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.
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.
It is impossible to list Disney's cruelest without including the woman with “cruel” in her name. Cruella de Vil is a particularly heartless Disney villain, and not just because she's selfish. Cruella actually gets some joy out of the idea of murdering puppies.
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).
And yet for all the flair Gillespie and his cast bring to the project, they can't hide that Cruella is too long, too bloated, and is a trend-chaser rather than a trendsetter like its title character. There are times when the film still manages to be fun, but it's a de Vil's bargain.
Film Theory: Was Cruella ACTUALLY Wrong? (101 Dalmatians)
Was Cruella a flop?
It grossed over $233 million worldwide in its theatrical run, and didn't break-even. The film earned two nominations at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Makeup and Hairstyling, winning Best Costume Design.
The movie glorifies evil and vengeful behaviour. There is no redemption. It glamorises vengefulness, it makes getting your own back look like somehow the noble act.
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.
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.
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.
There can be no denying that killing people is a pretty clear sign of evil, particularly when some of those people are children. While most villains kill people for power, however, Cruella de Vil plans to do so for fashion.
Hades. Hades from Hercules is the Greek God of the underworld and the ruler of the dead. He is known for his dark, villainous appearance, his deep and menacing voice, and his fiery temper. Fans recognize his line, "I'm the Lord of the Dead, baby" and his desire to take over Mount Olympus and enslave the mortals.
Today, the only real way to truly experience that beloved macabre theatricality anew is to dive into an era mostly forgotten and latch onto the weirdest, strangest Disney villain of all: Maestro Forte, the sentient pipe organ tormenting Belle in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.
The live-action Disney film reveals that Cruella chooses to skin puppies because when short-haired dogs grow older, their fur becomes very coarse and does not sell as well in the fur fashion industry as the fine, soft fur of puppies.
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.
It is there the movie arbitrarily suggests Cruella de Vil's eventual obsession with Dalmatians is because that breed of dog was used as a literal murder weapon in the death of her mother.
In Smith's novel, Cruella de Vil is married to a furrier, and she tells Mrs. Dearly that she kept her last name—unusual enough in those times that it required explanation—because she was the only surviving member of her family.
Estella tries to be calm and kind but struggles with what appears to be a borderline personality disorder and has trouble keeping her raging and mean alter ego, Cruella, under control. When school bullies repeatedly taunt and torment Estella, she loses control and is expelled from school.
Even a card-carrying dog freak like myself would have to grudgingly admire it.) Quite the contrary, Cruella herself has a beloved dog, Buddy, a yellow terrier of indeterminate breed (my favorite kind). There's also a sticky-pawed Chihuahua with an eyepatch named “Wink.” As for the homicidal dalmatians?
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.
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.
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.
“Cruella” is an origin story that begins with a little girl named Estella (played at age 12 by Tipper Seifert-Cleveland), a girl bullied at her boarding school because her hair is half black and half white.
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.
At the 2022 Oscars, makeup artist Nadia Stacey revealed that the script for the sequel was in the works. Even in 2023, the project is still in its pre-production stage. Considering the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Cruella probably won't begin filming before 2024.
