Hair black and white and a love for mischief and fashion. What more could describe Cruella DeVil? 

The PG-13 2021 film, Cruella, has me in awe. 

With its outstanding choice of music throughout and collections of elaborate dresses and costumes from red to gold, the movie is visually jaw-dropping. But that’s just the beginning. There are 101 reasons why to see this film, and I am going to name just a few. The latest interpretation from the Disney classic film was made by Craig Gillespie and was released in theaters on May 28, 2021. It’s an American crime comedy that garnered 74% Rotten Tomatoes and an audience score of 97%—with good reason. 

Not only does Disney focus this film uniquely on a villain, but they even present it in a whole new way. The plot changes and focuses on how Cruella became the villain yet there were still the aspects of the original 101 Dalmatians children’s novel from 1956. This is the third live-action adaptation, however, in this case, this latest cinematic reprisal surpassed the rest.

The movie starts off with a young girl, Estella, the main character, and her mother. They’re a poor family moving to London for a better life after Estella was pulled out from school for misbehaving. While relocating, a devastating event happens and Estella is alone and constantly running away from her problems, until she meets two young street thieves, Horace and Jasper, who are alone as well. They soon become friends living in an abandoned apartment stealing others’ expensive items to live from. Flash forward to ten years later, Estella feels she is missing something in her life. She wants to find her way into the fashion business that she had loved ever since she was a kid. For her birthday, Horace and Jasper surprise her with an entry job at a department store, however, things don’t turn out her way. At the brink of getting fired, the head of a famous fashion company,  the Baroness, decides she would like to hire Estella as one of her workers. With elation, Estella accepts. As this story continues watchers see shocking events and difficulties in Estella’s life always keeping the audience questioning “What will happen next?”

Overall, I believe Cruella was one of the best designed movies I have seen, even though some might disagree with the time length of the movie and the CGI Dalmatians. It’s a visually stunning and well-crafted story. It even teaches the watchers to not hide their true selves with Cruella’s many statements, such as “…I’m not sweet Estella, try as I might. I never was. I’m Cruella, born brilliant, born bad, and a little bit mad. I am not like her.” In addition, there are rumors for a sequel movie that might make an appearance in later years. 

5 Stars