Cruella
Ladies and gentlemen, that is our angle
Summary:
Cruella follows the story of a young Estella von Hellman and her journey to become Cruella de Vil that everyone knows and loves. At a young age, Estella always had two sides to her: Estella, the kind girl, and Cruella, the genius troublemaker. After being expelled from school, Estella and her mother travel to a party thrown at the Baroness’ estate. There, Estella crashes the party and is chased by Dalmatians. Although Estella escapes, her mother is pushed off a cliff to her death. Orphaned, Estella lives on the street until Jasper and Horace find her at a fountain. The three form a small group and begin surviving as little thieves.
Characters:
We have 4 main characters in Cruella. Cruella is a very intelligent woman with a pretty dark past. She struggles to control the dark side inside of her, but she is nice to those around her. She dreams of working in the fashion industry, specifically for The Baroness. The Baroness is a fashion god, controlling nearly everything. Her competition doesn’t exist, and everyone seeks her approval. She is for sure on the crazy side, and always greedy for more power. Jasper and Horace are Cruella’s childhood friends and henchmen. They have survived together without parents and are very resourceful. They don’t have the dreams that Cruella has, but they are more than willing to help her achieve hers.
Sebastian: 9.3/10
This movie was fantastic and I had such a good time watching it. 101 Dalmatians was never one of my favourite Disney movies as a kid but I could never forget Cruella De Vil and her evilness. When I heard about this movie, I thought the character was perfect for an origin story. The first thing I think this film did right was that it was pretty dark for a Disney movie and it had a dark tone that is maintained throughout. There are a lot of darker ideas explored in the film and it feels justified for the character in question and especially how the events of the film play out. The other thing I liked in this film was that Cruella was still villainous in most of the film and she learned more about the villain than hero even though we could still empathize with her. Emma Stone kills it as Cruella and I love the way she portrays multiple versions of the character as both Estella and Cruella feel like they’re the same person yet they are distinct. All the characters are good in this from Horace and Jasper to the Baroness they each gave different types of characters for Cruella to play off of. I thought that especially for Horace and Jasper they got to be more than henchmen which is more interesting for a story. This movie is quite long but I feel that I never got bored and was always interested in what was happening on the screen. I love the middle of this film and seeing all the ways Cruella does her criminal activities and shows off extravagant outfits. This movie has a really awesome soundtrack with many great songs from the ’60s and ’70s that I didn’t expect to be such a big part of the film. The comedy was an aspect of the film I did not expect to be such a big part but it balances nicely with the darker moments and many moments made me laugh. My only problem with the film is that I think the ending left too many questions open-ended and I would’ve liked more closure. That being said the movie does set up more installments that I would love to see.
All in all, this is an awesome movie that I would highly recommend to Disney fans and non-Disney fans. It’s a good time. So hop on Disney+ and check it out.
Nathanyal: 9.2/10
Cruella was a lot better than what I was expecting. For a movie about one of Disney’s most famous villains, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it. But overall, this was a really good movie. Captivating plot, nice music selection, engaging characters. There’s a lot that this movie did well that made it enjoyable.
As usual, we shall start with the negatives, and there aren’t too many. For one, some of the early scenes were quite dark and hard to see. But after the intro, this isn’t much of a problem since the rest of the movie was quite bright. Another iffy thing was the volume, as it didn’t seem quite consistent throughout the whole film. I found the beginning to be on the quieter side.
Now, with that out of the way, positives. First thing’s first, Cruella is an amazing protagonist. Obviously, she isn’t some hero by any means. She is still quite villainous; however, she is surrounded by other villains who seem a lot more evil compared to her. It was interesting to see her multiple phases throughout the movie, from troublemaker, to orphan, to optimist. Cruella had a tragic youth, and that’s what makes her interesting, knowing how she becomes in the future. The other thing I enjoyed about this movie that surprised me was how dark the whole thing was, thematically. There were a lot more scenes that seemed more adult compared to the kid-friendly image that Disney usually portrays. Now, besides Cruella, the supporting cast was also great. No matter how minor the role, everyone seemed to have their time in the spotlight, and it was interesting to see the different interactions between the side characters. Finally, the plot captivating. There was something mesmerizing watching the life events of Cruella shape her into the villain that we all know and love. The pacing was well done with nice tense points balanced by some slower scenes.
Overall, Cruella was better than what I thought. Although darker in tone, I feel like this step was a solid choice. This led to some great characters and a solid story. Definitely give this one a go if you want to see the birth of this famous villain.
Austin: 9.1/10
Cruella is a fantastic movie, and probably my favourite live-action Disney movie so far. It brings a ton of good characters and a deep plot to the table to go along with some really captivating scenes. From the action to the heists, this movie was a lot darker than I expected, but I loved it. The dark nature mixed with a ton of comedy made this a really entertaining watch.
With this being a Disney movie, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect out of a PG-13 movie. After watching it, I can say with confidence that it both needed that rating and deserves it. Cruella is dark in a way that we haven’t really seen in many Disney movies. It doesn’t shy away from the atmosphere, there no comedy or distractions or diversions that would make the dark scene go over a child’s head. No, this movie was built to be dark and build for you to understand the emotional hardship Cruella went through. The plot itself is really entertaining because we get a really great swing between dark, evil, and comedy, which makes for a rollercoaster of emotions. I thought the writers did a spot-on job and I couldn’t be more excited for whatever comes next.
Emma Stone is fantastic in this movie. She always is, but the role of Cruella was perfect. The multiple personalities, Estella and Cruella, allowed for a wide range of styles, and I thought she did a bang on job. The other characters including The Baroness, Jasper, and Horace were fantastic. Horace and Jasper were perfect side characters to help Cruella, but it was great to see they had their own brains. They were deeper characters than just Cruella’s henchman. I really enjoyed the development of characters across the board, good or evil, and it made for a much more entertaining movie.
I loved these characters, and I thought the plot was super captivating. This is going to go down in the record books as one of the best live-action Disney movies yet. I don’t know if I’m sold on the $35 purchase from home price, but if you have the opportunity to go to a theatre and see this, you should. I’m hopeful we will get another movie in this series and get a chance to explore the characters even further.
