Cruella                  4 ½ stars

Disney films make their return to the theaters with an origin story of that most iconic Disney villain, the evil and chic Cruella de Vil. The live action comedy crime movie stars Academy Award winner Emma Stone as young street urchin Estella who through tragedy must live on the streets of 1970’s London with her young thief friends Jasper (Joel Fry of Yesterday) and Horace (a funny as always Paul Walter Hauser). The incredibly smart and ambitious Estella’s greatest desire is to break into the world of high fashion. Somehow she snares a low level job working at the House of Baroness where she gains the attention of owner and CEO Baroness von Hellman (played by two time Academy Award winner Emma Thompson) and is promoted to dress designer to turn out very eye catching designs for the London elite. An additional star of the film is the amazing dresses that appear throughout. Is it too early to predict the winner of the Best Costumes Oscar? Of course, we finally arrive at the appearance of Cruella with her signature white and black hair and learn how she came to be with her evil intentions and especially her motivation for going after dalmatians for their skin. The best Disney movies feature some of the most evil villains imagined and that title must go to the Baroness who is a true psychopath as played by the brilliant Thompson. She delivers some great lines (“Gratitude is for losers.”) and is rarely taken off her game as she treats people with contempt including her own employees. Cruella is aided greatly by a sound track featuring classic rock songs of the sixties and seventies that are well placed throughout the movie (The Zombies’ Time of the Season). I had to do a second take on the dogs in the film to realize they are some of the best CGI creatures I have seen. With Cruella and the earlier release of the Disney Maleficent movies we seem to be having a new trend of classic villains getting their own star treatment and with it a more complete picture of their life stories.