Villains in Disney are often introduced in dramatic ways, such as Scar being confronted by Mufasa not attending the celebration for Simba, Ursula observing through her crystal ball, but none are as flamboyant and musical as Cruella De Vil. When she arrives, Roger gets a flash of genius and introduces her through a song he wrote, also teasing his wife Anita. With Perdita hiding, fearful of the “devil woman” as she calls her, Roger goes up the stairs singing his new song, and proceeding into the most memorable trolling moment in Disney animated history.
Starting with the piano, then the trumpet, and finally the trombone. Stomping his feet, playing his instruments loudly, and interrupting the conversation between Cruella and Anita, we can tell he doesn’t like to deal with her, and mocks her with the song, in a very catchy, yet jazzy song. Something that irritates his wife, and their guest. (He could stand to clean his mancave; although it seems he can play more instruments. Talented guy.) He doesn’t approve of her, and he’s letting his wife know of his feelings on her old classmate. Sure, we can comment on how he leaves Cruella to his wife, but at the end of the day, it’s Anita’s responsibility to establish her own boundaries with her old friend, which she fails at doing.
When Nanny opens the door to Cruella, she enters quite rudely, shoving the lovely elderly woman behind the door, making demands, being the worst kind of guest. She should also consider getting a plastic surgeon, because Yzma looks better and healthier, especially since she’s Anita’s age, and Yzma is likely in her 50s. Anita tries to be a gracious hostess, but Cruella just wants to find the puppies, which aren’t born yet, leaving Pongo unimpressed by both the woman who has ill intentions, his wife running and hiding from her, and all the stench Cruella is leaving behind. Anita distracting Cruella with her fur probably saved Cruella’s hand from being promptly removed from the walking corpse’s body, as Pongo looked like he was about to jump at her, as he was growling at her. She has very little respect for everyone there. The way she puts out her cigarette on the cupcake should tell us all we need to know about how she feels, and all she sees puppies or any other animals for.
Once Cruella leaves, disappointed by the lack of canines, Roger comes down, continuing the mocking song, exaggerating her mannerisms, until he reaches down the stairs to his annoyed wife, Anita. He then starts dancing in a flirtatious and playful manner, that she denies weakly that she doesn’t like his behaviour. This ends with him cornering her against the wall, giving her a hickey, and her returning it with a giggle, and a playful “Oh Roger, you really are an idiot.”
This shows us a major look into their romantic and family life. Roger cares very much for his wife, and he has a very boyish side to him that brings out mischief and trolling, sometimes even trolling his wife, which she, in turn, actually likes when he does so. Oftentimes, this kind of boyishness in men shows that they genuinely care, and come over to tease their wife in a kind-hearted manner.
And yet, we also see Roger’s point of view on Cruella through his instruments. First off, we see him playing the piano and stamping his foot loudly. The piano is a symbol of luxury, wealth and social status. He looks at her, and sees a woman who cares about her own wealth. We then see the double bass next to the piano, which he does not touch at all during this scene. This instrument represents passion, vitality, stability, strength, creativity, rhythm and dedication. This shows that he scorns all of this from her, saying that she lacks any of these traits, and denies them. The next instrument he plays is the trumpet, which is also an alarm of war, a command to march, which tells us that he’s going really over the top, displaying that he has declared war against her, which the dogs need to consider. Lastly, we have the trombone that represents God or supernatural phenomena, and the voice of God, also used in Mozart’s song, Requiem, announcing the final judgment. This displays how she will get her comeuppance. Overall, this says that he sees her as an enemy to his family, and declares war on her, in the way a boy would.
By dehumanizing her, comparing her to a spider waiting for the kill, a creepy stalker that constantly keeps her eyes on her target, even a vampire bat and inhuman beast who should be locked up, we are to agree with Roger on how to view the walking corpse that imposes herself upon the family, he is also trying to tell Anita, in his own way through music, that she should not associate herself with Cruella, trying to dehumanize her in his wife’s eyes in a very humorous way. And the way he goes teasing his wife, and in the end being rather flirty and tender, shows his priorities in his life. And the energy Anita has with Cruella present, seems forced and polite, but when Cruella leaves, she falls to her seat letting out a deep sigh, only for her to throw her husband a dirty look when he comes down, and suddenly she has a lot more energy.
Roger loves Anita, and he wants to fight for her, but Anita needs to find it in her to say no to Cruella. And he can’t fight all her battles. He can support her, he can reassure her… He can even declare war on her behalf. But it’s up to her to say “No. Get out of my house.” But she is caught up in the sentimentality of their school days, even if she doesn’t like Cruella being around. It took the puppies being stolen for her to realize that she can’t let someone like Cruella walk all over her, something Roger didn’t like. She even mocked and laughed whenever the topic of Roger came up in front of Anita, mocking his career choice as a musician, and treating him with no respect whatsoever. It’s only when the puppies came, and Roger told Cruella they were not selling her the puppies, that Anita also stood up for herself, pleased to see her old schoolmate gone. It may have been hard for him to say that, even through stuttering later on, but in a way, the fact that Anita didn’t try hard to stand up for him when Cruella would laugh mockingly of her husband shows it took her some time to truly choose her husband, rather than past sentimentality, and try to please everyone. She needed to learn that she shouldn’t have been disrespected in her own home, and if it takes your musician husband to play the trumpet and trombone to chase her out of the house, then good for her.
I miss when Disney had good villains! Kinda sick of the whole “twist villain” thing they do now
Thanks for the earworm.