If she doesn’t scare you no evil thing will. To see her is to take a sudden chill Cruella, Cruella De Vil.

Cruella plays fast and loose with the original 101 Dalmatians movies. Giving you a well-thought-out and structured backstory for the villain who wants to turn Dalmatians into coats. Viewers are giving narration by Emma Stone from Estella’s aka Cruella birth to the present day of the 1970s where the majority of the film takes place.  

In the world we anyone in the public eye can be “canceled,” Disney has taken off its iconic villains and giving them a re-imagined story. Where you as the viewer can sympathize with this victimized person who had the world around them to blame for their fall into the dark side. For example, the live adaptations of Maleficent (Angelina Jolie), gave more of a reason why she leaned into the darkness and encourages the king’s daughter who would later be known as sleeping beauty. 

With films like  The Little Mermaid and Hercules will the villainess Ursula or Hades be given the same treatment where viewers are able to understand their plight and reasons for their personal downfall making for many very entertaining, high-quality films. Or will it be a reenactment of that Val character similar to Scar in The Lion King, Jafar in Aladdin, and Khan in Mulan with some minor adjustments. 

It is very interesting how Hollywood’s favorite trend is humanizing fictional evildoers while canceling actual humans at the drop of a hat. This film is no different taking Estella/Cruella (Emma Stone) a classic Disney villain whose victimized as an orphan. That’s pushed to the breaking point.

Below is a summary of the film, if you don’t want to be spoiled you can skip the summary by scrolling to the bottom of the page to see where you can catch the film. 

During Estella’s (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) childhood we see that the name Cruella comes from her mother, Catherine (Emily Beecham) who calls this anytime that mean streak of her shows. Estella is strongly suggested to be a genius because her genius and half-black-half-white hair make her the target for bullying while in primary school(elementary school). But with that mean streak of Cruella, she doesn’t let those who mistreat her off that easy. We see Estella in the Head Master’s (Principal) several times with multiple Mark to her permanent record but being expel… withdrawn by her mother. 

The two of them head to London with Estella’s dog in hand before making a stop at Hellman Hills, where an apparent fashion show is being held. Instructed to stay in the car, of course, Estella leaves after her keen eye for fashion sees a dress she cleaned to fix (this is an ongoing them throughout the film) As her mother is speaking to the Baroness about money, Estella is being chased around the venue by Dalmatians before exit outside and the ensuing scene sees these dogs go past Estella and push Catherine off the balcony to her death. 

A Young Estella (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland)

Living with the guilt of being the reason her mother was killed, she runs where she meets two young boys Horace Badun (Joseph MacDonald) and Jasper (Ziggy Gardner) who are also orphaned. After following these two to their hideout, the three of them become family and steal to survive. 

One of the heists Estella, Horace, and Jasper pulled early in the film

We jump ten years to the present time in the film and those three went from petty thieves to pull off a full-on heist. Now that we gotta the exposition out of the way, during Estella’s (Emma Stone) birthday Horace Badun (Paul Walter Hauser) and Jasper (Joel Fry)  surprise her with a cake they stole from Jane. Jasper then surprises her with a job offer from the House of Baroness. What I expect to be moving the plot forward to Estella’s fashion designer career was anything but. She was giving the position of the store’s housekeeper/maid stuck cleaning toilets. As she tried to speak with her boss Gerald about having a role on the sales floor and designing the mannequins she’s shoot down every time. 

Until she takes matters into her own hand while cleaning and drinking the mannequin she tried to talk to Gerald about it finally and in front of her and what she does by using newspaper to over exaggerate the dress has everyone talking. In the classic turn of events, Estella meets the Baroness (Emma Thompson) and is hired to work for her on the spot. 

The Baroness, herself arriving at the House of Baroness

And now we’re at the part where Cruella makes her appearance, well not quite as Estella excels at astounding the Baroness who would give her credit for he works other than you’re right. It takes Estella seeing a family heirloom (necklace) her mother gave her the night of her demise, hanging around the Baroness’s neck. Estella plots to steal the neck this is what Horace would call the angle. So Cruella emerges, we giving a montage of the planned heist very shades of Ocean’s eleven. However, this plan goes array other than irritate the Baroness after being upstaged at her event.  Among all the chaos that ensues somehow one of the Dalmatians eats the necklace. 

Cruella first meeting with the Baroness at the black and white ball

So the plan shifts to stilling those Dalmatians with the help of Wink. So now it’s time to play the waiting game of the necklace exiting out the other end. While we wait Cruella deems it necessary to break the Baroness, crashing every event to take the spotlight and news coverage away, while also working on the inside design of a dress with what happened to be gold month eggs. After scaring the Baroness to put her Spring collection away once the vault was opened during a fashion show every article of clothing had been ruined. 

One of the many times Cruella upstaged the Baroness

The Baroness eventually put things together that Estella and Cruella were two sides of the same coin. The Baroness shows her ruthlessness when it comes to competition tried to kill Cruella in a fire. Cruella is saved by a John (Mark Strong) who reveals that Cruella is the Baroness’ daughter!!! The Baroness didn’t want to have a child so after the birth, she instructed  John to “take care of it” but instead of killing baby Estella, he saved her life by giving the baby to Catherine. 

Estella becoming Cruella after finding  out the Baroness’ secret

In the climax of the film, a plan is hatched to get rid of the Baroness once and for all as Estella meets her in the same exact spot she had the Dalmatians kill Catherine but instead of them pushing her over she simply tells them to sit, the Baroness knows he has lost but plays to the emotional atmosphere of the situation and ask for a hug. In just Estella ask “You not going to push me are you?” and in the villain trope, she pushes Estella off of the balcony, however, due to Estella careful planning she knew the Baroness would try to kill her if giving the chance. The party guest who have all dressed a Cruella witness this act as well as the police. The plan was a complete success as Cruella was able to make a parachute out of her dress before returning to see the Baroness being put in the back of the Patty Wagon. 

Estella’s carefully laid out plan ended the life of her life so to speak but it created an opportunity for her rebirth into Cruella De Vil. We see her change the estate from Hellman Hills to Hell Hills. Horace also noticed that one of the Dalmatians seems to put on some weight, before going to the mid-credits.

In Cruella’s mid-credits scene  Roger (Kayvan Novak) playing piano in his apartment. If you’ll recall, Roger is the Baroness’s former lawyer. Cruella told the audience via voiceover that he blamed her for getting him fired.

Suddenly, Roger’s doorbell rings. He answers it to find a package with an adorable dalmatian puppy inside, signed with a note from Cruella that reads, “Meet Pongo! Enjoy, Cruella.”

Meanwhile, Cruella’s childhood-friend-turned-journalist, Anita (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), also receives a gifted puppy on her doorstep with a note from Cruella that reads, “Meet Perdita! See you soon, Cruella.”

The final shot of the scene shows Roger at his piano, playing the famed “Cruella de Vil” theme song. As the camera pulls back.  The implication that blank was pregnant as Cruella de Vil was actually the one who gave her nemesis their dogs—presumably puppies of the dogs she stole from the Baroness. 

This is a nice way to leave room for an eventual reboot of the 101 Dalmatians, which may totally depend on how well this film does in theaters and streaming. With enough positive feedback from the film, it is a possibility.

*End of Spoilers*

Cruella, which is now playing in theaters and streaming on Disney+ via Premier Access for the cost of $29.99, but will be available to all Disney+ subscribers on August 27, 2021