Cruella

It’s strange that out of all the famous Disney names and movies that have been created throughout its entire lifespan, 101 Dalmatians has been used by Disney a lot. The original animated movie that was released in 1961 was a perfectly passable movie, but didn’t really have that much to it outside of a really great villain, yet somehow this story, which is based on the 1956 novel written by Dodie Smith, is long-running in Disney’s eyes, as they made a sequel to the animated movie in 2003, a live-action remake of the first in 1996, IT’S own sequel called 102 Dalmatians in the year 2000, two animated series (one in 1997 and the other in 2019) and finally another remake in 2021. However, unlike the other ones, the one released in 2021, Cruella, showed that it was going to be a lot different from its original source and even other live-action remakes of its type, not only because it was going to be from the villain’s perspective and feature a more hard-core edge, but also that it might actually try to be good. Set during 1970s London (distinctly during the punk rock movement), orphaned Estella (played by Emma Stone) is homeless after losing her mother in a freak accident that she blames herself for. With a talent and passion for fashion, yet never given the chance due to her status, she’s thrown a bone by The Baroness (played by Emma Thompson) who sees her as having gift, yet still subjects her to the same physical and mental abuse as her other workers. Wanting to upstage her with her own talents, she dons her own outfits and even a new identity, ‘’Cruella’’. After stealing the spotlight away from her and somehow not realizing who this is, The Baroness constantly tries to catch this Cruella while Estella works for her in the background with her own henchman, Horace, and Jasper (played by Paul Walter Hauser and Joel Frey). But when it’s revealed that the Baroness had something to do with her mother’s death and even shares a connection with Cruella, she might get a bit more wicked in her revenge tactics. Despite the trailers for this movie looking pretty solid and unique, the burnout from Disney remakes constantly killing expectations along with the strange notion of giving a character like Cruella de Ville an origin film undoubtedly left people not looking forward to this movie. But this movie actually managed to do the impossible, in that it’s a perfectly solid Disney remake that actually manages to be different from what it’s based on, features a lot of fun elements and a great sense of style, and contains an actual sense of passion and effort from its creative team which results in a more punchy and memorable experience.

The mere concept of making an origin story for a character like Cruella de Ville is already a pretty odd idea as despite her being a pretty great Disney baddie, her backstory isn’t something that was ever wondered about or even something that was required. After the 2014 movie, Maleficent, sucked out a lot of the great evil qualities of a great Disney baddie, this was not looking good for the project. But the trailers presented a movie that showed a lot of unique visuals, style, and passion; it legitimately felt like people wanted to work on this movie and create something unique and different and that alone puts it ahead of several other Disney remakes.  The director of this movie, Craig Gillespie, who is best known for Lars and the Real Girl and I, Tonya, does a pretty solid job directing this movie; it creates a style that feels edgy and slightly wild, and while it does lack that sense of gritty darkness that it really could have utilized, it features just enough to still feel like it’s pushing a bit of a boundary (for Disney at least). The fast-cut editing, the camera work, even a lot of the music choices feels like something that he’s familiar with in his directing and those pieces do help this movie out a lot in giving it an identity not only distinct from its source material, but from Disney in general. While the directing is good, the screenplay for this movie written by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara is really bad and kills so much of this film’s good will. The movie establishes a lot of elements people already have to give a lot of leeway towards (doing the Clark Kent/Superman thing with this character is pretty dumb and borderline ridiculous), but that kind of stuff can be otherwise looked over, yet the movie’s opening and closing moments really leave a bad taste in the mouth of any who have to witness it. This story constructed by Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel, Steve Zissis is on the base level not terrible, but the inner workings of each component just result in an end project that just doesn’t fit together and gets messy the more it conflicts with how it presented itself in the middle. It’s fitting this movie features dogs, because the film gets neutered really quickly as it keeps along, starting off with a shaky introduction with pretty stupid cliches and bad writing, before transitioning into an honestly really cool middle section with great style, pacing and an enjoyable cynical atmosphere, before spiralling into pure stupidity by the film’s climax. A twist is revealed that attributes nothing to the overall plot, further pads the movie out to needlessly longer, the twist isn’t something that people would even care about, and it takes a movie that at least felt like it was trying to feel like a villainous portrayal with an appropriate level of mean-spiritedness and a true sense of wickedness that wasn’t being suppressed by ”good intentions”, and resorts it back to ‘’mildly amoral’’.

Cruella de Ville is a great villain in general, being one of the more memorable baddies from the Disney line-up despite being in a pretty secondary movie. Being this extravagantly dressed frail woman who showers herself in glamour and elegant style to hide her vicious unhinged true self allows for a lot of great comedy in the movie. Making her the focus of her own movie is bizarre, but possible if handled correctly and while writing wise, it’s a bit of a mess, the movie is gifted with a stellar cast that does its best with what it has. Although Emma Stone originally felt like an odd choice, she weirdly works really well in this; being able to capture both the elegant and dirtier side that the character requires while still feeling like her own creation. Even both her portrayals as the quieter Estella and the more extravagant Cruella are cartoonishly simple but handled very well. It’s a very enjoyable performance to watch either way, but there’s a lot of possible interesting elements that are thrown away because the movie doesn’t really try to tackle any real complex ideas. Similarly, Emma Thompson is so overtly one-note in this role that it can be pretty funny (the brutal manner in which see punishes her staff is the kind of dark comedy that’s needed more in this movie), but as the plot keeps moving forward and stuff gets revealed about her, it doesn’t become more fun or interesting, it just becomes more stupid and lame. People like Joel Frey, Paul Walter Hauser, Mark Strong, John McCrea, Kayvan Novak, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste all do good with their bit parts, but the writing doesn’t allow most of them to feel any better than throw-away lines at best.

The best things around this movie are the aesthetics and visual style. The cinematography by Nicolas Karakatsanis and even editing by Tatiana S. Riegel feels drastically different from something usual Disney would do; it has a lot of the elements that don’t feel traditionally on brand for them, yet it’s done in a way that serves the story and its tone rather than just for the sake of shaking the pot. The production design by Fiona Crombie perfectly captures the dreary yet still quirky element and grunge personality of the time period and era of England. It’s very well composed with a solid score by Nicholas Britell and an even more fantastic soundtrack which features several songs that feel more time appropriate which allows for newer variety and gives the movie a cooler edge than it would have without it. While it can feel a little over bloated with songs to the point where some are forced in even though they don’t really have a purpose, they don’t feel distracting like other movies with over-bloated soundtracks. Even the fashion in this movie designed by multiple-time Oscar-winning costume designer, Jenny Beavan, is really impressive, considering how fashion would obviously have to be a part of a backstory around Cruella as her plan was literally to skin puppies to make coats, it’s kind of a given, but by setting the movie in a time when fashion was trying to be stylish, yet still crazy and noticeable at the same time, it leads to a lot of great dresses that can look elegant, but wild at the same time. The entire movie adopts a very grungy, even steam-punk approach to its color scheme; with a lot of strong greys and blues which are used to off-set the stronger pops of color that appear whenever a dramatic dress or outfit is shown off. It takes advantage of its time period and has fun with it. There’s very little reason why this movie is given a PG-13 as the movie is surprisingly tame in nature even though the movie absolutely should have utilized that rating to go dark and intense in moments.

Cruella is a very frustrating movie because it’s actually one of the better options in terms of a Disney remake, but it still has plenty of stupid stuff that makes it really hard to call it great. The story doesn’t do anything that interesting that warrants an origin story for a familiar Disney villain, it’s nowhere near as intense and dark as it should have been (when your movie is being called the Disney equivalent of The Devils Wear Prada and Joker, you need more guts than what you’re offering) and the opening and final act are really stupid. Outside of that though, there’s a middle of this movie that’s not only got clear passion and effort behind it, but it highlights a lot more positives that make this movie at least worth checking out. Its acted very well, the aesthetics are spot on, its directed and paced well, the style and visuals are really enjoyable to watch, and it has a killer soundtrack. This isn’t a great movie, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction for these Disney remakes and tries a lot harder than the other remakes where practically nothing is changed. It’s a shame that seeing her doesn’t cause a ‘’sudden chill’’, but if you want to, look out for this movie, and decide for yourself.