Cruella 2021

Even with the noteworthy performances of Emma Thompson and Emma Stone, the overly long runtime and clear studio influences diminish the movie to merely average at best.

With the latest live action translation 'Cruella', Disney is trying to mimic the successful formula used for 'Maleficent',. Take an antagonist from one of their classics and switch her to an anti-hero protagonist. Pulling the same trick twice is difficult, even for veterans with big artistic freedoms, the strong studio influences don't do them many favors either.

Studio Film

Disney's firm grip on its own material is understandable, but as we see time and time again is more often than not problematic for most of their current live-action translations. There is not much in the story of 'Cruella' that makes any of the characters very relatable or recognizable for people unknown with the 'source' material. Unlike the 2014 'Maleficent' there is no redeeming villain act in 'Cruella', neither is there a positive message (or any clear one at all for that matter) in the film. Add to that some repetitive and dragging scenes, only kept together by flashy visuals and music. I am unsure this is a movie you want to show to your kids, and for adults it can be rather dull.

Music

Most problematic is the soundtrack. First of all, the choice for a focus on rock & roll and especially punk music is very complementary with the themes in the movie (although the whole status/fashion part of that is contradictory.) However, the songs often feel very forced and only superficially connected to what is happening on screen. Secondly, the movie is simply to family friendly to really be able to carry any sort of punk theme. The mix with Disco and R&B was a mystery to me, especially when 'Car Wash' played i was totally taken out of the movie. There is also an overload of well known songs to be recognized by the audience, not contributing much to the film.

Acting

Absolutely the most positive part in this film is the acting. Emma Thompson is impressive and steals the show in this movie. Even though Emma Stone performs great, Thompson kind of outshines her most of the time. Emma Stone is a great actress though, and she does notably well here too. Especially noteworthy is Emma Stone her use of voice. She clearly studied the original voice actor for Cruella wel, and her use and tone of voice is done very accurately and fitting.

Conclusion

Besides the acting and some nice visuals every now and then there is not much value in this movie to put your time in. An overly long runtime, unclear or poor message and a soundtrack that does not do more than a good Spotify playlist drag down the movie as a whole. If you want to see Emma (any of them) shine, it can be worth the watch though.

It's really just two awful people being awful while everyone else around them suffers for it. Jasper and Horace are treated like dirt by Estella (the fact that she's projecting her behavior onto the character of Cruella doesn't make it any less her behavior) and the Baroness is basically Miranda from The Devil Wears Prada, without any of her redeeming qualities.

They couldn't even commit to making Estella a bad person, not completely at least, making her give a half heart-ed apology that suddenly undoes weeks of being a complete empty-loo-roll to everyone. They kind of frame it as 'she didn't kill the dogs so really, she's pretty okay'. Idk bout you but 'don't kill dogs' is too low of a bar for me. If they had got her to kill the dogs and continue to be that-tiny-bit-of-mold-that-means-you-have-to-throw-the-whole-loaf-away then I would have at least respected the film for committing to writing a disgusting protagonist, instead of writing one ad then backing out in the last 20 minutes of the film.

It may be the point of the film, but you are essentially just watching two very over dramatic and self-centered people prance about for 2+ hours and I personally found that I couldn't be less bothered by their antics.

Should be noted though that the costumes are very good. You can probably just find those on google images and enjoy them without the arduous film.

Cruella tells the origin story of one of the biggest love-to-hate Disney villains of all time, Cruella DeVil. Before she was a feared hater of animals, Cruella was known as Estella DeVil, an orphan with dreams of one day becoming big in the name of fashion. She begins working for the Baroness, a no-nonsense fashion expert with a killer extinct to do what needs to be done. When Cruella realizes the Baroness may have had something to do with her mother's death, something dark and long-hidden in Estella begins to rear it's ugly head.

Tell you what, I didn't know what to expect from Cruella, but I definitely wasn't expecting this. I had seen a lot of other folks say that this was their favorite Disney Live Action remake, and I had to scoff that off, simply because this isn't a remake of anything. You want a remake of 101 Dalmations, they already have that -- that was Disney's very first live action remake, actually -- Cruella is simply a prequel/spinoff/reimaging that introduces a well-known villain in the same vein of Maleficent -- but even Maleficent was a remake -- it was just presented with a different perspective. This is just an origin story -- so it's hard for me to include it in the same list of the others, but it works, and people are indeed correct when they say this is either one of the best or the best live-action Disney remake, and I'll try to explain why.

When thinking back to those 101 Dalmation films, I have to say that they don't immediately feel nostalgic. I think those stories are fine, but when it came to Disney, I related a lot more with other films, so I felt at best, Cruella would feel like that -- but I might make the argument that this is better than the cartoon or live action remake of the original Dalmation films because there was so much focus on certain things like production design, set design, hair and makeup, cinematography, editing, soundtrack. Everything. I think my entire Behind-the-Scenes category scored perfect points with this film. It knew exactly what it wanted to be, and what it wanted to atmospherically feel like.

That's another thing -- even though this is arguably much darker and edgier than those fluffy 101 Dalmation movies that kids can love, I weirdly enough fully believed this took place, or could take place in the same universe -- which was a similar feeling I got when watching Joker that that world could eventually see Batman show up and battle Joaquin Phoenix's version of the Joker -- so, I'm gonna say it...this is the best acting I've ever seen from Emma Stone, as well. She really gave it her all here -- as soon as she got this sultry British accent going, there was no doubt in my mind that her performance alone would be the selling point for this film -- and even if you're a die-hard fan of Glenn Close as Cruella, I'm telling you right now that...Emma Stone kills it as this absolutely troubled and even crazy character who is often holding back an explosion of emotion, and how difficult she finds that to be, especially because being "cruel" is in her nature. So, her performance, in addition to the solid use of visuals, cinematography, editing, and music makes Cruella a very good Disney film that's worth the watch, especially if the tried and true remake formula leaves a distaste in your mouth.

Personally, I don't have a ton of negatives for the film, either. I don't think it's perfect...or a masterpiece...not by a long shot. There's a few element in the movie that I'm sure could have been approached better, but I couldn't find one area in the film that specifically stood out to be as bad. So, take that as you will and let's take a look at my final score. From a technical vantage point, the main areas that stand out to me definitely come down to the visuals, as this is a very...artsy kind of film. It tries desperately to get things right in the costume department, hair and makeup, production design and the like. It's a very visually appealing film in general. The cinematography and editing gives this film an ambience that is, at least to me, incredibly welcome. The music choices were also interesting, because this is definitely an era type film where it takes place in the past, but they're often using modern/current music choices, which I thought worked wonders here. Past that, Emma Stone's performance, as well as everyone else's really, was all worth a mention. This technical, unbiased score is 92%.

My biased score, or how I felt about the film in general, is a little bit higher because I was honestly kind of blown away by how good it actually was. There was two movies that came out the same weekend. Cruella and A Quiet Place II, and I can't speak for A Quiet Place II, as I haven't seen it yet, but I fully expected it to be better than Cruella, and now I'm honestly questioning that. My biased score is 94%, and when we average these two scores together, we come to the final rating of 93%, 93 out of 100 possible stars, or an A letter grade.

I'm as surprised as you are, but they did a lot right here. When initially, I questioned Emma Stone's casting, I now think she was perfectly cast, that she was essentially born to play this role.

...PEACE OUT

Cruella is a refreshingly different approach to origin stories that often plague Hollywood. Instead of focusing on the violent child skinning and murdering dogs, it tells the story of a struggling fashion designer in 1970s London, caught up in the competitive world of fashion, while also dealing with the loss of her mother to an unknown perpetrator. Emma Stone delivers a strong and energetic performance as the antihero and is assisted by talented costume designers, hair and makeup stylists to create new iconic looks for Cruella. She is matched by Emma Thompson as the cruel Baroness von Hellman, Cruella's employer and eventual enemy, their escalating fashion duel provides some visually stunning set pieces. While the movie raises the question of necessity, it will be interesting to see how it leads to the story of 101 Dalmatians in future films. The movie is also powered by a great soundtrack of songs from the era, which will appeal to some but alienate others. A few pacing issues aside, and despite the risk of overstaying its welcome, Cruella is a surprisingly stylish, prickly and fun backstory for an already-iconic character.

Cruella es un enfoque refrescantemente diferente de las historias de origen que a menudo plagan a Hollywood. En lugar de centrarse en el desollado niño violento y el asesinato de perros, cuenta la historia de una diseñadora de moda en apuros en la década de 1970 en Londres, atrapada en el competitivo mundo de la moda, mientras lidia con la pérdida de su madre a manos de un perpetrador desconocido. Emma Stone ofrece una actuación fuerte y enérgica como el antihéroe y cuenta con la ayuda de talentosos diseñadores de vestuario, peluqueros y maquilladores para crear nuevos looks icónicos para Cruella. Ella es igualada por Emma Thompson como la cruel baronesa von Hellman, la empleadora y eventual enemiga de Cruella, su duelo de moda cada vez mayor proporciona algunos escenarios visualmente impresionantes. Si bien la película plantea la cuestión de la necesidad, será interesante ver cómo conduce a la historia de 101 dálmatas en futuras películas. La película también está impulsada por una gran banda sonora de canciones de la época, que atraerá a algunos pero alienará a otros. Dejando de lado algunos problemas de ritmo, y a pesar del riesgo de quedarse más tiempo del esperado, Cruella es una historia de fondo sorprendentemente elegante, espinosa y divertida para un personaje ya icónico.

Excellent film, very entertaining and very entertaining for young audiences. It is the best of Disney's live action films. The anti-heroine vs. villain plot is a successful formula that I hope they continue to use in future remakes. They knew how to give a very good plot twist to the story. They reinvented the villain in the best possible way. Emma Stone's quality and histrionics are brilliant, as always, she was born for the role. You can tell she let herself go and was enjoying herself as she channelled Cruella's evil and madness. Powerful performance. While the characterisations are very cartoonish, they fit well within the Disney aesthetic we're used to, we don't really want a realistic film, we want to have a good time. Costume design worthy of an Oscar nomination, the visual quality is TREMENDOUS, what a beauty of costumes. I really liked Estella's relationship with Jasper and Horace, the actors vindicated these henchmen, and made them more than comic relief. They are frankly ADORABLE .They went from being silly minions with no emotional weight to being Cruella's family, that relationship is cute and works really well in the plot.

The 80's punk-rocker aesthetic fits like a glove to Cruella's anarchic and revolutionary personality. Her smokey eye, red lips and the use of leather in her clothes is a fantastic success. It is a visual spectacle.

It's definitely a good popcorn movie.
It will take you out of your reality of tedium and boredom for a couple of hours and I swear it will make you enjoy from the first minutes to the last. The post-credits scene leaves you longing for a sequel, because Cruella's story still has a lot of ground to cover and there's still a lot left to tell from the original story. In conclusion, you can't demand more from this film.

A brilliant and refreshing take on the villain origin story, Cruella is a winner. A visual feast supported by a fantastic score that brought you into the time without undermining the tone of the film or turning it into pastiche. In fact, walking the thin line between something new and something painfully derivative is a tension that you feel throughout the whole film. There are moments that hint at The Devil Wears Prada, and moments that hint at a cartoonish heel turn, and moments where you worry the script is about to toss out two acts of character development for the sake of a neat and tidy ending.

None of these worries transpire. And now I find myself wanting to rewatch to see how the movie feels without that kind of weary tension around where the story is taking me.

It goes without saying, I think, that Emma Stone and Emma Thompson deliver powerful performances. But I want to single out Emma Stone for moments of expressive brilliance. My goodness. There is a moment toward the end of the second act that took my breath away. Stone is alone and delivers a line that is meant to serve as a transition from who Cruella is to who Cruella is becoming. For a few beats of silence of silence, we see the conflict play out in mouth twitches, nose wrinkles, and in the tiniest betrayal of tears welling up in her eyes. The silence is broken by a line that seems to come from the Cruella we’ve seen in the film so far.

It was masterful. I am trying hard not to spoil it because I want you to enjoy it.

I delayed watching this movie for longer than I should have. Mostly because of Disney Nostalgia Fatigue. I watched it because I was drawn to Stone and Thompson.

Glad I did.

I went in very skeptical because I grew up terrified of Cruella in 101 Dalmatians. The iconic version Glenn Close gave us, who could come even close to that? And while I really like Emma Stone when she got cast for the role I didn't quite see it yet but she delivered!
I like to see this as a different version of Cruella, especially given how this movie ends. I'll explain it away under 'multiverse'. Similar to the Joker.
This movie gave us a Cruella that felt like a hero, felt like a villain, felt like someone inspiring and powerful while also just straight up mad and psychotic. It's the kind of character I personally love. She's theatrical but done with flair. You know she's mad but the Baroness is on a level of psycho that makes you root for Cruella.
Jasper and Horace are lovable as always. Just like in the 101 Dalmatians movie they are the bad guys that you can't help but love. The dalmatians come across as straight up evil. Which makes sense as we see the movie through Cruella's eyes.
I have to give a huge thumbs up to the writers. The story was written well. Nice twists, creatively done and it actually does the characters justice. This could be a prequel to 101 Dalmatians but it also could be a totally different Cruella (like I said, multiverse) and I feel like the writers had respect for the original movie and us as fans. Honestly, I'm so surprised at how much I enjoyed the movie and now that I've watched it I can say; yes, Emma Stone IS a wonderfully mad Cruella.