While the rest of the movie pretty much stunk, Glenn Close's performance in the 1996 live action 101 Dalmations is, and forever will be the ideal interpretation of Cruella. She was brilliant bringing the character's story to life. Nobody can top her performance, and yes, I know that's a bold statement to make blindly before seeing this upcoming movie. But I just find it highly improbable they can create a better Cruella than Ms. Close did. If they want to cast her again as Cruella, then I'll give it a chance.
And for crying out loud, quit trying to make all the villains have a "misunderstood" background. Sometimes there are just bad people out there. That's a lesson kids need to learn. Not every story needs to be altered or sugarcoated with the whole "misunderstood; poor me" concept. Granted, there are a few characters in the Disney villain library who could *possibly* be rekindled as misunderstood without butchering how they were originally developed (Ratcliffe, Lady Tremaine, Shere Khan...), but not Maleficent, the self-proclaimed mistress of all evil. That was blasphemy to the character & the classic animated film. The same with Cruella. She's cruel. She's a devil. It's in her name. So don't sugarcoat & ruin another villain's backstory who's meant to be just that, a villain.
End rant.
