I don’t know what’s more unlikely: that Disney is making a big-budget, live-action Cruella de Vil origin story movie in the first place, or that it looks so damn good — as good as almost any of the mesmerisingly outstanding outfits Ms. De Vil (Emma Stone) sports in this new sneak peek.
As Charles Pulliam-Moore pointed out with perfect accuracy when the first trailer hit, what really makes Cruella work is how the movie doesn’t appear to be softening the villain’s character, which is unexpected given 1) that’s what Disney did in the two Maleficent films, and 2) Cruella’s villainous plan in 101 Dalmations was to murder an enormous amount of puppies.
There’s really no redeeming that, so it’s very wise of the movie to not even try. Instead, the young Cruella tries to break into the cutthroat fashion industry as epitomised by Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson), making Cruella — and I can’t tell you how not sorry I am to say this — the underdog, and we all love a good underdog story even when the underdog wants to murder dogs.
Cruella, which also stars Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Joel Fry, and Mark Strong, arrives in theatres on May 27. There’s no word on when or if Disney might also release it on Disney+, but we’ll keep you posted.