(CCR Original Content) Cruella 2021 Review [Spoiler Free Review and Spoiler Section below picture] (7/10)
Cruella is a 2021 crime comedy directed by Craig Gillepsie with screenplay by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara and story by Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel and Steve Zissis. It is a prequel to the 101 Dalmatians franchise by Disney and serves as an origin story for the franchises' villain Cruella de Vil. The film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Gunn Films and Marc Platt Productions and producers Andrew Gunn, Marc Platt, and Kristin Burr and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The movie stars Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, and Mark Strong.
Estella, a rebellious natured child with an eye for fashion and an unusual cruel streak is pulled from school by her loving mother Catherine. With plans for them to move to London, Catherine stops by a party hosted by the Baroness Von Hellman to ask for assistance. Having told Estella to wait in the car, Estella blames herself for the chain of events leading up to the tragedy that befalls her mother, when she disobeys her. Orphaned and alone, Estella runs away to London where she befriends two young thieves named Jasper and Horace. Together they survive the next 10 years by stealing and utilizing her fashion skills until fate leads Cruella down the path to her destiny.
I have to say this movie really wasn't on the top of my list for "must watch" movies as much as I like Disney movies and Emma Stone as an actress (loved her in Superbad as Jules, lol) but I really liked this movie and it was really good. Emma Stone was fantastic as Estella/Cruella and this movie really came off as a mix of Devil Wears Prada and The Joker in my opinion. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it in the beginning because I was weary of the concept of them trying to turn this villain into a good guy or giving them a compelling reason for their "villainy" ways but I'm a sucker for revenge movies. I have to say it had me right away with what happens to her mother and It was "hook, line and sinker" for me and I was along for the ride. I like how the movie kept the characters of Jasper and Horace which if I remember correctly were the name of her two helpers the skinny and fat one from the cartoons who helped her steal all those puppies so that was pretty cool as well. I really can't say how much I loved the soundtrack for this movie, it was just hit after hit, song after song the whole way through the film. Lots of great oldie music from around the times that they movie was supposed to be set in which was 1970's. There were some issues that I had with the movie like how it makes Cruella when she's so horrible in the cartoons, how the plot turns into a whole heist situation, and how it takes until the end of the movie to answer a lot of the questions that were building up the whole movie. The movie did have good things too, such as the acting was great, especially the performances by Emma Stone and Emma Thompson, the setting and time period fitting the story in 1970's London and the clothes and the fashion, not to mention the soundtrack that knocked it out of the park. I give this movie a 7/10 unfortunately it doesn't get my "must see" seal of approval and I wouldn't suggest shelling out $30 on top of your Disney Plus subscription to see this movie by yourself. However, if you plan on watching as a family it is definitely worth it to watch it in the comfort of your own home and not worry about movie theater etiquette or prices especially if you have young ones. If your not in a rush to watch it, I would wait until it becomes free to watch on Disney Plus which has been announced as Friday August 27th, so around 3 months. If you want to hear more of what I thought about the movie stick around for the spoiler section review below the picture.
Look Below This Picture For Spoiler Section Or Click On Picture For Our YouTube Review
Spoiler Section Review:
So first off I just want to say that I thought this movie was really good. It wasn't even a movie that I wanted to see and I really thought it was unnecessary for it to even be made. I'm not sure if Maleficent was the first Disney live-action to "de-vilify" a villain but it feels like it's a trend that isn't going to go away anytime soon. I think one of the worst parts for me is the beginning of the movie and how it starts off with her being born and the whole part of her being this "problem child" as a kid. I didn't really dig it that much and it didn't do much to make me like her as a character as empathetic as they made her seem. She gets in trouble at school and then they have to move and her mom stops to get help at this amazing party. At the party Estella leaves the car when her mother said not too and she's chased by these aggressive Dalmatian dogs that ultimately knock her mother over a cliff to her death. This was both shocking and funny and completely terrible. Estella runs away to London, where her mother and her were going and there she meets these two street thieves Jasper and Horace. I like how these are the two characters from the cartoon that eventually become her henchmen. Also Horace has this really awesome dog named Wink that has an eyepatch and he becomes one of the most beloved characters of the film. So it skips 10 years and shows that they have been surviving by stealing and utilizing Estella's fashion skills to come up with disguises so they can get in and out of places. Jasper gets her a job at the Liberty Department Store for her birthday where she struggles daily working at the entry level as a cleaner. She drunkenly remakes one of the window displays in an act of defiance to her boss who constantly dismissed her and wouldn't give her the time of day. To the surprise of everyone she gets the attention of the Baroness, an authoritarian haute couture designer who offers her a job as a designer. The Baroness is a cruel, mean and strict boss but Estella eventually gains her confidence with her creative skill and talents. One day Estella sees the Baroness wearing the necklace she dropped at the party, the one that her mother Catherine gave her. After asking her about it the Baroness replies that an employee had previously stolen it. This is wear the movie had me at a crossroads because for some reason I kind of really don't like heist films. I think for me it has to do with the whole Fast and The Furious movies and how they stopped being about racing and cars and turned into heist movies. But anyways the heist was actually one of the more memorable scenes of the movie and had some excellent scenes as well. I love how Horace utilizes Wink the one-eyed dog and dresses him up as a giant rat when he goes "incognito" as an exterminator. Estella uses herself as a diversion by crashing the party donning her natural black and white hair and establishing herself as the Baroness' new rival "Cruella". Things don't go as plan and eventually the Baroness calls on her Dalmatian attack dogs using a dog whistle and Estella has a flashback to the night her mother was killed and suddenly realizes that the Baroness was the woman who killed her mother by doing the same thing. She didn't cause her mother's death it was the Baroness. Estella makes her plans for her revenge and begins taunting the Baroness by upstaging her in flamboyant outfits at her gatherings with the help of Artie, a vintage clothing store owner and she even garners the attention of an old childhood friend Anita who now works as a gossip columnist for a newspaper company. The Baroness fires her lawyer Roger for failing to stop Cruella whose increasingly arrogant behavior has become a source of anger to her and also Jasper and Horace who Estella begins to mistreat. This is something that didn't make sense to me, I understand that she wanted to take everything away from the Baroness like her business, her role as a leader in fashion but it didn't make sense that after finding out that the Baroness killed her mother, that she would want to continue emulating her and her behavior. Plus how she demeans and treats other people especially when Estella started doing that to her friends who she considered family. Estella has Jasper and Horace steal the Baroness' Dalmatians because one swallowed her mother's necklace and is desperate to get it back at all costs. It's a little funny how the dogs give the boys so much trouble until Horace turns on the tv to watch soccer and they suddenly sit and behave, they also grow on everyone and lose their aggressiveness too. There is a really diabolical plan that Cruella puts into motion against the Baroness that I thought was rather brilliant. After the Baroness desperately needs a win with her Spring collection fashion show she confiscates a design from Estella and demands she make it for her. Then after it is done the Baroness claims that she herself has "done it again". Estella has the boys fake a break in and for security the dresses are put in the Baroness' vault where the dress she made, which in actuality was made of moth eggs/cocoons, has led to moths destroying all the other dresses. Everyone runs outside to find Cruella has staged her own fashion show across the street at Regents Park. The Baroness becomes aware that Estella and Cruella are the same person after visiting and threating Anita the newspaper columnist but her suspicions are confirmed when after the fashion show she has Jasper and Horace followed to their home. Estella comes home to find them tied up and the Baroness in wait with her henchmen. After ordering them to take Jasper and Horace to jail she leaves Estella/Cruella to die in a fire she sets. The Baroness' valet John who has served her for many years rescues Estella and reveals to her the truth we've been waiting the whole movie for. I for one should have seen this coming but I guess I had my blinders on the whole time and could only focus on one thing, which was why did they never mention Estella's father and who he was. I kept thinking that her father was the Baroness' husband and that he had an affair with Estella's mother making Estella the illegitimate child of her husband and heir to her fortune. Also because where was the Baroness' husband, they hadn't shown him the whole movie, did he even exist? John reveals to Estella, with the help of the necklace which he also recovered from the burning building, that it held a key to a box containing her birth records. Estella is actually the daughter of the Baroness who Jon gave to Catherine for safekeep because the Baroness ordered him to kill her. To me this kind of made perfect sense for why she acted so much like the Baroness to begin with and why they had so much in common. The Baroness did not want a child and to only focus on her career, and did this while her husband was away. When he returned he was told the child died in birth and it destroyed him where he died not long after. At first Estella is mad at Catherine for lying to her but then accepts it, she also decides to complete her revenge against the Baroness and become Cruella for good. To complete her final scheme she sends packages to the invitees of the Baroness charity gala and has everyone come dressed as Cruella in homage to her since she "died" in a fire. She also breaks out Jasper and Horace from jail with the help of Wink and a garbage truck that she uses and outruns the cops in which was really unbelievable. At the charity gala she sneaks in as Cruella and changes back in to her Estella outfit and has the Baroness meet her outside on the very balcony where her mother died by blowing on the dog whistle to make her dogs take her there. The baroness unleashes her dogs in hopes they will attack Estella but she commands them to sit. After revealing to the Baroness that she is her abandoned daughter, the Baroness arrogantly takes credit for everything that Estella is. Her talent and her creativity. She asks to hug her and even pretends to accept Cruella before pushing her over the cliff, unaware that all the guests were watching after being told to go outside. Estella survives by using a parachute and changes into her Cruella outfit in time to return and watch as the Baroness is arrested and taken into custody. She acquires the Baroness' home, Hellman Hall and her business and money having secretly transferred her fortune to herself using Estella's name and adopting the last name de Vil. In a post credit scene she gifts two puppy Dalmatian dogs one Pongo and one Perdita to Roger and Anita linking the movie to the 101 Dalmatian franchise and what might be a setup for a sequel movie as well. My final thoughts on the film are that the acting was good, great performances by Emma Stone and Emma Thompson. I really liked Horace and the little dog Wink and the parts with Wink dressed up as a rat were ridiculously funny. I thought the soundtrack was great if maybe used a little too much but I don't hate on stuff like that. In retrospect though it reminds me of how Suicide Squad tried to do the same thing. The costume design and attire of all the characters were superb and really stood out especially the many outfits Cruella wore. The plot was a little thin and certain things were really stretched out but at the same time some things were pretty clever and decently written. The dialogue wasn't terrible and the cinematics of how the whole movie looked was pretty great. Even the CGI on the dogs was pretty top notch. For a movie that didn't need to be made and tries to manipulate you emotionally to empathize with a future dog hating, animal killer who plans to kill puppies and wear them as clothes this was a pretty good movie. Like I said before I give it a 7/10. I can't say that it's worth the $30 dollar price tag but it's not a terrible film and worth it for a family outing or watching with enough friends but if you want to see it for free, and not in a rush wait until Friday August 27th when it is supposed to premiere on Disney Plus.