Cruel Devil

The one thing missing is more of that catchy theme song…(Unmarked Spoilers)

Once upon a time, Cruella (Emma Stone) was once a wild child named Estella (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland, Billie Gadsdon) who was constantly getting in trouble at school. Much to the frustration of her mother Catherine (Emily Beecham). After Estella finally gets expelled, Catherine has to resort to desperate measures. She drives to the home of a wealthy woman to ask for financial assistance and tells Estella to stay in the car.

Of course, she doesn’t stay in the car. One thing leads to another, and Estella ends up getting chased by the guard dogs. Dalmatians, to be more exact. Except they end up knocking Catherine off a cliff in the process. Yes, Cruella’s mother got killed by dalmatians. Is that why she wants to turn them into a fur coat? No, actually, because Estella makes it clear that she blames herself for the incident. That’s a level of maturity and responsibility that you usually don’t see in fictional characters.

Afterward, Estella winds up on the streets of London, where she meets two young thieves names Jasper (Joel Fry, Ziggy Gardner) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser, Joseph MacDonald), who in the animated film looked like they were about a decade younger than her. Though I suppose Cruella could have just been prematurely aged by all the chain-smoking, that’s mysteriously absent here. After a successful period of thievery, Estella decides to go straight and eventually winds up working for the Baroness (Emma Thompson), a successful fashion designer.

Everything seems to be going great, until Estella realizes that the Baroness was the rich woman from the prologue. And the only reason the dogs ran to Catherine was that the Baroness had called them with a dog whistle. For revenge, Estella becomes Cruella, a maverick constantly showing up the Baroness with her own designer outfits. 

From the start, the Baroness comes off as evil, but a Miranda Pressley-level evil. Catherine’s death could have easily been an accident. Up until when the Baroness finally catches Cruella and outlines her plan to burn her alive. Then, upon Cruella telling her that she killed her mother, the Baroness asks her to be more specific. So no, she is so much worse than she first appeared. 

Right before she dies, Catherine tells the Baroness that in exchange for some money, she’ll keep her mouth shut and never come back. So, I thought that was building up to the revelation that the Baroness is Cruella’s grandmother, but I was wrong. It turns out the Baroness was Cruella’s biological mother. 

Upon learning the truth, Cruella proclaims, “there’s no way I’m related to that psycho.” Oh yeah, because then the apple would have fallen so far from the tree. It’s not like they’re both brilliant fashion designers who are self-centered, lack empathy, and treat their underlings horribly. Oh, wait.

Are you, by chance, familiar with the concept of the Jungian shadow? The shadow was one of the four significant archetypes introduced by psychiatrist Carl Jung, besides the anima/animus, persona, and self. This is probably an overly simplistic description, but the shadow is everything a person suppresses about themselves. Cruella provides two great examples of that concept.

The Baroness is Cruella if she took all of her worst qualities and turned them up to the eleventh. After accepting their kinship, Cruella states that she’s “better” than the Baroness, which you can interpret in a few different ways. Meanwhile, just as the Baroness serves as Cruella’s shadow, Cruella herself is the shadow of the adult Estella. The latter is the normal, conforming, good girl that Catherine always wanted her to be.

I wasn’t expecting much from Cruella. This whole string of live-action Disney remakes/reimaginings has been rather hit or miss, but I liked this movie. Like a lot. Primarily because of the cast. While everyone’s performance in this movie deserves praise, special mention goes to those playing the title character. Stone is so good in this, with Seifert-Cleveland also doing a great job as 12-year-old Estella. So if you ever wanted a new Disney movie to watch with your family or just by yourself, then I would recommend this one.