Cruella De Vil/Cruella (2021)

## Cruella de Vil

### Goals:

* Get revenge on her biological mother for killing her adoptive mother (succeeded)
* Become a successful fashion designer (succeeded)

### Type of Villain:

Extravagant Saboteur

**Estella Miller**, biologically born as **Estella von Hellman**, and then later notoriously known as **Cruella de Vil**, is an ambitious up-and-coming designer stepping into haute couture without the fear of risks.

From an early age, she notices that she is different from everyone else and tries to fit into society’s moral standards while embracing the outsider qualities that make her such an inspired designer. However, as the film progresses, we can expect to see Estella slowly embrace her dark side, which will both elevate her talents as a fashionista and bring her closer to her new identity as Cruella. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute. Her relationship with Baroness von Hellman propels Estella to embrace her diabolic side. Deemed the “queen of mean,” she transforms into the fashionable black-and-white-haired Cruella we all know.

Since her childhood, Cruella has been dyeing her hair red to blend in. After switching back to her natural black and white color, she keeps a wig to maintain her identity as "Estella". "Cruella" was a nickname Estella's mother used to describe her personality when she misbehaved as a child. As an adult, Estella adopts the name as she gives in to her misbehavior to get revenge on the Baroness and becomes her for real at the end of the film.

Cruella successfully exposes the Baroness for the horrible person she is and gets her arrested for seemingly murdering Estella. And because Estella named Cruella as her heir in the event of her death, she gets the von Hellman fortune, leaving her with the Hellman Hall estate for her, Jasper, Horace, and the dogs to live in and all the resources she needs for her fashion designing ambitions.

Estella spends the film thinking the Baroness is a cruel human being but otherwise a fairly typical businesswoman. It takes learning that the Baroness has killed so many people she doesn't remember Estella's mother offhand to realize the woman is a sociopathic monster.

Cruella is introduced with an intense mean streak even in her childhood, and the film focuses on her descent into madness and villainy as she fights her way to the top of the fashion industry, while also frequently hinting at what she'll go on to do in *101 Dalmatians*.

## **Physical Appearance**

**Estella Miller** was slim and tall woman with beautiful features and green eyes. Her skin was very pale and this was enunciated when she fully embraced herself as **Cruella de Vil** by her makeup which was very bold and striking, with her favoring black, white and red in terms of colors. As Estella, she sometimes wore glasses although appeared to have decent enough vision without them.

As both Estella and Cruella she had a keen eye for fashion and almost always wore incredibly extravagant, distinguishing and flashy outfits with her usual black, white & red motifs.

Estella was born with hair that was split down the middle as black and white and retained this throughout most of her childhood until meeting Jasper and Horace when she decided to dye her hair red to distance herself from her original identity. Upon adopting the persona of Cruella however she decided to allow her hair to return to its natural black & white form.

## **Personality and Traits**

**Estella Miller** was initially tough, abrasive and confident in her childhood and not afraid to speak her mind or fight to defend herself. However, following her mother's death and due to a desire to live on as she would have wanted her to, Estella became rather meek, shy and passive in her adolescence although still had an unmistakable amount of intelligence. Over the course of the film and as she learns more about what really happened to her adoptive mother, Estella becomes more and more confident and assertive once again and she fully embraces the identity of Cruella de Vil.

As **Cruella de Vil**, she was sadistic and ruthless but also quite playful and eccentric with an over-enunciated manner of speaking and became far more bossy and rude than she was previously. Ultimately, she was driven out of a desire for vengeance and although upset when she learned of her true heritage and the deception of her adoptive mother she relented out of love for her and still targeted her sights on her biological mother, the Baroness, who she grew more and more resentment and hatred for as the film went on. Although quite psychologically unstable, Cruella was a very intelligent, creative, pragmatic and quick-thinking individual who managed to stay one step ahead of the Baroness for the majority of the film, thanks to her cleverness.

Cruella, in spite of her negative traits, did still have more redeeming qualities than any other version of her depicted however. For example, she genuinely cared deeply about Jasper and Horace and viewed them as her closest companions and only family. She also managed to maintain several friendships and get along with others well such as with Artie, Anita, and, ultimately, John when she learns of his true intentions.