Cruella makes a major addition to what has become Disney’s standard approach to translating its animated library into live-action: The origin story for the 101 Dalmatians villain provides one hell of a soundtrack. The film is absolutely stuffed with vintage pop songs—37 needle drops across its 134-minute runtime. Taken as a whole, they make an excellent case for the concept of the movie soundtrack album. If Disney knows what’s good for it, they’ll be pushing Cruella: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack harder than the Baroness pushes her dressmakers.
The music in Cruella is nothing if not on point. When young Estella is inside a fancy party and being chased by dogs while we see her mother outside the mansion begging for financial help, The Animals’ “Inside—Looking Out” plays. The first time we’re shown Emma Stone as the grown-up Estella, in a montage meant to highlight her colorful life and personality, we get the Rolling Stones’ “She’s A Rainbow” to emphasize that theme. The scene in which Estella gets drunk and redoes her employers’ storefront display window to prove her talents? Set to Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’.” Estella’s first introduction to the world as Cruella De Vil? Suzi Quattro’s “The Wild One.” The montage of Cruella upstaging Baroness time and again? Blondie’s “One Way Or Another.” And so on, and so on.
Cruella director Craig Gillespie and music supervisor Susan Jacobs run a giddy game of “What’s next?” that enhances the kinetic fun of the film. (Or, if it’s not working for you, maybe an, “Oh god, what’s next?”) And for kids hearing many of these songs for the first time (or at least the first time outside of, say, an ad for Dior), the film’s candy-coated appeal can provide an engaging framework from which to then let the music earworm its way into their minds and hearts—and Spotify playlists. The Cruella soundtrack could easily serve as a glossy gateway drug, or as The A.V. Club’s Katie Rife put it in her review of the movie, “make a good introductory course to popular music from approximately 1966 until 1981 for a curious young person.”
Movie soundtracks, on the whole, have fallen out of fashion. The combination of the digital revolution and the death of the compact disc certainly hastened their demise, but the entire culture of expected musical accompaniments to major studio releases faded in the early 2000s, as it became easier for kids to mix and match their own compilations online. But that disappearance isn’t permanent; movie soundtracks have long been a way in to different genres, styles, and classic songs of pop music’s past—that can then be rediscovered by a new generation. This particular trick reached its zenith in the 1990s: Dazed And Confused provided Gen Xers with a collection of ’70s hard rock that sounded almost as vital as it must’ve the first time around. In between iconic dialogue clips from the film, Pulp Fiction’s soundtrack managed to expose millions of kids to the idiosyncratic joys of surf music, alongside killer soul and funk tunes from Al Green and Kool & The Gang (to say nothing of somehow making Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon” a hit again, thanks to Urge Overkill’s cover). And the soundtrack to Trainspotting hooked a bunch of American youth on the pleasures of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and a host of Britpop artists that had flown under the mainstream radar.
It’s still possible for a hit film to generate a hit album, as most recently demonstrated by Guardians Of The Galaxy Awesome Mix. Vol. 1. Older music fans may not have found much to talk about among Guardians’ collection of AM Gold—none of these songs were anything you wouldn’t hear on an oldies radio station in the past few decades—but for kids who normally have no outlet for hearing such songs (and no desire to seek it out on their own, or to listen to any radio station), hearing tracks like “Hooked On A Feeling” or “Moonage Daydream” must’ve been a revelation. At least, that’s what the numbers suggest: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 sold more than 2 million copies in the U.S. alone, implying there’s a lot of folks who found a way in to older music via the release, hearing the songs over the course of a popular movie and using that reference point to dig into the soundtrack.
Cruella, by that measure, makes for an ideal representative of movie-soundtrack synergy, in large part because its uses music in more overt and on-the-nose fashion than James Gunn’s superhero space opera. And like those musical Marvel backdrops, they are elevated and made more vibrant and memorable for first-time listeners by the grand spectacle they accompany. The muddy riffing of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” isn’t always the most grabby of melodies if you’re just skipping through old tracks, but set to a grand, punk-rock-aping fashion runway show with fireworks, flames, and a smirking Emma Stone, the song commands attention. The movie’s version can lead right to The Stooges’ original for curious viewers, and that’s not nothing.
It would be silly to expect a full-blown return to movie soundtracks regularly sitting atop the Billboard charts. But if Cruella can serve as a means of reviving the time-honored soundtrack, even just as a semi-annual appearance, it could help keep deserving music in the ears of the next generation—who can then turn up their noses at the presence of, say, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps” in Cruella 2040.
45 Comments
I know the movie is corporate, but the movie was still a good reminder to kids that fashion and music are great ways to disrupt.
And that they are things in frequent need of disruption.
Nothing says “Disruption” like a by-the-numbers prequel to an established media franchise by the largest, blandest, media corporation on the planet. If high-fructose corn syrup could be a company, it’d be Disney.
meh nobody is coming for other Disney movies the way they seem to be coming for Cruella, so in some topsy turvy corporate world way it’s caused some disruption.
I really liked the movie, not least for the soundtrack. I got especially excited to hear Judy Garland (Smile), and Doris Day (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps). AND NINA SIMONE (Feeling Good)!!! And Blondie and Connie Francis and Ike and Tina Turner and…and…
When the movie is released on DVD there will be a fan edit that cuts 30-40 minutes out of the run time and focuses the story on the fashion rivalry, which is the most exciting and visually innovative part of the story. Lose the little kid shit, lose the whole “she’s really your mom” added-on stuff, dial back some of the repeated beats and you’ve got a tidy, edgy, fun and darn-near hip movie. With a great soundtrack, as you say.(It’s odd to me that Disney keeps turning out these live-action movies with so much bloat. The new Mary Poppins, for example, could have been fun if it wasn’t two weeks long with a dozen unnecessary tangents. Even Beauty and the Beast, which is one of their better efforts, could stand to lose 20 minutes. Why the desire to push such unnecessarily long movies aimed at kids?)
I thought the “she’s really your mom” was kind of part of the camp and fun. It was kind of a wink and nod to some of that old Hollywood melodrama that the baroness represented and what was repressing Estella from being Cruella.
Yeah it was that and the Disney straight faced sincerity of it that made the movie camp. They took it seriously, and that is the secret ingredient that turns a movie camp, and why you can’t just *make* a camp film.
I’m not adverse to the storyline, only that it tacks on another 15+ minutes to sort out. When I realized we still had another act to go I moaned.
you horny little thing!
I was supposed to see this film in the cinema, but we’ve hit a circuit breaker lockdown in Aus so my tickets were refunded. But this movie definitely benefited from watching at home after all. Cos we got to have an intermission and make snacks and that helped break up the whole thing.
I mean, if there’s one think the 13-to-24-year-old demographic Disney’s targeting with this knows and loves it’s 1930s Hollywood melodrama. The zoomer be all up over tiktok with on fleek Imitation Of Life and Mildred Pierce references.
my queer 13 year old self knew mildred pierce in the 2000s. target those queer babies disney.
Mary Poppins Returns is only eight minutes longer than the original film.
Interesting. Watching it, however, it was interminably long.
And honestly, the original is about 20 minutes too long. (I could do without Uncle Albert, in particular.) I say this as otherwise a very big fan of that film.
Are kids really their target audience? I just assumed they were going for nostalgia-obsessed adults. Especially true in Cruella’s case since it’s PG-13.
My daughters are 8 and 11 and they were all over it, insisted we go to the drive in Saturday night to see it. I think the kinetic “girl power” vibe lines up with a lot of what they’re sold on the Disney Chanel and Nickelodeon; etc.
Which is honestly extra weird given that I don’t know how you watch this as a fan of 101 Dalmatians and not think “future puppy murderer” the whole time.
I can’t figure it out either. Superhero movies and LOTR are fine at 2.5-3 hours if there’s a lot of story to tell (but The Hobbit says otherwise so, counterpoint). Give me a 90-minute tidy film with a good story arc and I’m happy. Is it a sense that you don’t get your money’s worth if you don’t get 180 minutes of seat time?
Ha, Bollywood films used to be 3+ hours, according to my family because they were the only entertainment some could afford so it was like “here’s your money’s worth.” But India’s always been smart about intermissions (and food sales).
When Sympathy for the De Vile started playing I’m pretty sure I audibly groaned loud enough that the whole theater heard me
All of the music cues listed sound very obvious and groan-worthy to an old person like me. But if they hadn’t included Sympathy for the Devil, everyone would have been asking where it was.
WHERE THE FUCK WAS THE CLASH’S “LONDON CALLING”, DISNEY, YOU MOUSE-FUCKING HACKS? IT’S RIGHT FUCKING THERE.
More like “please allow me to excuse myself” from this theater!
I would expect no less from a man of wealth, and taste.
There is nothing redeeming about this movie.
Are you joking? These songs were tacky choices.
Yeah, there’s a big difference between “on point” and “on the nose,” and even then neither of them explains what the hell “Car Wash” was doing in there.
This is not the vibe I got from Katie Rife’s review on this site. There are 37 pop tunes sprinkled throughout Cruella, culminating with the most obvious song you can think of for a character whose last name is de Vil and for whom we feel sympathy. The soundtrack includes the likes of The Zombies, Nancy Sinatra, David Bowie, The Clash, ELO, Rose Royce, Blondie, Doris Day, Suzi Quatro, Nina Simone, and Deep Purple, all tastefully chosen but not especially revelatory. Many of these songs have been used in other films, for one, and few are deep enough cuts to prompt much excitement from adult music lovers.
I ran it through a Python comparison operation and it turns out that Alex McLevy is NOT Katie Rife.
My 8 year-old clearly doesn’t have Katie’s awesome taste in music, for shame!
During the movie, I thought Cruella would not be the daughter but grand-daughter, Emma Thomson also was wearing a wig for hiding her bi-color hair, Marc Strong being the father (the fact that he is bald hidden the familial link). I was wrong.
most distracting part of the movie
If I want to hear These Boots are Made for Walking and One Way or Another, I can just go to any karoake night there’s ever been, and besides that way I’ll also hear Killing Me Softly.
Disagree. Most of the songs are songs I like, but the soundtrack as a whole is awful and groan worthy. Like it was picked by a middle schooler who just discovered music made before they were born and they picked the deepest cuts they could based on their limited knowledge. It’s just a mish mash of songs with titles that describe the action on the screen in the most literal, on-the-nose way. It’s a nice try but superficial. Honestly just a really strange movie and the soundtrack doesn’t make it better, it just makes you wish it was a better movie. Like, maybe cut the 25 full minutes of exposition dump that opened the movie.
so what you’re telling me is that the story is told by the soundtrack, and not the movie.
Great article. You’re just missing the obvious Baby Driver comparison. 😁And you’re totally right. Disney should have been focused on pushing this soundtrack. It’s baffling they mp3 album is missing more than half of the songs. It’s equally baffling that they didn’t have a vinyl release ready to go.
It’s baffling they mp3 album is missing more than half of the songs.
That’s really not that baffling. It’s pretty common, going back to the 80s and 90s which were arguably the golden age of movies having pop music soundtracks. It costs more to license a song for use on your official soundtrack than it does to just use it in your film. That’s why in that aforementioned golden age, songs were either written specifically for the film like the Top Gun soundtrack or studios outright bought the rights to lesser known singles that didn’t get a lot of exposure like what happened with “Kiss from a Rose” and the Batman Forever soundtrack.
Also, a large number of these songs were licensed from other studios, notably Warner. If Disney put out an album with those tracks they’d have to pay for them again.
I read all the way through this and I have to express my dismay at the lack of a Baby Driver shoutout.
Is the 2nd paragraph supposed to convince me? Because those song choices are boring and obvious and have been done to death.
Joke’s on you, I learned all these songs from Rock Band already!Seriously though, what happened to Rock Band?? The kits used to be *everywhere.*
Awesome Mix Vol. 1 is probably the album in my vinyl collection, on highest rotation. It’s perfect for guests, Sunday afternoons and dates. Just a perfect collection of songs. And I’m not big on “best of” albums on vinyl.
I saw this movie for the soundtrack alone. But I live in South Korea, where it’s pretty much all K-pop, all the time. Compared to that? Yeah, I’ll watch Emma Stone fart around 70’s London to classic Stooges, Stones, Blondie, Bowie, Clash, Nina Simone and Ike & Tina chestnuts, even if the choices were pretty obvious. Take my 13,000 won, Disney.