Cruella de Vil Needs No Introduction, and Certainly No Explanation
One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Cruella de Vil (Betty Lou Gerson) is not an especially complicated character.
The New York Times’ original review talked about how Cruella entered “like a blow torch,” while its review of the 1991 rerelease summarized her as “the wickedest of all Disney witches.”
None of the character’s lasting appeal has anything to do with her complexity or nuance. Her name is a combination of the words “cruel,” “devil,” and “evil.” She acts in a manner that might charitably be described as deranged. Her primary motivation is that she wants to skin 99 adorable Dalmatian puppies to make a fur coat. Given the death of a single puppy was enough to launch the entire
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Let’s face it, we love to hate an evil villain, so for those looking to throw a bit of support behind the ‘little guy’, “Cruella” is the film for you. A family-friendly affair, with puppies to amuse even the littlest of viewers, “Cruella” is the origin story of the infamous villainess from Disney’s “101 Dalmatians”.
Young Estella Miller (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) is a sweet, creative girl with a somewhat cruel streak, gaining the nickname of Cruella from her mother. After an accident leaves Cruella without her mother, she grows up mostly homeless with her new friends Jasper and Horace.