Young trouble-maker Estella (Emma Stone) teams up with a pair of crooks Jasper (Joel Fry) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser) after a tragic freak accident leaves her orphaned. With a deep ambition to become a fashion designer, Estella is spurned to transform into her alter-ego Cruella de Vil as she faces off against the industry’s most influential designer Baroness Von Hellman (Emma Thompson).
Though I’ve always had a soft spot for Disney’s
villains, Cruella de Vil is my all-time favorite. Of all the antagonists who harbor
reasonable motivations for why they turned evil, she’s always been
point-blank ruthless for ruthless’ sake –there aren't too many ways to justify someone
wanting to kill animals and dogs for their fur to satiate their ego. The news of her origin story in the works initially disappointed me because she'd inevitably be altered to be more marketable. But after finally seeing the latest version, this is the
first in a long time I got that can't-help-but-smile kind of excitement
when the credits hit. Because it’s not too shabby.