She’s just getting started, darling.
One of Disney’s most iconic villains, Cruella de Vil, gets an origin story in Cruella, with Emma Stone playing the titular character.
The film opens in the 1960s, where a young Estella Miller is a creative child who has a passion for fashion. She has a bit of a cruel streak, leading her mother Catherine (Emily Beecham) to nickname her Cruella. When Estella starts at school, her aggressive nature causes her to get in trouble at school, prompting Catherine to pull her out of school before the headmaster can expel Estella.
While heading to London to make a new life, Catherine stops at a party to see about securing funds for herself and her daughter. At the party, Estella disobeys her mother and goes inside, where she finds herself fascinated by the fashion she sees. Estella is quickly discovered at the party and the host’s ferocious-behaving Dalmatians give chase, culminating in the dogs pushing Catherine over the edge of the cliff to her death, which Estella blames herself for happening.
Orphaned, Estella befriends two street urchins named Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser), and she spends the next ten years making ends meet by stealing from people around London. Along the way, she perfects her fashion skills by designing the group’s disguises.
On Estella’s birthday, Horace and Jasper get Estella a job as a cleaner at the Liberty department store. She intends to use the job to climb up in the fashion world, but her boss treats her poorly. Drunk, Estella remakes a window display and lands a job with the wealthy Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson), a renowned and authoritarian haute couture designer, not unlike Cruella in the live adaption 101 Dalmatians.
Estella gains the Baroness’ confidence, but eventually realizes the Baroness wears a necklace that once belonged to Catherine and was considered a family heirloom. The Baroness claims an employee had stolen it from her, and Estella plots to get the necklace back at a party hosted at the Baroness’ mansion.
Estella arrives at the party as a distraction, dressed as Cruella. She upstages the Baroness, who attempts to have Cruella removed from the party. Cruella eventually realizes the Baroness is responsible for her mother’s death, having used a whistle to command her Dalmatians to attack Catherine. Cruella swears revenge.
As the story continues, Estella/Cruella starts showing signs of the woman she will eventually become. She starts treating Jasper and Horace poorly, much to the shock of her two childhood friends. Cruella also continuously earns the irk of the Baroness, routinely upstaging her nemesis at fashion events with her own displays of fashion.
Eventually the Baroness discovers Cruella and Estella are one in the same and plots to get rid of the problem. Soon after, Cruella learns a shocking truth about the Baroness and she plans her revenge.
Emma Stone portrays Cruella in the same vein as Glenn Close did in the live action 1996 film. She emulates Close’s “Cruella laugh” well and she certainly pulls off the more cruel side of Cruella’s personality, while maintaining some vulnerability as well.
Stone likely received coaching from Close herself, as Close serves as an executive producer on this film.
The film ends with Cruella contemplating the future. She is not quite as cruel and evil as she is in the original film, but she’s certainly on her way there, setting up the possibility for a follow-up film.
In May, both Stone and Thompson said they would like to do a second film in the style of The Godfather Part II, serving as both a prequel and sequel to this film. On June 4, Disney confirmed a sequel is in the early stages of development, which will be a welcome follow to this film.
Cruella is available to stream on Disney+ with premier access (an additional fee is required to view the film) and can be seen in theatres. The film will be available to all Disney+ subscribers with no additional fee on Aug. 27.
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