Born brilliant, born bad and a little bit mad. In the grand pantheon of Disney villains, there’s few as iconic as Cruella de Vil. Nor, we would have thought, as irredeemable. After all, she was prepared to skin a hundred-odd puppies in the name of fashion. Some things just can’t be excused. Or can they? Disney and director Craig Gillespie have risen to the challenge with Cruella, an origin story for the devil – sorry, de Vil – herself.
She may have tried to rise above it, but Cruella (Emma Stone) always had a mean streak. This rags-to-bitches (referring to the dalmatians, to be clear) tale follows young Estella from troubled childhood to meek and mild fashion designer, through to her rebirth as Cruella de Vil. It’s part The Devil Wears Prada, part Joker. And, in its near-constant needle-drops, it’s also a bit Suicide Squad. There’s even an actual number from Suicide Squad.
In her sights: Emma Thompson’s Baroness – a sadistic fashion designer with ties to the death of Estella’s mother. With Estella developing a flamboyant alter ego to destroy the Baroness and claim London for her own, Cruella is more Batman villain than Disney foil. There’s even a shot where she rides a bin lorry through the streets of London, mimicking Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.
Stone is more believable as Estella the street urchin than she is as the Cruella de Vil – ultimately failing to sell the villainess at her most… villainous. There are times when the eminently likeable Stone plays second fiddle to her supporting cast (Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser and Mark Strong) but she’s clearly having fun with the role. Luckily, Thompson gives the film the monster it needs – more Cruella than Cruella herself.
What it doesn’t need is its painful prequel-itis, feeling a desperate need to explain away everything we know about Cruella de Vil, from the car to the henchmen, mansion and the clothes. Cruella gets her Solo moment, as the film explains how she got her name, and then proceeds to lead directly into 101 Dalmatians with a series of horribly laboured setups. There’s absolutely no need for Roger (Kayvan Novak, wasted) or Anita Darling (Kirby Howell-Baptiste, slightly less so) to be in it, but here they are anyway, shoehorned into the thing. All of which pales in comparison to the film’s opening reveal – which sees Estella’s mother murdered by dalmatians before her very eyes.
Thankfully, that sort of thing is kept to a minimum. Cruella is darker and more serious than many will have expected; relatively grounded, for a Cruella de Vil prequel picture. The art direction and 70s setting make it one of the most visually appealing live-action Disney films to date. When it does fall back into old habits – horrible CGI animals and terrible action – it’s everything viewers feared it would be.
Largely, however, Cruella is a pleasant surprise. It’s better than it has any right to be, with commanding lead performances from the two Emmas, and a vibrant, stylish recreation of 70s London. The CGI is distracting, if not detrimental to the film itself, and the constant needle-drops and setups are unnecessary, but this is still one of the best live-action Disney remakes/reboots to date. Brilliant? Not quite. Bad? At times. Mad? A little bit.
