My Movie Review on Cinderella (2015) · 6:24pm Apr 18th, 2019
What’s up, everyone?
Your friendly movie and tv show reporter is here once again.
And today, following my previous review, I will be making an analysis on Disney’s “Cinderella (2015)”.
Here’s the summary of this live-action retelling of the Disney classic:
Ella (played by Lily James) is a girl with a pure heart, who has lived with her wealthy mother (played by Hayley Atwell) and father (played by Ben Chaplin) since she was a child.
However, after Ella’s mother passes away from an illness, her father goes on to marry the beautiful but secretly cruel Lady Tremaine (played by Cate Blanchett), who is also the mother of two daughters, Anastasia (played by Holliday Grainger) and Drisella (played by Sophie McShera).
As if living with her cruel stepfamily isn’t painful enough for Ella, things take a turn for the worse when her father dies while away on business. With her father gone, Tremaine and her daughters turn Ella into a slave and dub her ‘Cinderella’ (a reason for which you’ll find out if you see this film).
Her time of constant distress, however, suddenly changes when she encounters the Prince (played by Richard Madden), who is out with a hunting party.
Determined to see her again, the Prince convinces his father, the King (played by Derek Jacobi), to open the upcoming royal ball to the commoners and not just the nobility and fellow royals.
The whole thing actually brings up one important question, though:
Are Ella and the Prince truly meant to be together? Will their newfound love for one another even work?
I will admit that this was a film I had very low expectations for and didn’t have complete interest in. However, when I went on to see it, I was taken completely by surprise.
The story and screenplay by Chris Weitz, and the direction by Kenneth Branagh, were surprisingly clever. In many ways, the two of them were able to make the film faithful to the original animated classic. But...the most intriguing part about this film was that they also made it something of their own. In this case, they extended themselves creatively and got their hands dirty in making sure this would be something fun to see and not be some carbon copy of the original, unlike Bill Condon’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast” film which did little to be something worth anyone’s time.
Examples that I can’t help but note and admire are these:
- Cinderella’s life with her mother and father is explored.
- The first meeting between Ella and her new stepfamily is shown.
and...
- Prince Kit and Ella are given much more interaction and chemistry between each other than in the animated film.
I would additionally like to say that even though this isn’t a comedy, it has some very funny scenes! Branagh and Weitz have an excellent sense of humor and they proved that with this film!
The music by Patrick Doyle is likewise something I can’t help but commend. It isn’t a musical, but Doyle’s scoring holds enough power and emotion to stand tall. It fits the time period and country the story takes place in quite well.
As a plus, the acting, casting, characters, and character development were all pretty well-done.
Cate Blanchett, for instance, was absolutely perfect for the role of Lady Tremaine. She gave her character such style with her performance, igniting a classic-villain feel while also giving her a sense of dimensionalism. In addition, she had the best lines in the film among others. I think Eleanor Audley (the voice of Tremaine in the animated film by Disney) would definitely be proud of Blanchett for her performance here.
Lily James and Richard Madden fit the parts of Ella and Prince Kit like a glove. I loved how the two of them were able to give personality to their characters, projecting such realistic emotions and feeling. I also admired the larger focus and character development that Ella and Kit were given in contrast to the animated film. There isn’t really anything wrong with their characters in the animated film, I’m just saying that this version apparently did something that the former didn’t do before.
Likewise, Helena Bonham Carter literally brought the house down with her performance as Ella’s fairy godmother. She was able to make the character something that was entirely her own, even giving some surprisingly hilarious comedic chops and moments. Her narration throughout the film is also what I’d like to call pretty heartwarming.
Now, if I have to single out one problem and flaw in regards to this film, it would be the incorporation of people of certain ethnicity. For instance, the Captain of the Royal Guard (played by Nonso Anozie) was African. There were also some background and minor characters played by Africans, as well as some Asians too.
I’m not being racist or anything, I actually really admire how diverse Disney often is with its casting. And, I thought that Anozie’s performance as the Captain was fun every step of the way.
However, if I recall my research on history correctly, Africans didn’t obtain equal citizenship throughout the globe until after the American Civil War ended, which was in the 1860s.
And correct me if I’m wrong, but Asians didn’t start becoming prevalent around the world until the late 17 or 1800s, when countries were becoming much more advanced.
The film itself takes place in the 1600s, which was long before any of the times I mentioned. So, all in all, while I do like how inclusive Disney is when casting people who are of certain ethnicity, I felt that the casting of Asians and Africans in this film, as well as the roles they played, was really...too unnecessary. It additionally made things seem too historically inaccurate. If anyone asks, I did a look back on history to be absolutely sure.
In conclusion, however, this live-action reimagining of “Cinderella” is actually what I’d happily call one of the best of Disney’s remakes. All thanks to the amazing creativity of Branagh and Weitz, the awesome performances from its ensemble cast, and so much more! And hey, my critical noting of the film’s unnecessary casting of African-Americans and Asians isn’t going to affect the star ratings in any way. It’s just something I wanted to point out so that people can realize there’s such a thing as being inclusive at the wrong time.
So, I rate “Cinderella (2015)” a complete five out of five stars.
In some ways, I find the remake 'slightly' an improvement from the original classic. Even though there was some things I wasn't too thrilled about, like having the Duke becoming the villain and the father passing away as opposed to how he lived through the animated feature, I can forgive that for all the things they did do. Sure the movie is not entirely a hundred percent accurate as far as history goes, but I did not attend this movie to determine what's historically correct. The movie offered an opportunity on an expansion on the relationship between Ella and the Prince (Who actually does have a name in this movie) and while there was only a small indication on her family life in the beginning of the 50's flick it was a proud moment to see more of it explored during the premier. The talent did a pretty decent job with the feature, although I honestly prefer the portrayal of the Stepsisters in the 'animated' feature while the ones for this one... Eh, just okay.
Otherwise, the remake excels in parts where even the animated feature couldn't and for me I'm perfectly content with that.
I haven’t seen this yet, but I’ve definitely heard about it, and it sounds really good! And this review makes it sound even better! For some reason, I didn’t know that Richard Madden and Hayley Atwell were in this, so now it sounds even better! Although I already knew Cate Blanchett was in it, and that’s definitely a good sign as to how amazing this is! I’ll definitely watch it eventually!
I'll take your word for it that it's good but if anything nothing beats the animated classic for me at least
It feels for me like I could go off with a checklist and check off the squares where things happen. Oh, her stepsisters are being mean to her! Check! The ball is happening? Check! Cinderella is visited by her fairy godmother? Check! What's the point of there being remake after remake if they all tell the same story? We all know it by now! By the time this came out there were already at least half a dozen live-action remakes of Cinderella. What did this one do differently?
5046090
Same here. I never saw the original, though.
Also, please review Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
It was beautiful
You have no idea how happy I am that someone else likes this movie!
Also, some European countries extended citizenship to Africans pretty early in history, well, maybe not that early. Also, the movie had plenty of other anachronisms, so that bit is pretty forgivable.
5046102
5046100
You’d be surprised, really.
Also, I will gladly review “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” at some point.
Oh look: it's that annoying Pagan here to ruin everything with some history
So...on the subject of Equal Citizenship...
The American Civil War didn't really impact the rest of the world all that much.
Aside from an increase of the price of certain goods such as Cotton, countries that weren't our trading partners didn't even notice.
In fact, England abolished slavery in 1833 and France did even earlier, in 1826; making our European neighbors across the Pacific on their way towards full citizenship before the American Civil War started.
America can't actually take credit for being a forerunner in this.
Admittedly, this is a nitpick...the American Civil War ended in 1865.
They weren't showing up much in America back then, but Europe was a different matter.
Admittedly a hastily found source
Asians had actually been migrating into European countries well before the 1400s.
This places open trade between Europe and China having started in 1684; and that's just talking about trade regulated (and taxed) by government powers. So before that year, there was already trade routes and goods recognized as valuable enough to keep ships and caravans moving back and forth, and China wasn't the only country in Asia to trade with. Securing trade with India was a much bigger deal and secured much, much sooner.
In fact, Christopher Columbus originally set out with hopes of securing a better ship route to India for trade. Landing on the North American Continent almost two hundred years prior in 1492 was an accident.
And trade always meant migration
It would be shortly after America secured settlements on the Atlantic Coast, the country had a much shorter (not to mention safer and easier) shipping route with Asia; crossing the Atlantic and therefore bypassing European interests entirely, meaning we could get things directly from China and India instead of from say France, Spain, England, ect. after they got goods from the Asian countries.
…
I have not seen the movie, so I'll take your review at face value
5046228
No need to be snobby about that particular noting I made on Africans and Asians.
I just thought that I was making a point.
5046137
What are anachronisms?
5046235
Stuff that exists in a work of fiction set at a certain time period that wouldn't have existed during that time period in real life. I'm pretty sure Lady Tremaine's leopard-print bathrobe wouldn't have existed in the 17th century.
5046237
Ahhhhh.
5046234
I was referring to myself when I said that.
I do beg your pardon
5046102
What was the other thing you requested me to see?
5050710
Atlantis: The Lost Empire?
5050718
No, the tv show that doesn’t relate at all to Atlantis.
5050722
Oh, Attack on Titan?
5050729
That’s it.