![]() ![]() Netflix’s New Show Stars Matthew Broderick as Richard Sackler. Walter Hauser, thus far most recognized for playing unpleasant cronies and hapless losers, takes on a more himbo-esque role here, and ups his appeal by adding his own sidekick, Wink, a chihuahua who wears an eyepatch and, at a key point in the film, dons a rat costume that is adorable beyond words. Fry’s Jasper is the sensitive one, well-attuned to Cruella’s feelings as well as Horace’s, and willing to step up to tell Cruella that she’s being inconsiderate instead of stewing on it and growing resentful. Now, they’re played by Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser, who both make good cases for themselves as highly crushable. Their cartoon versions are pleasantly angular, sporting thick eyebrows and winningly color-coordinated ensembles, and in the live-action movies, they’re played by Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams, best known for playing a sexy doctor and the sweetest wizard in the world, respectively. Depending on who you ask, the argument can be made that they’ve always been hot. Making it even more painful to watch the pair get short-changed is this fact: Jasper and Horace are hot now. Rather, they’re a couple of sweeties just trying to keep up with their friend, making the way this plot thread is resolved-with Cruella offering an apology and then essentially going right back to bossing them around-feel particularly unsatisfying. They’re no longer thugs who harbor the same vicious streak as their boss. Second, we’ve spent most of the movie being nudged to care about these characters, with Jasper positioned almost as a romantic interest and Horace providing the comic relief. ![]() First, Cruella has taken the trouble of retconning Jasper and Horace into her bosom buddies rather than hired hands, so they haven’t exactly entered into this contract willingly. ![]() But it’s a little harder to stomach than in the previous movies adapted from Dodie Smith’s Dalmatians novels, for a few reasons. Her increasingly mean, downright exploitative behavior isn’t exactly unexpected, given how it tracks with how tyrannical we know Cruella will become when she’s older. However, as Cruella becomes more and more focused in her attempts to bring down the Baroness, she begins to take her two old pals for granted. Send me updates about Slate special offers. ![]()
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