What Cruella Gets WRONG About Mental Disorders (VIDEO SCRIPT)

So not only is this like...the fourth time Disney revealed their first openly gay character in a movie

But his queerness is once again limited in ways that doesn’t require the studio to feel like they need to edit any of his scenes out in order for the film to do well at international box office sales. (Pauses and huffs) It’s the same old song and dance every time, and I’m SO fucking tired...

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I’m not gonna lie, Readers. I was NOT expecting the movie I ended up getting when I watched Disney’s Cruella.

I mean, yes; I anticipated that this would be an alternate universe take to the rise of the Disney villain outside of how she’s depicted in the animated movies and the Glenn Close movie before this one.

But instead of how they were inspired by Wicked to make Maleficent, I and countless others considering how the trailer looked thought Disney was gonna go the route of Todd Phillips Joker

/But what I saw instead was a pretty decent mix of The Devil Wears Prada and Ocean’s Eleven as far as the story, surprising yet refreshing takes of the original characters from 101 Dalmations, and...an absolutely HILARIOUS trauma trigger for Cruella that they 100% took seriously, oh my GOD/

Okay. So...there will OBVIOUSLY be spoilers for 2021’s Cruella in this video. So if you want to watch the movie before watching the rest of it, PLEASE do so.

But for everyone else, trust me; I was just as surprised as you were when I saw that they ACTUALLY WENT with the decision of having Estella’s adopted mother Catherine get killed by Dalmations at the behest of the movie’s human villain, the Baroness von Hellman.

But if the movie treats it as a serious traumatic trigger for Estella’s eventual mental break into fully forming the persona that eventually becomes Cruella de Vil by the end of the movie, then so do I.

And while it’s not NECESSARILY the main critique I have with the film, it does play a factor into the initial problem I DO have with Disney’s Cruella. And that’s pretty much how far the narrative goes to explore the genesis of Estella-slash-Cruella’s battle with her mental health in ways that do more harm than good.

You see, over the course of the movie -- even when we see her as a child -- we see Estella display over the course of the movie symptoms of Bipolar Disorder, and this was even BEFORE  Catherine met her untimely demise.

And part of the reason is a line of dialogue stated by Estella that’s both in the trailers and the movie itself:

/Brilliant, bad, and a little bit mad/

Of course this is alluding to her villainous nature as it was conceived in every iteration of the character before this more anti-hero approach. But in watching the movie from beginning to end, you can tell that the “little bit mad” portion is referring to her -- while exaggerated in order to display her villainous roots -- showing symptoms usually associated with the at the time unnamed Bipolar Disorder.

We saw bits of it from her as a child when she was destructive and Catherine established the Cruella persona within her as a way of keeping it in check...

But it wasn’t until after Estella unearthed said persona in order to distract the Baroness in the failed necklace heist -- the one in which she had the mental break upon learning Catherine’s death WASN’T her fault, but von Hellman’s -- that we see her start to spiral into both extreme and exaggerated takes of a lot of the symptoms usually associated with the mania of Bipolar 1.

/Anger and irritability. Excessive energy and restlessness. High self-esteem. Reckless behavior. All symptoms usually associated with the diagnosis of Bipolar 1/

And while she doesn’t really experience a lot of the symptoms usually associated with Bipolar 2 -- the ones usually linked to depression...

/The shift in her state from the initial trigger of the dog whistle clearly negatively affects Horace and Jasper once the mania is in high gear/ (I miss Estella)

Now if this was all there was to it, what we saw throughout Estella’s episode regarding her actions against the Baroness would’ve been more acceptable as a display of a character suffering from Bipolar Disorder.

After all, the movie took place in London’s punk rock movement of the 1970’s and while there was always history of it tracing back to the mid 1800’s, Bipolar Disorder as we know it wasn’t properly documented and diagnosed until the 1980’s; roughly 10 years after the movie takes place.

Plus, we have to keep in mind that this is an AU telling of an origin story for a Disney villain.

/The only traces of depression they were probably EVER going to properly feature regarding Bipolar 2 were the ones that would make her appear sympathetic near the beginning of the film. Symptoms like low self esteem, which -- to be fair -- is a trademark feel-bad trait most protagonists have in stories like this nowadays./

Then we get the chance to see the TRUE colors of the Baroness -- played brilliantly by Emma Thompson channeling her inner Meryl Streep, we LOVE to see it.

We see that she constantly displays the symptoms of another mental illness related to Antisocial Personality Disorder; previously known as psychopathy.

/She has a disregard for right and wrong. She’s callous, cynical and disrespectful of others. She uses her wit to manipulate others for personal gain. She’s arrogant and has a strong sense of superiority. She’s prone to hostility and violence when things don’t go her way. And most importantly, she lacks empathy for and has little to no remorse about harming others./

Now I say that last bit is the most important -- specifically when it comes to this movie -- because not only does the Baroness blowing her dog whistle trigger Estella to enter the state of mania we see her in over the course of the second act of the movie, showing us that she was, in fact, responsible for the death of Catherine...

/But it also plays a factor into when we find out that the Baroness is actually Estella’s birth mother and had the intention of having her killed at birth so she could focus on her career./

Now, obviously, that’s some notorious shit. However, with this reveal, we run into the ethical problem that the movie tends to heavily lean into once Estella learns about her true heritage.

/Because once this revelation is made, the movie implies that Estella is the way that she is specifically because the Baroness is her mother. Not once, but twice./

Now the reason why this is possibly problematic is because while it has been proven that many mental illnesses are hereditary -- such as autism and adhd -- mental DISORDERS like Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder are a different matter most of the time.

Yes, there is a possibility that the child of a parent with Bipolar Disorder can, in fact, ALSO inherit Bipolar Disorder. But whether someone gains a mental disorder is a mixture of genetics and environmental factors.

Despite triggers existing, there’s no real switch inside a person’s mind that can be turned on to suddenly activate it...

While at the same time, the chances of someone not gaining such a disorder on a genetic scale alone start at 99 out of 100, with one parent reducing that ratio of their child not getting it to 90 out of 100 if they themselves have the disorder.

What I’m saying is that at the end of the day, trying to pinpoint how mental disorders are passed down on a genetic scale is still a work in progress and something that even as this video is playing, people smarter than both you and me are trying to figure it out.

And so far, one of the things that HAVE been discovered about Bipolar Disorder is that it is, in fact, linked with the likes of Schizophrenia, and both clinical depression and anxiety, and that those can genetically affect family members as separate entities.

What HASN’T been discovered, however, is that if any other mental disorders similar but not related to Bipolar Disorder can develop in a child from a parent with a disorder outside of that immediate family...

/Just like how Disney’s Cruella implies that Estella developed her Bipolar Disorder from her biological mother, who suffers from Antisocial Personality Disorder/

And there within lies the problem with Cruella and how it handles this topic. The science as of right now does NOT back up the claim the movie is making regarding the role genetics play in mental disorders

And for a movie like Cruella to IMPLY the case its making, even to show a link between Estella and the Baroness’ mental state other than just being her mother, is not only HIGHLY irresponsible regarding the credibilities we’ve made regarding breaking through the barriers of mental health, but is also subconsciously sexist.

It feeds into the patriarchal excuses men have regarding women as a whole being mentally and emotionally unstable. Men who purposefully stereotype against women of a specific ethnicity or culture, or lazily claim that certain women they’ve experienced are the way that they are because “their mother is/was crazy.”

Now does the connection between Cruella and the Baroness make for a compelling plot about revenge? Absolutely. Does that make it right to treat a mental disorder as such in order to obtain it? Absolutely not.

And this isn’t me saying that I think villains shouldn’t be the victims of mental disorders, either. This is me saying that if you’re going to go that angle, then you need to be responsible and do the appropriate amount of research in order for it to be properly depicted.

Otherwise you’re going to do more harm than good regarding how certain mental illnesses work, and people will base it more around the fiction rather than the fact

If you want a good resource regarding how to tackle mental illnesses and disorders in fiction and even in video games, I HIGHLY recommend Hello Future Me’s video essays he did on the subject about a year ago. I’ll have links for both of the videos in the description box down below.

But nevertheless Readers, your homework assignment for the day:

Write in the comment section below what you thought of Disney’s Cruella if you’ve seen it.

Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, a film you’ve seen -- recent or otherwise -- that tried to take on mental disorders in their own unique way that might’ve unintentionally dropped the ball in some way, shape or fashion

Get it? Fashion? Because...Because Cruel... I-I’m sorry...

Whichever question you decide to answer, I’d LOVE to know your thoughts.