In Disney’s live-action retelling of Cinderella, the underlying property emerges untarnished, as Disney found reliable hands in director Kenneth Branagh (even though he wasn't their first choice), he reverently reimagines Charles Perrault’s fairy tale for a new generation the world over. In Cinderella, Ella is a happy child with loving parents; but then her mother gets sick and dies. Before she passes, Ella's mother urges her to be kind and courageous, she does indeed grow up to be a beautiful and sweet young woman (Lily James). After Ella's father marries Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett), he dies, the staff is let go, and Ella becomes maid to her stepmother and stepsisters, who dub her Cinderella. One day she meets a handsome prince (Richard Madden) in the woods; he decides to give a ball for all the ladies in the kingdom in the hopes of meeting her again. Ella plans to go, but right before the ball, her stepmother and stepsisters rip her dress and go without her. Her spirit is almost broken when her fairy godmother (Helena Bonham Carter) appears and turns Cinderella's mice friends into horses, some lizards into footmen, and a pumpkin into a carriage. She also gives Ella a fabulous ball gown and a pair of glass slippers. Ella's a hit at the ball, but she has to flee before the stroke of midnight when the magic ends, leaving an intrigued prince and one of her glass slippers behind.
Precious little has changed in the plot itself, however I really love the scene in which Cinderella meets Kit (“Game of Thrones” star Richard Madden) before the story’s famous ball, motivating the charming prince to expand the roster of invited guests beyond mere royalty to include all the young ladies of the land. In the leading role, we get to see Lily James portray the beautiful, kind and courageous Ella but her character hasn't really made any progress from the one in Disney's 1950 animated classic: She's all goodness and light, oozing kindness. She does as she's told, works hard, and is rewarded in the end when she's rescued by a rich, handsome prince. A main character change is the depth we see to the character of Prince Charming most Disney fairy tales would not have a scene of the prince curled up, crying next to his dying father, a touching, smart surprise.
The main event is Blanchett’s devious stepmother. She isn’t just given a big entrance, she’s given a big entrance for every scene. She is one of the characters for whom Branagh and screenwriter Chris Weitz have tried to find some depth. We get a monologue about why she’s become so calloused and see her face harden at every mention of Ella’s mother. That, thankfully, doesn’t mean we’re meant to sympathise with her. She’s still dreadful, but dreadful with purpose.Left widowed and bankrupt by her first husband, she’s now bitter about being married to a man still in love with wife number-one. Cate Blanchett is wickedly good as her evil stepmother Lady Tremaine, dressed to kill in the style of a 1940s, Blanchett is fabulous in every scene she's in, even when she says nothing at all. With eyes wide, brows arched and her mouth in a permanent scowl, Blanchett transforms into epic villainess, so deliciously unpleasant one almost wishes the film were focused more on her.
As for the supporting roles, Holliday Grainger and Sophie McShera are despicable fun as the cruel stepsisters who are more ugly on the inside, spoilt mean girls. Helena Bonham Carter does her energetic pantomiming but with sparkling lightness instead of swivel-eyed darkness. We get to see Stellan Skarsgard as the sly and manipulative Duke who ends up cast out along with Lady Tremaine and her daughters and the end of the movie.
While the music of the animated original is missed, almost everything about this film is well done. The direction by Kenneth Branagh, the sets, and the casting are all spot on, and the visuals are unequivocally gorgeous. It may not be progressive in the modern sense, but it is traditional and beautifully presented. This is the Disney princess model of old with some new technology, but that’s a formula which built a studio. Given the sheer volume of visual-effects shots, Cinderella is aesthetically speaking. It’s full of elaborate, CG-enhanced flyovers as virtual cameras swoop about the imaginary kingdom. To be honest the appearance of the castle was my only gripe with the movie, it had no resemblance to the original unlike what we saw in Maleficent. However I am still a huge CGI buff and the effect is never more impressive than at the moment of Cinderella’s grand entrance at the ball, as she steps onto the balcony and descends the stairs to accept her first dance with the prince. In scenes like this, Branagh pulls out all the stops as the camera swirls about his awestruck heroine. This moment is matched only by the one in which Cinderella’s fairy godmother transforms her ballgown from tattered pink to butterfly-encrusted blue, lifting the young lady into the air, where she spins amid a cloud of magic dust. Here, Cinderella fares far better than her animal friends. Outside the realm of animation, there’s no elegant way to morph a mouse into a fine white steed, or make a lizard look gallant, though the CG crew inject a few laughs along the way. But though this Cinderella could never replace Disney’s animated classic, it’s no ugly stepsister either, but a deserving companion.
Easter Eggs
#1 Nine different ball gowns
Perfection isn't easy, in the end, nine different versions of Cinderella's ball gown were created, each featuring more than 270 yards of fabric, more than 10,000 Swarovski crystals and more than 3 miles of hems.
#2 Mother and Daughter
Hayley Atwell appears as mother to a young Ella (played by Eloise Webb) James and Atwell didn't have any scenes together as Atwell is only 7 years older than James. You may recognise Atwell from her role as Agent Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
#3 Fairy Godmother's dress
The dress Helena Bonham Carter wore as the Fairy Godmother was a white gown with silver wings made up of 131 yards of fabric, 10,000 Swarovski crystals, and 400 little LED lights which were stitched throughout the material and lit up when she cast a spell. "The costume was almost 4 feet wide, and not the most practical, I must say," Bonham Carter said. "There was no position I could actually rest in and it was next to impossible to breathe in because of the corset, so most of the time I was exhausted and quite delirious."
#4 Role Reversal
Both Lily James and Sophie McShera who plays her spoiled stepsister Drizella (in yellow) both star in Downtown Abbey. However on the TV show their roles are reversed. On Downton, McShera plays Daisy, a servant and kitchen assistant while James plays Lady Rose, the aristocrat high society type.
#5 Cinderella and the Beast
Surprisingly enough Lily James wasn't the first choice as the iconic princess, she might not have even been in the top five. The first actress they had in mind was Emma Watson who went on to star as Belle in Beauty and the Beast. After Emma Watson turned down the role, the production team considered Saoirse Ronan (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Alicia Vikander (Anna Karenina), Gabriella Wilde (Carrie), Imogen Poots (Need for Speed), Bella Heathcote (The Rewrite), and Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) for the leading role before ultimately deciding on Lily James.
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