If they wanted to avoid fur discourse, why’d they make a movie about Cruella?

These huge corporations trying to act like they're feminists by making actual great villain characters cool, likeable girls is exactly what we don't need. I'm tired of seeing every movie or tv show lately doing this, I want an actual evil, striking woman on screen as a villain.

The problem is that they tried to humanize and soften a character that represented the opposite

'maybe evilness makes you age faster" i think it was coke actually

Let's take a woman who is infamous for wanting to murder puppies, and turn her into a fashionable feminist icon.

In this movie, Cruella lost the two features that characterize her in the original movie: smoking and loving fur. If Disney has a problem with villains not being the best role models, it should refrain from making this low quality origin stories.

honestly for the Cruella movie, I would've preferred a Tim Burton version. I tend to like his creepy, victorian and dark themes and I think the costumes and atmosphere would fit the theme of Cruella a lot more, especially with her fiendish desire for dog fur and disregard for the feelings attached to these dogs.

This felt more like a redemption story than a “villain origin story”

the main problem is definitely disney trying to make a sympathetic character out of someone who was so entertaining because of how irredeemably evil she was. what's more, her punk stylisation in this movie feels very weird considering in the original book she's actually a pampered London heiress, which defeats the whole purpose of punk being a style brought about by the working class.

Disney saw the popularity of Harley Quinn and was like “I want what she has”

Something I really liked about the movie is that they didn’t force the main character to have a love interest that they do in so many female main character movies

Haven’t seen the movie but they legit could of made her the daughter of cruella and the villain was the actual cruella and her rebelling against her mum or something so she refused to wear fur idk Edit: dam thanks for the likes ahahaah

truth to be told, disney would never criticize fashion industry nor capitalism -- two fountains they not only drink from, they made entire theme parks of it....

I hate how they made a “backstory” for Cruella and then just made another Cruella for this one to fight against?

I think Cruella's older appearance was a slight hint of heroin use, we also see a bent metal spoon by her phone on the nightstand when she's dialing it 🌝

The cruella punk vibes reminds me weirdly of Disney's descendants costume design

When I was 8 or 9, I went to Disneyland and Cruella told me a secret. *"I wear faux fur"* .... it's echoed in the back of mind for yearrrrsssssssss

Just let villains be villains, why can't villains be mad, crazy, totally out of their mind and humanity. Nowadays all villains have this redemption to them that I hate. Not only in Disney but almost everywhere.

If she actually killed the Baroness' dogs the movie would make more sense to her character.

As Someone with an ethnic nose, what you said about negative ethnic stereotypes when Disney make all their villains have certain futures was so true. I’ve noticed that Disney villains have bigger noses or more downturned meanwhile the good guys have slim upturned white noses. My insecurities about my nose stemmed from this and Disney continues to uphold these stereotypes through their animations

I feel like Disney just REALLY wanted their own Harley Quinn and Cruella was the only existing character they could think of to make into that

Like how do you rewrite a character that is the epitome of capitalism and turn her into a punk-rebel. Make it make sense.

I love how they painted the Baronese as evil (which she was), but she is *exactly* how Cruella *is* in all the other movies.

I wish Disney had the creativity to make this into a separate story with new characters instead of re-using a character

Disney: "we don't want to promote fur or smoking, so lets make a movie about Cruella"

Like- wasnt fur cruella's entire thing? That just seems ridiculous to not include it in her main wardrobe.

Honestly I don’t see this movie as a “prequel” or “retelling the story from a different angle” like Maleficent or Joker. To me this film is 100% a parallel universe, where Cruella is not evil and wasn’t obsessed with fur (which, to me, plays part into her original evilness). When I watched the movie I never once thought she was being or trying to be an actual punk. She just got her inspirations FROM punks because… it was the 70s! Punk was at its peak and she was young! It’s a not political story. It’s her fighting for her ambitions and honestly I’m pretty ok with this. 🤷🏼‍♀️ She may not be evil, but that doesn’t mean she needs to be a “rebellious hero fighting to break the system”. She can be selfish. Why shouldn’t her be? And if the punks would hate her. She wouldn’t care. At all. She englobes the capitalism. In this movie she’s less of a “killing puppies for a coat” villain and more a “Yes, I’m a capitalist and I don’t care” villain. At least that’s my interpretation from it.

Cruella's entire character: sadistic chain smoking fur enthusiast. Me: You're keeping the name at least. Disney: Me: You ARE keeping the name?

People : We are sick of Disney twist villains, we want ridiculously evil villains back ! Disney : Did you say "mAkE oLD villAiNS sYMpaTHeTiC ??"

I just feel like whoever wrote the script for the new movie really missed the whole point of who Cruella was to begin with. Cruella adored fashion to the point where she didn’t see living animals as *living* and just as fur she could use for her own gain. It’s what made her a scary villain and parallels real world companies and individuals alike that use animals this way.

Yes to everything u said. Without the fur and evil she's just a chick who's into fashion. Why even name her Cruella? Just make a movie about the fashionista outcast chick lol

I don't think Cruella was supposed to be a "punk" character who fights against exploitive systems, I saw her as an angry person who wanted revenge against the person who caused her hardship: the Baroness. Because she's a villain, it makes sense to me that she wants to replace the Baroness' status at the top of the hierarchy instead of destroying the hierarchy.

I hate this “let’s redeem the villain” trend.

The lack of Vivienne Westwood is disturbing. Like the whole movie could have styled with just Vivienne Westwood pieces and it would have worked and looked so much better.

I feel like Disney feels like it has to be responsible for only showing things that are acceptable, which I would disagree with. Example: they took out the fur because they don't want children to see it and desire for real fur. I see this in changes they've made to animated movies like Lilo hiding in the dryer getting changed to a cupboard or something. I understand movies should have good role models, but the obvious is that Cruella is the exact opposite. This is the type of movie where a child could inquire as the what's so wrong, and the movie or a adult figure could elaborate. The animated movie was clear in informing the audience that Cruella wanted real fur, but real fur meant harming the puppies. I don't see why they couldn't have done the same for the live action, other than they wanted to avoid showing a villain making villainous, harmful choices to animals.

“Mad” is a classically British way of saying “insane” like “you’ve gone a bit mad” would be an example of how it was used.

I think the worst part about Cruella trying to be “punk” is that real punks probably would’ve splashed red paint all over her furs.

If this movie wasn’t a villain origin story, I would’ve enjoyed this movie more, but the whole time, I suffered from star wars syndrome. Nobody asked for a Cruella origin story but if you’re gonna do it, show us how she fell in love with fur and how she spiraled into kidnapping animals. The movie instead showed us how she fell in love with dogs and anything else than fur coats.

This Cruella is young, poor, rebellious and full of dreams, and only “punk”under the illusion that she comes from humble beginnings. But she still desires to come out on top. She shows a lot of toxic traits similar to her mother and is never really held accountable by her peers. I believe that behavior will turn her into the monster we all know especially now that she has her mother’s money and power! It seems everyone’s a “punk” until they get rich. Maybe part of her villainy is that she was never punk at all because she’s always been a capitalist in disguise. So many famous artists will cosplay as diy to try to seem cool and relate to their audiences and then reveal themselves as they gain popularity and money. We also all eventually turn into our parents and I think the scene where she accepts that at the fountain shows that she’s not scared to let the toxicity rule her. Also they REALLY showed off that moth egg dress. 👁 maybe that will influence her love for making art out of animals in the future Idk. I hear you, I really do. but this is just her origins and I can already see how she will become the villain we were expecting Also, also 102 Dalmatians is so worth the watch just for the outfits

Idk why they tried to make “Cruel a Devil” a good person. It would made more sense to make a Campy movie involving hijacks and schemes gone horribly wrong. Kinda like a Roadrunner-esque movie with good writing and proper costuming.

wow disney sanitizing a revolutionary movement and using it only as aesthetic?? who'da thunk it

Your analysis about “pretty girls can’t do bad things” made my jaw drop. Why didn’t I realize that before

Idk man I thought it was a lovely movie, I had so much fun watching this as a new movie with a different version of Cruella. She's a completely separate entity from the old version. As a movie, it felt solid with lots of wow factor and a definite re-watch. But that's jmo

tbh this would have been an okay movie as a standalone, but trying to tie it into cruella and the 101 dalmations universe takes away from her character and sort of ruined the movie (imo)

I wish in the movie they portrayed cruella as this poor fashion designer who originally wanted to go against corporations to only be sucked into the dark and more capitalistic side of the fashion industry becoming the one thing she originally was against. And wouldn't it be cool by symbolizing her descent into madness and capitalism she gradually starts wearing more fur until the last scene where it's cemented that she's truly evil she wears the original cruella design with the huge fur coat.

*SPOILERS* “She killed my dogs...and made them into a coat” Let me tell you, when the baroness said that line at the end of Cruellas “last” fashion show I was ECSTATIC. I thought “yes! This is where it all begins, she’s finally becoming the villain!” And then..the coat turned out to be faux fur and the Baroness dogs were still alive. What a let down! I’m glad I’m not the only one who was confused with the lack of her obsession with fur.

I’m all for redemptions arcs, but the fact that they tried to go back to before she even needed redeeming to make her more likeable doesn’t even make sense. Especially considering cruella is one of the only Disney villains that is complete, and completely evil. She doesn’t need an origin story, she makes her motivations very clear in the movie. You’re not supposed to like her. If they were gonna do a villain origin story, they should’ve either actually made her evil in the end instead of trying to rewrite her to be likeable, or they should’ve just gone with a villain that has unclear motivations in the first place. They could’ve done a movie about why Jafar even wants to be sultan. They could’ve shown us Ursula overthrowing her father and sisters (she even sings a song about what happens in the stage musical). They literally could’ve given us the Shadow Mans story and that would’ve probably been better. They had an entire ocean of possibilities and yet they still managed to pick one of the least interesting lines

there is CLEARLY going to be a sequel, and i really really hope that they start to go into her downward spiral of becoming fur obsessed. it would be hilarious if she becomes fur obsessed to counter the then growing anti fur culture

no..one of Cruella's ancestors was a demon? we need THAT origin story what

it seems to me that, lately, women have been banned from being evil villains and relegated instead to tedious redemption arcs...

I never realized that faux hur is actually so unsustainable and vintage fur is a better alternative. Can you make a video on better and more sustainable alternatives and materials that we can purchase in our day to day life?

Oh, to clarify about the use of the word "mad" - they mean "mad" in the British way - crazy, odd, insane. Though, she absolutely is always mad in the way we know, too. Great analysis, though!

I feel like the recent trend of “crazy women” character is weirdly reminiscent of the “manic pixie dream girl” , someone acting peculiar for the sake of acting peculiar. Very rarely does this work and it doesn’t work for Cruella 2021. Either they should have given her a better motivation than upstaging one woman, or up the crazy to a degree where it’s fun and actually maniacal, like Harley Quinn blowing up a power plant to update her relationship status. Cruella showing up to these parties wearing cool outfits doesn’t feel punk, it feels like that episode of “My Life as a Teenage Robot” where Jenny keeps upstaging the cool girls at school . Edit: it's nice to know I'm not the only one who remembers "My Life as a Teenage Robot"!

It's kinda dumb to make Cruella of all people ""punk"", my mom was friends with punk gangs in the 80s and told me that she saw them verbally assault women in fur coats all the time, even spit on their coats. Punks were some of the biggest fur haters!

Cruella had zero nostalgic appeal for me. My expectations for this film was so incredibly low that when I watched it I was actually pleasantly surprised because I thought it would be as terrible as the train wreck that is Disney's live-action remakes and reboots, but I actually liked it. I do agree that Cruella not liking fur is very off-character.

The Glenn Close version will always own my heart. Emma’s just felt like a bad rip-off.

I just hate so much how they love to pander to what they think women and the younger generation want. Oh let’s rewrite cruella so she’s a PC girlboss. Like ew no thank you just write an authentic character please. “I am woman, hear me roar” almost made me barf. It’s all just lazy, lazy pandering. And this just made me truly appreciate Glen Close even more!!!

The thing is, you could have a villain that co-opts cultural influences for their own gain. That could actually make the villain more disturbing, because actual people do that all the time. Disney wasn't ready to go there though.

I was scared of the -96 Cruella as a kid. I think she was perfect presentation of the character. I love her over the top outfits.

Cruelly sorta being a fake punk actually make sense to me in an ironic way because I find that Westwood was such a let down to me when I was learning about her. When I first started getting into fashion stuff I rly admired her, and then hearing how not punk and not anarchist she’s sorta always been really aligns with how “fake punk” cruella is to me. Not to diminish Westwood’s impact but I really stopped caring about her punk image when I found out who she was as a person

I don't get this whole: "if we overdo it, it looks like a costume, not like fashion." Guys, it's fashion if ppl wear it like fashion. Look at the past, nobody looked at these gorgeous gowns an said "It's a costume." I feel like we just miss the confidence to wear "costumes" as fashion statements.

if disney wanted their own harley quinn they could’ve just... made a new character. the nostalgia bait brings rage, publicity, and a given audience, but it’s disney, they shouldn’t need to rely on cheap tactics. they’ll have wildly insane revenue no matter what. just.. write a new goddamn character for once instead of ruining old characters.

my mum worked on 102 dalmations, she was a costumier so made/helped make a lot of the costumes! :) was really cool to see a video breaking down the costumes and story plots, I agree Cruella 2021 wasn't punk enough! x

I feel like this Cruella is stuck between being punk and edgy while also being elegant and sassy

The outfits seem like they're TRYING to be great instead of all just being great

The final Cruella outfits gave me big drag race end of season vibes. Like, "I already used my best outfits and this is what I had left" energy.

102 Dalmatians is better And I think you’d appreciate that one more because cruellas fashion stands out on another level Especially when she switches back from sane to insane You see that transition in her clothes as well

I like how Mina coordinates her outfits with the subject of the video. Has anyone else noticed?

They made her too young, too pretty, and too politically correct. Her name is literally “cruel devil” like, bro c’mon.

The issue is that it lacks the camp. Like bless Emma Stone she gave her best, but I feel like its missing the charm. The thing about the og was that it could be enjoyed by everyone, there waa something for all. And Glenn Close was just fun to watch. The new movie just feels lacking. Like it feels like its trying to hard to fit an aesthetic and demographic. It felt manufctured, and not very natural in terms of being campy and over the top

I definitely would've loved the Adams family victorian vibe for Cruella. Also her character design is everything before they toned it down to an older woman. It would've been beautiful, yet, I agree with what you said that it would've ruined the whole look. Edit: 27:00 that's exactly what I thought when I saw the teaser trailer and trailer. I swore that she'd be like that as well.

"To illustrate this FURther" Missed opportunity there lmao

The biggest issue with reboots like this is the belief that everything needs to be changed to appeal to literally every person ever. She's "mad" but not crazy, a puppy lover yet has a tragic past with them, she worked below a dictator like fashion head only to become her, she's against richness and yet she's all about excess in her work. It makes 0 sense and takes away from the story.

Glenn Close put keeping all of her Cruella costumes in her contract. I like to imagine her wearing them on her couch

I think the fact that she loved fur would have been great in the 70’s era to show how Evil she was, even when people were fighting against it, she still went with using fur and didn’t care about what people thought.It would have been Amazing if one of her debut outfits was made of fur to show her origin of obsession with fur. Maybe an over roar of success from a particular fur coat could show her overall obsession with it as she resonated fur with success and show how it made her to become a mad women.

At the end of the day this *is* a multi million dollar company's view on punk culture: something completely devoid of context and politics, who only serves to look aesthetically cool. Also we need to stop giving immoral villains a moral compass they cleraly dont have lol

"born brilliant, born bad. and a little bit mad" is gonna be a t-shirt, I'm calling it. disney is literally advertising the merch in the movie and oh i hate them so much for it. please just p*rate this movie somewhere and don't give them your money.

The original cruella and the Glenn close version are unapologetically evil, both were so fun to watch. In this movie the baroness just acts like a karen and the whole harley quinn "I'm proud to be mad" dialogues felt brought up out of nowhere. This is one of the first negative reviews of this movie I have watched because everyone seems to love it. And as you say, the costumes were not even that good.

a part of me thinks that there is a way the "punk" angle could have worked. A white woman in fashion thinking she's "rebelling against the system" by co-opting an overwhelmingly working class style but who is truly looking out for her own self-interest THEN eventually becoming the thing that she 'rebelled' against would have been... refreshingly honest. The fact that we didn't get that from Disney is not in any way surprising though lol. Anyway love this video and your commentary as per usual!!

This movie won an Academy award for best costume design... I can't stop thinking about this video

I am completely against real fur and believe that we as a society should have grown past that already. With that being said, they could have used vintage fur and faux fur. The options were all there, they just didn’t take advantage of it. There was zero need to get new fur for the movie. Every single one of these disney live actions are oceans of missed and misused opportunities. I feel like the fans always have better ideas than the actual company. The victorian style you suggested focused on her family would have been AMAZING to watch.

The fact that Glenn Close also got it written into her contract allowing her to keep all of her Cruella costumes is just iconic

I choose to believe the Cruella movie is just an AU (alternate universe) 101 Dalmatians, especially cuz of the different decades they take place in. In the Cruella movie, she is a child in 1964, and in the original 101 Dalmatians she is an adult in 1958. So it's impossible that the Cruella movie could be her 'backstory.'

Thank you so much for having subtitles!

So I know this doesn’t matter, but in the book, she doesn’t start wearing fur until she marries her husband, who she only marries because he is a famous fur maker. Since Cruella doesn’t get married in the movie, it didn’t bother me.

They mashed together a rags-to-riches underdog plotline with a Girlboss, Devil Wears Prada-esque dictatorship swap, of sorts. As perfectly described in the video, she wasn't out to take down the system, rather the head of the system (and take her place).

This was a good art history-fashion review I appreciate your voice on this mic, as it’s giving me the right amount of ASMR stimuli along with these brows! I don’t know if your eyebrows are like this all the time and if this is your usual set up but I’ll be soon to find out because your got a new subscriber out of me! 10/10 💝

My! I've been watching you for some time and hadn't watched this video! Your style has changed a lot for the better, you have learnt a lot in your time here. Keep up with the good work Minna!

If they were too afraid to tackle a truly evil character, they should have just left Cruella alone... What the heck are they going to do with the live action of Hunchback of Notre Dame? Frollo is beyond evil. They should have been smart and just left all these characters alone like they're doing with Pocahontas.

From the trailer it appears that Cruella wants to kill puppies because dogs killed her mother??? If true, I hate it. To me, the point is that we do most of the "evil" things we do (like killing animals unnecessarily) because of convenience or vanity or sensory pleasure. Giving Cruella some weird revenge motive completely sanitizes any potential message.

its strange to me that people are held up on the Punk inspiration and that meaning Cruella should've been more Punk in personality and cause. From everything we are told she's fresh and current but also obsessive, highly self focused and narcissistic so for her to see something on trend and daring and to co-opt it into her fashion war with the Baroness but give no shits about its origin/purpose/movement entirely makes sense and fits a "Villain" mentality. Fashion was her weapon in this film and she chose inspirations and movements that most hurt her opponent, inspired her and caught the eye of onlookers. I agree the final look should have been more of a show stopper though with a twist on the film start or a big flourish. As for her obsession with fur lets not forget this is her origin the very start of her story and the House of DeVil, yes it would have been good to have a nod to her feelings on fur but there's plenty of time now she has wealth, power and no opposition for her to discover and fall in love with it. To me at least if there is a second film that is when we will see her flourish further into the Cruella we all know and love this was just laying a foundation an i felt like it was a great foundation. Very much enjoyed your take on things, made me think about things i hadn't yet!

honestly loved the movie and loved the fashion on it, but it's just so good the hear you talk about something you KNOW. love it, amazing video.

They literally stole a costume from Edna from The Incredibles 😹

Give me a Cruella where she is in the role of Andi from the devil wears prada, but instead of running away she embraces it and becomes even worse than Miranda. Like show her falling in love with furs and becoming unapologetically evil.

okay, but CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE SOUNDTRACK OF THE CRUELLA MOVIE? it was just... *chef's kiss*

The 96 version was my favorite version as a kid. Watching some of the scenes from that movie in this video made me realize how much I want to rewatch that movie to relive my childhood

I think Cruella looks that way in the original bc she's a chainsmoker not bc she's supposed to look old but I could be wrong

I feel like the movie isn’t bad but when i heard they were “explaining” Cruella’s origins I thought it was supposed to be about what made Cruella fell in love with furs and what made her as mad as she is. The movie really adds nothing to the Cruella character we all know from the original movies.

I reaally like your voice so calm , I’ll totally listen a podcast made by you

i really enjoy your videos because you articulate your words so nicely??? idek, the way you talk is really intriguing and makes these critiques feel really welll presented. i applaud you highly