Cinderella (Live-Action)

[Disney Duster]

I realized while watching the movie the other day, that when Cinderella says, "Oh, I do hate myself in portraits" and Kit says, "Be kind', Cinderella isn't meaning she thinks portrait painters are bad, she's making fun of Kit! That makes their relationship even better to me.

[blackcauldron85]

This morning on YouTube there was a commercial for WDW titled "An Enchanting Stay Awaits at Walt Disney World" and it had (not Lily James but) live action Cinderella coming down the stairs for a quick moment. It was on the Roku app so I didn't have a link to it & I can't find it again online. I tried recording it on my phone to upload to show you, but of course I was on camera mode and not video mode.

[Disney Duster]

Awww it's ok Amy, thanks for telling us about it! Live-Action version Cinderella also runs down stairs in a Disney Cruise Line commercial.

[PatchofBlue]

Well, Disney+ has finally added this one back to its roster in the U.S.

Any bets on how long they'll keep it around?

[Disney Duster]

I wish they would keep it all the time, but maybe it's so popular a lot of people are willing to buy it instead of just stream it for free.

[Sotiris]

Bailey was going to follow this “fractured fairy tale” approach — telling a familiar story from a different angle — for a planned version of “Cinderella” where Cinderella was left for dead in a forest, forced to befriend a rogue knight and stop a wedding that was of political importance to the kingdom. But Disney scrapped that after much development and instead opted for a more faithful remake, hiring Kenneth Branagh to give it some weight. It made more than $500 million and proved that a live-action remake of a Disney animated classics wasn’t just a fluke — it was now a franchise.

Source: https://www.thewrap.com/sean-bailey-disney-legacy/

[Disney Duster]

I actually knew that was the basic plot of the original idea, from other sources in this thread, but thank you Sotiris for posting it all here for those who never knew!

[Vlad]

I actually didn't know that. Thanks for sharing, Sotiris. That would've been an interesting idea, but I'm glad they decided to do a more faithful adaptation.

[Disney Duster]

Yes, thank God they went more faithful and brought in Kenneth to make my favorite live-action film and one of the best Cinderellas ever!

[tsom]

I would do anything to get my hands on the script for the version of Cinderella that Disney was developing before they hired Chris Weitz and Kenneth Branagh. Even though the final result was close to perfect, I'd still love to see what could've been. This was the version that Disney spent 7 figures purchasing the pitch from Aline Brosh McKenna.

[PatchofBlue]

I would do anything to get my hands on the script for the version of Cinderella that Disney was developing before they hired Chris Weitz and Kenneth Branagh. Even though the final result was close to perfect, I'd still love to see what could've been. This was the version that Disney spent 7 figures purchasing the pitch from Aline Brosh McKenna.

Yeah, as frustrating as many of these remakes have been, I'm still so fascinated to learn the in-depth behind the scenes details of how they came to be.

[tsom]

I would do anything to get my hands on the script for the version of Cinderella that Disney was developing before they hired Chris Weitz and Kenneth Branagh. Even though the final result was close to perfect, I'd still love to see what could've been. This was the version that Disney spent 7 figures purchasing the pitch from Aline Brosh McKenna.

Yeah, as frustrating as many of these remakes have been, I'm still so fascinated to learn the in-depth behind the scenes details of how they came to be.

Right! I know originally that live-action Beauty and the Beast was not a musical, so it would've been cool to know what that version would've been. Moreover, The Little Mermaid had a different writer before David Magee was hired, and I would love to know what that version entailed.

[Disney Duster]

I am in full agreement with you both. I really wish I could have seen what that Aline Brosh McKenna Cinderella was gonna be.

[Farerb]

Rewatched the film again because I keep seeing claims that it's the best live action remake of Disney and I guess it's true, but my opinion of the film hasn't changed, I think it's fine and I thought it was fine 10 years ago when I first watched it. I guess since then Disney has released so many crappy remakes that this one seems like a masterpiece in comparison.

The production design and the costums are lovely, the film is definitely pretty to look at, and it helps that there are no ugly CGI creatures (there are mice and some lizards but they aren't ugly and they don't appear much).

I guess I find this film a bit unremarkable. There were a few scenes that could have been cut and I don't like that Helena Bonham Carter explains what's happening on screen often, but I guess everything is decent until Cinderella is locked up and she just accepts her fate, start dancing and singing and I just don't understand why? Why isn't she trying to escape? Especially after learning that the prince is looking for her.

Another issue I have is with the character of Cinderella. She tries to be good all the time that she doesn't actually show a range of emotions. I think people tend to forget that original Cinderella did get angry sometimes and was sarcastic a few times.

I guess at least I appreciate that it's not a remake the way Disney used to do them after - meaning exactly like the original films but longer and worse. It's basically a different adaptation of the Cinderella story so at least in this regard they were original and creative.

[Disney Duster]

I can't believe I never saw this till now. Well, Farerb, I mostly agree with your excellent post. The Cinderella 2015 live-action remake is just fine. It is just ok. Not even exactly good. Sometimes I flip-flop and decide it's good, but if it is, it is barely good. It's very beautiful, but it's boring. It feels a little redundant to me with parents dying and Ella hitting her low point twice. And it could have used some energy injected into the dialogue and performances. Indeed, Ella should have gotten to be mad and sarcastic sometimes. And fun! Even Cate Blanchett, while she and the screenwriter elevated the film a bit with a stepmother just trying to make a good life for her and her daughters in a man's world, was no Eleanor Audley or Anjelica Huston insofar as excellent stepmothers.

But cutting the film may have made it worse, as all the scenes culminate in feeling like a more full film with a good payoff in the end, in my opinion. I even wish they kept the deleted scene named "Getting to Know You" with Ella and Kit getting more romantic time at the ball. I honestly don't know how they could have fixed the film.

I actually always liked Ella dancing and singing to herself in the attic when she resigned herself to die with her happy memories. My favorite review site also likes the scene. She doesn't think she will ever be saved. She doesn't think the Prince would even think to come to her house and find her. So she does the only thing that will cheer her up if she's just gonna die. Watching the film again last night, yes, you do get the feeling of, "Girl, you gotta make noise or somehow get downstairs before they leave!", but I can see both views of the scene so it still works for me.

I do wanna say, I don't get how Disney's Divinity has a problem with Ella's kindness "being explained" or given a reason. It is not given a reason so much as her mother tells her to use her innate kindness to her advantage, and Ella, by being kind to the animals (in front of the prince so he likes her, to the animals themselves who open the window) and the fairy godmother as a beggar, gets saved by her kindness.

There is one thing that really bothers me though (aside from her pink dress being A) ugly and B) nothing like her blue dress the godmother says is supposed to resemble her pink one), and that is the stupidity of Ella when Lady Tremaine says she will let her wed the prince if she promises to make her the head of the royal household. Why didn't Ella just lie?! I was thinking she should have lied from the first time I saw that scene! It's stupid! So, I made an attempt to fix it it with what you will probably find to be poor dialogue, but, it's what I could come up with: : Lady Tremaine says, "I will give this slipper to the Prince, saying you were the mystery princess, but that you do not wish to marry him, and that instead you give consent for Drisella to wed him. With the slipper he will have proof of your word, and Anastasia will marry a wealthy lord while I become a duchess. You will stay hidden here, in the house you so love, but I will send you enough money to live on. Are we agreed?" Cinderella starts to nod her head, then reaches for the slipper, trying to grab it. Lady Tremaine swings her arm away with the slipper, and it breaks against the wall. Lady Tremaine says, “Look what you’ve done, you imbecile! Well, you can forget ever seeing the outside of your house ever again.” Cinderella says, “Why are you so cruel?” and the rest of the scene goes like in the film as is I guess, or about there.

You can tell me my "fix" is crap or worse than the scene already was or whatever feedback you wanna give, I can take it, I just wanted to see if I could fix the scene. That scene needs to be fixed somehow!

[Farerb]

I don't think your change is bad but I didn't have an issue with that scene because I don't think Ella could bring herself to be deceitful, that's just not who she is or who she should be. Perhaps she didn't consider that the stepmother would go to such extremes and lock her up.

If I had changed anything in the movie, it would be the prologue. I would have cut the mother completely and then shown the relationship between Ella and her father when she's a child, and have him marry Tremaine while she's still a child. The goodbye scene she had with her mother would have been with her father instead. I didn't care that he died off screen and I think Lady Tremaine coming into the picture when Ella is already a grown up completely changes the dynamic. When she's young like in the original, it gives Lady Tremaine the opportunity to manipulate her. Here she's already grown up, she already knows about the world.

I also want to say that I don't think it's a bad film, I do see the charm it has so don't let some of my negative thoughts affect you.

[Vlad]

I haven't seen the movie in a long time, but I do remember she had a few moments where she was sassy, for example, when she speaks in French to her step-family when they assume she doesn't know it, and after the ball when they reunite home, I seem to remember her being more playful. I have to give it a watch though.

[PatchofBlue]

I agree that animated Cinderella has a bit more range to her than people typically acknowledge, and that didn't necessarily carry through to the remake.

James' Cinderella feels less like an evolution of Woods' Cinderella and more Disney using the Cinderella archetype to fill the larger fairy-tale void.

But that paradoxically works to the film's advantage for me. Or at the very least, it's a neutral entity. The film has an internal coherency that escaped most of the follow-ups, and that set the stage for this adaptation to carry its own kind of magic.

This was still in the early phases of the remake train when they still weren't sure how close these remakes were going to resemble the films they were remaking. "Beauty and the Beast" was kind of the first time they thought to carry over the same story structure and music from the animated movies (I know "Jungle Book" KIIIIIINDA did, but ... it's not the same) and it was after that they had sort of found their formula.

If "Cinderella" had come out after, we would have gotten the song book and a dress that looked more similar to her animated silver gown. And that could have worked, but I don't find myself pining for that film the way I do a version of "Beauty and the Beast" where they don't dump over The Beast's whole character.

I don't know if dropping the backstory with the mother would have moved the needle at all for me. It just appears part of the design of this film that they wanted to follow Cinderella through all her phases of grief to demonstrate just how resilient she has been and just how many mountains she's had to climb. I wouldn't die on the hill of "this is the way the story had to be!!!!" or anything, but I think that the choice has internal pay-off.

My natural read of the scenario was that Cinderella genuinely didn't know that The Prince was downstairs or even looking for her at all, and so there was no motivation for her to make any kind of noise. And allowing these events to fold in together without any direct interference from her, that's just kind of the film's statement on the nature of good things naturally finding each other. Something as pure as Cinderella reminiscing on memories of her golden childhood or her time with The Prince, with no intent of self-preservation or elevation, would be powerful enough to draw her true love back to her even in her moment of distress without her designing it to.

That is kind of the trap of the sort of altruism that the Disney fairy-tales specialize in. If Cinderella ever does start acting in her own self-interest, even when she's in a genuinely bad situation, then her motivation is no longer "pure," and the thesis is invalid.

But what I think often goes underdiscussed is that the remake actually gets to have its cake and eat it: the remake DOES give her a culminating moment, a chance to save herself. After her inherent goodness has sort of paved the way, she gets to cross the line of her own volition. Right after she's discovered, Lady Tremaine makes a last attempt to crush her by telling her "Just remember who you REALLY are!!!!" Ella then has to consciously choose "Have Courage, Be Kind" and go to meet The Prince as she really is and acknowledge that this is enough, even though her stepmother has been trying everything to make her believe otherwise.

And because the systems within the film have always been more psychological than institutional, this works within the framework of the film--of the things that have ACTUALLY kept Ella oppressed. Cinderella's inherent goodness gets to be this narrative force with its own autonomy and influence, but the conclusion is still dependent on Cinderella herself choosing to believe in her own self-worth. I think it works.

[Disney's Divinity]

Oh, I would've loved a remake that was like the original for Cinderella, especially with HBC, Cate Blanchett, and Richard Madden still in the same roles. I love Blanchett's emerald and black dress from the ending, would've kept that, but give her the red and purple dresses for earlier in the film. As for the ballgown, I would've liked one that had more of the strict shape of the original as far as the lower half, but I don't think they would've allowed the dress to be silver like the original then or now, much like the SW dress is high-bright yellow in thst remake versus the soft yellow in the original film. HBC is fairly different than the original, but some background characters having little tweaks doesn't bother me (much like Erivo's Blue Fairy was never a big deal to me). I would've rather someone else as Cinderella and the King though. And I definitely think the music would've elevated the film. James and HBC didn't sound bad at all in the credits, would've loved to hear Madden dueting on "So This Is Love." At least there were two songs that got played over the credits unlike SDMPWC or One Song/I'm Wishing in SW.

Probably my least favorite parts of the remake are Cinderella losing most of her personality and agency, and the ball scene. It's so short, I don't care for the dress or the carriage, whereas it's the best scene of the original. The Stepmother is a great deal different, too. I can't picture the original character being quite as classless or obvious as the Stepmother in this film.

[Disney Duster]

Thanks for saying my change is not so bad, Farerb. I like the idea Ella just can't be deceitful, but I would say she purposely deceives everyone at the ball into thinking she is a princess. At least, she does not cop to her real identity when the Prince calls her one.

Cinderella looking in the mirror and hearing her mother say "Have courage and be kind" is a very fulfilling payoff in the end of the film, not to mention a lot of people just like that message, so, would you have liked her mother cut from the film and her father to have told her to have courage and be kind before he dies when Ella is a child, and already has her stepfamily? If so, I would have to see the film that way to really know if I agree. But at least it would have been one less death and reduced some of the redundancy of the film. But the reason they showed Ella's mother saying the courage and kind thing just before dying was because they wanted to take some influence from the Grimm's version where Cinderella's mother tells her to be good and kind just before she dies.

That said, I always liked that Ella knows about the world but chooses to stay with her evil stepfamily because she wants to stay in her old home. I just thought it was a good reason. I know,I know, if she leaves in the end how does that make sense? I always thought it made sense she would willingly leave her old home to live with her true love who was also a king and she had to leave to live with him. Plus, in the novelization she keeps the house in the royal family and even if you don't count that, one reviewer had the idea she left her home finally to let go of her grief over her parents.

And don't worry, none of your negative thoughts ruin the film for me. I know it is a boring, just fine film, I agree, and yet it stays my favorite live-action film. It has so much stuff I love.

Vlad, ok, I will give the French thing as sass, but it's nowhere near the original Cinderella, who makes fun of the cat and her stepsisters!

PatchofBlue, my did you say hyper-intellectual stuff. Well, unfortunately I do not completely agree. Ella makes a face at Drisella's bad singing. She pretends to be a princess. She is still not completely pure. But yeah, she is supposed to be an archetype of pure goodness that deals with constant abuse and stays alive and wins in the end, and she kinda saves herself by willing to finally show her true self to the prince. It's a saving of yourself everyone should do, even if it's not the kind of act that would save every single person from their own abusive situations.

Divinity, um, yeah, we actually agree on a lot here. I would have loved an even more faithful version in all those ways, as long as they didn't f*** it up, but perhaps it could only be as good as I think it is in it's less faithful, just-another-good-adaptation-of-the-fairy-tale way that it ended up being. Plus I would have liked new, better Alan Menken songs in it, great ones like "Evermore" and "Speechless", as long as they enhanced or drove the film instead of marred it. UmbrellaFish thought he heard they considered doing that at one point. We probably never would have gotten a silver dress, I think you are right. The transformation scene is the best to me in both the original and remake. At least, they remain my favorites. The ball in the remake is indeed too short, that's why I wish they kept the "Getting to Know You" deleted scene.