Cruella Movie Review: A decent origin story of how a Disney princess turns sinister
Rating:(3 / 5)
Prequels are a tricky business, especially when it involves the unknown life story of a much-known character. One such character was surely Cruella de Vil, one of Disney's best villains, and someone who managed to even find a place in the American Film Institutes' best villains list. So when a film is said to be the origin story of the spoiled heiress who would go to any lengths for her love for fur, a kid-friendly film like Cruella isn't what one would expect.
The film is based on Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, which was made into feature films in 1961 and 1996. Unlike the 1996 film 101 Dalmatians, Cruella is set in 1970s London when the punk counterculture was at its peak. While there was a transformation in ideologies and art, it was also an important time for the evolution of fashion. It is in this world where we meet Estella Miller (Emma Stone), an aspiring fashion designer who also has a cruel alternate personality named Cruella by her mother. A series of incidents land her a job under the watchful eyes of narcissistic haute couture designer Baroness (Emma Thompson). Carrying the brunt of a past mistake that cost her her only family member, Estella tries to make a career in the world of fashion and in due course, makes some personal revelations.
Cast: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Mark Strong
Director: Craig Gillespie
Streaming on: Disney+ Hotstar
Right off the bat, Cruella sets the mood as one of the darkest films that have come out of the Mouse House, but that’s minus the violence and gore one might think of, given Cruella's love of fur. The film does a lovely job of establishing the origins of our protagonist - we learn about her struggle with poliosis that makes her hair black and white, her troubled childhood, and even her hate towards dalmatians. In fact, apart from her hate towards the spotted breed, Cruella ticks all the boxes for becoming a Disney Princess. She is a beautiful little girl, who is plucked from a loving family, and thrown into the streets as an orphan, only to survive and become a success story. Cruella adheres to several archetypes made famous by the likes of Snow White, Cinderella, Mulan and Moana.
Considering we are well-acquainted with Cruella De Vil, her associates, and the plotlines courtesy of the previous films, Cruella does a fine job of reacquainting us with them. We are shown how the trusted henchmen — Jasper and Horace — came in contact with her. They save Estella as a kid and love her as their own, but despise the alter ego which, in her own words, is "born brilliant, born bad, and a little bit mad". There is also a beautiful reference to Psycho’s Norman Bates through Estella’s turn as a janitor. It is interesting how director Craig Gillespie toys with the idea of black and white by delving deep into her hate for the dalmatians. We are shown how Estella, as a mischievous kid, was someone who got a lot of black dots on the white page of her school register. The pronounced black and white of her life are almost like yin and yang — the sweet little Estella and the crazy Cruella. At the end of the film, Cruella gifts two hampers to two secondary characters, a move that sows the seeds for the next instalment towards a story that we are aware of. Even the car Cruella steals in this film, the Panther De Ville, is the model the character owns in the animated film and the live-action one in the 90s. The film also ties up the knot when the car's name becomes Cruella's surname that's known and revered for years, Cruella de Vil!
One of many interesting aspects of Cruella is how the titular star loathes the arrogance and egocentricity of her boss Baroness but eventually turns into someone she loathed the most. The power dynamics and the fight for dominance between the two characters form the crux of this film and the face-off sequences make for some of the best moments of Cruella. Both the Emmas don't hold their punches when it comes to flaunting their acting prowess. While Stone's performance is sure to remind fans of a toned-down version of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, Thompson's resembled an amped-up version of Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly from another film on fashion, based on a novel, The Devil Wears Prada. The duo put out stunning performances as they both dwell deep into their wickedness with a dash of sophistication. Full points to some brilliantly written dialogues that enhance their showdowns. In one particular scene where the Baroness advises Estella, she says, "You can't care about anyone else. Everyone else is an obstacle. You care what an obstacle wants or feels, you're dead. If I cared about anyone or thing I might have died like so many brilliant women with a drawer full of unseen genius and a heart full of sad bitterness." Costumes by the Mad Max: Fury Road-fame Jenny Beavan is as paramount as the leads and the three women prove their mettle on why they all have Academy Awards common with each other.
While the necessity of an origins story for a figure that has been a part of film history for 60 years is a debatable topic, Cruella is still a fun standalone film that humanises a character that later becomes the embodiment of her surname. Cruella, on the whole, restarts the franchise with new vigour, despite sporting its niggles proud over its skin, like black dots on a white coat.