Animation
Trickster · Animation
Cruella de Vil
No magic, no army, just a coat she wants very badly
Attribute scores
Power26
Intellect60
Menace68
Fear factor66
Cultural impact88
Charisma90
Editorial estimates on a 0–100 scale, calibrated against every other character in the index. Not official canon.
Who they are
Cruella is a wealthy socialite who wants a fur coat made from puppies, and that is the entire plot. She has no powers, no plan beyond hiring two incompetent men, and yet she is genuinely unsettling because her motive is pure consumption. The character is drawn as all cigarette smoke and jagged limbs, and she drives like the road is a personal insult.
Defining traits
Enormous wealthObsessive fixationReckless drivingExplosive temperComplete indifference to consequences
What makes them dangerous
She has money, no scruples, and there is no law she cannot simply pay her way around.
And what undoes them
She is impulsive to the point of self-destruction and cannot delegate to competent people.
Things you might not know
- The film used a new photocopying process for the animation, which is why the linework looks sketchier than earlier features.
- Her name is a straightforward pun that the original novelist chose deliberately.
- Animator Marc Davis, who also designed Maleficent, built her as the opposite extreme: chaotic and ungraceful.
Why number 16 in Animation & Anime
No magic and no army, just money and a genuinely unpleasant desire. The animation gives her a jagged physicality nobody has replicated.
If you like this villain
Animation
Bill Cipher
Gravity Falls · 2012
A floating triangle that is far worse than it looks
Threat index 87
Comics