Cruella: DIY Viewing Party and Review

We’ve been looking forward to Cruella since it was announced… and since it’s been pushed off and pushed off, we are so thankful to say that it’s FINALLY HERE! We are not hating the direct-to-Disney+ trend for the new releases of Disney Movies. It will cost you $34.99 CDN (or $29.99 USD) for “Premier Access,” or you could wait until it’s free on the streaming service in a few months. For us, we would’ve gone to the theatre anyway, plus we like to support the studio. And really, it’s cheaper than us all going out as a family, and we can re-watch it as many times as we like! Let’s face it, with restrictions still in effect for many areas, there is not much to spend your money on entertainment wise.

If you know us, we love a good reason to throw a party and this was no exception! For some of our other ideas, check out our Mulan DIY, Star Wars Birthday Party, and our Disney Party for Boys posts!

DIY Cruella Decor

This might be the simplest theme we’ve ever had! You can stick with just everything black and white, or add a pop of red. Things from around the house work great, or head to your local Dollar Store and hit them up! I had my daughter draw spots on white cups with a Sharpie marker. It took about 10-15 min a cup (she’s a bit of a perfectionist), so maybe plan to do that a bit in advance!

 

DIY Cruella Food

Snacks:

For the snack bar, I literally just wandered our local grocery store looking for anything black and white. I was surprised by all of the options! The most obvious is anything Oreo/cookies and cream. I was going to make cookies and cream Rice Krispies, but my store had them so I picked those up! I found cookies and cream sticks, black and white candy, and then a black and white mix of dried fruit. 

Meal:

Black and white food items were hard to find! Thankfully I stumbled upon these “Zebra Bow Tie” pasta at Bulk Barn just in time! I’m not a huge clear sauce fan, so I went with a healthier version of an alfredo. We barbecued some chicken with some Montreal Chicken Spice, and threw on some vegetables (for health). We used black olives to garnish to bring in those Cruella vibes (but TBH, that was mostly for the ‘gram).

The alfredo sauce is a low-calorie recipe that I’ve tweaked over the years. The following is a single recipe, but for your reference I quadrupled it for this meal. I ended up with enough for leftovers, as well as enough to make an alfredo pizza! (Ooooo, come to think of it, there’s another great meal idea for a Cruella viewing!)

I recommend having the following ready to go before you start cooking, since it comes together quite quickly. Have a whisk on hand, and a pot that can handle whatever size recipe you’re planning on making.

• 1 T flour
• 1 T Becel (soft margarine)
• Garlic clove (one, minced)
• Salt (to taste)
• Lemon zest (to taste)
• 1 cup non fat milk
• 1-2 T low fat herb and garlic cream cheese OR one quarter herb and garlic boursin 

Melt the butter over medium heat. Once it has melted, add the flour, garlic and lemon zest. Whisk constantly for 1-2 minutes (to cook off the flour). Whisk in the milk. Continue whisking until combined.

Whisk often to avoid lumps. Allow sauce to thicken. Once it is nice and thick, add in the cheese. (You could also add in half a cup of parmesan.)

The sauce will thicken as it sits, so don’t panic if it seems a little thin.

Dessert:

For dessert I just HAD to make our signature: Beignets! I made the traditional beignet recipe that we always use. I crushed some Oreo cookies up and mixed them with icing sugar for the topping. As a dipper I used marshmallow fluff, with some boiling water to make it palatable. Then I added the crushed cookies (leaving some for the top as a garnish!). Fry them in batches, shake or roll them in the topping. For the one really dramatic beignet I used a black gel for one side and icing sugar for the other. Full recipe here!

Cruella de Vil Cream Puffs:

For the cream puffs I just made a basic choux pastry that I found on Allrecipes. It sounds really fancy but it only took me 15 mins to make the dough and pipe it onto a sheet pan. Next time I would just use a spoon; piping took longer and they looked like poo emojis. 

After they have cooled, melt dark chocolate and white chocolate in separate bowls. Use a knife to spread over the top. Half white, and half dark. 

Fillings:

• Instant chocolate pudding: make as directed and add 1/4 cup cocoa powder plus 1 tsp black food gel colouring. (I wanted the filling to be black and white but you could omit the food colouring if needed.)
• Sliced strawberries or raspberries 
• Whipped cream: I like to make my own with a little vanilla instant pudding to stabilize. 1 cup of heavy whipping cream to half a package of instant vanilla pudding. 

Drinks:

For drinks, once again think white, black and red. I did a Yuzu lemonade for white because it was on sale. Black is easy; Coca-Cola. And then we used Grenadine syrup for the red.

Alcoholic Option:

Raspberry Gin Sour

• 1-2 oz gin 
• 1 oz pure raspberry juice or puree
• 3/4 oz simple syrup 
• 3/4 oz lemon juice
• 1 oz pasteurized egg white

Place all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake well. The more you shake the foamier it will become. Strain into a glass and top with three raspberries and black sanding sugar for the “spots.” 

 

DIY Cruella DisneyBound

If you have wanted to get into DisneyBounding, this is an easy place to start! Do you have animal print? You can be Cruella! Even better if it’s zebra print or black and white leopard. I had this Forever 21 top that fit the bill perfectly. I paired it with black pants, but a pencil skirt would be a nice match as well. Red bottoms are another great option. (Remember, the best way to DisneyBound is to see what you already have in your closet!) I wish I had some faux fur to throw on as well, but alas, I do not. Pair with some killer heels and you are rocking the lewk.

Now the makeup is where this one lands in my wheelhouse. One of the TikTokers I follow did an amazing Cruella inspired look that got me pointed in the right direction, and then I made it more “me.” Smudge some red (or green) on your crease and clean up to “cut” the crease using a makeup wipe, or a bit of remover on a Q-tip. Layer on some white, and then polka dot with either black shadow on a small brush or with an eyeliner pencil. Then smoke the opposite colour that you used in the crease underneath the eye, and do a nice sharp black wing. Pair with a red lip and VOILA, a beautiful Cruella de Vil look!

I really like that you could put on some black and white, pair it with a red shoe, and call it a ‘Bound. I was able to put together a really simple look that most wouldn’t know is a ‘Bound. To make it obvious, find an Etsy shop with Cruella themed Mickey ears and you are good to go!

Cruella Movie Review

The recent string of Disney live actions have been so hit or miss that I just wasn’t sure what to expect. Plus, some critical reviews have been pretty brutal. Honestly, we loved it. Take note that it’s PG-13 and does have some darker moments. We found it to be compelling, really visually interesting and frankly the soundtrack alone was SO GOOD.

We loved…

This movie had a very distinct “Devil Wears Prada” vibe. It was like Devil Wears Pravda meets Oceans 11 to us. Kind of loved it. The fashion in the movie was really fun, and I have always loved Emma Stone. I loved how she even changed her voice! She was the star of the film, along with Emma Thompson, who also did an amazing job. The set design was perfection, as were the costume designs. One thing I noticed was that the Baroness’ “signature colour” seemed to be green while Cruella’s was red. On the colour wheel these are opposites and I can’t help but wonder if that was intentional. 

At one point Cai (Elisia’s oldest, who is 6) and Lexie (my youngest, who is 8) had a hilarious exchange… Lexie: “Now that’s funny!” Cai: “Dogs are the best!”

We didn’t love…

This is a looooong movie with some slow parts. The character development is quite excellent (for my fellow English teachers). Our younger kids stayed really interested for about an hour, were squirrely for the middle, and came back around for the ending. I wanted to get the oil ready for the beignets near the end of the movie, so when I thought “surely it must be over soon” we checked and there was still 43 MINUTES LEFT!! For the life of me I don’t know why it was as long as it was… but I’m still glad I watched it! I did note that it was a long movie but felt it went by so quickly because the movie was so captivating for me personally. 

My one criticism (besides being too long) is that everything was really realistic except that she was born with black and white hair. I wish they had explained it a bit better. This didn’t bother me as she did mention she was born to stick out. She had the hair right from birth which is possible but not probable (coming from a hairstylist). When she brought the black and white look back we had questions as to whether she dyed it back or used a wig. After watching a bit more we understood it to be a wig since she was switching a bit. It also bugged me that when she dyed her hair red it was came out perfectly even despite having half black and half white to start. Like, come on. 

Final thoughts…

My husband and I personally loved how they fleshed out her backstory, and unlike similar movies such as “Maleficent,” they really weren’t trying to make you like her or simply cast her as just “misunderstood.” At one point she said, “Everyone loves to hate the villain,” or something along those lines, which I thought was true and interesting. In the end, it was a compelling story, and they did a great job at giving a REASON for why she was the way she was, and why she hates Dalmatians so much. Overall, I would highly recommend it and can’t wait to watch it again!

Did you watch this weekend or are you waiting for it to come on Disney+ without the premium price? As always, we’d love to hear from you!

Have a magical day!
Erica, Heidi, Elisia and Danielle