This week’s project we are going to take a look at some modern day renderings of the Cinderella story. I invite each of you find a movie that mimics the story but with, of course a twist. Post a trailer or section of a video here for us to comment upon!
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The movie What A Girl Wants (2003) is the story of how an average teenage girl finds out that her father is a very wealthy political figure in Britain and she goes to live with him in the life that she thought she wanted. This “Rags to Riches” idea is seen in many popular movies and was inspired by the most famous of them all, Cinderella. The Cinderella theme is used frequently throughout the movie, What a Girl Wants, in a variety of ways. When the main character, Daphne, moves all the way to Britain form America she has to deal with a mean step mother and her two step sisters, sound familiar? But luckily there is a “fairy godmother” like presence for her in the form her grandmother. Daphne now has to adjust to her new lifestyle with many struggles like her new family and title. However, the story ends with a big ball where she is dressed beautifully and of course she gets the guy, just like how Cinderella got her Happily Ever After.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah1L40a4X98
The main theme of Cinderella is the “rags to riches” storyline, where Cinderella literally starts off wearing rags and living a completely ordinary life until she meets the prince and ends up marrying him. This reminds me of the movie “the Princess Diaries,” which is where an ordinary, shy girl named Mia learns from her grandmother that she is the princess of Genovia. This relates to the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, who uses magic to give Cinderella a fancy dress and carriage so she can go to the ball. Both stories represent a girl who was originally unhappy with her normal life, until her world completely changes and she is brought wealth and power.
https://youtu.be/2CkcwPi20ms
Happily Never After (2006) was one of my favorite movies as a child. It is inspired by Cinderella but focuses much more on her evil stepmother Frieda. Frieda forms a band of the evil characters from fairytales to tip the scales so that the “bad guys” win in their respective tales. So Cinderella or Ella leads a group of fairy tale characters, the “good guys” to face her stepmother and return the happy endings. There are sequels to this film with a similar premise but different fairytales as a focus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIVhzJCKV64
The movie Ella Enchanted (2004) is about a girl named Ella who at birth is given the gift of obedience by her fairy godmother. After the death of her mother and the remarriage of her father Ella is forced to live with her stepmother and her two daughters without her father just as Cinderella was. The women soon learn that Ella has to obey every command given to her and begin to make her do things around the house. As Cinderella is often viewed as the poor maid in the fairytale Ella (who’s name is quite similar to Cinderella’s) is viewed this way in the movie as well. Ella then gets the opportunity to go to the ball in a beautiful gown, just like Cinderella, thanks to her fairy godmother-although Ella had to track down her fairy godmother. Ella and prince meet again at the ball and fall in love. The movie, like the fairytale, ends with Ella marrying her Prince.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoSUHgs7hCs
The Disney movie Enchanted provides a unique look at the ideas surrounding the original Cinderella story. Not only does it presents us with the classic themes of the prince searching for Cinderella and the idea of an evil stepmother, but we also see elements from other fairytales like Snow White presented through the infamous hag with the poison apple. I think the combination of other fairytale themes with the ones surrounding Cinderella provide a unique and fascinating take on the original story.
https://youtu.be/lokg8Xtq0UE
One rendition of the classic Cinderella story I remember watching all the time growing up was Disney’s “Another Cinderella Story” (2008). This modern version is set in a high school and tells the story of a girl named Mary who dreams of becoming a famous dancer just like her mother. Unfortunately when her mother passed, she was taken in by a famous pop-singer, Dominique, who quickly became her guardian. Similar to an evil stepmother, Dominique forced Mary to cook and clean and prevented her from achieving her goals. One night, Mary’s friend (who takes on the role of the Fairy Godmother), sneaks her out to a masked ball, where she finally gets to dance with the celebrity dancer, Joey Parker, who attends her school. He mimics Prince Charming and quickly falls for Mary, although he doesn’t know it’s her at the dance. When she had to rush home before Dominique returned, she dropped her MP3 player at the dance which later helped Joey find her like Prince Charming originally did with the glass slippers. In the end, Joey’s dance competition held throughout the entire movie helps Mary get a full scholarship to a dance school where she is relieved from the stress generated by her “stepmother” and “step-sisters”.
https://youtu.be/DhB2LnE8HXE
One movie that is based on the classic story “Cinderella” is “Ever After”, produced in 1998. This adaptation to the story is interesting because it includes certain aspects of history into it, as it is set in the Renaissance. The Brothers Grimm go to the house of Grande Dame, who tells the tales of the cinder girl, before revealing the true story. In a flashback, the story of an 8 year old girl Danielle is told. Like the classic Cinderella story, she becomes servant to her stepmother and stepsisters after her father remarries following the death of her mother, and soon after, her father ides as well. Danielle falls in love with Prince Henry, even though her step mother tried to set her own daughter up with him. Danielle fights back and doesn’t allow this. Danielle goes to the ball where she disguises herself and Prince Henry falls in love with her. After her stepmother calls her out as a fraud, Henry rejects her. She runs away, leaving her slipper, which her friend, Leonardo da Vinci picks up and brings back to Henry. Henry realizes what he had done and takes Danielle back. Danielle then defends her stepmother in court against the Queen after she was accused of lying to her about Danielle . then they all live happily ever after.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3eMhbH_-nM
The 1960 movie Cinderfella follows the story of Cinderella very closely, the difference being the genders are reversed. Cinderfella is forced to live with his wicked stepmother and her sons, and just like in the original story, is treated like garbage. The story follows the original almost exactly: Cinderfella attends a ball, meets Princess Charming, loses a shoe, and eventually has that shoe returned by Princess Charming and they live happily ever after.
A theme in many movies is transformation in order to impress someone else. In Cinderella, this is indirectly seen through the transformation Cinderella undergoes from the fairy godmother, and the attraction the Prince has towards her at the ball. In the movie Clueless, Cher and Dionne take on the role of fairy godmother in an effort to transform the grunge new student, Tai, and in return Tai gets the attention of guys in their school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS0KyTZ3Ie4
Clueless is also almost scene by scene a Jane Austen novel!
Ironic as it sounds, the movie Cinderella man tells the story of a man named James Braddock who was a boxer in the 1920s. He lost much of his audience due to the great depression. In the original Cinderella story, she lived a privileged life with her parents as the king and queen and then fell from that status of the princess. However, by the movie’s end, Braddock wins a large fight and returns to grand status after “the fight of the century.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyuri18gwdM