The villain Cruella De Vil is reinvented in Disney’s live-action film Cruella by eliminating her most heinous and defining trait: her obsession with killing 99 Dalmatian puppies to make a spotted fur coat out of their skin. True to its source material The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith, Cruella features a smaller-scale abduction in which Cruella’s (Emma Stone) henchmen Jasper and Horace (Joey Fry and Paul Walter Hauser) steal the Baroness von Hellman’s (Emma Thompson) three Dalmatians, but the dognapping is merely an accessory to Cruella’s main priority of revenge.
Similar to Disney’s live-action adaptation of Maleficent, Cruella brings a new perspective to one of Disney’s most iconic villains by exploring exactly how she became the fearsome heiress depicted in 101 Dalmatians. In a sympathetic villain-to-hero reimagining of Cruella’s backstory, the movie reveals how Estella Miller, raised by her adoptive mother, Catherine (Emily Beecham), uses her brilliance as a fashion designer to run grifts on the streets of London after Catherine is pushed to her death off a cliff by the Baroness’ Dalmatians. After Estella learns that the Baroness ordered the dogs to kill her mother, it’s revealed that Cruella’s career of abducting dogs is first initiated by her plans for revenge against the Baroness. Apart from the casual mention that the Dalmatians would make “fabulous coats,” Cruella never seriously considers killing the dogs and only ever makes a faux fur Dalmatian coat, which becomes one of the biggest fundamental changes to her character.
Disney likely didn’t make Cruella into a puppy killer because her origin story reinvented her as an antihero instead of an evil villain. In 101 Dalmatians, Cruella wanted to purchase Perdita and Pongo’s Dalmatian puppies because she was a selfish heiress who viewed the puppies as a fashionable commodity to be exploited rather than as innocent living beings. While Cruella retains the same characteristics of the original character, Cruella’s bad qualities are framed in a more sympathetic light in Cruella: her fashion sense doesn’t come from unearned wealth, but rather her own genius and hard work. Her bossy and slightly wicked personality is presented as something beyond her control that Cruella inherited from her biological mother, the Baroness. Even Cruella’s worst actions against the Baroness are inspired by her pure motivation to avenge Catherine’s death. Since audiences already know Cruella’s story, Disney cleverly establishes the expectation of dog-killing as the ultimate evil that would make Cruella a true villain, but never has her cross that threshold.
Her origin story also becomes more complex as the dogs are given more agency in Cruella. Unlike Disney’s animated classic, which depicted the Dalmatian puppies as innocent victims whose only defense was to flee from Cruella’s pursuit, the dogs featured throughout Cruella play a more active role in the plot, which makes them more like human characters with the capability to be good or bad. Both Buddy and Wink are vital members of Estella’s gang and participate in their grifts. The three vicious Dalmatians belonging to the Baroness are indirectly responsible for Catherine’s death since they responded to the Baronness’s commands. While Cruella could’ve chosen to gain vengeance against the Baroness by turning the dogs into a coat for her fashion show, Cruella’s choice to spare them becomes an act of forgiveness and shows her ability to rise above her wickeder instincts.
The end of Cruella also reveals that her decision not to kill the Dalmatians brought about a positive change. In the mid-credits scene, she delivers two of Genghis’ puppies to Roger’s (Kayvan Novak) and Anita’s (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) homes. Since Cruella takes the liberty of naming the puppies Perdita and Pongo, the introduction of the beloved protagonists of 101 Dalmatians into Cruella’s own standalone universe becomes the direct result of her choice to spare the Baroness’ Dalmatians. Since the reinvention of Cruella De Vil as an antihero means that the events of 101 Dalmatians likely won’t happen in Cruella 2, it’s poetic irony that it’s Cruella’s compassionate streak that created an avenue for Perdita and Pongo to exist.
