Cruella is a 2021 American crime comedy film produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Marc Platt Productions and Gunn Films with distribution by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is based on the character Cruella de Vil from Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. The film was directed by Craig Gillespie and produced by Andrew Gunn, Marc Platt and Kristin Burr with a screenplay by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara, from a story by Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel, and Steve Zissis. It is the third live-action adaptation in the 101 Dalmatians franchise, and serves as a reboot and an alternate origin story for the title character. Emma Stone stars as the title character, with Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Emily Beecham, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Mark Strong in supporting roles. Set in London during the punk rock movement of the 1970s, the film revolves around Estella Miller, an aspiring fashion designer, as she explores the path that leads her to become a notorious up-and-coming fashion designer known as Cruella de Vil.

Plot

In 1964 England, Estella is a creative child with a talent for fashion, but is ostracized for her black and white hair and develops a nefarious streak. Her mother, Catherine, decides to move them to London, stopping at a party at Hellman Hall, a mansion on the Suffolk coast to ask the host for money. Sneaking inside, Estella loses her mother's necklace while being chased by the host's Dalmatian dogs, which push Catherine off a cliffside balcony to her death. Orphaned, Estella runs away to London and befriends street urchins Jasper and Horace.

Awards