Point of Review: Cinderella

Even if your odds of achieving your dreams are a “million to one”, will you still reach forward and try? Well, Cinderella sure did!

Summary

Cinderella is a small commoner girl who lives with her stepmother, Vivian, and her two stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella. Despite her small status, Ella has big dreams to one day be a successful businesswoman and dressmaker. Every minute in which she’s not serving her step family, she sketches out dress designs and stitches something beautiful to help inch her to her dream. Meanwhile, Prince Robert, a handsome prince awaiting his controlled future, is forced by his father, King Rowan, to seek a bride. Although Prince Robert has no intentions of marrying anyone, he has no choice and is forced to put on a ball to find a bride.

One day, Cinderella makes a gorgeous dress that she knows would be the start of her career. She takes this dress down to the market square where she proudly yells out the price of the beautiful, “one-of-a-kind”, dress. To her displeasure, everyone simply makes a mockery of her due to the fact that a woman like her thinks she can be a businessman. However, she bumps into a young man who is willing to buy her dress for triple the price due to Ella’s incredible will and uniqueness to be able to follow her dreams. This man then convinces Ella to attend the Prince’s ball in exchange for him introducing Ella to some rich dress-buyers.

When Ella comes up from her room to present the gown she will wear to the ball, however, Vivian’s jealousy takes over her and she ruins Ella’s dress and forbids her to go to the ball for she is no longer a single woman; Ella was now going to be forced to marry another man named Thomas.

After being stripped away from her chance of finally achieving her dreams, Ella is paid a visit from her fabulous Fairy Godmother. The Godmother turns Ella’s dress design into reality, gives her a carriage and footmen, and sets Ella on her way to the ball once again. Once she arrives, Ella is immediately greeted with awed looks at her dress including one from Queen Tatiana who then offers Ella the chance to be her personal dressmaker. In the excitement of finally getting the chance to reach her dreams, Ella also meets the man who bought her first dress, who to Ella’s surprise, is also Prince Robert. After a wonderful night of dancing Ella meets another offer… to be Prince Robert’s new queen.

Now Cinderella has to choose between her own dreams and the man of her dreams. Will she be able to make the right decision? Or will she live the rest of her life in regret?

Review

The new Cinderella movie is a beautiful melody, teaching life lessons every aspiring person should know. Cinderella definitely ticks all the boxes when it comes to musical talent from reimagined takes on already popular songs, such as “Material Girl” by Madonna and “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran, to flawless execution in the actor’s vocal talent. You’ll practically find yourself dancing for half of the movie! One song specifically, “Million to One” perfectly describes the common lesson throughout the movie which is to never give up and to keep reaching for your dreams no matter how unique they might be or what others say. This theme is kept alive through Cinderella’s own efforts for achieving her dream of becoming a businesswoman, Prince Robert’s wants to live his own life, and Princess Gwen’s dreams of having her ideas be heard. Although the ultimate goal and storyline of this movie is very important in today’s world, critics thought that “cringe-worthy” (Screen Rant) dialogue and over-focus on the musical aspect caused the actual plot of the movie to fall flat. Some believe that the character “development seems to have been jettisoned for endless belting” (Chicago Tribune). In some views, these reviews might be true because there seems to be a new song playing every minute, however, I personally felt like the songs merely added to the story and emotion. On the other hand, I also felt as though you couldn’t get much out of the growth of some of the main characters, although there was a major shift and in-depth view into Vivian’s character which I greatly admired. I also liked the focus on the lessons trying to be taught in the movie, for I feel like most Disney movies usually miss a general theme, especially in Cinderella remakes. I definitely felt inspired at the end of this watching the characters lead themselves to victory.

Another aspect I really enjoyed were the costumes! This movie definitely spent quite some time designing the perfect costumes for each character and you can tell. Some of my favorites include the Fairy Godmother’s fabulous fit and practically every gown you could see in the ball scene. They were all so beautiful and definitely colored the screens. However, some argue that this focus on costumes as well as the music is a mere “diversion” (The AU Review) from the actual plot line itself. I believe that this is slightly true because I found myself awestruck and tapping my foot throughout the movie, however, it never really diverted my attention from the plot, in fact, I felt more entertained throughout the course of this movie.

I also appreciated the diversity presented in this movie. And when I say diversity, I mean diversity because this movie tried its hardest to have everyone feel represented. Some other critics complained that the diversity seemed to be “unrealistic” considering the time-period in which the movie is set. In my opinion, I didn’t find it to be a problem, especially considering that this movie also had mice that turned into people using magic, which all seems pretty unrealistic as well.

Overall, I felt this movie was quite entertaining to watch, especially with a family. Despite some of its hard falls in character development and harsh critiques, it was definitely something you could find yourself humming along to.

Works Cited:

​​Lethbridge, Thomas. “Why Cinderella 2021's Reviews Are So Negative.” ScreenRant, Screen Rant, 3 Sept. 2021, screenrant.com/cinderella-camila-cabello-movie-reviews-rotten-tomatoes-bad-explained/. Accessed 19 Sept. 2021.