'Cruella' dives into the origins of the classic Disney villain

Photo courtesy of The New York Times

“Cruella” is a comedy-drama film that explores the conflicting identity within Cruella de Vil, played by Emma Stone. The prequel focuses on the story of how the “101 Dalmatians” villain came to be. 

Prior to becoming Cruella de Vil, she was a girl named Estella with big dreams of becoming a fashion designer. There are many events in Estella’s life that led to her transformation into Cruella. When Estella moves up in the fashion world as an adult, she meets the Baroness (Emma Thompson) who forces her to embrace the persona of Cruella de Vil. 

Many common symbols foreshadow Cruella de Vil’s transformation early on in the film. One example is the black stamped dots on Estella’s copybook in primary school. Each dot represents how many times she got into trouble. During her time at school, her white sheet of paper became filled with black dots. This would eventually lead to Cruella’s love for spots. 

Given Estella’s dream career, “Cruella” offers a glimpse into the world of high-end fashion. The extravagant costume design spotlights Cruella’s reputation as a fashion designer featuring the punk rock fashion of London.     

Even the set design and location of the film are aesthetically pleasing. The film offers the audience an accurate version of what London was like during the 1970s. While emphasizing the upper class through the world of fashion, “Cruella” does a remarkable job at showing the wealth disparity in London through the differences between the fashion world and the crumbling parts of the city.

While the movie didn’t feature Cruella’s iconic look of holding a cigarette due to a ban in Disney films, “Cruella” still included some other iconic scenes found in the original animated film. One of these examples includes Cruella driving in a Panther De Ville car with her two henchmen. 

With an interesting end credits scene that includes the introduction to Pongo and Perdita, the protagonists to “101 Dalmatians,” there is no reason to rule out the potential for a sequel. 

Unlike other Disney movie reboots such as “Cinderella,” this film does not focus heavily on the original story and instead focuses on Cruella’s origin story. “Cruella” is a stepping-stone for the Disney franchise to experiment into future prequels for other villains.