Cruella – Review: Villain Origin Stories Are In Fashion

Creating compelling origin stories for iconic villains is in fashion, and this time, Dinsey’s latest film stars one of its classic villains, Cruella De Vil, as we witness her tragic childhood & empowering upbringing in the fashion industry. Emma Stone takes the role of the iconic character of the 60s, that later previously played by the legendary Glenn Close in the 90s live-action remake.

The focus of this story is to discover how Cruella, or Stella (her birth name) turned out to be the way she was, and how she rose to power in the fashion industry. We know that Cruella had honored her name in the past and that she has despicable intentions, but we had never known why she is the way she is. The thing is, I don’t think audiences needed an answer to all that. But, as we said in our title, villain origin stories are in fashion.

The weird thing is, that the film doesn’t really answer why Cruella is so cruel & wants to skin puppies for a Dalmatian coat. Oddly enough, the film doesn’t even go the opposite route and say that Cruella, like many, is evil just for the sake of being evil, which isn’t a wrong choice if played right. I mean, Sauron, Palpatine & Voldemort are as evil as they come. They favor their stories in many great & different ways and they aren’t iconic because of a tragic childhood that made them evil (before you come at me with Voldemort & how the 6th film said he was bullied, that bit isn’t book-accurate, he enjoyed torturing the other orphans and did so not because he was bullied.).

But we went off-topic. Back to Cruella, and I’ll say it again, it feels weird how the film sets clear how she isn’t really as cruel & heartless as the original character, negatively draining her from the essence that’s well known to her. It uses a cilché tragic childhood set-up to make us feel sorry for her but ends up falling short. Not that I want her to skin puppies, but this film goes out of its way to establish that she would never do that, and that she has many more compelling traits to her personality, aiming for a pseudo-redemptive arc throughout the film. In the after-credits scene, she even gave Anita & Roger their puppies, so it now feels incongruent that she would want to wait a few years for them to breed, and then steal their puppies, when she already had some in the first place to breed…

Anyway, that’s on the negative. This film has many more positives. With the fantastic Emma Stone in the spotlight, the film gets way better after its dull first act. The story starts gaining traction, & watching her rise up from a homeless orphan to a powerful fashion designer with such cleverness & assertiveness, was indeed a pleasure. It’s not without saying that this film works better as a stand-alone film, at least story-wise, if you ignore previous incarnations and storylines about Cruella. However, there are many nods, homages & visual cues to the original film that many, and myself included, will enjoy.

Cruella is a well-crafted film with fantastic performances. Emma Stone & Emma Thompson really played each other in an amazing way. It was a delight to watch them both have fun with their characters and show us once more why they are some of the best actresses out there. Joel Fry & Paul Walter Hauser were also great in this film, providing some neat comic relief moments as the iconic duo of thieves, Horace & Jasper.

Cruella is set up in a fresh environment that managed to evoke the cartoonish feeling of the original story in an organic way. Its cinematography is excellent, and its costume and set design are flawless, which are things that you would expect in a film centered around fashion.

Overall, Cruella is a fun family watch & is definitely a way better one than its other Disney live-action predecessors.

Score: 7/10