AS the Cruella de Vil origin story hits the big screen, here are some other film villains who were misjudged rather than evil:
Miss Hannigan from Annie
Surrounded by boisterous seven year-olds without recourse to iPhones or episodes of Teen Titans Go!, who wouldn’t turn to booze and staggering around in a feather boa? Also, an unrecognised trailblazer of the small-batch artisan gin industry.
The Wicked Queen from Snow White
Tormented by a mirror and confronted constantly with a society that only values younger women, the Wicked Queen just needed a few cheerful girlfriends and a gung-ho webinar about dealing with the menopause.
The Joker from Batman
Nowadays if you’re bad at applying make-up, you have YouTube. The Joker didn’t have a Kardashian role model, or know anything about contouring. No wonder he wanted to watch the world burn.
Darth Vader from Star Wars
Struggling with chronic pain and respiratory illness while trying to hold down a job as chief enforcer for the Galactic Empire would make anyone want to telekinetically choke their annoying colleagues. Darth Vader deserves sympathy, not judgement.
Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter
Dealing with the endless bleating of privileged youth at a posh boarding school is enough to drive anyone to distraction, but imagine doing it while your soul is scattered across eight different locations. It would be like being a teacher after a very heavy weekend.
Hannibal Lecter from Hannibal
An early adopter of the sophisticated food/wine pairing, was Lecter really that different to Heston Blumenthal? OK, there was the murdering and sadism, but he was probably just annoyed that Waitrose hadn’t given him his own food range.