Will 'A Quiet Place 2' and 'Cruella' Start Summer Movie Season With a Sizzle?
A few weeks ago, there was every reason to be skeptical about Cruella. The creative track record for live-action remakes of Disney animated films was middling to dismal (the only one of the recent wave I thought worked was The Lion King, and most critics would say Im dead wrong on that one). And this wasnt even a remake of the winsome 1961 cartoon One Hundred and One Dalmatians (we got that top-heavy mediocrity in 1996, presaging Disneys recent strip-mining of its own past). The new film was to be an idiosyncratic spin-off origin story, clocking in at two hours and 14 minutes. But as audiences have been discovering, Cruella isnt just better than you might have expected. Its a mordantly witty and rousing delight: the definition of how to make an IP franchise movie with a touch of soul, a kiddie movie that adults can revel in, and  most astonishingly  a Disney movie thats darkly insolent enough to tickle your punk funny bone. As the mainstream movie world returns to life, here are six thoughts on the minor miracle of Cruella.