Cinderella was seen as a return to form for Disney when it first came out, just as good as Snow White. But is it really? And does Cindy deserve to be the face of the Disney Princess line?
I’ll be honest, this one was hit-or-miss for me. I like how it has some level of self-awareness and adds little details like Cindy having a habit of losing her shoes, but it also mocks the only self-aware character and presses the “have faith and your dreams will come true” message. The dwarfs definitely trump the mice in the comic relief section, mostly because I can understand them. The villains are both great, but in different ways. Lady Tremaine is scary in a more subtle way, something the Queen didn’t even make an attempt at.
So what about Cindy herself? I feel like she could have been handled better. The destruction of the first dress was clearly supposed to be a breaking point, but it doesn’t feel like she was close to that point beforehand. There are some points where they imply that she’s stressed, but they don’t go far enough with them. Her character traits are mostly limited to being nice and believing that her condition will improve. I’ve seen people complain that she doesn’t do much other than sit around and have other people solve her problems, but let’s be honest; that’s pretty much the message of the film. Is it a good message? Not really.
Then let’s go back to the question I asked at the beginning; what makes Cindy special enough to be the face of the Disney Princess line? It isn’t really anything about her, really. I think it’s because she’s the “safest” princess. She’s got a basic story that proceeds in a basic way, she only sort of has to work to get what she wants and, most importantly, nothing truly horrible happens to her. She doesn’t get poisoned or have her voice ripped out. She’s the most normal of the princesses, which makes her easy for a lot of little girls to relate to. And when you have a character like that, you’re going to push her as much as you can.
So that’s my two cents on Cinderella. See you next time.
…I just can’t get over how creepy Lady Tremaine was, though. You know what a big part of it was? The voice. Eleanor Audley did a really good villain voice. Kind of a shame that Disney never utilized it again. Not that I’m complai-
...fudge.
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