DVDizzy Forum

I watched the retrospective and movie, just couldn't think of much to say! Brandy's cupcake-esque dress when she was performing that one song at the end was dreadful. Billy Porter and Todrick Hall were kind of annoying, tbh, I didn't expect that. I don't know why they kept comparing it to Walt's Cinderella rather than the other versions of R&H's Cinderella (Leslie Ann Warren and Julie Andrews). Them bashing the Fairy Godmother in Walt's version kind of annoyed me, even though I do like Whitney's Fairy Godmother (and song) better. I mean R&H's music way outclasses the Disney film's soundtrack, but they're totally different things anyway, I'm not sure why they were comparing them.

Anyway, I enjoyed seeing the film again. I have a VHS copy, so I can watch it any time, I just hadn't in a while. Most of the film works--love the prince, stepmother, stepsisters, Whoopi's Queen, Jason Alexander's character, the Fairy Godmother, the music, etc. Brandy and the (mostly) gaudy costumes / sets are the weakest part of it all. I had the thought watching this time during the scene with the Stepmother following "A Lovely Night," where she realizes Cinderella was the girl at the ball, that most of what she says to Cinderella is really a projection of what applies to herself. "You're common"--the Stepmother being played as a touch White trash here, lol. "Your father filled your head with dreams and fancy ideas that'll never come true" (paraphrasing, probably got some of it wrong)--similar to how the Stepmother sings of once being in love, but being jilted and having become bitter.

One of the things I like about this version is that the stepfamily do feel like a family, little things like the way the Stepmother smiles at the stepsisters dreaming of romance during "A Lovely Night," for example. She's sweet with her own daughters. Bernadette Peters' Stepmother is probably the one that I feel is closest to the Walt Stepmother as far as she feels like she really does love her own daughters and is trying to instruct them to be better than they are for their own sake--although the Stepmother here is much less dignified and intelligent than Lady Tremaine, of course. (Lady Tremaine having "lady" in the only name we have for her feels appropriate because she is very lady-like to me.) The Cate Blanchett stepmother, for example, didn't seem that attached to the daughters there. The Stepmother in Ever After seems to push her daughter more as a means to an end than out of love--shown in the way she doesn't care about her other daughter because she's not useful (beauty being a useful asset).

That, and I feel like the Stepsisters here actually do like Cinderella in their own bratty sort of way... Sort of like enemies who sort of "get used to" one another. The way they act towards Cinderella is more cues taken from the Stepmother on the pecking order than true nastiness. For example, Cox's stepsister asking Cinderella what she thinks of the hat or how they both listen to Cinderella in "ALN" and just before "Falling in Love With Love." Whereas most other versions, the stepsisters feel almost irredeemably awful because they're often too stupid to even know they are awful or know how to not be awful.

Oh, I loved this wonderful special! They said everyone likes Cinderella and is Cinderella! Some people do seem to dislike and even hate Cinderella, but maybe under the surface they like it. Or not, but I liked that they said that, anyway.

I totally get why they compared the 1997 Cinderella to Walt's. Walt's was what everyone thought of until Brandy's came out. I, too, was miffed Todrick slighted the Walt Fairy Godmother (who is my favorite and I would love as a friend and helper), but he just prefers Whitney and as you said, Divinity, you prefer Whitney and I think a lot of people do.

I think Rodgers and Hammerstein's music is the superior soundtrack, unfortunately for me, but it's superior more in melody than lyrics to me. What I mean is I prefer a girl believing in her dream of love and a better life than a girl pretending to be anything in her kitchen.

The costumes and sets won an Emmy for their design which concurs with my feelings that I love the design of the film. They aren't my top favorite designs but I love how imaginitive they are and I really love the ball gown.

Those are super smart observations on the stepmother calling Cinderella what she is afraid she herself is! I also never realized "Falling in Love with Love" was about getting jilted. I thought it meant she merely lost her love with one of her husbands, probably Cindy's dad. That love faded for her. What do you think?

Smart observations in the way the stepfamilies are, I must say, except I thought these stepsisters were too dumb to realize how awful they were as well, lol. But yeah, I love when the stepfamilies love each other and the stepsisters come close to loving Cinderella sometimes.

I’m sure if one is old enough ( or culturally aware enough) to be familiar with the Andrews and/or Warren Cinderellas, Walt’s was NOT the Cinderella EVERYONE thought of until Brandy’s came along.
Duster, I’m a bit surprised you could make such a blanket, unqualified statement. I usually think of you as being more inclusive when it comes to pop culture.

I think it was not only what most people thought of, but was what people even familiar with the other Rodgers and Hammerstein incarnations thought of. But you're right, no doubt it wasn't what every single person thought of. I was using a bit of hyperbole for my point. Sorry.

Oh, I didn't mind when they were talking about how nobody had ever seen a Black Cinderella before and comparing it to what most people think of the iconic look of Cinderella, which is blue-eyed, blonde, and blue dress*. That part I understood, it was more when they started comparing the other things like Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo v. Impossible (It's Possible). That just felt dumb to me.

Another thing I forgot to say is one other thing I like about this version is that Cinderella has a brief moment where she talks to the Fairy Godmother at the ball because she's overwhelmed by the questions about who she is and who her parents are. I'm trying to think... I think it's only the Faerie Tale Theater version as the other one where the Fairy Godmother appears multiple times--I mean, in the versions where the Godmother's literally magical rather than just a "friend" (like, say, in A Cinderella Story or Ever After).

* Although I involuntarily twitch at hearing it called blue when it's silver. I guess because I like it most when it looks almost white.

Haha, it's all right, I see what you mean about those other comparisons. And yes, I twitch from the "blue dress" comments as well.

I also love how Brandy!Cinderella gets nervous about being found out she's not a princess, and I love that her Fairy Godmother appears so much as well. Every Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella has her appear multiple times. Faerie Tale Theatre, which has my second favorite Fairy Godmother, is not the only other one which has more (awesome!) appearances from the actually magical Fairy Godmother. The Slipper and the Rose did it as well. Golden Films did it with two balls happening like in the original tale, too, and GoodTimes had the fairy show up some extra times. I don't want to count those, and maybe there are more examples, but I can't remember them all now!

By the way, the first Black Cinderella in a TV movie was really the star of the film Cindy (1978).

My favorite Fairy Godmothers are Verna Felton, Edie Adams and Celeste Holm. I don’t recognize any others.

Helena Bonham Carter, Estelle Winwood, Jean Stapleton, and Whitney Houston are my favorite of the Fairy Godmothers, definitely--I liked the Godmother in The Slipper and the Rose, too, though I don't know the actress' name right off. HBC--like Madden as the Prince--is one of the few things I do enjoy about the 2015 Cinderella. I can't quite recall much about Billy Porter in the most recent Cinderella, he was probably fine; I didn't care for the movie overall, so I believe I blanked most of it from my mind. The ending change with Idina Menzel's stepmother is the only thing that I can remember much about.

I always found Verna Felton's characters in Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella both to be very condescending and unlikable. I think that was on purpose with Flora to cause some interesting back-and-forth between her and Merryweather in SB, but I think it wasn't really intentional with the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. I do love Felton as Nanny in Dalmatians, the Elephant Matriarch in Dumbo, and the Queen of Hearts though. And who doesn't like "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo"?

Disney Duster wrote: By the way, the first Black Cinderella in a TV movie was really the star of the film Cindy (1978).

Oh, really? I've never heard of it. I was thinking, while they were going on and on in the retrospective about how Brandy was the first Black princess that, 1.) People are really jealous of Tiana's crown, aren't they? Between this and Halle Bailey's recent comments... Tiana will always be the first Black Disney princess, who's actually featured in the princess line, no if's, no and's, no maybe's. And 2.) If they were only trying to say she's the first ever Black princess in film, TV, media, etc., then I felt that was probably unlikely. And you just proved it with that example, I suppose.

All that to say, I'm not discounting the value a Black Cinderella has or had at all. Cinderella is the "ultimate" princess to most people, and R&H's Cinderella (1997 version) was probably the first fairy tale I'd personally seen with a Black lead as a child, too. Although there were other princesses that weren't White out at the same time, Pocahontas and Mulan, for example.

Actually, Divinity, Martha Wentworth was the voice actor of Nanny in 101 Dalmatians. She also gave Madam Mim her voice in The Sword in the Stone which was her last role.

Oh, yes. That makes sense why I loved Nanny then, since TSitS is in my top 3 Disney films. It's funny, I had actually went to the Alice in Wonderland Wikipedia page to check because I thought I might have been mistaken in listing the QoH as one of her roles, when it was Nanny that I got wrong.

I’m glad to see The Sword in the Stone get some love.
It’s not in my top 3, but I like it a lot!

I like all those Fairy Godmothers, guys! Although the Estelle one seemed too...well...looney to me, lol. I do not at all get Verna'a as condescending, though! :0 I just don't see it! She is sweet and loving and befuddled to me, and is my most favorite! I was her for my first trick-or-treat I think. My mom made my costume.

I need to watch that Black Cindy movie....

Haha, maybe they did want to steal Tiana'a crown! Haha, well they can't! Of course she's Disney's first Black official Disney Princess!