The Last Ride to Santa Cruz 

Cruella De Vil, the iconic character from the classic 1961 Disney movie ( Cruella movie based on book "The Hundred and One Dalmatians"(1956)  by Dodie Smith of the same name), is the latest villain to receive the origin story treatment. For Disney, the recent trend of rebooting or retelling some of their classics has been met with mixed responses, but much box office success. Everything from Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella to the more recent Dumbo and The Lion King has been dug up from the Disney vault and redone. In some of these cases, we get twists on the story, some a verbatim copy and paste (looking at you, Lion King.)  

Additionally, Disney has also given some of its most popular villains origin stories. Namely, Maleficent got two solo films in which the iconic character from Sleeping Beauty was given a rewrite. Now, it is Ms. De Vil herself getting a new origin story.

This isn't the first time the character has been portrayed in the flesh. Glenn Close played the character marvelously in the remake 101 Dalmatians in 1996 and its sequel 102 Dalmatians in 2000. This time, it's Emma Stone portraying the infamous, Dalmatian-crazed villain.

What immediately separates Cruella from any other Disney origin story thus far is how dark the film dares to go. Director Craig Gillespie doesn't shy away from how brutal Cruella's beginnings really are. Perhaps the biggest difference between this film and the others in the recent line of retellings is that Cruella dares to be its own film and a brilliant one at that.

Firstly, Emma Stone is phenomenal in the title character role. Stone has demonstrated over the years she truly is a gifted young actress, doing everything from a teen comedy with Easy A, to stylish period pieces in The Favourite, and of course, her Oscar winning performance in the musical La La Land. Here, Stone masterfully plays the iconic villain. Stone makes her sympathetic, yet scary and devilish.  She never attempts to emulate the animated character, nor Close's portrayal, but instead creates a new Cruella that is recognizable but still her own character. She's absolutely brilliant as Cruella, creating an iconic version of the already iconic character.