welp, you've convinced a dude with a deep-set dislike of Disney's recent spate of seemingly redundant live-action retakes of their animated classics to give it a try. That's kind of a good deed, too. Cinderella was always one of the lesser canon installments anyways.
Keep it real.
Be warned, enthusiasm tends to come a little too easily to me :)
Saying that, if anything Cinderella was a bit of antidote for me to the recent Disney live-action remakes. I really dislike things like Maleficient and Tim Burton's Alice and Wonderland that change everything that made the originals great and feel so soulless and money-grubbing.
If live-action remakes are going to be a thing for Disney, I'd much prefer they tried doing what Cinderella did. (Mulan is the only remake I'm actually hoping for though)
I had already wanted to see this film, but your review had convinced me to drop everything and see it tonight. Good writing!
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Courageously Simple, Kind and Nice
Cinderella (2015) is not a re-imagining of the classic tale. There's no twist, the evil step-mother isn't the hero who all the 'heroes' lie about it. It's a straight retelling of the classic fairytale that tries to stay as true to the spirit that it was first created with.
And I love that, because at its heart, what Cinderella is about is a good-natured kindness that perseveres in the face of hatred and malice. It's a kindness that seeks nothing for itself and is so generous as to allow the cruel-hearted to take advantage of it. Cinderella is a pushover, but that's not her problem it's the worlds problem and it's the world that needs to change.
It's not about marrying into happiness, or finding a husband and it's not about being lucky. The marriage isn't something Cinderella goes out and earns for herself and it doesn't need to be because it's her reward. Her happiness is a gift that's narratively satisfying because Cinderella has done so much to deserve receiving it through her constant goodness.
We rarely have media that celebrates the people who are genuinely kind pushovers. There's actually a societal instinct to scorn people who don't fight for themselves and look down on people who avoid all types of power, goody two-shoes make boring protagonists.
That's what makes Cinderella exceptional even today, it celebrates the kind of person who gives a homeless person some bread and never has a bad word to say about anyone. It's also why giving Cinderella the modernisation treatment is such a bad idea. We do need plenty of stories of badass women who take control of their lives and make things happen, and we need complex and cynical stories and stories that understand life is complicated.
But if you choose to make Cinderella one of those stories, what you're saying is that the virtues in Cinderella are outdated, that Cinderella was wrong to be the person she was. It blames Cinderella for letting herself be a pushover instead of blaming the people who were cruel to her and admiring Cinderella's courage.
The few changes are in emphasis, the step-sisters are beautiful people but ugly-hearted. Cinderella's virtues are pushed to the front and she meets the Prince before the ball and talks to him
Cinderella is a kind and beautiful story about a kind and beautiful person.