“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.
Her villainous plot in the show was to steal the Dearlys' farm from them, using the puppies as a ransom. Her mother Malevola de Vil demands she do this, and Cruella also was denied the farm by old Widow Smedly the first time she tried to buy it, incensing her and beginning her obsession.
Cruella is known to be short-tempered. She gets annoyed with Jasper and Horace's foolishness and throws a tantrum when things don't go her way. Her anger seems to be a problem, as it makes her reckless and impulsive, as she drove her car recklessly after the Dalmatians but ended up crashing her car into a ravine.
According to Entertainment Weekly, actor Mary Wickes served as the model for the character. But the Hollywood actor who left the biggest mark on the development of Cruella was Tallulah Bankhead. Bankhead was extremely thin and smoked around 120 cigarettes per day, both traits Cruella also possessed.
Film Theory: Was Cruella ACTUALLY Wrong? (101 Dalmatians)
Why Cruella hates Dalmatians?
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 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.
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).
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.
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. Try as she might, Estella could never quite tame those wild inclinations.
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.
In fact, I think we admire them. But they were a traditional story long before Disney. It is not explicitly stated why Cruella De Vil hates animals so much in Disney's "101 Dalmatians", but it is widely assumed that her hatred stems from a deep-seeded psychological issue.
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.
She is born Estella, an imaginative and creative child with a large personality. One that she and her Mom agree to call 'Cruella' and to hide away in social situations in order to interact with people appropriately. After a night out at a social gathering, Dalmatians kill Estella's Mom.
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.
Cruella is found guilty of crimes such as the tiger stealing, theft of the 15 puppies, conspiring to commit crimes, animal abuse, crimes against humanity and verbal assault, and sentenced to life in prison (which is briefly reduced).
Cruella comes to visit and feels that Anita just sending the sketches of her designs because she is on leave from work isn't the same as the interaction they had together. She mocks Roger for his job and for starting a family which makes his respect for her, turn to hatred.
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.
