Cruella is on Disney Plus: How to watch Disney’s new live-action movie

“Cruella de Vil, Cruella de Vil, if she doesn’t scare you, no evil thing will!” After months of COVID-19-related delays, Disney’s new live-action prequel Cruella, starring Emma Stone, is finally streaming on Disney Plus and you can also watch the film in movie theaters.

The film reveals Cruella de Vil’s origin story and shows what she was like before the events of the classic tale The Hundred and One Dalmatians, which was originally published as a novel in 1956. The story has been twice adapted for the silver screen: first as an animated film in 1961 and then as a live-action movie with Jeff Daniels and Glenn Close in 1996. Stone’s version of Cruella de Vil breathes new life into the iconically evil villain with real punk rock revolution energy. 

If you’re itching to see the movie, keep reading for everything you need to know about how to watch Cruella.

Cruella: How and when to watch

Due to delays caused by the pandemic, Cruella’s release date moved from Christmas to May 28, 2021. Disney fans can see it in the movie theater 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 without the extra Premier Access 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 Cruella will “take us back” to the villain’s younger years.

“It’s 1970s, set in London,” Oscar winner Emma 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 London as an aspiring fashion designer. “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, written for the movie. It’s a bit of an update since Roger’s piano-based song from the original cartoon, showing more of the “crazy” villain scrubbing floors and attending fashionable events.