The Cruel in Cruella

I got to go to the movies again recently (one of my favourite past-times in the whole world!!) and was struck by so many thingsβthe fabulous acting, the out-of-this-world wardrobe design and styling, the crisp and dynamic cinematography/narrative flow, the absolutely killer soundtrack ... but more so than anything, I was deeply moved by the mere *presence* of it all. The energy embodied by the characters, and consequently evoked within me, throughout this creative masterpiece were, simply put, nothing short of awe-inspiring (and I'm talking Old Testament/wrath-of-God kind of awe here, folks). But what is this film actually about? We're almost all familiar with the original 1961 Disney classic "101 Dalmatians" (and, perhaps to a lesser extent, its live-action adaptation from 1996), but this newly vamped-up version seriously takes the meaning of "De Vil" to a whole new level. This version is dark, it's intense, and for the first time since Disney took it ...