How Did a Cartoon Villain Become This Compelling?
Let me open this review by saying I am a fan of Emma Stone. Her take on Gwen Stacy in the Andrew Garfield Amazing Spider-Man movies was very comic book accurate. She was an absolute delight in Crazy, Stupid, Love. She steals scenes in The Help and Birdman. Even having watched all of those, I had no idea what to expect when she was cast as the lead in Cruella.
Cruella de Vil, prior to this movie, was a sneering, venomous villain out to capture dogs in Disney’s animated and live action versions of 101 Dalmatians. She was the female equivalent to the twitchy moustache guy tying the helpless female to the train tracks in old silent films. Full marks to director Craig Gillespie and writers Dana Fox, Tony McNamara, Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel and Steve Zissis. The work of this talented crew completely turned a two-dimensional, formulaic villain into a sympathetic, traumatized genius worth rooting for.
Cruella is a construct. Her actual name is Estella, but she has a doll named Cruella. It’s where she invests her young anguish. She is a misfit with black and white hair, a mean streak, and no desire to fit in. This creates challenges for her mother. When she is expelled from boarding school, her mother decides to take her to London. They have one required stop along the way. That stop ends in tragedy as Estella follows her mother inside and creates a scene. During the chaos, her mother is attacked by a trio of Dalmatians and is killed.
Estella becomes a street rat and a thief. She soon befriends (wait for it) a pair of pickpockets named Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) and Jasper (Joel Fry.) They spend a decade together perfecting their skills as thieves with the help of some very well-trained canine friends. This all eventually comes to an end when Estella’s brilliant eye for fashion catches the attention of her boss’s boss’s boss’s boss’s boss, the Baroness (Emma Thompson.)
Estella works her way up to the right hand of the Baroness, only to find that the woman is a complete narcissist. Realizing that she will never ascend above her role as an assistant, Estella decides to create a new personality. The Cruella fans have known and loved for years is born in that moment.
The cast of Cruella is loaded, of course. Stone and Thompson own every inch of the screen in their scenes. Fry and Hauser give a look into the younger versions of their cartoon counterparts. Mark Strong (Kingsman: The Secret Service) is brilliant as always. Kayvan Novak (What We Do in the Shadows) is subtle but empathetic in his role as Roger.
The greatest hidden character in this film is the soundtrack. The music is heavily featured during Estella’s growth in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s. Highlights include the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy,” and Blondie’s “One Way or Another.” None of that screen time takes away from Nicholas Britell’s orchestral score.
Cruella might be the most psychological Disney film in a long time. The titular character may just go mad for the story’s sake, but there are so many moments where she faces trauma. Her belief system is shaken repeatedly. Her closest friends recognize it, but only from their own points of view. They comment that she is no longer who she once was, but they don’t know how to identify or help who she becomes.
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Cruella is a fun watch. Stone and Thompson are wonderful against each other. The story is fun and the character study of reverse engineering an old school Disney villain is an interesting exercise. Give it a watch and tell me what you think in the comments!