Just when we thought there could not be another Cinderella story, Amazon Prime decides to bring us another adaptation directed by Kay Cannon and starring Camila Cabello as Cinderella. It gives us magic ball gowns, confident characters, and some humor added into the dialogue. Compared to some prior “Cinderella” adaptations, it follows the original Disney 1950 film storyline. It is not much different from the original “Cinderella” story when it comes to the time it was set and the overline storyline. There are some main differences in the story that sets it apart from the other adaptations. This film takes the original “Cinderella” story and spins it into its own story where you might not exactly guess the ending from the start. It takes place around the same time and place as the original; it’s just not animated.
To start, we see a different Cinderella that has passions outside of love, we see an aspiring seamstress who wants to start her own business but society is not as progressive as she is. She is faced with the choice between choosing love or her passion. Cinderella is given the opportunity to further her career by making dresses for a wealthy lady. This once in a lifetime opportunity would give her money, experience, and allow her to travel, but she has to choose between that and marrying the man that she is in love with. She can follow her passion or she can follow the love of her life. In this adaptation her family wants her to marry the prince so she will become financially stable, but she has to choose between that and a hobby. This obstacle allows viewers to see a more authentic Cinderella and how she combats the expectations set by society that are put on her.
We are given a diverse cast of characters and extras, which shows so much more improvement from other “Cinderella” stories. Along with diversity we are given the same dancing and music that we have seen in the original version. This movie added more humor to give the story a more lighthearted feel. However, we are given a modern twist to the story where Cinderella has to make a life-changing decision that viewers would find relatable. Although not everyone will make a decision as dramatic as that, it gives a sense of reality and authenticity to the story.
Overall, Amazon’s “Cinderella” movie is not a must-watch movie or an automatic classic, but it does bring new ideas to a new age of princess movies. It adds more substance to characters that have been enjoyed by many generations by showing that princesses can have more depth than just having a good voice and wanting to find love. They give them passions and dreams, which is as real as it gets for princesses. We have seen this being portrayed in some other live-action princess adaptations where they take the original and make it into a greater story with more depth. It brings a classic tale to be taken more lightheartedly and inspires the youth growing up in this generation. This allows for a larger group of kids to take away from the movie and have a movie to grow up with.
