Cruella on Disney Plus: How to watch this weekend - CNET

cruella-disney-plus — Emma Stone as Cruella in the live-action 101 Dalmatians prequel.
Walt Disney Studios

Cruella has sashayed into theaters (and onto streaming service Disney Plus), as Disney's latest live-action film breathes new life into the iconically evil villain of the 101 Dalmatians story.

This version of Cruella de Vil, played by Emma Stone, has a more punk-rock energy, and the movie's set to be an anarchic comedy. It follow young Cruella in an origin story taking place prior to the events of classic tale The Hundred and One Dalmatians, a 1956 novel which first hit screens as an animated film in 1961 and was adapted into live action with Glenn Close and Jeff Daniels in 1996.

Cruella: How and when to watch

Due to delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Cruella's release date moved from Christmas to May 28, 2021. You can see it in both movie theaters or via paid Premier Access on Disney Plus now, with the movie coming to all Disney Plus subscribers for no extra fee on Aug. 27.

Until it's more widely available, accessing the movie in Premier Access will cost an additional $30 on top of your monthly bill for Disney's streaming service.

The plot and trailers: What's it all about?

In August 2019, at Disney's D23 event, a video from Stone and Emma Thompson -- who were filming the movie at the time -- said the film will "take us back" to the younger years of the villain.

"It's 1970s, set in London," Stone said in the video. "It's punk rock. A great cast."

A new trailer in February this year showed Cruella as a young woman trying to make it in the fashion world in London. "I was born brilliant, born bad and a little bit mad," Stone says in voiceover. The trailer shows Dalmatians growling at her, Cruella speeding around in a vintage car, and the villainess setting things on fire.

Cast and crew: Who's in it?

Here's the main cast:

Emma Stone as Cruella de Vil
Emma Thompson as the Baroness
Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Anita Darling
Kayvan Novak as Roger
Joel Fry as Jasper
Paul Walter Hauser as Horace
Mark Strong as John the valet

The new Cruella de Vil song

Here's the Florence and the Machine song Call Me Cruella for the movie -- a bit of an update since Roger's 1960s piano-based song from the original cartoon -- showing more of the "crazy" villain scrubbing floors and attending fashionable events.