101 Dalmatians: Cruella Returns is a chapter book based on the 101 Dalmatians: The Series episodes "You Slipped a Disk", "Leisure Lawsuit", "The Cone", and "Snow Bounders".
Synopsis[]
The story is more of a telling of the episodes: "You Slipped a Disk", "Leisure Lawsuit" (with some elements from "The Cone" in it), and "Snow Bounders".
It is narrated in the perspective of Lucky as he tries to get Roger's disk back from Scorch, but when Cruella learns of the disk, he tries to convince Cadpig and Rolly to run away, discussing all the times Cruella seems to wreck things.
Lucky discusses the events of "Leisure Lawsuit" as an example. A notable difference from the normal episode is that it's mix in with the events of "Cone Head", with Lucky not realizing that Cruella is faking her injury until after he notices her standing to get a box of chocolates. After Mooch unravles a scarf, which Lucky was using to cover his cone, he crashes into Cruella with a tea cart.
Rather than to get Roger's camera, from the cupboard, the Dalmatians stick up to try and get some scissors from the cupboard to get the cone off Lucky so he can properly help. This is when Lucky hears Cruella's memo confession, causing his focus on balance to falter and for Rolly to drop a bowling ball on Cruella.
When the Dalmatians sneak in to get cruella's memo recorder, the chase causes Lucky's cone to get stuck on Cruella's head and Cruella's memo to play in front of Roger and Anita.
Cadpig and Rolly discuss how Cruella turned the cone into her next "House of DeVil" fashion trend, with Two-Tone and Dipstick wishing to have one.
The Dalmatians also recall the events of "Snow Bounders", which plays the same to the normal episode.
Cadpig then realizes that it's not Cruella's fault for what happens, since Lucky did look at the disk when he should have been guarding it. He was the one who collided into Cruella in "Leisure Lawsuit", and it was his idea to sneak on Roger and Pongo's camping trip in "Snow Bounders". Lucky realizes his mistake and returns to the Dearly Farm to confess to Roger.
Cruella arrives at the Dearly Farm too, but rather than be angry about Roger's "Cruella-Nator" game, she loves it, but has a list of things that she thinks Roger can work on. Lucky also sees that Cruella makes his life more exciting too.
Cruella's Memos[]
"Tell my doctor I'm not paying him real money for bandaging fake injuries!"
"Next time, include inflatable fireman!"
Trivia[]
- This story adapts to multiple episodes of 101 Dalmatians: The Series.
- When this book was released, neither "Snow Bounders" nor "The Cone" (re-titled "Cone Head") had aired yet.
- "The Cone" contained elements of the episode "Leisure Lawsuit".
- This story shows that Cruella's coat plan also happens in the continuity of 101 Dalmatians: The Series.
- The framing device is set around in "You Slipped a Disk" after Cruella learns of the "Cruella-Nator" disk and Lucky is trying to convince Cadpig and Rolly to run away with him, before Cadpig convinces him that he's just scared of how Roger may act after he returns to the Dearly Farm.
- The story's telling of "Leisure Lawsuit" is a mix in with the events of "The Cone" too, such as Mooch pulling on Lucky's scarf, causing him to crash into Cruella with a tea cart; trying to get scissors for the cone instead of a camera in the cupboard; and Cruella making the cone a fashion trend.
- It is possible that "Leisure Lawsuit" and "The Cone" are one episode in draft, before being split into two episodes based on this story.
- In the book, Lucky says that Mooch and his gang came from the farm. In the show, only Mooch came from the farm when they bought it, as his gang consisted of him, Dipstick, Wizzer, and Two-Tone.
- This story has extra information to the Cruella-Nator, such as her age; being 950 feet tall; and the player's mission in the game.
- This story suggests that Cruella has some affection for the Dalmatians.