Cinderella (2015)
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
When her father unexpectedly passes away, young Ella finds herself at the mercy of her cruel stepmother and her daughters. Never one to give up hope, Ella's fortunes begin to change after meeting a dashing stranger in the woods.
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51 films that influenced Cinderella
What critics say influenced Cinderella
There have been many different versions of Cinderella throughout the ages, but for this take, Weitz has borrowed primarily from Charles Perrault's 1697 written version Cendrillon and Walt Disney's 1950 animated version.
Lily James is Cinderella in Disney's live-action feature inspired by the classic fairy tale, "Cinderella", which brings to life the timeless images in Disney's 1950 animated masterpiece as fully-realized characters in a visually-dazzlling spectacle for a whole new generation.
Based on the classic fairy tale, but borrowing heavily from the 1950 film, “Cinderella” is enchanting, a wonderful and stylish film with a charming lead and emotional narrative.
We've had action-hero fairytales in "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" and camped-up fairytales in "Mirror Mirror."
Where Maleficent struggled to find anyone to match Angelina Jolie’s dominating performance and Snow White and the Huntsman strayed too far from the path, Cinderella takes the seemingly obvious, but seldom-seen approach of taking a classic, carefully pulling it apart, lovingly polishing or even upgrading each component then putting it back together bigger, better and yet still recognisably familiar.
Though Lily James’ radiant Cinders knows how to stand up for herself, Chris Weitz’s screenplay is not a girlpower rewrite like Frozen , nor does it do a Snow White and the Huntsman , or a Mirror Mirror, and mess with a perfectly good story.
Nor is she a warrior like the heroine in Snow White and the Huntsman, some producer’s notion of what a fairy tale update should be.
We don't expect a rollicking fairy tale spoof like Enchanted or an abomination like Snow White and the Huntsman.
What's perhaps most startling about the film is that it's not a revisionist take on a beloved tale, a slant that's been all the rage thanks to the likes of Into the Woods, Snow White and the Huntsman, Oz the Great and Powerful and, of course, the Sleeping Beauty offshoot Maleficent.
His opening shot, with its placid suburban street, reminds you of Haddonfield, Illinois, where Jamie Lee Curtis was pursued in “Halloween,” and the director of that movie, John Carpenter, supplied a throbbing electronic score that is constantly echoed here.
The list includes Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Snow White & The Huntsman, Red Riding Hood, Enchanted, Alice In Wonderland, Mirror Mirror and Jack The Giant Slayer.
Far from being ridiculous and preening (like the princes in Enchanted and The Princess and the Frog , among others), he’s humble .
Though it doesn't have the catchy songs of Enchanted or the witty dialogue of The Princess Bride, Cinderella enthralls with its ravishing style and timeless message of resilience, decency and kindness triumphing over evil.
The comical meta twists of “Tangled,” “Enchanted” and “Frozen” are gone.
We don't expect a rollicking fairy tale spoof like Enchanted or an abomination like Snow White and the Huntsman.
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Moving away from the occasionally garish CG creations found in 2014's " Maleficent ," this superior effort proves heartfelt and technically dazzling in equal measure, its bewitching landscapes and fantastical happenings more comfortably blending with the human actors.
Cinderella is that film, an earnest and impeccably executed adaptation filled with the same wonder and magic that re-imaginings like Maleficent and Mirror Mirror , among others, evidently deemed too vintage for inclusion.
Cinderella makes no claims on depth or complexity; unlike Disney's last cartoon brought to life, Maleficent , this isn't even minutely interested in challenging or re-conceiving the original animated feature it occasionally nods too.
Plenty of films have tried to reinvent and modernize the themes classic fairy tales over the years, and even Disney has taken a subversive angle to recent efforts like “Frozen” and “Maleficent.”
Other recent retellings of storybook favorites by the studio such as “ Alice in Wonderland ” and “ Maleficent ” reshaped the material for 21st century tastes, turning Lewis Carroll’s heroine into a pro-active warrior and upgrading the villainous fairy in “Sleeping Beauty” into a misunderstood victim.
Don’t expect another Maleficent ; we’re not about to see events from the point-of-view of the wicked stepmother.
Unlike such winking fairy tale overhauls as Ella Enchanted or Mirror Mirror, this one remains fundamentally traditional.
Meanwhile, those who have seen everyone from Brandy in the 1997 TV musical to Anne Hathaway in 2004’s “ Ella Enchanted ” attempt to step into Cinderella’s shoes might wonder why more liberties weren’t taken in this faithful iteration.
But just in recent years, you’ve got Drew Barrymore in Ever After, Anne Hathaway in Ella Enchanted, Hilary Duff in A Cinderella Story, and Selena Gomez in Another Cinderella Story — hell, Disney was doing the glass-slipper shuffle just three damn months ago, with Into the Woods.
His whole persona is an embodiment of Ingrid Bergman's laughing retort, in Saratoga Trunk, when an admirer tells her how beautiful she is: "Yes, isn't it lucky?"
Richard Madden (“Game of Thrones”), as handsome prince Kit, fills out the royal uniform quite nicely, if a little eyebrow-raisingly — his tight white pants recall David Bowie’s famously suggestive Spandex getup in “Labyrinth.”
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A fairy godmother is a fairy whom your parents invited to witness your christening, like the three fairies in Sleeping Beauty (at least, it’s a christening in the fairy tale by Charles Perrault).
(In Disney's 1950s Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, both the Stepmother and Maleficent were voiced by Eleanor Audley.)
Cate Blanchett has one of the meatiest roles as Lady Tremaine, aka “The Wicked Stepmother,” and as we would expect from an actress of her caliber, she brings a wealth of depth to what could be a one-note villain, playing Tremaine’s most vile actions with hints of insecurity and desperation that make her spiteful character as pathetic as she is abhorrent, which also helps Cinderella’s eventual forgiveness of her feel more genuine (she reminded me quite a bit of Billy Zane’s much maligned and misunderstood Cal Hockley in James Cameron’s Titanic, another scheming, anti-romantic villain whose worst instincts are the embodiment of his broken spirit).