More Than A Dalmation Skinner (Cruella)

 

It has been almost a year since we've had a Disney remake for people to complain about and Cruella is this year's anticipated retelling of an origin story of the infamous villainess who also happened to be a fashion designer who was obsessed with animal-fur coats. Oscar Winner Emma Stone plays the titular role alongside the likes of Emma Thompson and Mark Strong making this star-studded origin story all the more interesting towards audiences who have yet to enjoy any Disney live-action remake of the classic animated filmography that made Disney what it is today. 

Cruella creates a character and narrative that pays tribute to both the animated version and Glenn Close's portrayal while adding its own spin to it, creating a film that not only shows that Miss De Vil is way more than just black and white compared to how she is perceived in the lyric where "if she doesn't scare you, no evil thing will" in her infamous theme song but also makes a masterpiece out of a steampunk 70's based period piece that will be able to glue the attention of audiences towards the screen throughout its overlong runtime. The story is way simpler when you only had the trailer to rely on for the last few months since the announcement of its initial release window revealed during Disney's Investors Day last December where they also revealed that Cruella will be having a dual release within theatres where people are allowed to go and on Disney Plus if otherwise which was great for me since we, Malaysians are in Lockdown... again. 

Anyways, Cruella's story is way more complicated than you think it is. The concern at first when learning its runtime was how complicated could it actually be. Fortunately, what made the film complicated was jarringly visible but can be shrugged away by many fun elements that improved the flaws. This is why I was glad that the writers of Cruella were clearly given absolute freedom to go over-the-top bonkers when it came to how they saw villainess' story would be like before she wanted to skin puppy Dalmations and they succeeded. 

Emma Stone is so great as Cruella and I was actually surprised that she manages to nail it. Watching the trailers made me skeptical as to how she would tackle a full-on British accent but what was interesting was that every shot featured in the trailer included scenes where she struggled with her accent while the rest of the movie featured ones that seemed believable and neutral. Apart from that, Stone definitely looked like she had the time of her life playing this iconic role and it's a relief that it seemed that way. Emma Thompson as the Baroness is the best rival to stand against Cruella, especially since Thompson is one of the best actors ever, and seeing her portray an enemy of the enemy just brings back a lot of memories. The soundtrack is one of the best parts of the film, elevating the not-so-subtle punk aesthetic that may seem quite shocking considering since this is still a movie made by Disney, best known to create aesthetics that are bright and hopeful. 

Another thing that makes Cruella so different is that Disney decided to not reuse the formula where they recreate it shot-by-shot entirely into live-action but instead used the method they tried to establish with Maleficent back in 2014. Maleficent may not be everyone's favorite Disney remake which I found quite disappointing due to how incredibly original it was and how it provided the feelings you'd get when reading the original Grimm Fairy Tales even if it still ended in a Disney-like happy ending. Cruella, however, does not suffer from Maleficent's mistakes with the writers not confining themselves to write a script that did not felt true to a character that deserved an explanation as to why she ended up becoming the villain we all have come to love to hate. With how positively I am reacting to the film, I am really hoping that Disney does not spoil this great effort by making a sequel or prequel or whatever they did to even consider sequels for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Maleficent. 

So, if you're looking for a fun family-night movie to watch this weekend, Cruella is a definite recommendation, even if you are not familiar with 101 Dalmations. Like I said, the issues with this film are unnoticeable, which guarantees a good waste of 2 hours and 13 minutes of your possibly dull day.