UPDATE: May 28, 2021 This article was originally published as part of Mashable’s Villain Week in 2018, back when ‘Cruella’ was in early development and Disney+ wasn’t even a thing. We’ve updated the following to fit the times, but kept all the great literary details in for you to enjoy.
Believe it or not, 101 Dalmatians can get way darker than puppy murder — a disturbing fact that could have made Disney’s Emma Stone-starring prequel a bonafide R-rated affair.
In Dodie Smith’s original 1956 telling, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Cruella de Vil isn’t an overworked fashionista out for revenge. Sure, she is like Stone’s take on Cruella in that she is a spiteful smart-ass with an affinity for showmanship and haute couture.
But the origin story Smith hints at is far darker than what we see in Cruella, including everything from grim descriptions of animal torture to accusations of the mass murder of humans.
Read on for the original Cruella de Vil origin story, but take heed: This stuff isn’t for puppies.
1. Cruella is related to a serial killer
Here’s a fact the original Disney animated children’s film wisely left out.
According to Smith’s telling, Hell Hall, the large Suffolk manor where the puppies are kept after being kidnapped, has always been property of the De Vil family. It was originally owned by a man believed by villagers to be a serial killer.
Loosely implied to be Cruella’s grandfather, the fearsome ancestor terrified locals who heard screaming coming from his home late at night and “began to count their children.” It’s explained that the town believed this man captured victims whom he would later torture and kill at Hell Hall. Cruella reclaims the house at the time of the events in 101 Dalmatians.
2. Or she might be a descendant of the devil
What’s worse than having a mass murderer for a grandpa? Well, him being an actual demon might do the trick.
Villagers in the novel also claimed the De Vil ancestor had a tail and supernatural powers. When they came to Hell Hall to confront the supposed murderer and burn down his farm house, a “terrific thunderstorm” came out of nowhere and extinguished their torches. Then, the man emerged from the home with bolts of “blue forked lightning” coming from his body. The villagers ran away terrified and the alleged demon was never seen again.
Admittedly, these rumored murders and supposed demonic qualities were reported by an Old English Sheepdog. But “The Colonel” is canonically trustworthy. So, if anyone would know, it’s him.
Image: walt disney productions
3. Cruella has a creepy relationship with fire (and weirdly, pepper)
The demon ancestry makes even more sense in the context of Cruella’s other quirks in the novel.
Throughout the story, Cruella — wearing her “absolutely simple white mink coat” — is constantly cold. She insists on stoking fires in her home round the clock and demonically stares into the flames of a bakery fire at one point.
She also puts an unreal amount of pepper on everything she eats, including some unidentifiable meat she serves the Dearlys. It makes everything so spicy that one of the puppies, Lucky, says she “tasted hot” when he bit her. Talk about ruff rough.
4. And a history of murdering kittens
44 of them to be exact. Yeah, not awesome for cat lovers.
In the novel, Cruella has a white Persian cat she keeps for its value, but generally seems to abuse her pet along with her other four-legged victims. Specifically, Cruella boasts that each time the cat gets pregnant, she drowns her kittens one by one. Her kitten body count rounds out at 44.
Thankfully, the Dearlys adopt the cat at the novel’s end and promise to find her a husband. So there is some reprieve from this horror, but it takes a, uh, minute or two.
5. She considered having the puppies cannibalize each other
This is 100% true and 100% horrifying. When Cruella decides to kill off the puppies earlier than anticipated in the novel, her henchmen are unsure how to approach the task. So she suggests locking the pups in a room without food so they would be forced to eat each other. Eat each other.
Why doesn’t she go through with this heinous plan, you might ask? Because it would take too long. Good lord, someone put on Air Bud. I am not OK.
Image: Disney enterprises
6. Turns out, Cruella has always been this way
According to Anita Dearly, Cruella has always been this atrocious. The two went to school together, but were hardly friends considering Anita describes being terrified of her. Their acquaintance was ultimately cut short by Cruella’s expulsion. She was caught drinking ink. Gag.
7. And her husband is just cool with all of it
Yep, this woman is married. Mr. De Vil — he took her last name and the novel doesn’t include his first — is a furrier (aka an old-timey animal skin collector.) Building Cruella a fur empire, he speaks very little and seems to obey her every command. The novel likens him to her abused white cat.
At the story’s end, when the two are run out of town, Mr. De Vil is forced to go into the production of raincoats. It’s a fitting punishment…I guess?
Cruella is now in theaters and available for Premier Access subscribers on Disney+.