Disney's Cruella

Proooobably expectations derived from almost every superhero or fantasy film featuring female protagonists in the past 5 years being evaluated with, outright designed with, or heavily scrutinized with strong feminist themes and intent.

The idea of a character-centric film makes the audience expect to sympathize with the character even when they know the character is a villain (see Joker). And just as that film went under the microscope for portraying a white middle aged dude as being mentally ill and morally justified for taking the extreme actions he did, and creating memes like we live in a society, we're seeing a young woman who wants to skin puppies using an oft-feminist catchphrase to justify what we imagine will be her descent into villainy.

I get the vibe everyone wants Cruella to be more Ratched than Maleficent.

The thing with Cruella though is that she's a certain type of feminist marvel - an unapologetically villainous for lack of a better phrase Rich Bitch, but so far the trailer makes her seem more like Harley Quinn - unapologetically female protag who is flawed out the ass but the abuse she endured makes you root for her. She's hip, she's cool, and if you didn't know the story she came from you wouldn't think her a villain.

Which doesn't fit with Cruella at all.

And is also an astronomical read on the line "I am woman, hear me roar," yes, but I guess people who watch trailers on the internet cherry pick lines from said trailers and overanalyze the crap out of them. Go figure.

Edited by FOFD on Feb 22nd 2021 at 8:58:12 AM

I don't understand why people automatically assume that the writer wants us to sympathize with a character or see him as a feminist icon (if is a woman), just because he or she is the protagonist.

Many times the intention of the writer is simply to have someone evil as the protagonist.

Even if Cruella was a feminist, she would probably be the hypocritical type who can't tell the difference between being a feminist and hating all men.

In conclusion, not all protagonists are created to be symphatetic.

In the case that the protagonist is a woman, it does not mean that she is thought to be a kind of feminist icon.

Edited by JoLuRo075 on Feb 22nd 2021 at 2:47:01 AM

I mean, the thing is we don't have any reason to think Cruella suffered any abuse as of right now. The trailers indicate she has some sort of beef with Emma Thompson's character but the nature of that beef as yet is totally unknown and could be wholly unjustified. We don't know of any tragic backstory she might have or whatever and even if she had one.

It's my point, there is nothing to indicate that the writers intends to make Cruella sympathetic, or a Tragic Villain.

As far as we know, she was really "born bad."

Edited by JoLuRo075 on Feb 22nd 2021 at 7:15:58 AM

So let's just cross our fingers and hope that this one hits gold.

But most, in fact, are, which is where the assumption comes from.

Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist exists for a reason.

A new trailer dropped on Twitter.

This one shows a little bit more, and I guess we are getting some of Emma's expressive, memetic demeanor that was absent in the previous one.

Yeah this'll be enjoyable.

FYI, context for my initial Gossip Girl comparison wayyy at the beginning of the thread, which looks very much like the plot shown in that trailer

A YouTube upload of the aforementioned trailer dropped as well.

THAT GROWLING DALMATIAN

Just for the trailers I am going to theorize why the movie is going to take, but it is only a theory.

In the first half of the film, Cruella will be treated sympathetically, being a young woman who just wants to be successful in the world of fashion, but is frustrated by the evil and elitist rich lady who refuses to recognize her fashion skills. because is poor.

In the second half of the film, Cruella in her attempt to be successful, ends up jumping the slippery slope, to the point that by the end of the film, she will be as bad and elitist as the rich lady who despised her at the beginning.

Edited by JoLuRo075 on Mar 15th 2021 at 10:38:53 AM

And then the rich lady gives Cruella a "Reason you suck" speech about how she herself was bad, but Cruella only made herself so much worse.

I don't know, the whole "killer instinct" part makes me believe she won't be such a nice person, even in the beginning.

Of course, that part might not even be that early in the movie.

That’s kinda like Joker then, since it’s pretty clear in showing Arthur’s not a saint even before he snaps.

Cruella: All it takes is one bad day to drive even the nicest lady into puppy skinning lunacy.

One possible moment is that Cruella realizes that she ended up turning into the classic elitist bitch that she used to hate, but has already gone too far to stop.

Cruella will be simul-released in theaters and Disney+ (Premier Access) on May 28, according to Deadline, as the Mouse House shuffles releasing schedules and formats.

For those out of the loop, Premier Access adds an additional $30 purchase for a film on top of your current Disney Plus subscription.

JFC, I might have paid $10 for this, but not $30.

I swear the "Premiere Access" thing has only been attached to female-lead films so far.

Mulan, Raya, Black Widow, Cruella...

Why do they keep thinking that’s a good idea?

I notice Luca, like Soul, isn't on premiere access either.

I remember asking before on a different thread but is the reason for this because they're both Pixar films? Perhaps they are only doing premier access with movies directly made by Disney.

I heard it here or there than Pixar wasn't too happy internally about Soul's release, albeit mostly through hearsay. I wonder how they're reacting to this.

If they keep doing it then maybe the price is actually working for them.