Cruella de Vil Totally Explained

Everything about Cruella De Vil totally explained

Cruella de Vil is a fictional character and the primary villain in Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Disney's 1961 animated film adaptation One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Disney's live-action film adaptations 101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians. In all her incarnations, Cruella kidnaps dalmatian puppies for their fur. In the live-action version of 101 Dalmatians, it's revealed that the reason Cruella chooses to skin puppies is that when shorthair dogs grow older their fur becomes very coarse, which doesn't sell as well in the fur fashion industry as the fine, soft fur of puppies. She also always has the left half of her hair white and the right half black.
Cruella's name is a play on the words cruel and devil, an allusion which is emphasized by having her country house be nicknamed "Hell Hall". In some translations, Cruella De Vil is known as "Cruella De Mon", presumably to change the play on the word "devil" to one on "demon" because the word "devil" in some languages doesn't have a clear meaning. An example is Italy, where she's called "Crudelia De Mon" (a pun on "crudele", cruel, and "demone", demon). In some languages (such as Spanish) where her last name has been left as De Vil, but isn't similar to their equivalent of devil, it's taken to be a play on their equivalent of "vile" or "villain".

The book

In the original story, Cruella is a pampered London heiress who knows the owner of the Dalmatian puppies through school. She was a notorious student with black and white plaits. She was later expelled for drinking ink. Now she's the last of her prosperous and notorious family and married to a furrier who supplies her obsession, such as the one piece she's never seen without - an absolutely simple white mink cloak. With this, she wears gowns and ropes of jewels in contrasting colors, such as an emerald color dress with ropes of rubies. Her chauffeur-driven car is black-and-white striped (Mr. Dearly comments that it looks like "a moving zebra crossing") and has the loudest horn in London, which she insists on displaying to the Dearly family. Such dramatic luxuries were said to be based on Tallulah Bankhead's lavish spending habits, which the producers of the film first read about in a newspaper.
When she's guests for dinner, all of Cruella's food is strange colors and tastes of pepper (alluding to her quick temper). She constantly stokes a roaring fire and complains of being cold despite the elevated temperature. The flat is portrayed as a sort of luxurious version of Hell and sets up Cruella's "devilish" persona for her later crimes. Her guests also meet her abused white Persian cat, which plays a key role in a later part of the story.
When invited to a dinner party held by the Dearly couple, Cruella expresses her sinister interest in the Dalmatians, remarking how she and her henpecked husband have never thought of making clothing from dog pelt before. Yet seeing the spotless skins of the newborn puppies she's revolted and offers to have them drowned at once; her way of getting rid of animals which she views as worthless, including her own cat's kittens. Upon a second visit to the house she picks up the mature puppies and treats them like clothing to be worn.
Cruella also makes a brief appearance, albeit asleep, in Dodie Smith's sequel, The Starlight Barking.

The Disney animated version

Disney's animated version of Cruella first appeared in 1961's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, in which she was voiced by Betty Lou Gerson and animated by Marc Davis. The cool detachment of the original character was replaced by a crazed mania, in which Cruella only barely clung to a sheen of glamour. Anita comments Cruella's above mentioned fur coat is new when Cruella first appears. For unexplained reasons, Cruella's cat and husband were omitted from the Disney version.
   The film featured a song, written by Mel Leven, using her name as the title, sung by the dalmatians' owner Roger. The lyric begins with: "Cruella De Vil, Cruella De Vil. If she doesn't scare you, no evil thing will..." The song has been very popular among Disney fans. It has been rerecorded by various Disney artists, such as Lalaine, Hayden Panettiere, and Selena Gomez.
   Cruella returned in the 2003 direct-to-video sequel, where she was voiced by Susanne Blakeslee. Cruella also appeared in some Disney television shows. She was a regular antagonist in 1997's, where she was voiced by April Winchell. This time, though, her aim was to steal the Dearly Farm, as killing animals for fashion was deemed politically incorrect. However, she returned to hunting dogs in 2001's House of Mouse and was voiced by Susan Blakeslee. The series featured a running gag in which she inspects dogs from other Disney films with a measuring ruler. Cruella is also one of the villains Mickey fights in Disney's Hollywood Studios version of Fantasmic! Nighttime Show Spectacular in Disneyland.
   From the unsubtle symbolic name to her hideous physical appearance, the evil of Cruella De Vil is overt. Her ferocity and intended cruelty to the spotted heroes of 101 Dalmatians make her an easy target, but to her fans, there's something intriguing about her calculated and perseverant menace. In 2002, Forbes ranked Cruella as the thirteenth wealthiest fiction character, citing the single 65-year-old has a net worth of $875 million, obtained through inheritance
   Cruella's car in the animated film is of the DeVille body style.

The Disney live-action version

In Disney's 1996 live-action remake of the animated film, 101 Dalmatians, and its 2000 sequel, 102 Dalmatians, Cruella was played by Glenn Close. The film reinvented Cruella yet again, this time as the magnate of a couture fashion house, "House of De Vil", which specialised in fur couture. The character of Anita (played by Joely Richardson) was a couturière and employee of De Vil. This film increased the physical comedy of the animated film, even veering into toilet humor.
The live-action film was critically panned, but Close's performance, as well as her costumes, by Anthony Powell and Rosemary Burrows, received appreciative attention, including a spread in Vanity Fair magazine. Claws were applied to gloves, and necklaces were made from teeth, to add to the idea that Cruella enjoyed wearing parts of dead animals. Nails were also projected from the heels to make them especially vicious in appearance. Close has commented on how demanding the slapstick physicality of the role was while wearing nail-heeled boots and corsets.
In 102 Dalmatians, while under effect of Dr. Pavlov's hypno-therapy, Cruella wanted to be called "Ella de Vil" because "Cruella sounds so ... cruel". Ella was completely devoted to saving animals and was horrified at the smallest sight of fur fashion, especially since she'd all her old fur clothes and the dalmatian coat sketch boarded up. Unfortunately, this new persona doesn't stay for long, since the effects of Big Ben's bells manage to undo the hypno-therapy, and Ella reverts back to Cruella.

Other media

In the Simpsons episode, Two Dozen and One Greyhounds, Mr. Burns plays the role of Cruella DeVil, but unlike her in the movies, where she steals the dalmatian puppies to make them into fur coats, he steals Santa's Little Helper and his girlfriend's greyhound puppies to make them into a tuxedo.

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