Disney's Cruella

Just came back and saw this. Thank you.

Holy shit there's a Cruella manga

https://www.viz.com/read/manga/disney-cruella/product/6779?utm_source=ANN&utm_medium=Skin&utm_campaign=CTDYCA01

Thats..... random

It's been talked about for a while, though I thought it was released much earlier. I must say from what I've seen, it looks pretty good. I really like the art. May or may not buy it soon , as it's a bit too expensive for my taste right now.

And now that I think about it, with fashion being such a visual art form, it only makes sense that a prequel work for Cruella be a sort of comic.

Semi-unrelated, but if you know of Disney Channels Descendents, that franchise also has a Manga spin-off(in color though). It seems to have multiple books including one coming up later this year. These combined with the upcoming Star Wars anime could point to a (not that new if you count Kingdom Hearts) direction that Disney could be pursuing through the aid of Japanese artists.

You know, at the beginning, I thought it was a bit unbelievable that Estella could be the Baronesses' daughter, since I initially assumed that she must have been the granddaughter. But, now looking at the ages of the actresses, I could totally see Emma Stone being Emma Thompson's daughter since they're only about 30 years apart.

The problem is that Stone is playing a character who is supposed to be in her early 20s, which is not convincing. Not for her, or for Horace and Jasper. They really should have set the time skip at 20, rather 10 years.

Good skincare is hard to come by when you live in an abandoned attic and steal to get by.

I've learned not to judge how an actor looks in comparison to how old or young their character is. Even in real life someone can look older than they actually are, or younger than their actual age.

Edited by Brandon on Aug 29th 2021 at 2:01:00 AM

Now I'm actually watching it through on Disney Plus the sad thing is - the first half of this movie works fine as an origin story. If they leaned into the cruel tragedy of Estella becoming her mother, it'd be a salvageable origin story. As forced as the "Dalmations as The Dragon" thing is, I could've seen the idea of Estella inheriting the Baroness' fortune and using it to become Cruella proper, ramping up her Roaring Rampage of Revenge after her nemesis' defeat. Estella even had the speech with her mother's grave about how she likely feared Cruella becoming like her mother.

If you wanted this film to have a feminist rapport I'd argue it's more uniquely empowering to have Cruella's Start of Darkness here and have her go there full stop. Have her so warped by her Cruella persona that there's just no coming back from it.

Instead, Cruella turns into an Anti-Hero, a beautiful, mean woman who doesn't skin puppies but jokes of it, treats her friends poorly but hangs onto them. I guess you could still infer she went "bad" later, and we are getting a sequel.

It's like, of all the adapted characters you decide to make young, purposeful, and hot - you pick Cruella de Vil one of the most vain, egotistical, and ugly characters out there.

I hope Cruella 2 turns this around and they retcon her madcap heroism into full-on villainy.

Edited by FOFD on Sep 2nd 2021 at 3:04:54 PM

That's a problem with a lot of villain origin stories, is that their villainy is pretty downplayed in comparison to their usual standards and usually go up against other villains or at least assholes.

Off the top of my head, I can name the Lords of Shadow duology, the Phantom Pain/Peace Walker, and even Joker to an extent.

I legit cannot imagine this Cruella wanting to skin puppies or growing to become the Cruella we know and love to hate.

Generally, writers and executives don't think mainstream audiences can root for villains outright so they are often softened up despite Evil is Cool generally being an appeal for these types of stories.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Sep 2nd 2021 at 10:00:15 AM

To be fair, Joker is just getting started.

I'm fine with the Not His Sled no-puppy-skinning twist within the context of the single film, but that does beg the question of where they're taking this version of the character in the sequel. She's not the type of person to skin puppies and I don't want to see that twist undone, so... just go full Devil Wears Prada, I guess?

I read the Cruella manga. It's okay. The art is incredible and makes the Manga something that should be chewed slowly and enjoyed, rather than scarfed down. Though I must admit that the character design is a bit odd at some points. In particular, Jasper's hair could use more work as it looks less poofy and more spiky. And a a whole, he looks a leaner Toji from Evangelion. The plots are honestly nothing to write about. The book is divided into two sections and take place when the trio is under hard times. Estella is a bit of an adaptional jerk (compared to the Estella seen in the movie) , though one could Cruella herself is truer as a whole to how she was in the old movie. As a midquel, the most that is revealed is that you see why Estella now wears a wig after the time skip which contrasts to how she says she needs to dye it before the time skip. Everything else seems intentionally made to not touch the movie too much. TBH, as the Manga is rather expensive, I wouldn't recommend buying it now unless your a Cruella superfan such as myself.

Edited by Bornstellar on Sep 4th 2021 at 10:43:50 AM