Emma Stone plays Estella, a Vivian Westwood type young, aspiring, fashion designer working in a Devil Wears Prada like scenario with her boss, excellently named The Baroness played, magnificently, by Emma Thompson.
Estella wants more for her career and after being overlooked time and time again. She sets out to build her own fashion label with her alter ego - Cruella. She gets the press on her side and wages a media campaign against the reigning fashion houses of London. I know this plot sounds terrible but, much to my own surprise, I really enjoyed this prequel to the Disney classic from the 1980s. It is just lots of fun and looks great.
I always thought 101 Dalmatians was a rather weak entry to the traditional Disney canon. The best thing it produced was the excellent Simpsons parody episode where Mr Burns sings “See My Vest”. Also, Disney has had a few goes at these live action remakes/reboots and none have really stuck the landing. The fact Disney managed to pull something off here is a surprise. I do feel it has more in common with Wicked, the musical, than any of their recent live action endeavours.
We are also in safe hands with the director Craig Gillespie, who previously did the Oscar winner I, Tonya, and writer Tony McNamara who got the best out of Emma Stone before with his screenplay for The Favourite.
The soundtrack is one that only Disney could put together (by ‘put together’ I mean, ‘afford’ ). It has everything from the era it is set, including the Rolling Stones, Bowie, Nancy Sinatra, and unless my ears deceive me, our own Joe Dolan? Sometimes a film can overuse a great needle drop soundtrack (a needle drop is when an existing song is used rather than an original score ), but here it feels like part of the fun.
The director has admitted he wanted a Led Zeppelin track but it cost too much. Being too expensive for Disney in 2021 is some achievement. I tip my cap to Jimmy Page and the lads.
Cruella might not get a huge audience with its release date being in the middle of a summer heatwave with no cinemas open, but this is going to be a great Christmas Day film.
