I'm not particularly a fan of the original One Hundred and One Dalmatians from 1961; I've seen it a couple of times and I remember liking it enough, but that's kind of where it ends for me. I also haven't seen the remake of it starring Glenn Close, as well as the sequel to that remake, so I'm really not attached to this property in any way. Based on that, what would be drawing point for another interpretation of this for me? It wasn't nostalgia or personal fondness that brought me to see Cruella. Instead, it was because I thought it simply looked intriguing. Emma Stone is one of my favourite actresses and this looked like it was actually doing something interesting and unique, quite rare of modern Disney. Additionally, I'll eat up any big new release now that cinemas are back up and running in the UK - this was my second trip back after they've reopened.
The film follows Estella, a girl who has had a rough childhood and dreams to become a fashion designer. After managing to make her way into the industry, a series of revelations prompts her twisted alter ego, known as Cruella, to come out more often and cause mayhem.
Right away, I really enjoyed this movie, and I enjoyed it for a number of reasons.
First of all, the performances, all excellent. Emma Stone continues to prove that she is just an exceptional performer. While she has definitely appeared in better films, this is probably one of the best examples of her becoming the character that she's playing beyond just acting as them. She gives off the coniving, maniacal energy you want to see from the character of Cruella ever so well, and was just a joy to watch from start to finish. Also, like in The Favourite, her English accent is genuinely flawless, to the point where I wouldn't be surprised if you told me she simply was English. On top of that, she just has the most amazing eyes in all of Hollywood at the moment. The supporting roles, especially from Emma Thompson and Mark Strong, were very solid and enjoyable too.
The craft behind the film is also very commendable. The production design, costume design, hair and makeup and so on are all really impressive - I know very little about these fields of the filmmaking process but what I can say is that they all certainly made the film visually stunning and sumptuous. The cinematography also stood out to me as exciting and inventive; it always added a brisk pace to many scenes.
But I think the best thing about Cruella is the fact that, as a reimaginging of an existing property, it doesn't rely on what has been established by previous versions. Why do you think people regard remakes such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King as bland and forgettable? Because they are simply doing exactly what their original counterparts did with few changes. Because we've already made a connection with these elements, there's little to no reason for us to experience something that's only going to offer them again. Sure, there may be some differences between the two, such as the aesthetic, but more often than not, the remakes are simply worse in the differences they make. To me at least, the beauty of animation is rarely matched by anything in live action. So, after that is factored in, the remakes are really just inferior versions of the same story, and if we like that original version, which more often than not we do, we'll always want to go back to that, and thus we forget about the remakes while we always revisit the originals.
So, doing something different immediately gives it an advantage. Think about the better Disney remakes, such as The Jungle Book, Cinderella, and even Dumbo, they all offer something different to what the originals did, thus giving us something worthwhile. This is also the case for Cruella, but to the greatest extent. I like how this film delves into an aspect of a story that wasn't previously given any attention, it gives it a lot of value right away. This can happily co-exist with previous iterations of this story / character because it's adding something to it and not just repeating what's been done already.
Additionally, the film doesn't capitalise on the audience's nostalgia. Almost every Disney remake so far is guilty of this in some way, and I expected this to do so as well because it so easily could have. I mean, Cruella de Vil's theme song is extremely iconic and so closely associated with the character, even in my eyes as someone who is quite distant from the original One Hundred and One Dalmatians. But it only turns up in this movie briefly at the very end! It definitely could've been used a lot more to win over the audience by reminding them of how this character has been presented before, maybe by having the tune implemented into the score in some way, but it isn't, at least to my awareness. This just solidifies to me how the movie has confidence in its own aspirations and didn't feel a need to appeal to the audience via cheap means.
There are some flaws with Cruella, but not really anything that is typical of other Disney remakes. One thing that consistently bugged me was the excessive use of pop songs in the soundtrack. I honestly lost count of how many were used in the film, and half of them are ones that've been used to death in a plethora of other movies. It's kind of a shame because the fragments of original score that were in the film were actually quite good and somewhat unique, so I'd definitely have preferred it if that was mostly used instead. Also, there is some CGI used in the film, and some of it was quite noticeable, which isn't a major issue but it still ticked me off a bit.
I've seem some comments about the tone of the film and how dark it is - I won't elaborate on these elements as that'd be going into spoiler territory, but I personally didn't have a problem with it. Some may see that 12A certificate instead of a PG and be a little worried but, honestly, this film is kind of tame compared to a lot of Disney's back catalogue. Come on, this is the company that made movies like Bambi and The Lion King, both of which are really dark when you stop to think about it, and both have U certificates. I've also seen some concerns about making such a morally questionable character the protagonist of a film, similar to Joker from a few years ago, but I don't think that's an issue either as the film doesn't want the audience to sympathise with Cruella per se; it acknowledges her wickedness but makes it fun to watch, which I believe it succeeded at because of how enjoyable Emma Stone was in the role. It also avoids the actual issue of making clothes out of dog skin, so it doesn't show a stance on that.
As a whole, I thought Cruella was rather fabulous. It's visually engaging, has an impeccable level of craft behind it, features some magnificent performances, and differentiates itself from previous iterations of this story / character to make it feel worthwhile as a remake. I recommend you check this out if you can - it might not be £20 on Disney+ levels of worth it but if you do get the chance to catch it then do, especially if you're tired of remakes that don't try at all.
I'm going to give Cruella an 8.0/10
No comments:
Post a Comment