Both Charles Perrault's and the Brothers Grimm's versions of the Fairy Tale mention that one of the step-sisters was slightly less mean than the other one...
The third movie was the first time Cinderella had something serious to fight for and was in actual danger. It makes sense that she'd be more badass than in the original movie.
You don't need to fight to be one. That's pretty uncool to say. She's way better in the first movie, of course, where she doesn't need to 'fight' for anything to achieve her dream.
Lady Tremaine and her daughters are the most infamous cases of Karma Houdini in the Disney franchise. In the original Perrault story, Cinderella does forgive her stepfamily.
In the second movie, Prudence forbids Cinderella from inviting any commoners to palace festivals, despite the fact Cinderella herself was a commoner when she attended the ball in the first movie. She even points this out during a private rant about Prudence's restrictions.
Cinderella was NOT a commoner. Her stepmother is referred to as "Lady" Tremaine which means she came from a family of some money. As the widow of a wealthy man, Tremaine was still a name and therefore likely to be invited to balls. Cinderella may have been treated as a servant by her family but was still her father's daughter.
It also bugs me that Cinderella was so concerned about these friends. Where were these people for the years she was under Lady Tremaine's mercy?
If Cinderella did not escape her room in time, what would Lady Tremaine have done to her? Leave her in there to starve to death? Kill her when everyone left?
What if... The stepmother was just helping a poor orphan girl (Cinderella), and Cinderella agreed to all her chores. The day of the ball, she decided to steal the stepsisters' belongings to make her own dress, so they punished her with what they considered a humane punishment, and Cinderella later exploited the poor woman by claiming forced labour! After all, she did always say "Yes, stepmother". Yes, children, the classy, honest wayto becomesuccessful.
Cinderella's step-sisters destroy the dress she's wearing with their bare hands after discovering that she made the dress out of the same materials they had on their dresses. A kid is reminded of fighting with her own siblings over things like clothes and thinks, "That's so mean!" An adult finds it disturbingly similar to sexual assault (or, if you really want to be perverted, a good, ol'-fashioned, clothes-rippin' Cat Fight).
More Fridge Horror comes in when you realize that if the stepsisters have no problem assaulting Cindrella in such a fashion (no pun intended), then they and their mother may have physically abused Cinderella prior to this!
The worst part? That dress was all she had left of her dead mother!
What was the fairy godmother thinking when she gave Cinderella glass slippers, I mean imagine what could happen when you break them, while you're still dancing with them?
In the original fairy tale, the slippers were enchanted, and could only be worn by someone dainty and graceful enough to walk in them without shattering them. Cinderella fits the bill.
In the original original fairy tale, they were made out of fur. A translation error turned them glass.
Debatable. The original was written in French, and the French words for fur and glass are extremely similar in both spelling and sound, so it COULD have been a translation error, but to the best of my knowledge that's never been confirmed. However, if that IS the case, then there's this to think about: The Prince was going through the kingdom, having his men check all the young women to see who had the perfect fur slipper. It doesn't take Freud to figure that one out, and suddenly the Prince looks a lot less noble.
Actually, the oldest known version of the story dates back to the 1st Century BC. It's set in Ancient Egypt, and the original original original "Cinderella" had golden slippers. A few other versions have her in golden slippers, many of which took place in Asia, long before the story reached France.
In Cinderella: A Twist in Time, the lengths Lady Tremaine goes to replace Cinderella with one of her own daughters as the prince's wife is really alarming, when you think about it. Cinderella is Happily Married, moved away from her stepfamily, and probably never thought she'd have to deal with them again. And then Lady Tremaine turns back the clock and starts casting enchantments left and right to have her way. Even worse, she's clearly more than willing to erase Anastasia's identity in the process. Her last plan was to turn Anastasia into a copy of Cinderella. So not only was she tricking the prince into marrying under false pretenses, but she's condemning Anastasia to either a marriage as a lie (if Anastasia stays looking like Cinderella for the rest of her life) or a marriage where the prince is almost certainly resentful and upset (if Anastasia is turned into her own form after the wedding).
This troper just re-watched A Twist in Time and was shocked by a line in just the first few minutes. After Anastasia brings home the magic wand, her mother assumes its just a stick and the other sister blurts out "Let's beat her with it!" I guess now that Cinderella is gone, the Mother found another outlet for her cruelty...
Even worse is that Anastasia and her sister seemed to be, while maybe not close, at least getting along with each other before...Which means that Anastasia's sister probably turned on her just as fast as their mother did, and probably takes part in the abuse herself!
According to Cinderella, "A dream is a wish your heart makes". If one were to take this to be true, then hearts really love to wish for messed up things, and nightmares!
Fridge Logic: Several people have seen the 1997 version, or clips and pictures of it, and wondered how a black queen and a white king could have a Filipino prince for a son.
Then there's the fact that for no reason at all, the prince tries the shoe on EVERY girl, including ones that don't even remotely resemble her, Calliope and Minerva notwithstanding. That is, girls who are clearly shorter or taller than her or of a different ethnicity. It would make sense if, say, Lionel went all by himself and forgot what she looked like entirely, but Christopher was with him.
