horace in particular gets some of the film’s funnier lines. The film also features Roger and Anita, establishing that Anita was Estella’s only real friend back in school and that Roger was actually The Baroness’s lawyer prior to pursuing his music career and hitting it big with a song deriding our film’s protagonist. I’m glad they’re here, but honestly, they’re just window dressing at best and the film probably wouldn’t have lost anything if they weren’t included. Oh, and I’m sure there are some people who are writing pissed off twitter posts because Anita is now played by a black woman. Just a reminder, those people are stupid.

In terms of new characters, Cruella gets a dog of her own named buddy, further evidence that while this may be the same character we know, it may not be the same version of reality. Buddy bonds with probably my favorite character in the film, wink, Jasper and Horace’s one-eyed chihuahua. He looks so damn cute with his little eyepatch and I love how he mauls the bad guys like a big dog.

Mark Strong plays John, The Baroness’s assistant who gave Baby Estella to her adoptive mother and later reveals the truth to Cruella. Mark Strong is one of my favorite actors and can elevate even the most mediocre of films with his mere presence, but he really isn’t given much to do here sadly. He’s great with what he has to work with, but it’s not much.

And finally, my girlfriend would kill me if I didn’t mention Artie, Cruella’s gloriously gay fashion shop owner friend. Within five seconds of this character being on screen, my girlfriend went absolutely insane and with good reason because the character is a ton of fun. Fun fact, the actor playing Artie also contributed to the soundtrack with a cover of The Stooges’ I Wanna Be Your Dog.

Songs:

Cruella is not a musical, but I’d be crazy not to mention the fact that this film has one of the most epic soundtracks I’ve ever heard. Boasting tracks from many of my favorites bands and artists including Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, The Clash, Blondie, David Bowie and The Zombies (Who were nice enough to favorite one of my live tweets during my second viewing). No two ways about it, this soundtrack rocks and fits the film perfectly. And for those of you wondering if the movie includes THAT song, you all know the one… stick around for the mid-credits scene.

Memorable Scenes:

Pretty much any scene in which Cruella and the Baroness are playing off one another can fall into this category. The two Emma’s have such incredible chemistry with one another. You get a sense that even if they are bitter enemies hellbent on destroying one another, they have this begrudging admiration for one another regardless. It’s a very interesting dynamic. If I had to pick one specific scene as my favorite it would have to be the first time we see Emma Stone go full Cruella at the Baroness’s Black & White gala. You’ve probably seen this clip in the trailer where Cruella enters and lights her dress on fire revealing a more extravagant red one underneath. Cruella then proceeds to beat the living hell out of the Baroness’s security forces, all while spouting off some great one-liners. Finally, the Baroness decides to sit down and talk to her since there’s clearly no getting rid of her. The whole thing culminates in a huge riot and Cruella escapes by stealing a car, but not just any car, the iconic 1941 Panther Deville from which she eventual derives her surname. Very cool.

Story:

We touched on this briefly but I think the overall message here is one of finding a way to embrace one’s true nature without alienating those you love. This incarnation of Cruella was well on her way to becoming just like The Baroness. Even as she vowed to destroy her birth mother, she begins to grow more and more like her, treating her surrogate family like shit in the process. There’s this very emotional scene when Cruella reaches her lowest point where she admits that she is very much like the Baroness but wants to be better. This, in my opinion, further cements that this is a separate reality from the 1961 film and this Cruella, while still a criminal, may not become the irredeemable monster we know.

The Dark Disney Factor:

As per usual in a film such as this, the Dark Disney does not apply in the same capacity as it would in one of Disney’s animated films. We do get a pretty unsettling scene early on of Cruella’s adoptive mother getting mauled by dalmatians and pushed over a cliff, so that’s something. It’s not a Disney movie if a parent isn’t horribly killed off. I am sort of pleased to announce that no animals are killed in this movie, which is both good and bad. It’s good because I’m not a monster and I don’t want to see innocent animals horribly slaughtered, but it’s bad in the sense that it’s not in keeping with the Cruella De Vil character. Oh well, what are you going to do. There was one scene where the movie had the opportunity to go really dark. At one point it’s heavily implied that Cruella did kill the Baroness’s dog and make a coat, the dogs having been kidnapped because they swallowed a necklace that once belonged to Cruella’s adoptive mother. Personally, I think it would have been amazing if Cruella held up the necklace during that scene and the film cut to black. Alas, the movie didn’t have the balls to go that dark, and I do like the direction the film goes after that so I guess I can’t complain.

Final Thoughts: I love this movie so much. It reimagines one of Disney's classic characters in a way that I personally find most appealing and crafts a compelling story of revenge and self-discovery around her. I paid the extra money to watch this movie via Premier Access on Disney+ and while some may think thirty bucks is a bit on the pricy side, I tell you, this film was one hundred percent worth it. Check it out and see for yourself. Anywho, next time we tackle a film I've never seen that I've been intrigued by for a while now. Join me next time as we dive deep into, Meet the Robinsons.