Cruella is now on Disney Plus: How to watch this weekend

Disney’s Cruella has finally sashayed into theaters and onto streaming service Disney Plus. The live-action film breathes new life into the iconically evil villain of 101 Dalmatians.

This version of Cruella de Vil, played by Emma Stone, has a very punk-rock energy. The film gives Cruella an origin story, showing what she was like before the events of the classic tale The Hundred and One Dalmatians, first published as a novel in 1956 and adapted for the silver screen twice, first as an animated film in 1961 and as a live action movie with Glenn Close and Jeff Daniels in 1996. 

Ready to watch Cruella? Here’s everything you need to know.

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. If you’re not prepared to shell out extra cash, the movie will become available 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 villain’s younger years.

“It’s 1970s, set in London,” Stone said in the video. “It’s punk rock. A great cast.”

A new trailer in February 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.