It is not until the end Cruella reveals her true personality, a violent, careless, murderous, destructive, and downright evil psychopath, after the dalmatians escape, she becomes nearly insane and preposterous, so she goes on a rampage trying to retrieve the dogs but accidentally crashes the car she was driving.
The first thing Disney did to make Cruella a redeemable character was to portray her as having dissociative identity disorder (sometimes called multiple personality disorder).
From the original Disney animation, we learn that behind her glamour, Cruella de Vil is a murderous, narcissistic psychopath; she is a woman who is perfectly willing to illegally abduct, murder and skin 99 puppies to create her own spotted fur coat.
Cruella is emotionally volatile, over the top eccentric and evil to the point of sociopathy. Whatever she does, she does flamboyantly, and wherever she goes she brings chaos. Her name is a play on the words cruel and devil, an allusion which is emphasized by having her country house be nicknamed "Hell Hall".
PSYCHOPATH DEFINITION | Cruella de Ville The Psychopath Villain of Disney
Is Cruella a nice person?
Also, children bully young Cruella because she's different, and both Cruella and her eventual boss, The Baroness (Emma Thompson), are wickedly funny -- i.e., they're mean and treat others terribly in ways that may make viewers laugh but certainly aren't kind.
Like any villain, Cruella De Vil is evil! Her fierce, unkind and selfish behaviour makes her one of the most evil characters. On her arms she wears a pair of long, ruby gloves to cover her pale, wrinkly skin which is transparent like a window.
She is an eccentric, fashion-obsessed heiress who wishes to use the skins of 99 Dalmatian puppies to create a spotted fur coat. Regarded as a "witch" and "devil woman", Cruella's infatuation with furs drives her to murderous insanity. She commits immoral acts to satisfy her mania, such as kidnapping and slaughter.
In Brazilian Portuguese, Cruella is known as 'Cruela Cruel', which straightforwardly stems from 'cruel'. In both Spanish and European Portuguese, the name remains 'De Vil', but instead of representing "devil", it represents words for "from vileness" or "from villainy".
John then shows Estella the key hidden on the necklace, which unlocks a box containing her birth records and then reveals the truth to Estella of being the Baroness' daughter. The Baroness is narcissistic and angered by her pregnancy as it would shift attention from her.
In 101 Dalmatians, Cruella wanted to purchase Perdita and Pongo's Dalmatian puppies because she was a selfish heiress who viewed the puppies as a fashionable commodity to be exploited rather than as innocent living beings.
Cruella begins with Estella as a child with black and white hair, something that she was born with due to a disease called poliosis. The condition is caused by a decrease or absence of melanin in the hair on the body, typically resulting in a white streak or splotches in someone's hair.
There is no direct reference to a particular set of symptoms. The closest we come to is several mentions of her having two split selves (i.e., the nice, people-pleasing Estella and the dominant, vindictive Cruella), going all the way back to early childhood when her mother asked her to suppress all aspects of Cruella.
She is blinded by her greed and selfishness, willing to hurt others to get what she wants. You can't help but root for Roger, Anita, Pongo, Perdita, and the other 99 Dalmatians every time she's on screen. Cruella De Vil embodies all of the bad things that could corrupt each and every one of us.
In the 1961 animated original film, the fashion-obsessed heiress was usually seen clutching a cigarette and holder as sickly green smoke wafted behind her. When asked why the wardrobe statement piece was intentionally left out, Stone attributed it to evolving opinions about smoking within the past 60 years.
Their parents, Pongo and Perdita, set out to save their puppies from Cruella, in the process rescuing eighty-four additional ones, bringing the total of Dalmatians to one hundred and one.
However, recent retellings of some of the most iconic female villains have opened up a new side to their stories—the villain's retelling as the anti-hero. Maleficent in the Sleeping Beauty. Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians (1961).
In Disney's original animated “101 Dalmatians” from 1961, Cruella de Vil is an evil woman in her sixties whose goal is to kill and skin the Dalmatians for their fur as a new fashion statement.
A huge theme to acknowledge in this film is the idea of nature vs. nurture. Estella was raised by a caring mother who always tried to “love her into shape” as Cruella herself states it.
It's clear that Disney is exploring the metanarrative about Cruella, building on her love of furs and fashion as well as fans' interpretation of her as a fabulously camp performance artist. The film also draws on the current trend of reevaluating demonized women to give her a far more sympathetic persona.
Sadly, no, none of it was her real hair. Very few actors would die their hair two different colors in that drastic of a fashion. But then again, Estella's red hair wasn't Emma Stone's natural hair either. According to Nadia Stacey, who headed up hair and makeup on “Cruella,” it was all wig work.
In contrast, Emma Stone's Cruella has bright green eyes, like many other Disney Villains. This is an interesting choice by Disney since green eyes are actually one of the rarest eye colours but are frequently used for their villains.
With a drop of a flaming matchstick, Cruella's satin hood burns into nothingness and uncovers a red-hot dress and that signature half-black-half-white do.
