We finally get a glimpse of Cruella De Vil’s origin story.
The Cruella trailer, which Disney released on Wednesday morning, shows a young Cruella (Emma Stone) set to prove her worth in ‘70s London high society. From what’s pieced together in Cruella’s narration, she hasn’t quite made a good impression on others because, you know, the whole being evil thing: “From the very beginning, I realized I saw the world differently than everyone else. That didn’t sit well with some people. But I wasn’t for everyone. I guess they were always scared…that I’d be…a psycho.” This time, the antagonist is Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson) and Cruella decides to one-up her by crashing her party in quite an eye-catching outfit. It’s a reveal that’d put any Drag Race queen to shame.
We also get to see Kirby Howell-Baptiste as a photographer named Tabitha, and Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser as Cruella’s goons. In case Maleficent wasn’t your thing, it looks like Disney took a very different aesthetic direction with this one. It feels a lot like Birds Of Prey (in a very sanitized way), and Stone actually seems to be having lots of fun playing the Disney villain.
Here’s the official plot Disney shared:
Cruella, which is set in 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, follows a young grifter named Estella, a clever and creative girl determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute, played by two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson (Howards End, Sense & Sensibility). But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.
Cruella, directed by Craig Gilespie, premieres on May 28. (Whether it’ll get the Disney+ rollout like Mulan and Soul remains to be seen.) For now, check out the trailer below.
162 Comments
This is a rather vanilla write up for something that looks completely ridiculous.
agreed, this is not what I was expecting and I am excited. Totally was expecting the yawnish tone of Witches (not to knock Hathaway).
(You’d totally knock Hathaway)
I KNOCK WHENEVER I SEE YAWN HATHAWAY!
What’s more vanilla than Emma Stone wearing white?
Anna Kendrick wearing white
You guessed it. Frank Stallone.
shoulda guessed it
Pedantic Londoner alert: Buses don’t go down Great Malborough St, there’s no way a 159 bus could be driving past Liberty department store.This Thor getting the tube to Greenwich all over again.
But, dammit, how else with geographically-challenge ‘Murricans know if it’s in England if there’s not a red double-decker bus in every frame?
I eagerly await Cruella’s drive to work taking her past Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace, which is how we all get to work in the city.
Dont forgot Whitechapel. The kids know there Jack the Ripper! Also throw in some Clash songs.
Just the one clash song.
I’m calling it now. At some point, probably the second act when Cruella goes from being a sexy, scared, homeless girl to a sexy, confident streetwise woman, “London Calling” will play.
Thats literally what will happen. How can punk rocker 70s London Cruella movie not feature London Calling? Its soooooooo stupidly cliche and obvious.
Here’s how it’ll play out:Cruella as a dirt-poor piece of street trash will be out and about, feeling vulnerable and down. We know this because she will be looking ugly, at least as ugly as Emma Stone can be (ie, Hollywood ugly – no makeup, dowdy hair, shapeless clothes). Some group of bitchy, well-off girls will mock her and she’ll overhear their insults, and, with shoulders hunch, she’ll head back to her squat in some quaintly Londonian part of London. I’m gonna go with Camden, because it was a shithole in the seventies that today is cool and chock full of gentrifying yuppies (“Cha-ching!” says Disney). And she mopes around the squat for a bit. Maybe has a little cry. And then, she wipes the tear from her eye – mascara smearing – and London calling begins to play.Cue montage. Hit play on “London Calling”.She grabs a pair of scissors. Saws off a leg of her jeans. Saws off the other leg – asymmetric (because she’s cRaZy AnD cUtE!), revealing a Disney-appropriate amount of leg (ie, no chance of flashing gash or butt cheek).She grabs a rag from the pile of one of her fellow squatters is using to make a sculpture (because of course she squats with artists), and it turns out it’s a perfectly good black T-shirt that’s a size too small, technically, but fits her like a glove, exposing a Disney-appropriate amount of midriff. It’s binding under her armpits, so she scissors the sleeves off in a wide armhole, threatening sideboob. Catching a glimpse of herself in a mirror (broken, naturally, ‘cause symbolism) she sees her running mascara wipes it away from one eye, then stops…and leaves the running mascara on the other eye. See? It’s like she’s been beaten down by the world, but instead of trying to deny it, she’s revelling in it as a transformative, character-building moment! Symbolism!Rifling through her bag, she grabs a packet of hair bleach, reads the instruction for half a second be for coquettishly throwing them away and just…going for it! And, to play off the symmetry, she only runs it through one side of her head, letting us see, for the first time, her Iconic™ hairstyle. Bleach drips from her hair onto her T-shirt, foreshadowing Dalmatian couture. Finally, she throws on on black Dr. Marten (c’mon, could it be anything else?!?) and one white Dr. Marten. Unlaced, of course. She’s wearing fishnets (strategically torn) now, course, as well. We didn’t see her put them on because Disney still operates under the Hayes Code and that would be pornography.And hits the street. She walks past the same group of vacuous bitches as before, and they gasp and stare.“Oh my god,” the lead bitch gushes, “I love your style! Tell me, who’s your stylist!”“Oh, honey,” Cruella snarks, “You couldn’t pull it off.”The bitches stand, gobsmacked. And thoroughly Put In Their Place.
I hate how this seems plausible.
These would be your jobs as boot blacks, chimney sweeps, and primly dressed governesses?
Remember, Yanks! You can see Big Ben from any point in London! Even the tube stations, cellars, bank vaults, and movie theatres!Every shot will also feature a Bobby, doing the Walk. You know the one.Fun fact: one of the parking inspectors in my Aussie town is an ex-Bobby, who retired down here. He does the Walk. Every time I see him “Overkill” plays in my head. I once asked him when I was younger to give me a “RIGHT, SUNSHINE, YOU’RE NICKED!”(Weird-arse 7:4 time signature…)
You have to go subtle, and include a black cab driven by one of the Queen’s guards.
Beefeaters.Lots and lots of beefeaters.
Maybe now they don’t? But since the setting was in the early 70s, perhaps they used to?
Doubtful, the direction the 159 is coming from is basically a side road. It would have been very surprising if large vehicles were driving down there. Granted I can’t say with 100% certainty, but it would be very odd.
AH I see. Since you are definitely a Londoner, I believe you are right. It’s definitely movie anachronism thing. Most likely the production staffers don’t have enough info about the route back then.I posted similar movie goof anachronism on WW84 article months ago. Involving Piccadilly Square in the 80s.
Yeah I think I saw that, it was a great pic btw. Seeing what ‘up West’ London looked like when I was a kid was very illuminating.As I say in my first post, I am being pedantic about off of this. It’s that I used to work on Poland Street, which intersects with GMS. That’s an even smaller one way road, so there’s no way main traffic (buses and what not) would be traveling down those roads.I’m now going to contemplate how sad I’m getting in my old age.
“Tottenham Hotshots” on the pest control van is not bad though.
Never mind
wait now … inna world where a fashion wannabe decked out in a head-to-toe silky flash paper cape lights it up to reveal a drop dead red satin and yet retains all her hair, eyebrows, and face don’tya think maybe a creative allowance can be made fer buses transiting the cobbles?
Ah yes, but you see, the thing is the movie actually has a really good explanation for this, and I’ve got it right here, and it’s a very compelling and foolproof explanation that explains precisely everything and will leave you with absolutely no questions or concerns whatsoever, and that explanation is OH MY GOD LOOK BEHIND YOU A THING[kicks you in the shin while you’re distracted and runs away]
Ouch!
Hey, the job description for a currenty-day AVClub writer is “Generate word soup”; that soup doesn’t always get to be flavorful.
Bring your vengeance to ME! COOOBRAAAHHH!!!
COOOOOBRA-LALALALALA
“He’s…gone…
…into a coma…”
Coma Coma Coma Coma Coma Chameleon….
he comes & goes…
So… Joker for ten year olds?
Now with more animal creulty.
Sir, your wet blanket is dripping on the other commenters.
We wiv in a sosyitty!
It wanks as high as any in Wome!
It’s because children’s comedy is dead.
Because no one makes children’s movies any more – the real money’s in making children’s movies for immature womanchildren and manchildren.
What are some mature movies you enjoy?
Disco Dancing Dollies From Dubbo.
I’m a Rolls Royce, look it’s so huge!It’s big and it’s gold with my dumb chauffeurLooking to procure, run little doggieLure a disco dolly
“I used to think my life was an animated feature … now I realise it’s a live action prequel.”
We finally get a glimpse of Cruella De Vil’s origin story.Finally!!! The iconic Cruella de Vil gets an iconic origin story! Iconic! Love this IP! So iconic!
Helena Bonham Carter’s origin story
Well…I see you aren’t aware of Daphne Guinness (heir of the Guinness brewery)
She looks like someone who has strangled at least 3 maids because they forget to dust underneath the books on her bookshelves.
Catherine used her as her style inspo for Moira Rose.
oooh, that playful manx … she looks a naughty girl
I think I’m in love…
At first glance I thought this was Emma Watson reusing the Bellatrix Lastrange wig.
Helena playing Emma playing Hermione playing Bellatrix was truly something else.
FINALLY!
There’s no way they keep her villainous to the point where she wants to skin 101 dogs for a coat, right? If so…is that THIS movie, or a sequel, or…I actually kinda like the trailer, derivative as it is, but I’m really hoping this is just a nice, weird stand-alone and I’d love to see them have the gumption to just leave it at “And her next big thing is to KILL AS MANY ANIMALS AS POSSIBLE. Goodnight, kids!”
Yeah, just dial it up to 11 and make it as over the top as possible. The smartest direction for this movie is to turn her into a Batman villain.
This trailer does appear fantabulously emancipating.
Had the exact same thought.
So, it appears did @21stCenturyPeon just below.
Yeah it does but without good writing and an R rating it wont be nearly as fun as Birds of Prey
Its gonna be like Maleficent. Not even a prequel, just a straight rewrite so that the villain is the hero.
I’m in. It’ll be fun to see something other than Frozen over and over again.
as a little gay boy, Cruella was always my favourite disney princess.
Ariel, Belle, The pumpkin chick. ZzzzzzCruella, Ursula, Yzma 🙂 🙂 🙂
I love that Ursula was based on Divine. Nothing says “Disney Family Movie” like a resemblance to someone from Pink Flamingos.
This is 1000x more embarrassing than the Snyder Cut.
Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Just based on the trailers. I will not watch a minute of either (although the Joker Babies energy from this one is challenging my will to resist)
Funny, the trailer turned me from “don’t care” to “fucking watching the shit out of it the minute I can”.
Gonna disagree there. At least this seemed somewhat fun. Honestly it looks like the Catwoman movie everyone hoped for after Batman Returns.
Only if we are to be reminded about it every 20 minutes between now and its premiere.
I think it looks like a lot of fun. And Emma Stone always gives a great performance.
Look, let’s just come out and say it; good or not, there’s no way this movie will ever be able to top this:
Kill two for matching clogs!
I really like the vest.
I love the gopher loafers
I gathered, yeah.
The problem with the Simpsons is they’ve made musical and Disney moments that are so brilliant (Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want To Get Off, Checking In, musical production of Streetcar and many more) that the attempts to re-make the source material is always going to seem lacking.
“…And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Cruella De Ville”As an Englishman, I approve of Stone’s accent work here.
I was surprised by how good it was too! Let’s hope it stays consistent throughout the movie.
Interesting, The Verge calls her accent “terrible”. I don’t know what creds Julia Alexander carries regarding British accents.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/17/22287149/cruella-trailer-disney-emma-stone-live-action-101-dalmations
The Verge are wrong! Her accent here is wonderful. (She also held a fantastic British accent together for The Favourite)
Good to know! I’m certainly no judge. I just thought it was funny that I had just read that and then came here to find actual Brits praising her.
It’s a fine accent. But can we stop referring to a “British accent” now and forevermore
I’d could be pedantic and point out that an English accent is still a British accent but you make a fair point.
actually maybe your logic is sound … maybe the Verge think that the character is Scottish and Stone would therefore be doing *A british accent, terribly
Cruella Mac Vil?
Fair enough, what specific accent is she using?
English, rather than Welsh, Scottish or – politically rather than purely geographically speaking – Northern Irish.even more specifically, its the kind of vanilla, heavy-inflectionless accent from a narrow belt about 40 miles west and north of London that’s generically “english” or “british” i think because when actors train to lose their regional accents, thats where they end up at. Plus, the less plummy royals are in that area too. 50 miles in every other direction, the regional accents are so extreme many don’t even recognise them as English. (I remember much talk of Karl Urban’s character in The Boys being Australian)
RP (received pronunciation) which tracks, as a person in her station would have been mortified to show up at school with a regional accent (also it is happily, for Stone, probably less challenging to learn than a thicker dialect).
Count me in as one of those actual Brits.
Just a few weeks ago, I cracked a dumb joke about Disney doing Cruella De Vil prequel movie, and I had no clue that they had in fact made a Cruella De Vil prequel movie. You can’t parody this shit.
And not to be the one to ask the hard questions, but in the original cartoon, Cruella and Anita are supposed to be old school friends. And I don’t see any indications that Anita appears anywhere in this movie. Where the hell is Anita, Disney?
Anita actually is set to appear in the movie! It seems like it’s a small part of the movie, though.
Awesome! Now hopefully Anita gets her own prequel spin off film.
Her friendship with Anita was part of Kingdom-616, which covers the animated features but not the direct-to-video sequels. This will be part of a new canon. The Glenn Close version is relegated to Legends.
People are going to lose their minds when the Glenn Close version shows up on Wandavision this week.
I heard she’s playing Miles Morales.
I feel so bad that I understood everything you just said.
It took me a solid minute to realize this was a well crafted joke about the mainstream canon issues found in all the Disney properties and not a sincere comment on how Cruela shows up in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.
Ha, sorry. I have no more than a basic awareness of Kingdom Hearts.
The clean answer is that they know each other from sixth form or earlier. Cruella is landed gentry, so probably a public school. Anita, likely having attended on scholarship, moves in different circles during and after their uni days.
settle the fuck down. Movie treatment was pitched in 2011, Emma Stone was cast in Jan 2016, filming started & wrapped by Nov 2019. If you’re aware enough to know about Anita then I’m suspicious that you heard news of this film at some point in the last 6+ years.
Okay, but…why? Like I’m for sure seeing it, and I love Emma Stone, but this character’s claim to fame is trying to butcher 101 Dalmatians. There’s no redemption here. If they make her a total villain, and this movie is all about her first big crime, I’m here for it, but I don’t want to hear the song in the future and think “Oh, but her sad past…”
This is the movie you’re going to direct this sentiment at? Have you seen other movies?
Are you really asking why Disney would make a movie based around a character from a familiar, successful property? I’ll give you a hint; the answer to your question is the same as the answer to why Disney does everything else that it does.
Yeah obviously I actually know why, and I’m going to encourage them by seeing it. But I still had to air my grievances.
hey, add a “Duh!” to your Pirates response, not sure the dude really gets it
No, it’s CLAMPS! IT’S CLAMP THIS, CLAMP THAT, BADA CLIMP, BADA CLAMP!
Artistic integrity and wanting to bring joy to the world?
Yeah exactly, I don’t know why these villain origin stories are so en vogue right now. I defy anyone to watch 101 Dalmatians and explain why they think that character needs a complex and humanizing back story. She doesn’t, the character is written as one-dimensionally evil because we’re not supposed to feel sympathy or identify with someone who wants to kill 101 tiny puppies so she can make a coat out of their fur. Like you said; if this is an already evil Emma Stone chewing the scenery for 90 minutes then cool – count me in – but if she starts off as sympathetic then turns evil I question what they were thinking making a movie where they want children to sympathize with a literal puppy murderer.
It’s 99 puppies(99 puppies, and the bitch, plus one)
Well spotted.
Thanks to Cobra Kai, Hannibal, Joker, Terminator 3 to 5, among others, the “both sides/many sides” angle for movie villains is now in vogue and a convenient excuse to pump out more sequels.
Terminating 3 to 5, what a way to make a living
Barely getting by
Cobra Kai works, because, yeah, Johnny did have a shitty childhood, and Daniel was kinda a dick.
Also no ones original goal was to murder and wear 99 dogs
Excellent point.
Emma Stone is wonderful, but I’m always wary when the conversation about a movie focuses on how much fun the lead actor has playing their role. That seems like a barely coded way of saying, “There’s nothing else going on here.”
Considering how much of a cash grab these things can be I’d rather someone who’s enjoying the role than someone just slouching though an easy payday. For example, one or two aside, the voice cast of the new Lion King sounded like they couldn’t give two shits.
That’s just what Beyonce does when she’s “acting”. Amazing performer, not so good at the acting.
True (and she was definitely there for the name and soundtrack kudos more than anything). But that doesn’t excuse the rest sounding like they’re the cool kids at school being forced to take part in a play and sniggering amongst themselves about how silly the whole thing is.
Oh yeah that whole thing was just a giant wha why? Oh money.This at least looks like someone cared.
So if her back story happened in the 1970s, then the events of 101 Dalmatians are assumed to be happening in the modern day? I’m not sure that males sense (granted this is a franchise where in the unadapted sequel book, space aliens are disguised as dogs, so making sense isn’t a high point of this universe). But the original story presents a world in which, while skinning dogs for a fur coat is horrifying, fur coats themselves are treated as totally normal and non-objectionable. This was true when the book was published in 1956, and when the cartoon was made in 1961, but not so much now.
Assuming Emma Stone is playing mid-20s here: the events of 101 Dalmations would also take place in the ‘70s.
Cruella wasn’t 70 years old when we see her, she was schoolmates with Anita, who is also mid-(to-late?) 20s in the animated movie.
It looks like this is a prequel to the 96 live action version rather than the 61 animated version.
I guess? I don’t recall that classmates part, but she certainly was drawn as if she were an old hag, but I guess that was part of the problematic evil=ugly equation so common to Disney and other children’s movies.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/739ddd3c-ed03-469a-bd37-0cb1d4d827f2(Not sure this link is working.)
Is this on the soundtrack?
OK, WHO DID THIS? WHO FUCKING WELL DID THIS? I WANT FUCKING NAMES:That, my friends, is a Canon Canonet QL17 GIII compact rangefinder with a Canolite flash.
And while it is indeed period-correct, and an excellent choice – they were the thinkin’ (wo)man’s Leicas, with amazing glass – WHOEVER FUCKING PAINTED THIS PIECE OF PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY NEEDS A FUCKING TALKING TO, THE FUCKING ECCE HOMO’ING PHILISTINE. THEY HAVE PISSED UPON A MASTERPIECE.Jesus.
It’s lightweight.
“We finally get a glimpse of Cruella De Vil’s origin story.”WHO COULD FUCKING CARE!?I love Emma Stone but no thanks to this trite.
Will this movie cover how she got into findom, because this is a Cruella who clearly does findom?
Pointless pedantry: No one in the late 1970s would think of “I am woman, hear me roar” as a “saying.” They’d know it as an inescapable Helen Reddy song from 1971.
Was that song even a hit outside of the United States?
The album hit #10 in her native Australia, #7 in the UK and #14 in the US.
The single hit #2 in Australia, #1 in Canada and #1 in the US and eventually went platinum.
After she died, the song once again went to #2 on Australia’s digital charts.
In the places where there’s likely the biggest audience for this movie, they know “I Am Woman.”
Ah okay. I never knew it was that massive of a hit. Good to know, I always liked Helen, shame she’s gone.
Too bad they got Delta to play her.Although full respect to Goodrem for, allegedly, telling staff at the ARIA Awards to “get that stinking hippie out of here” when she was backstage with John Butler.
Eh, the voiceover comes off as modern-day Cruella recounting her origin story. So she’s not in the 1970s as she makes that reference.
This actually looks like everything that I wanted Maleficent to be… I’m in.
This looks like that SNL Joker parody of Oscar the Grouch.
It really does. Minus any self awareness.
That’s the exact same thought that occurred to me!
Seriously what the absolute fuck is this? I’ve known about this project for years and its never made any sense. Punk Rocker Cruella in what sounds like a weird mix of Joker and The Devil Wears Prada? Huh???
I’ve been wondering what the hell this movie was going to be since it was announced, and now that I have seen the trailer I am still completely baffled.
I don’t know if I should revile it, or greatly anticipate a trainwreck.
Her character on Once Upon a Time was a pleasant surprise, after seeing so many villains get tragic backstories it was strangely cool to see one who was treated as an irredeemable sociopath. I doubt this will be as interesting.
Not sure who was asking for this, but I guess work is work in a pandemic (I’m sure all the shooting was done prior to the pandemic, but I mean post-production and whatnot).
I feel like we’re less than five unnecessary Disney villain origin stories away from following the lives and motivations of the bugs that eventually become Oogie Boogie.
Origin story of the butler from The Aristocats when?!?
That’s something I’d watch. Oogie’s past as a cardsharp sounds fun!
Emma on Emma crime solves nothing.
In 10 years, there will be a The Baroness prequel to show that the Baroness was actually misunderstood.
Looks cool. And I always love a good villain(ess). I’m not fully convinced on Stone’s accent yet though. I’m sure it will sink in once I watch the movie.
I really wanna watch but no way in fucking hell I’m signing up for Disney streaming.
Emma Stone just seems horribly miscast here. The accent is so sooooo artificial and she just looks like a child cosplaying a villain. I’ve liked (or even loved) her in other stuff but . . . no.
This should not exist.
To be fair, Cruella is the type who would affect and accent.
Damn, I wish they made this a series instead of just a movie.
Still waiting on a grim origin story for Pete from A Goofy Movie.