Creation

Cruella De Vil is the iconic villain of 101 Dalmatians, first appearing the novel by the same name from 1956 written by Dodie Smith.

Major Story Arcs

101 Dalmatians

Cruella is an old friend of Anita Dearly who is hired to look over her various dogs, however Cruella has a villainous motive. Being a fashion icon who enjoys real fur, and is tired of the fur from other animals, Cruella tries to move on to dog fur. She failed, and lost her job as dog sitter due to attempting to skin the dogs.

Cruella is a well known Disney villain, and is usually used in non-canon kids books and comics, as well crossover martial such Mickey's House of Mouse.

Other Versions

101 Dalmatians (1996) & 102 Dalmatians (2001)

Cruella De Vil is the main villain of both films, being a famous fashion artist and CEO of a French fashion company, always wanting to find new ways to create styles, this led her to trying to create a new fashion line with the fur of dogs. Anita in this version works for Cruella as the best designer of her company. Anita believed that the fur would be artificial showing a design for a robe using dalmatian fur and design. However Cruella didn't believe in fake fur, and attempted to take Anita's dogs to use for her line of robes. However at every turn the dogs managed to get away, and by the end, Cruella was arrested for animal endangerment and abuse.

The sequel followed Cruella being released from prison after pretending to be cured of her fur obsession. After getting out, she soon after goes back to her old ways. The dalmatians once again win. Cruella was played by Glenn Close.

Once Upon A Time

Cruella was a major villain in the fourth season of the live action drama series, with a origin given to the wicked woman. She was once a normal girl living under her mother's thumb. Cruella met Isaac, the author of the fairy tales, and the two soon fell in love. Cruella claimed to being abused by her mother, and needed his help to escape her, but it was revealed to be a lie. In fact she was being protected by her mother, and prevented from going out again since last time she killed someone. But it was too late, as Isaac gave her the power to control dogs, and that night she had her dogs kill her mother, before killing the dogs and making them into furs. Isaac found her crazed, making her new outfits. After a scuffle, Cruella would be left with the black streak in her hair from the magical ink and incapable to ever kill again.

In present day, Cruella works with Rumpelstiltskin's team of villains, and is shown to be the most brutal of them all, even making Rumpelstiltskin and Maleficent disturbed since they don't hurt children, while she is okay with it. Cruella kidnaped Henry, which Rumpelstiltskin was hoping for, leading to Emma killing Cruella, not knowing she could never kill anyone again.

Cruella returned in season five during the heroes trip into the underworld, where she'd briefly work with Henry, the new author trying to make him write her a new story, however he backed out of the deal seeing she didn't deserve it. Cruella attempted to take over the underworld when Hades was set to leave, whether she did it or not, is unclear since the underworld isn't shown again.

Descendants

Cruella was one of the villain parents in the first movie of the franchise, being the mother of Carlos. Her role is very small, only having a few lines, being played by Wendy Robinson.

Cruella

Cruella got her own movie in 2021, being the protagonist instead of villain. Estella was a troubled girl, who struggled to fit in, and had an eye for fashion. Her mother called her dark side Cruella. One night when Estella was chased by dalmatians, her mother was pushed off of a cliff by the dogs. Estella blamed herself believing it to be her fault, and would travel to the greater city of London, England. There she became allies with Jasper and Horace.

As adults, the three friends became family, looking out for each other on the streets of London. Jasper helped Estella get a job at a fashion store, which lead to the Baroness hiring her as a fashion designer. However she cracked under the pressure, becoming Cruella again, and embracing her inner demons. After learning the Baroness had killed her mother, she worked with her friends, Jasper, Horace, Anita, and Artie into taking the Baroness down. It was revealed that the Baroness was her birth mother, and simply passed her daughter onto her employee to be raised. Cruella pretended to skin her dogs into a coat, however didn't and simply kept the dogs as pets for herself. The team tricked Baroness into pushing Estella off the same cliff, only to have everyone watching, leading to the Baroness being arrested for her "murder" when Estella had used a parachute to land safely bellow. Estella fully embraced the name Cruella, leaving her old name and personality behind as the new fashion icon of London, inheriting her mother's empire. Cruella was played by Emma Stone.