When thinking about Disney villains that are pure evil, my mind always goes to Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmatians. While Frollo is evil in a terrifyingly realistic sense, Cruella was evil in that she tried to do the one thing audiences hate most in cinema, kill dogs! This act in cinema is so upsetting to some that there is a website dedicated to finding out if the dog dies in a movie so you can avoid watching it. Hell, the death of pets in movies is such a dark topic for some that one of the most popular books on screenwriting is titled Save The Cat!
So how do you take a character known for trying to commit one of the largest cinematic sins and make audiences like them? Well, simply put, you just don’t kill or attempt to kill any dogs, but a more in-depth answer is you make those dogs murderers. The Dalmatians in this movie are used for such a comically evil move towards our protagonist that honestly in the eyes of Cruella De Vil it makes sense why 101 of the things might scare her, that’s her version of the four horsemen arriving to signal the end of the world.
But while Cruella tries to give us a good reason for De Vil to dislike a spotted breed of dogs, I have to say that I didn’t need it. Before Cruella even arrives at the inciting incident with evil Dalmatians on her tail, I was loving the movie. Cruella removes itself almost completely from the 101 Dalmatians history it’s lifting from and instead focuses on the power of our own individual creativity. Cruella is a wholly unique human with interest in a career field that feels ridiculously exclusive. While Cruella may find her way into the industry through a slower career track, it’s kickstarted by her own rebellion within a high-end fashion shop.
With a focus on Cruella’s interest in the fashion industry we have something we can get behind and while The Devil Wears Prada may still hold the crown for my go to movie for the genre, Cruella is doing a fantastic job of being Prada for kids with unique interest. Creativity trumps exclusivity in this universe and while Cruella gets her first steps into the fashion world traditionally, the only thing that can blow the doors off for her is herself. By fully embracing who she is and who she wants to be, Cruella soars into the world she wants a part of and we root for her the whole way.
A positive message in a movie about someone so classically evil is one of the most impressive feats of Cruella and while there are some issues later down the road regarding parentage that muddy the waters a little, I think Cruella manages to stand out from the crowd and be the best Disney Live Action film we’ve gotten from the traditional animated features. The world of high fashion seems so accessible here and that’s the biggest takeaway for kids who may have felt otherwise prior to seeing the film. With a great cast, tightly written scenes and a good heart interwoven; it doesn’t much matter that Cruella could shave some time for a tighter whole as the individual parts all stand well on their own.
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