Cruella De Vil

Cruella De Vil is the main antagonist of Disney's 1961 animated feature film 101 Dalmatians. She is an eccentric, fashion-obsessed heiress who wishes to use the skins of 99 Dalmatian puppies to create a spotted fur coat. Regarded as a "witch" and "devil woman", Cruella's infatuation with furs drives her to murderous insanity. She commits immoral acts to satisfy her mania, such as kidnapping and slaughter. In her mad pursuits, Cruella is typically aided by her henchmen, Jasper and Horace.300pxCruella first appeared in the novel, The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956) by . Perhaps the most famous incarnation of the character was developed for Disney's 1961 animated adaptation One Hundred and One Dalmatians by story man Bill Peet and animator Marc Davis. The Disney villainess proved successful and has led to numerous appearances in other media, most notably the Disney Villains franchise, of which Cruella is a primary member.
==Background==
Cruella is an old school friend of Anita Radcliffe, and a glamor-obsessed heiress who claims that she cannot live without furs. She hires Horace and Jasper Badun, two incompetent crooks, to steal Pongo and Perdita's 15 Dalmatian puppies, and buys 84 more through legitimate means.
Unlike previous Disney villainesses, such as the Evil Queen, Lady Tremaine, the Queen of Hearts, and Maleficent, Cruella is not a schemer nor does she have any powers. Instead, she acts purely on impulse and is thus prone to reckless behavior, particularly tearing through the snowy landscape in her car. Unlike future versions of the character, this version of Cruella was seemingly invincible in the eyes of the Dalmatians, who, though they could just about be able to keep Jasper and Horace Badun at bay, were unable to face "that devil woman". Their only hope was therefore to flee; Cruella's defeat in the film is brought about not through the deeds of the animals, but her own stubborn relentlessness (which, by the end of the film, has seemingly degenerated into a mad fury) and the incompetence of her henchmen.
===Development===
Though Cruella's basic appearance inherited several visual traits from Dodie Smith's original novel - her half-black, half-white hair, her black dress, and her enormous mink coat, which swings about her like a cloak - the character's design in the film was developed by Bill Peet, Ken Anderson, and Marc Davis. This version of the character was also completely skeletal, and smoked constantly, leaving a trail of green, foul-smelling cigarette smoke wherever she went. Her physical appearance and general manner were described as a hellish beast or demon, a fact referenced in her name and a song about her. In sketches exploring designs for Cruella, Marc Davis experimented with more youthful-looking versions of the character, possibly for any flashbacks that would have occurred. The juxtaposition of the enormous coat against the rail-thin body was established in these early sketches.
Davis exaggerated the size of the coat to match Cruella's larger-than-life personality and added three big tails to its back to add a "slightly ridiculous" element; the coat's red underlining was intended to allude to the character's somewhat demonic nature (and corresponding name). The messy style of Cruella's hair was inspired by hairdos seen in magazines between the 1940s and 1960s. The long green cigarette holder was modeled on one used by Davis himself.
===Voice===
Betty Lou Gerson, who had previously provided her voice as the narrator of the opening scenes of Cinderella, was inspired by when voicing Cruella De Vil. This is interesting as it is said that Dodie Smith originally conceived the character as an evil parody of Bankhead.Disney Archives|Cruella De Vil Villains History When performing, Gerson was intimidating even to the other actresses working with her. She was the primary inspiration for Marc Davis when animating Cruella. Davis commented that the vocal performance suggested that "this character was bigger than life, high in energy, and, like a shark, always moving".
===Animation===
Marc Davis, the sole animator of Cruella in all her scenes in 101 Dalmatians, was initially unsure that Cruella would suit the film, worrying that the character was too comic. Indeed, his colleagues criticized him as he worked; Frank Thomas felt that the head was too skull-like, while Milt Kahl demanded to know why Davis had to "make her feet so damn big".
In addition to the voice of Betty Lou Gerson, the animation was inspired by , in , and in . Davis also worked from live-action footage of character actress Mary Wickes. Wickes' angular physique and sophisticated, smooth movements in this reference footage inspired Davis to incorporate these contrasting aspects in Cruella's animation. However, Davis used the footage sparingly.
Davis wanted Cruella to move "like someone you wouldn't like" and thought of people who do not listen to any voice other than their own and thus dominate a conversation or situation. He made a specific reference in an interview to "one woman I knew who was just a monster. She was tall and thin and talked constantly – you never knew what she was saying, but you couldn't get a word in edgewise".
Though Milt Kahl initially disliked Marc Davis' caricatured approach to the design and animation of the character (complaining in particular about the size of Cruella's feet), he was very impressed by the final product and, thinking Davis to be a better draughtsman, appears to have become rather jealous of his colleagues' success with the character. When Kahl was given the chance to animate his own flamboyant villainess, Madame Medusa in The Rescuers, he swore to Davis that he would "blow your Cruella off the screen". A fan letter to Kahl from a young Andreas Deja mistakenly referring to him as Cruella's animator received the reply: "Thank you for all your compliments, but I did not animate Cruella De Vil. She was animated by my friend Marc Davis and, unlike Medusa, was based on live-action."
===Personality===
Cruella is known to be mean and rude, frequently barging into other people's homes unannounced and openly disrespecting others. She adores attention but looks down on others, showing no sympathy or concern for anyone's well-being.
She is also greedy and selfish and adores high fashion and art. Her interest in fashion revolves around furs from animals, particularly fur coats, as she is always wearing one. As a result, Cruella often seeks animals to help her with making coats. Upon learning that Perdita has had puppies, Cruella attempted to buy them from Roger, showing no concern for the puppies themselves, having already purchased 84 puppies legally. The reason for her obsession is because the spots will make her fur coats more popular, meaning she'll get more money. Her interest in spots runs so deep she turned to Lars after seeing his painting of spots as a way to substitute her obsession.
Cruella is known to be short-tempered. She gets annoyed with Jasper and Horace's foolishness and throws a tantrum when things don't go her way. Her anger seems to be a problem, as it makes her reckless and impulsive, as she drove her car recklessly after the Dalmatians but ended up crashing her car into a ravine. She may also be bipolar, as she is prone to psychotic fits; her reckless driving is a prime example. This happened again when she tried to capture the puppies in London, only to end up in an institution. However, she did seem to be a slightly reasonable woman, as she attempted twice to convince Anita to sell Cruella her puppies, only choosing to steal them when it became clear it was the only way for her to get the puppies.
===Physical appearance===
Cruella is an extremely thin woman that almost appears skeletal around the curves. She has pale skin, red lips, green eyes, and eye shadow. She has shoulder-length hair, the two halves of which are a different color; the right side is black, and the left side is white.
Cruella's usual attire is a simple black dress, red high heel shoes and black stockings, long red opera gloves, large turquoise earrings and ring on her right hand, a cream fur coat with a red lining, and a matching purse with three foxtails.
==Appearances==
===One Hundred and One Dalmatians===
A while after Roger and Anita have married and settled down together, Perdita, Anita's Dalmatian, hears the screech of Cruella's car outside, and runs to the kitchen to hide from "that devil woman." Looking out of the window, Roger sees that Cruella, whom he refers to as Anita's old schoolmate, is coming towards the house. As she approaches the front door, Roger sings a less-than-flattering song about her. Anita attempts to stop Roger for fear that Cruella might hear. Roger goes upstairs and uses various musical instruments to play the tune to the song when Cruella bursts in, demanding to see Pongo and Perdita's puppies and leave a smoke trail from her cigarette. During her visit, Cruella expresses her love for fur, especially that of a Dalmatian (though she never elaborates on her plans), and also mocks Anita's choice of marrying Roger and their house. Anita informs Cruella that the Dalmatian puppies will not arrive for a few weeks. Cruella then departs as quickly and loudly as she came, saying that she will return in three weeks. A previously excited Perdita grows anxious at Cruella's interest in the puppies, knowing that Cruella would never be a benevolent dog owner.
Cruella returns to the Radcliffe's house just after the 15 puppies are born. At first, she is furious that the "mongrels" have no spots, but when Anita tells her that the spots will appear in a few weeks, Cruella offers to buy all 15 immediately. Roger (after having his songwriting career made fun of by Cruella, and being splattered along with Pongo with permanent ink from a pen that Cruella was using to write the check for the puppies) nervously but defiantly stands his ground and says they are not selling the puppies and Cruella, refusing to take no for an answer, furiously storms out, vowing revenge. Sometime later, she secretly hires Jasper and Horace to steal the puppies while the Radcliffes are out. At home, Cruella laughs to herself as she reads of the theft in the newspaper; she is the orchestrator of the crime. The Baduns, frightened by the press coverage of the dognapping, phone her to demand payment but are told that they will receive nothing until 'the job' is done; she even brushes off their concerns about the newspaper headlines, believing the whole spectacle will blow over by the next day. Slamming the phone down angrily after mistaking Jasper angrily telling Horace to shut up to be directed at her, Cruella then decides to phone Anita and feigns surprise at the theft to avert suspicion from herself. Roger, however, is convinced that she is involved, even after Anita relays to him that Scotland Yard has questioned and investigated her, but couldn't find any evidence connecting her to the crime. When the police investigation appears to lose momentum, Pongo and Perdita take matters into their own paws by teaming up with the dogs of England to find the whereabouts of their puppies. They receive a hit from a Great Dane who explains that the puppies were seen being taken to the Old De Vil Place, Hell Hall, confirming Pongo and Perdita's suspicion that Cruella was behind the kidnapping.
It is later revealed that another 84 puppies were legally purchased by Cruella and taken to the same place by the Baduns. Cruella arrives at Hell one evening and angrily confronts her accomplices, demanding that 'the job' be done immediately due to the police stepping up their investigation, revealing in the process that she plans to kill the puppies and use their fur to create Dalmatian fur coats for herself. When Jasper and Horace prove hesitant to move with purpose, she furiously throws a bottle of the former's alcohol in the fireplace (causing an explosion) and slaps both of them in the face to drive her point home, and then leaves, threatening to report them to the police and have them take the full blame for everything if they don't have the job done by the time she returns the following morning. Shortly after this, Sergeant Tibbs succeeds in helping all 99 Dalmatians escape the old mansion and reunite with their Pongo and Perdita, who decide to take in the other 84 puppies. As the 101 Dalmatians make their way back home to London, they are pursued by the Baduns and Cruella, who were eventually told of their escape. The three briefly lose the dogs' trail when they use a frozen stream as their path to avoid leaving tracks. Meanwhile, after meeting up with the Baduns on a country road, Cruella angrily lambasts Horace for stating he and Jasper are giving up, vowing to find the puppies even if it takes them until next Christmas, before speeding off again.
Cruella, Jasper, and Horace later pick up the dogs' trail again and follow it to a small village called Dinsford, where they search for them. Cruella is initially fooled when the dogs cover themselves in fireplace soot to disguise themselves as Labradors and board a lorry heading for London. When she sees icicle water drops water removing the soot, however, she realizes what's going on and chases after the lorry in her car, and Jasper and Horace follow in their truck. Pursuing the puppies, Cruella, who's gone complete psycho now, almost succeeds in ramming the lorry driver and Dalmatians all off a cliff, greatly damaging her car during the chase. The chase, however, comes to an end when Jasper and Horace who are heading for the van, ready to ram the it off the road, accidentally break off their steering wheel, causing them to ram their truck into Cruella's car, sending Cruella, Horace, and Jasper over the cliff, allowing the dogs to escape. All three survive, but Cruella is furious and subjects Jasper and Horace to a tongue-lashing, at which point Jasper, having presumably had enough of Cruella's constant verbal abuse towards him and Horace, finally plucks up the courage to tell her to shut up before she finally breaks down and sobs in rage over the destruction of her beloved car and the loss of her dream coat.
===101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure===
Cruella returns in the sequel, in which she is first seen trying to enter Fitzwell's Fine Furs store, but the manager angrily pushes her out, saying that the terms of her probation will not allow him to sell her any more furs. She then meets an artist named Lars, whom she quickly admires for his artistic vision. Lars' paintings of spots proves a fine replacement for Cruella's prior obsession. However, Cruella eventually gets bored with Lars' work, but to help him find inspiration, she came to the house and felt surprised that the puppies were gone. She's been hit by a newspaper on her head that the newspaperman threw and found the picture of Patch and used the binoculars to see the new address on his dog tag where they moved. Cruella bails out Jasper and Horace to kidnap the Dalmatian puppies again.
The duo kidnaps the puppies and takes them to Cruella's new home: the warehouse. Lars believes Cruella wants him to paint puppies, but after he finds out he would have to kill the puppies, he refuses and declares that he may be eccentric, but is not a sicko. He tells Cruella he will not let her do any harm to the puppies. In anger, Cruella ties Lars onto a large target and throws several knives at him as torture. She returns to her psychotic state and wishes to have a new fur coat once again. Jasper and Horace are given the job to murder the puppies again but the dogs escape. A chase through the city follows which leads to Patch put the bus in reverse as Cruella surprised that Lil' Lightning was running and shocked and running as she was defeated in Thames River. Afterward, Cruella's crimes are finally explained to the police by Lars, Jasper, and Horace and she is arrested and sent to a psychiatric hospital to be treated for anger management, and presumably some form of obsessive disorder and hallucinations (alluded to by her final lines of seeing spots). She is last seen in a newspaper showing her to be in a prison Psychiatric hospital in a straitjacket tied up with belts with an angry look on her face during the end credits.
===House of Mouse===
In the series House of Mouse, Cruella appears as a recurring character. As a running gag, she was often seen measuring and examines other dogs from other Disney films.
In the first episode, "The Stolen Cartoons", when Pete tried to escape Mickey and friends after his villainy was exposed, he disguised himself as a Dalmatian but ran away in fear after Cruella began to measure him with a wicked grin. Later, at the end of the episode, she threatens Pluto by saying "Forget the [doggie] bag, I'll take the doggie!"
In "Jiminy Cricket", Cruella was one of the three guests (alongside Hercules and Aladdin) holding and wanting the title character just before Minnie brings Pinocchio in to retrieve him.
In "Pluto Saves the Day", when Pluto and his all dog band performed, Cruella eagerly mumbled to herself "Ooh, where's my tailor when I need him!?".
In "Max's Embarrassing Date", she went on a date with the Beast and asked if he came in a medium, which the Beast became annoyed of. After the Beast gets soaked with soup he was eating, Cruella is unhappy as she would have to get him dry-cleaned. Cruella also appears as one of the main villains in the film Mickey's House of Villains where she, Jafar, Hades, Ursula, and Captain Hook take over the House of Mouse. Out of the main villains, Cruella was the first to note her interest in taking over the club for her own purposes.
In the episode "House of Crime", Cruella was accused of kidnapping Pongo and Perdita’s puppies. She replies by shouting "You make one movie and you're labeled for life!"
In "Mickey and Minnie's Big Vacation", when Mr. Toad drives his motorcycle past the audience before her, she rants "I will make shoes out of you!"
===Other appearances===
In Electric Holiday, Cruella was featured as one of the models at Minnie Mouse's fashion show. She was first seen preparing in the makeup department, and later on the runway.
Cruella can be seen sitting alongside Scar in Moe's Tavern in The Simpsons in Plusaversary. She is also seen taking Santa's Little Helper's measurements.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*In Dodie Smith's original book, Cruella was married to a furrier, but kept her maiden name. In the Disney films, Cruella's portrayed as single.
*"Cruella De Vil" is a play on the words "cruel" and "devil".
*In the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, the twins call Meredith Blake "Cruella".
*Bruce W. Smith, an animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios, used Cruella as a reference when creating Dr. Facilier.
*She was listed #16 in Empire Magazine's The 50 Best Animated Movie Characters, stating as her stroke of genius her unique approach to keeping her two henchmen, Jasper and Horace, on her side, constantly slapping them, threatening them and berating them for (admittedly catastrophic) failures.
*It was revealed in "A Christmas Cruella" that she did want a puppy before becoming her villainous self.
*In all animated and live-action films, Cruella is commonly seen smoking, but quits in the TV series.
*A running gag throughout the TV series is Cruella calling Roger by a different name, as well as the live action remake.
*Cruella made the Forbes Fictional 15 list of the wealthiest fictional characters as #13 in 2002. She is one of five characters in the Disney company to make the Forbes Fictional 15 list, with the others being Flintheart Glomgold, Oliver Warbucks, Tony Stark (even though Stark was not owned by Disney at the time), and Scrooge McDuck.
*Cruella was originally chosen to be the villainess for The Rescuers too, but then it was decided to create a new villainess, Madame Medusa, instead. However, both Cruella and Medusa have strikingly similar personalities and traits.
**In the original book by Dodie Smith, Cruella loved fur and diamonds. It was not used for the 1961 animated film; however, it's a new point in common.
*In both live-action films, when Cruella is defeated, she is seen wearing a red-and-black fur coat.
*In Once Upon a Time, Cruella was granted the magical ability of persuasion. The power on the show is displayed as green smoke from her mouth, which in the film, Cruella constantly exhaled due to her smoking cigarettes.
*Cruella is the first female villain to oppose a male protagonist, being Pongo.
*Cruella's design and animation served as inspiration for the character Yesss in Ralph Breaks the Internet.
*Cruella has had the most live-action iterations of any Disney Villain.
*In the 1961 film, Cruella is never seen to be arrested after her car crash along side Jasper and Horace, but in the two live-action films and the animated sequel, she does.
*In Cruella, her birthday is on August 7, 1952.
*Cruella is the second Disney Animated Canon villain that gets a live action movie where she is portrayed in a sympathetic manner, the first being Maleficent.
*She is one of the few Disney villains to survive the climax of the movie.
==References==
==External links==
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