Cruella De Vil was always a villain that we never thought would need a live-action movie. Well, it guess what? She’s getting one…
Nothing says Disney big bad quite like Cruella De Vil. For all her cruel intentions towards Dalmatian puppies and wanting their fur for a coat, we never got a back story. Until now that is. We were recently treated with a poster and a trailer for the upcoming feature film entitled Cruella.
Before we get to the trailer, we wanted to add a few details we haven’t reported on until now because there was enough information to write about. Filming for Cruella began around August 2019 so it was pre-coronavirus. This was announced at the D23 expo that month with the first image (the feature image of this post) was unveiled at the event.
As for the plot, the film will be set in the 70s where a young woman named Estella De Vil, obsessed with fur, especially Dalmatian skins starts her journey to become the villian we’ve come to know.
Emma Stone is going to kill this role (in the best way possible) as evident in the first trailer. She is delightfully scary.
Not The First
Cruella joins a new era of Disney films that are turning the tide and giving the predecessor movies a run for their money. The first to take a masterpiece and turn it dark was Maleficent which told the story of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the dark fairy who cursed Princess Aurora.
Disney Channel also got in on the action by introducing us to the next generation of heroes and villains with its Descendants franchise. Funnily enough, Cruella has a son named Carlos played by the late Cameron Boyce. The younger De Vil became friendly with Auradon Prep’s campus mutt, Dude after having spent his whole life being told by his mother that dogs were bad.
Going back to Maleficent for a moment, a second movie was made entitled Maleficent: Mistress of Evil which further explored the dark fairy’s origin story.
Hopefully, Cruella is the not the last villain origin story we get after Maleficent. The idea of these is just too good of an opportunity to pass up. It would awesome if they did a film on Captain Hook or Ursula next.
Sympathetic Glimpse
Maleficent gave us a look into the dark fairy’s life and issued a sympathetic glimpse at why she became evil. Cruella could potentially do the same thing. In all honesty, a villain’s backstory is so much more satisfying than that of a princess. Every story is the same thing.
Princess is down on her luck for some reason; i.e evil stepmother, locked up. Man swoops in. They go on an adventure and fall in love. Villain dies. Lovers marry and live happily ever after.
With a villain’s backstory, we see the forces that drive them and push them into committing crimes. One example of this is Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He tried to kill Thor and take over the world because he felt pushed aside by Odin.
Also, he had his own agenda that changed at a moment’s notice which later pushed him into anti-hero territory.
Cruella could cover things we never knew about the character previously. One example of this could include how her henchmen Horace and Jasper entered her life. The film wouldn’t have to follow the typical trope of terrible home life. If anything, it would be worthwhile exploring something else like her first meeting with Anita or a nasty boss that is envious of her.
From what the trailer reveals, we’ll get an answer to how she ended up with her signature two-tone hair.
Cruella drops in May 2021.
