New 'Cinderella' Updates Everything - For Better Or Worse
Starring Camila Cabello, Billy Porter, Nicholas Galitzine, Idina Menzel, Pierce Brosnan, Minnie Driver, Tallulah Greive
Rated PG
Fantasy, Comedy, Musical
Run time: 1 hr, 53 min
Directed and written by Kay Cannon
On Prime September 3, 2021
I have a unique relationship with the story of Cinderella. I don’t remember loving the original Disney cartoon, I swooned over the beauty that was Brandy in the late ‘90s Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella and then I became enamored by the 2015 Kenneth Branagh version starring Lily James. When we combine these mixed emotions with my live-action-Disney-movie-remake fatigue, I was not sure how I was going to feel about this more musical iteration of one of the most classic princess tales there are. Once again, my lack of expectations worked out in a movie’s favor. I have quite a few issues with this film, but it was way more entertaining than I had predicted. With a runtime under two hours, it manages to avoid the bloated feeling I’m getting from so many movies released over the last two or three years.
The baseline story of Cinderella is still there. Young woman is treated poorly by her stepmother and stepsisters after her father passes. However, in this version, the mean ol’ relatives are more annoying than evil and more quippy than scheming (one of the biggest changes to the classic that did not land quite as well as they probably hoped). Oh, also, Miss Ella has dreams of being a fashion designer, and she seems more concerned with getting her dresses worn at the ball than her actually attending it to meet her true love, the prince, who is more irritating than dreamy, and has a sister (an aspect I’ve never seen before in any version of the tale) who lurks in the background in hopes of taking the throne - and is clearly more capable than her bro. Throw in an insanely stacked cast, far too many songs and some bright and bold colors and you get this new Ella, and she’s got some pipes.
If you’re wanting classic Cinderella, that is not what you’re going to get. There are pop music medleys mixed in with original songs and a bit of flashy flair an old school Disney princess just doesn’t have. Cabello is charming, but her Ella comes off more sassy and eye-roll-y than demure and ladylike - but maybe that’s the point! We don’t want all our heroines to still be meek and mild and only succeed because they get the man. When watching the film, I was annoyed by how much seemed to revolve around this new plot addition of Ella’s dressmaker dreams, but again, maybe I just wasn’t expecting her to have her own agency, goals and personality outside of what we’re used to and it’s on me more so than the movie. There were too many quips and snarky asides for my liking, where it seemed everyone’s real aim in the film was to get off as many cheesy one-lines and zingers as possible. I don’t think this was the best cinematic vessel for that.
I have to give props where they’re due, and that’s to the singing performances at large. Some of the music choices made me do a double take, but, hey maybe we need more fairy tales scored with Janet Jackson tunes. However, the voices were incredibly strong. Between Cabello and Menzel, there were some serious high notes being hit. It was a bit odd to hear Menzel singing in a recent movie that didn’t involve her being an ice princess, but she really brought the Broadway to this straight-to-streaming flick. Billy Porter was easily my favorite part of the movie, and I now need him to be in every single thing I watch. I’m not sure there’s any film that couldn’t be improved by his version of the Fairy Godmother making one hell of an entrance and improving every single thing he touches.