Cruella de Vil

Cruela de Vil Estella von Hellman

Born in the 1950s to the Baron and Baroness von Hellman, the former overjoyed and the latter furious at the thought of paying more attention to another living being than herself, Estella was born with a noticeable feature: her hair was parted equally as black and white. On the day of Estella's birth, the Baron was away on business, and his wife took advantage of this. The Baroness ordered her butler John to kill Estella, not wanting the responsibility of caring for the child, but John instead secretly gave the child, as well as a necklace and the key to a box containing documents revealing her true parentage, to the maid Katherine so that she could live and be raised in a loving home. The Baroness lied to her father that she had miscarried, causing the Baron to die of a broken heart.

Catherine ran away from the Baroness's home and raised Estella to be a polite and kind young woman who kept her head down and hid her talents to a reasonable extent from the world. However, this became difficult during Estella's time at school, where she was bullied and often got into fights, culminating in her headmaster eventually expelling her before he could officially announce it, however, Catherine told him that she was taking her out of school by choice. Catherine planned to take Estella to London, and the two decided to come up with a plan for the future once they arrived. However, before heading to the city, Catherine decided to stop at the Baroness's mansion to ask for financial support, first removing her necklace and giving it to Estella so that the Baroness would not realize the girl's true heritage. Noticing what house they were in, Estella decided to look around and watch the Baroness' party before eventually being caught by John thanks to her canine pal running loose. While John tried to sneak Estella out of the mansion unnoticed, the Baroness's Dalmatians soon spotted her and began

Dalmatian print to trick the Baroness into thinking that she had skinned her dogs. While the night seemed like a success and Cruella took great pride in humiliating the Baroness, the victory was ultimately short-lived, as the latter spotted Jasper and Horace walking home and assumed that her goons were holding them off, planning to frame the brothers for Cruella's upcoming murder. It was here that Cruella realized what a monster the Baroness truly was, and it took her some time to even remember who Cruella's mother was, as well as expressing zero remorse for not only killing her, but for what she was about to do to Cruella. She set the house on fire and fled the scene, falsely alerting the police to Jasper and Horace. Cruella, though with the help of Buddy in an attempt to escape, eventually passed out from smoke inhalation, though was secretly saved by John.

After receiving her inheritance, Cruella sends Dalmatian puppies to Anita for her help and to the Baroness's former lawyer Roger, now a songwriter, as an apology for getting him fired. After they are given the dogs, Roger writes a song named after her.

As a child, Estella was initially tough, blunt, and confident, not afraid to speak her mind or fight to defend herself, however, after her mother's death and out of a desire to live her life the way she wanted, Estella became rather meek, shy, and passive as a teenager, though still possessing an undeniable amount of intelligence. As the film progresses, as Estella learns more about what really happened to her adoptive mother, she becomes more confident and assertive again, and fully embraces the identity of Cruella De Vil.

As Cruella, she was sadistic and ruthless, but also quite playful and eccentric, with an over-the-top manner of speaking, and became much more bossy and rude than before. She was eventually cast out of a desire for revenge, and although she was upset when she learned of her true heritage and her adoptive mother's deception, she softened out of love for her and still set her sights on her biological mother, the Baroness, whom she grew to hate as the film progressed. Cruella was a highly intelligent, creative, pragmatic, and quick-witted individual, who managed to stay one step ahead of the Baroness for most of the film due to her intelligence.

Despite her negative traits, Cruella still had more redeeming qualities than any other version of her. She genuinely cared for Jasper and Horace, and considered them her closest friends and only family. She also managed to maintain several friendships and get along well with others, such as Artie, Anita, and eventually John when she learns of his true intentions.

Estella was a slender and tall woman with beautiful features and green eyes. Her skin was very pale, and this was evident when she fully embraced herself as Cruella with her makeup, which was very bold and bright, with her preference for black, white, and red. Like Estella, she sometimes wore glasses, although she seemed to have decent enough vision without them.

Like Estella and Cruella, she had a keen eye for fashion and almost always wore incredibly extravagant, distinctive and loud outfits with her usual black, white and red motifs. Throughout the film, she wears 47 different outfits.

Estella was born with her hair parted down the middle into black and white, and kept it this way for most of her childhood until she met Jasper and Horace, when she decided to dye her hair red to distance herself from her original personality. After adopting the persona of Cruella, she decided to let her hair return to its natural black and white form.