CINDERELLA

Cinderella is a well-known folktale about a young woman living in forsaken circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune, with her ascension to the throne via marriage. The oldest known oral version of the Cinderella story is the story of Rhodopis, a Greek slave girl who marries the king of Egypt. And now there are thousands of variants throughout the world, although the title and main character’s name change in different languages, Cinderella is always the name of protagonist in English-language folklore.

Written and directed by Kay Cannon (writer and producer of PITCH PERFECT, 30 Rock, and New Girl), the latest adaptation of CINDERELLA feels like a child version of MOULIN ROUGE with a touch of HAMILTON. Given the director’s background in writing musical film series, we can expect that this version must be a musical.

The protagonist, Ella (Camila Cabello) is no longer a helpless young woman. She has a big dream of becoming a dressmaker owning a shop which she would call “Dresses by Ella” selling the dresses that she designs and creates with her amazing self-taught skills.

The film opens with a mashup of Rhythm Nation (Janet Jackson) performed by townspeople dancing in unison and You Gotta Be (Des’ree) performed by Ella telling the audience that love will save the day.

Her stepmother Vivian (Idina Menzel) keeps reminding Cinderella of her kindness for letting her stay in this house after the death of her husband (Cinderella’s real father). But her character is kinda cartoonish, so it’s difficult to read whether she seriously means what she’s saying. Her two daughters, the obnoxious Malvolia (Maddie Baillio), and the self-absorbed Narissa (Charlotte Spencer) are fun to watch, they also are more friendly to Cinderella than other versions. It’s comical to see all of them yelling for Cinderella as if she lives fifteen meters underground.

King Rowan (Pierce Brosnan) is infuriated when he learns that Prince Robert (Nicholas Galitzine) turned down Princess Laura’s (Mary Higgins) marriage proposal which would give him the power to control the world. Queen Beatrice (Minnie Driver) agrees with her son’s decision but she has no say in this matter or anything.

King Rowan forces Prince Robert to choose a bride otherwise he would give the throne to Princess Gwen (Tallulah Greive) instead. Since his birth, Prince Robert has been taught how to be a king. So he feels like he wants to be a king, a warrior, like his father. Now he knows that he doesn’t want to get married, but he doesn’t know what he actually wants.

Confused and pressured by the order of the King, Price Robert breaks into a song Somebody To Love (Queen) accompanied by a choir, servants, palace guards, and townspeople. King Rowan and Price Robert notice Cinderella for the first time as they see her climbing on the statue of the late King. Prince Robert wants to see her again, so he puts on disguise and sneaks off the palace.

Vivain makes her daughters do Cinderella’s work to teach them to aim for marrying rich men who can provide everything so they won’t have to do mundane task like this.

Idina Menzel’s rendition of Material Girl (Madonna) is probably the best version I’ve heard so far. The song fits perfectly with the scenario in this film.

The rest is pretty much the same as the traditional folklore; every eligible woman in the kingdom gets invited to the ball at the palace. Cinderella wants to go, she even makes her own dress. Evil stepmother gets jealous, she destroys the dress, Cinderella runs off in tears. Fabulous Godmother (Billy Porter) appears and grants her wish with dazzling dress, horse-drawn carriage, and the famous glass slippers (which look pretty much like plastic comparing to Disney’s). I love the way they make fun of how difficult it is to walk with glass slippers. The magic will wear off at midnight, as usual.

The film takes an unanticipated turn with full-on dance scene at the palace. Although the setup looks more like theatrical stage than an actual palace, the songs they used are incredible, it’s a mashup of Whatta Man (En Vogue with Salt-N-Pepa) and Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes). The combination of the messages and majestic choreography easily makes it one of the most delightful dance scenes ever.

Other memorable songs include Perfect (Ed Sheeran), Am I Wrong (Nico & Vinz), and Let’s Get Loud (Jennifer Lopez).

This film is better than I expected. It’s like a musical for 90s kids, it’s almost impossible to grow up without hearing these tunes on radio and MTV.

The downside is the appearance of James Corden which feels underwhelmed and doesn’t add any value to the film. The film also gives a backstory of stepmother in an original song Dream Girl trying to explain why she does what she does which makes the film quite longer than it should be.

Million To One, another original song written by Camila Cabello and Scott Harris served as the theme of protagonist. Sadly it’s unable to match up with other legendary tunes in the film, yet the song appears three times, each just gets more annoying.

CINDERELLA was scheduled to release on February 5, 2021 by Sony. But the theatrical release date was pushed back then finally cancelled after Amazon Studio bought the rights to distribute on Amazon Prime Video except China, Sony still retain home entertainment and television rights to the film. CINDERELLA was released on Amazon Prime Video on September 3, 2021.