Cinderella (2015)
Disney are on a roll with taking their classic animations and turning them into live action reboots. With the announcing coming in, it seems are hand-drawn favourites are going to be replaced by living people and computer animation and we’re already a little tired of it all. While Maleficent may be a strained affair, and two Jungle Books on their way within a year, it’s exhausting to see our once beloved studio succumb to a trend that was tedious before it began. When Cinderella came out last year, despite being helmed by Kenneth Branagh, not many were eager to romp into cinemas.
But it should, because it is lovely.
Of course, we all know the tale: A young girl is orphaned when her mother dies young and her father remarries, only to succumb to death on his travels. Ella, nicknamed Cinderella, is subsequently brought up by her wicked Stepmother Lady Tremaine and her spoilt “ugly” daughters. Resigned to being their servant, Ella tries her best to stay positive in the dirt and rags that she is confined too. However, a chance meeting with a prince, a fairy god-mother, and the epitomes glass slipper means her life is about to change forever.
Why is it Bad?
Look, let’s get this straight; Cinderella isn’t a bad film, it is just an unnecessary one. Noting the sudden change in live-action conceptions, Cinderella’s lack of originality in story and narrative feels a lot like an easy way to make cash has thousands of Disney fans flock to see a new illuminating version of the princess that has a hollow note ringing out. Plus, there is nothing heavily fleshed out here so there is this one morale focused on without that rings dull particularly with an aged class of audience. In many different angles, it is a somewhat fantastical naff movie pirouetting just short of a pantomime.
Why is it Good?
Oh, but it really is lovely. Spectacularly so in every dimension (bar, you know, the aforementioned story though that smatters of gooey cuteness like a flower strewn Jack Terrier Russell bouncing out melodies on a tiny piano). From Lily James and Rob Madden as the gorgeously proper leads to Cate Blanchett clearly romping it up as a classical villain, Cinderella is a delightful heart-warming engagement flourishing with exquisite colours that are illuminated by Branagh’s acclaimed eye of visuals. Reminiscent of the renaissance, bright bubbly blues and youthful yearning yellows, this is a majestic aesthetic to wrap a delicate tale around.
With everyone leaving the cinema brimming with delight (and wishing that Helena Bonham Carter was their fairy godmother), this may be an average fairytale but it is embellished gloriously by the visuals and the cast that hold dear the morals within the characters. As James lights up the screen with such a nice yet strong character, Cinderella rings out one message that one may miss in this world of serious and brutal flicks;
“Have courage and be kind.”
What a cockle warming message like your evening tea!