(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Cruella)
Doug (vo): A while ago, I did a Nostalgia Critic video about whether or not a bad ending can ruin a good film. I get the feeling Cruella is gonna serve as an example for either side, because, man, this is surprisingly a really enjoyable movie...until the end, that is. All the things I hate about Disney remakes, and I'm finding more and more people are starting to really hate about Disney remakes, they're mostly absent from this film until the last third. But seeing how this film is two hours and 15 minutes long, if two-thirds of that is still really entertaining, that's the runtime of a regular movie, so a large part of me feels I have to recommend it...if you're not someone that lets a bad ending ruin the rest of the film for you, which, admittedly, I sometimes am, but this film's a little different. Okay, let's get into the details.
Story[]
Doug (vo): Cruella is actually born Estella...and yes, she is born with the black and white hair like one of those cookies...and her mother finds that she has a bit of a dark side, almost another personality. You won't guess what she calls her.
Catherine: What do you say to Cruella when she tries to get the better of you?
Doug (vo): That's right, Cruella. This film's gonna blow. In the opening few minutes, it definitely felt that way. When she walks by some Dalmatians, they growl at her. Anita is a childhood friend; this is all stuff that nobody cares about, but they're revealing to us like, "Wow, the mystery is solved!" But rather quickly, it shifts gears and goes refreshingly dark. Without going into spoilers, because, honestly, it's hilariously mean-spirited, Cruella is on her own and later befriends two pickpocket boys. They decide to look after her and introduce her to their life of crime. She tries to somewhat turn her life around by becoming a designer, though her education is funded by stolen money, and she gets a job in a department store where she catches the eye of Baroness von Hellman. God, what a great name. She sees potential in this young designer and decides to take her under her wing. Again, without giving away too much, Estella discovers that there's more to the Baroness than she lets on, vows to take her down, and reinvents herself as Cruella, honestly, kind of sporadically. Like, one minute, she's just kind of talking semi-normal, has a bit of an accent, and then suddenly, she walks in with the black and white hair again and starts bossing the two men around. It kinda happens about as quick as Anakin's turn, but there's a lot of cool stuff that comes from it. Her new plan is to upstage the Baroness however she can, whether it's sabotaging her, making better clothes, trashing her clothes. Soon, the Baroness becomes old news and Cruella becomes the new It Girl. But how does this all connect to killing puppies and making coats out of them? Oh, that's just a story that got out of hand.
Review[]
Doug (vo): Yep, this is another one of those "she's not really a villain" about one of our favorite villains in any Disney film. It's ridiculous. But again, it's only saved until the last third, and I think that's why I still recommend and enjoy most of this film. When she's being evil, she's still being evil. The sudden switch to hero doesn't really happen until the last 20 or 30 minutes. Until then, she's doing mean and vindictive things just because she wants to do mean and vindictive things. It's not like, "Oh, from a different point of view, she's nice", no, she's mean, she's a bitch, she's a terrible person doing all this. That's the fun stuff we want to see and that's the fun stuff I enjoyed. And when that's the movie I was getting, it was a ton of fun.
(Clips focuing on the character of Cruella are shown, along with various other clips)
Doug (vo): Emma Stone is having a blast playing a pickpocket, a drunk, a meek designer, an over-the-top drama queen, a heist planner. It's almost like it becomes a different kind of cool film every 20 minutes. For a while, it's A Series of Unfortunate Events, then it's The Italian Job, then it's, yes, occasionally, 101 Dalmatians. In a lot of movies, this would be a problem, but every single time it changes gears, you feel like the filmmakers really are having a fun time doing it, like they really wanted to make a heist movie mixed with a Disney villain with a 60s or 70s revengeploitation flick, accompanied by weird Tim Burton fashions that are a lot of fun to look at. I don't usually talk about the soundtrack, but it is crazy good in this. Every 60s and 70s punk rock song that they choose is so on point, it really gives the film a good energy and attitude. The best compliment I can give this movie is I legit forget sometimes it's a Disney live-action remake. I was having that much fun with how over-the-top creative and twisted it was. And to the film's credit, it really feels like the majority of bad stuff was moved just to the third act. There's a part in this movie where I really feel like it could have ended, like, she's on this fashion runway and the Baroness is just looking at her totally defeated. I was just thinking to myself, "Man, if it rolled the credits right here, I'd be satisfied."
Baroness von Hellman: She killed my dogs...and made...a coat.
Doug (vo): If you're watching this and you're liking the movie and the ending can really ruin it for you, I just say, stop it here and tell yourself she went on to murder puppies. Then you'd easily have the best Disney live-action remake, hands down.
(Clips focusing on the last third of the film are shown)
Doug (vo; sighs): But it does tag on this unnecessary last part that not only reneges on everything that it was setting up, but really does a lot of the actors a disservice. There's a really nice scene where Emma Stone stops in front of this fountain and gives this big emotional speech, and she does a really great job, but all you're thinking is, "Man, I wish this movie ended 10 minutes earlier".
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): So...I don't know, I guess I'm still recommending this. I mean, there is still a lot of good movie to see in here. I get a feeling even if you don't like where it all goes, there's so much cool stuff that's imaginative and passionate and wonderfully mean-spirited and has such great music and good performances. But I will say, people who hate this movie really fucking hate this movie. Part of me gets it with where it all goes. For me, there was just too much good to take out of it. I was glad I saw it, I was happy to be with these charming characters, I was really rocking to the music, I loved the bizarre ingenuity with the fashion, I adored how it went unapologetically over-the-top mean...until it was neutered at the end. Hopefully, you can get an idea whether or not this film is for you if you can look over the bad note it ends on and look at the pretty kick-ass stuff they had before it. But for me, I still loved two-thirds of this movie, and that's still two-thirds more than I've gotten out of most of the Disney live-action remakes.
(The film's final scene, showing Cruella, Horace and Jasper in their new mansion, is shown)