In the 1961 animated feature 101 Dalmatians, Cruella De Vil is rail thin, a towering skeleton of a woman—all sharp bones, pallid skin. She disguises her withered frame in fur coats and gaudy makeup. Every piece of her from cheek bones to hips, breasts to the pointy promontory of her chin is dangerously angular.

So is her voice. She’s brash and overbearing. She sounds more like a deranged Katharine Hepburn than a London heiress. Anita Dawling she drawls. And she inspires fear—even if it’s the joking sort at first, when Roger writes his catchy little tune, Cruella De Vil, Cruella De Vil, if she doesn’t scare you no evil thing will . . . . It’s fear, not love, she conjures.

She certainly scared me when I was very young. Not just her mannerisms. Not just the way she goes almost mad with rage. What scared me then was the nature of her crimes. Cruella wanted to slaughter and skin dozens of puppies to make into coats. Soft, spotted fur coats. It’s a despicable act of cruelty. Nor does she bat a single of her long eyelashes at puppy-napping from her “friends” Anita and Roger. She’s a bad egg through and through that Cruella. Rotten to the core.

It is strange, then, that Cruella—the prequel to 101 and backstory of the film’s namesake—should fail to answer that most important of questions about this wicked dame: What made her break bad? Was she born a villain or was villainy thrust upon her? What inexplicable twists of fate led her to this point, to skinning helpless puppies to make some fur coats? Before there was a prequel these questions didn’t matter. Cruella is a cartoon villain and that’s enough. Now they do.

In some ways the film tries to answer this question, but in no ways does it succeed. We learn of Cruella’s tragic backstory which involves a trio of vicious Dalmatians—guard dogs here, though the breed is not known for this.

We learn also that her real name is Estella and that Cruella is an alter-ego that only comes out when she’s stressed or angry or out for revenge. The film is a hodge-podge of different genres, from heist flick to revenge story to period piece, with a bit of Devil Wears Prada thrown into the mix. Or, well, quite a lot actually.

What it’s really missing are some musical numbers. That would have elevated this drab affair into something far more fun. All the trappings of a musical are here—the wild costumes, the elaborate set-pieces, the fabulous hair and makeup. The soundtrack is excellent, but it’s no replacement for some showtunes.

Cruella, directed by I, Tonya’s Craig Gillespie, plays it safe across the board. It is PG-13 but I can’t for the life of me understand why. It is not particularly violent, far less so than other Disney films like Mulan. There’s no sex and no nudity, barely any skin at all under all that fabric (this is Disney after all) and no swearing. It’s funny at times but never bawdy. The rating is for violence and “themes” but if a bit of revenge and murder is a PG-13 theme than surely 101 Dalmatians and its threat of puppy-cide fits the bill. This may be Disney’s Joker, but the emphasis falls heavily on Disney’s. The rating makes no sense.

Neither does much of the film. It’s too long, too slow, too bloated at times and often underwhelming. Cut twenty minutes and you’d have a better picture. Its best moments are all style over substance. Cruella in another revolutionary outfit, or burning rubber all in black on her motorcycle, upstaging her rival with pizazz.

Cruella (Emma Stone) becomes a fashion designer over time, a rags-to-riches story that leads her into a downward spiral of revelation and revenge. This leads to various heists and eventually a guerrilla war campaign of fashionista pop-ups, fabulous ambushes of the loathsome Baroness (Emma Thompson) at high society events, in front of flashing cameras.

Cruella is the underdog, a stylish badass trying to stick it to the Man (or the Woman as the case may be) and while she starts to ignore her friends Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) and becomes rather more brusque and bossy with them as she dons her Cruella persona than she ever was as Estella, she’s also never cruel. She’s never bad. She’s never, not once in the entire film’s 2 hour and 14 minute run, wicked. Not one little bit. She doesn’t kill the dogs.

This is puzzling. Are we reinventing Cruella? Has Disney decided it must rehabilitate its villains, those poor unfortunate souls—misunderstood and mistreated all these long years?

I’m not really sure. I was hoping we’d find out what made Cruella tick, but we were introduced to an entirely new and less interesting character instead. Only the trappings of 101 Dalmatians remain by the time the credits roll. The characters have the same names, Jasper and Horace and Roger and Anita and Cruella. Hell Hall makes its brooding appearance. But none of it matters. You could call Stone’s character Bête Noire and tweak a few pages of the script and have a wholly original story on your hands, so flimsy is the connection to the original film (and book). But that wouldn’t sell as many tickets, would it?

In the end, we have a stylish, overly-long movie about a less-interesting Harley Quinn lookalike that should have been rated PG and run for 105 minutes instead of 134. The pretense at edginess is paper-thin and the film would have been better to lean the other way, toward the absurd and cartoonish rather than grasping at a realism it can never really pin down. The performances are solid, casting is great and the costumes are gorgeous. But Cruella plays it too safe and never really finds its feet, let alone its voice.

Too bad it wasn’t a musical. These sorts of shortcomings and blemishes are more forgivable when song and dance is involved.

Verdict:

Watch this one when it’s free on Disney Plus, or take your family to the theater just for the fun of it. It’s not worth paying extra to stream but kids and teens will probably like it and the theaters could use the business.

Here’s a video with my first impressions of Cruella if you’d care to watch:

Cruella (2021)

Director: Craig Gillespie

Screenplay: Dana Fox, Tony McNamara

Story by: Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Carcel, Steve Zissi

Based on the book by Dodie Smith

Starring: Emma Stone (Cruella), Emma Thompson (The Baroness), Joel Fry (Jasper), Paul Walter Hauser (Horace), John McCrea (Artie), Emily Beecham (Catherin/Maid), Mark Strong (John the Valet), Kavyan Novak (Roger), Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Anita Darling)

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