Once Upon a Time, "Heroes and Villains": 101 Dalmatians is Not a Fairy Tale

I know, I know, neither is Frankenstein.  But it's still a bit out of left field.  Here's where you say, "Did you not see the previews?  You knew Cruella was coming."  And you know what?  I did see the previews.  I guess I thought that there was going to be some kind of explanation as to what realm she came from, instead of her just popping in next to Maleficent and Ursula.  Two powerful magical creatures and...a rich lady who likes making coats out of dogs.  Someone is clearly not pulling their weight in the evil trio.

This is the result of Disney execs frantically searching their rogues' gallery for three recognizable femmes fatales, instead of going for magical and recognizable regardless of gender (Facilier, much?) or going for magical and female, regardless of pop culture cred, in which case they could have gone with...

The magnificent, marvelous, mad Madam Mim!

Who is that, you ask?  Well, young'uns, Madam Mim is an evil witch from 1963's The Sword in the Stone.  I'm too young to have caught it's actual theatrical release, but I am just ancient enough to have watched it when Disney released it as a VHS tape in a puffy case (80's babies know what I'm talking about.  They all came in puffy cases 'cause every Disney movie was a precious classic).  She has a really cool magic battle with Merlin--

Cut that out, imaginary youthful reader!  Anyway, where was I?  Magic?  Check.  Disney character?  Check.  Female?  Check.  Evil?  Check.  Instantly recognizable to the 18-35 demographic?  Oops.  Ah, well.  Can't blame them, really.  It's just that skinning dogs for outerwear is a really limited skill set, especially in the Enchanted Forest where I suspect there isn't much call for that sort of thing.

Unless, of course,  they just make Cruella magical.

Oh. 

Oh dear.

That's what they're going to do, isn't it?