Yes, I know this came out in 2015. So yes, I know I’m really behind in seeing it. But it’s now on Disney+ and I’m not really going anywhere just yet. So I put it on and finally got to see it.
And now you get to hear my thoughts about it because…well…it’s my blog and that’s what I do. So grab your best pair of glass slippers, settle onto your pumpkin and gather your mice friends for the live-action version of Cinderella!
Once upon a time in a kingdom far, far away, there lives a wealthy merchant and gentleman farmer (Ben Chaplin) and his beautiful wife (Hayley Atwell). They have a beautiful daughter they name Ella and are very, very happy. Ella’s mother teaches her to always be kind and that it brings with it a special magic all its own. She tells young Ella (Eloise Webb) to take care of the animals and they may one day talk to her. When Ella asks her who takes care of humans, her mother tells her that fairy godmothers do.
After she passes, it is just Ella and her father. This strengthens their bond. They also agree to always care for the house and the property because it connects them to Ella’s mom.
Ella grows up to be Lily James and she is still as sweet and kind as she was as a child. She has a small army of mice friends who are willing to help her when she needs it. She’s also befriended birds and other animals on the farm as well. And she always is willing to help the servants around the house.
Now that Ella is older, her father reveals that he wants to marry again. He tells her that he had been friends with a couple but the husband had died recently. And he thinks he would be happy with the man’s widow. Ella gives her permission for him to marry her, saying she wants him to be happy. She is hopeful for a big family.
So he goes and marries her, bringing her and her daughters home. Ella meets her new family. Her two new stepsisters are Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) and Drisella, played by Sophie McShera AKA Gwynne from Galavant! They immediately begin insulting the house and Ella, who tries to warmly welcome them to their new home. And then she meets her new stepmother, Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett), who also is not very warm to her or pleased about the house. Ella, though, decides to make the most of it.
Lady Tremaine starts to throw lavish parties and redecorate the house. It becomes clear that her tastes may be too expensive for her husband and he tells Ella that he has to go on a business trip. She’s worried and doesn’t want him to go but he says it will only be for a month. He asks her if she wants anything and says that her stepsisters have already asked for a lot. Ella, though, just wants the first branch his shoulder brushes. Because then he will have to carry it with him throughout his trip and think of her and then come home to give it to her. He agrees to that.
He then reminds her of the promise to take care of the house and she says she will do it. She then admits she misses her mother and he tells her that he misses her as well. But he can feel her in the house and see her in Ella. And though it’s not really said out loud, there seems to be an undercurrent throughout this entire scene that suggests Ella’s father regrets marrying Lady Tremaine. So of course that means she happens to walk by the door when he and Ella are talking about his late wife and you can see that she’s figured out that she will always come second to his wife and Ella.
The next day, he leaves and everyone sees him off. Ella holds his hand until he reaches the gate. She watches him leave and both seem to realize that they may not see each other again.
Ella returns inside and is called into a parlor by Lady Tremaine, who asks her to help take care of the house. She uses Ella’s promise against her, saying she’s the only one who can do it – especially as her daughters aren’t that skilled. Ella agrees as her stepsisters blow through, fighting. Lady Tremaine says that their bedroom is too small for the two of them and it’s making them fight more. Ella offers up her bedroom as it’s bigger. Lady Tremaine accepts and decrees Ella can sleep in the attic.
(One also has to wonder if Lady Tremaine also had a feeling her husband wouldn’t be returning from his trip because he no doubt wouldn’t be pleased to find his daughter sleeping in the attic. She could always sell it as Ella’s idea but I think that could’ve been the breaking point for him).
So Ella moves into the attic. All her mice friends come with her and she tells them that it will be much better up there. After all, Lucifer – Lady Tremaine’s cat – won’t be able to get to them in the attic. Drisella and Anastasia hear her talking from the bottom of the stairs and decide that Ella must be mad.
Drisella and Anastasia prove to be absolutely useless. We hear Drisella murder a poor song while Anastasia’s drawing of her mother is only so-so. They also don’t contribute to the care of the household, leaving that to Ella.
One day, a friend of Ella’s father comes to the door and informs them that he took ill abroad. He offers his condolences as he tells them that he didn’t make it. Lady Tremaine immediately stares wailing that they are ruined while Drisella and Anastasia want to know where all the pretty things they asked for are. All the man has is a branch that Ella’s father asked be given to her. She thanks him for delivering it and closes the door, going to grieve alone.
With their main source of money gone, Lady Tremaine has to tighten up the family’s finances. She lets all the staff go, making Ella pick up more and more of the duties while Drisella and Anastasia (and Lady Tremaine) do nothing. In no time at all, Ella is only a servant in her own home. Because of how cold it gets in the attic some times, she ends up sleeping by the fire. One morning, she rushes to get breakfast on the table and her stepsisters notice the smudges on her face. They dub her “Cinderella” and finally break her.
Upset, Ella takes a horse and goes riding through the woods. She comes across a deer and realizes that there’s a party hunting the deer. Ella sends it running to safety as a dashing man (Richard Madden) rides into the clearing. He asks about the deer and Ella says she doesn’t believe in killing innocent animals for sport. She and the man have a lively conversation and there’s clearly a spark between them. He tells her that he is an apprentice at the palace but we all can figure out that he’s really the prince. He introduces himself as Kit and hopes to see Ella again before riding off. Ella then returns to her own home, feeling much better than she had before.
At the palace, Kit talks with his father, the king (Derek Jacobi), about the young woman he met in the woods. But his father is determined to see Kit married to a princess. So is the Grand Duke (Stellan Skarsgard) while the Captain of the Guard (Nonso Anozie) seems to silently be on Kit’s side. The argument for a princess is that their country is small and needs strong alliances to help them. And marriage is a very good way to build an alliance. Kit tries to appeal to the love his father felt for the late queen but the king reminds Kit that the queen was first a princess herself.
It soon becomes apparent that the king is concerned about this because his health is failing and he wants to see his son married. So Kit makes a deal with his father – if his father will agree to invite all the eligible women in the kingdom, he will marry a princess. The Grand Duke is suspicious and knows that Kit is besotted with a young woman he met in the woods but the king thinks it’s a fair trade. He orders the Grand Duke to issue an invitation to the kingdom.
So the invitation does go out to everyone in the kingdom. Ella hears it in the marketplace and returns home to tell her stepmother and stepsisters. They are thrilled and Lady Tremaine tells Ella to go to the dressmaker to order three new dresses. Ella is happy and thanks her stepmother for thinking of her but Lady Tremaine says the third dress is really for her. She says it would be embarrassing for Ella to show up at a royal ball even if the king invited all the eligible maidens in the land. Lady Tremaine tells her the prince would never choose her but Ella insists she just wants to go to see her new friend, an apprentice in the palace. Lady Tremaine is adamant she won’t go.
Ella, though, doesn’t give up. With the help of her mice and bird friends, she takes one of her mother’s old dresses and refreshes it. Come the night of the ball, she hurries down to join her stepmother and stepsisters in going. But Lady Tremaine says she can’t let Ella go in such an outdated dress. She would be an embarrassment and it wouldn’t be kind to let Ella endure the mocking that would occur. She also pretends to be concerned the dress is falling apart and starts ripping it. Drisella and Anastasia join in, leaving Ella in a tattered dress to head to the ball.
Upset, Ella runs into the garden and seems to give up hope. She knows she was told to have courage and be kind but neither seems to be working for her. Ella cries before being surprised by a beggar woman asking for some food. Unlike a certain prince, Ella obliges the beggar woman with some bread and milk. The woman eats and drinks before revealing herself to be Ella’s Fairy Godmother (Helena Bonham Carter)!
Ella is absolutely surprised. Fairy Godmother tells her she is there to help her get to the ball as a reward for being so kind. She searches Ella’s garden and figured a pumpkin will do. Ella’s a bit confused about what her fairy godmother will do before she watches the pumpkin grow and grow, threatening to outgrow the greenhouse. They manage to escape as the pumpkin turns into a beautiful golden carriage. She then of course turns the mice into horses, a duck into a driver and a lizard into a footman.
Fairy Godmother is ready to bundle Ella onto the carriage but Ella points out that her dress has been ripped. She asks Fairy Godmother to fix it, explaining that it was her mother’s and she wants to wear it so it feels like she’s bringing her mother to the ball too. Fairy Godmother says she can keep the dress but make it even better. And using her magic, she transforms it into the live action version of the blue gown – complete with glass slippers. Ella loves it.
At last, Ella gets into the carriage and the Fairy Godmother tells her to enjoy the ball. She then warns Ella that the magic will only last until midnight, so she must leave by then. Ella promises she will and the carriage heads off to the palace.
Meanwhile, at the palace, everyone has arrived for the ball. So there are a lot of introductions to get through. Kit is introduced to Princess Chelina of Zaragosa (Jana Perez) before he moves on, eventually encountering Lady Tremaine and her daughters. But he keeps waiting for Ella to arrive, which annoys the Duke as he tries to please the princess. He also keeps trying to push Kit toward her but the prince is distracted as Ella still hasn’t arrived.
And he’s probably going to be arriving a little be longer because when she does arrive, she has to climb a lot of steps to get to the palace. Like…seriously? There wasn’t any place closer she could be dropped off?
When it seems there are no more people to introduce, the Duke tells Kit it’s time to start the dancing. And he encourages him to pick Princess Chelina to dance with first. Kit is about to do that when who should enter? Ella – surprisingly not out of breath after all the stairs she had to climb. Everyone watches her descend the ballroom and she is surprised to see Kit so dressed up. He asks her to share the first dance with him and she agrees.
They dance and Ella comments that they are all staring at them. Kit’s like “I am essentially chopped liver. They are all staring at you.” He then invites her to come with him and they pretty much leave the ball.
Tough luck, everyone else. At least the King is getting it after seeing Ella.
The Duke, though, is panicking. He confides to the Captain that he’s already arranged for Kit to marry Princess Chelina. But no one else can know…so Lady Tremaine, who was walking by at that moment, swears to keep their secret.
Kit and Ella bond in a secret part of the garden that has a swing. She gives him advice and pretty much tells him to listen to his heart before the clock starts to strike midnight. Ella thanks him for an amazing night and then books it out of there, somehow managing to outrun the prince in glass heels.
Though she does leave one behind because this is Cinderella.
Kit wants to find Ella, the Captain realizes he isn’t marrying Princess Chelina, the Duke is panicking and the king is starting to realize that maybe his son doesn’t need to marry a princess after all. All while Ella races home as her carriage turns back into a pumpkin, her horse become mice again, her footman returns to being a lizard and her driver is a goose once more.
She returns home, happy to have one amazing night. But soon she hears her stepmother and stepsisters arriving home, so she hides the glass slipper and greets them. She listens to them go on about the ball as she keeps her secret to herself – while they appear to be none the wiser. Once they go to bed, she retrieves the glass slipper and places it under a floorboard in her room, which serves as a memory box of sorts.
The King lays on his deathbed and Kit keeps vigil. The King tells Kit to find the beautiful woman whom he assumes is a princess and marries her. He just wants his son to be happy and once he dies, Kit mourns and then makes a proclamation: He wants to find the mysterious woman who wore the glass slippers to the ball and marry her.Everyone gets very excited, including Ella. Lady Tremaine, though, finds her shoe and asks her where she got it. Ella tells her that it was given to her but Lady Tremaine can’t believe that. She tells Ella a story about how she tried to marry for love but he died, leaving her to fend for herself and her daughters. So she married to give them security but he then died, leaving Lady Tremaine to live with that man’s beloved daughter. All she wanted was to marry one of her daughters off to the prince but a girl in glass slippers ruined that plan.
Lady Tremaine breaks Ella’s slipper and Ella asks her how she can be so cruel. Lady Tremaine confesses that she hates how kind and beautiful and young and innocent Ella is. She stops short but she probably sees a lot of who she wanted to be in Ella and can’t understand how the young woman stays so positive in the face of adversity when Lady Tremaine is so cynical. And it’s also clear that she subscribes to the “If I have to suffer, then you have to suffer” school of thought.
Lady Tremaine then goes to the Grand Duke, revealing that the princess is really a servant. He thanks her for saving the king and the kingdom from embarrassment and asks what she wants in return. She asks to be made a countess and for advantageous marriages for her daughters. The Grand Duke agrees.
He gives Kit the broken piece of shoe and lies that it was found on the side of the road. The Duke tries to convince Kit that the princess doesn’t want to be found but Kit doesn’t want to give up. So the Duke gets Kit to agree to marry someone else if they can’t find her and he does, even though the Captain of the Guard tries to warn him not to. Kit orders the Duke to make sure to leave no stone unturned in his search for the princess and the Duke agrees, confident in his deal with Lady Tremaine.
The Duke and the Captain go through the country. Every eligible woman tries on the slipper but none fit it. They continue on, the Duke certain that they won’t find her, until they reach the Tremaine household. Both Drisella and Anastasia try the shoe on but it doesn’t fit. And it seems that is the end of that.
Meanwhile, the birds tell the mice that Kit is there and they try to tell Ella but she’s lost in her own world, remembering the ball. So the mice manage to open the door as Ella starts to sing. Her singing catches the attention of everyone in the courtyard below, though the Duke and Lady Tremaine try to pretend that they don’t hear it. When the Captain presses the point, she tries to dismiss them and say they don’t need to try the shoe on the servant. But one of the guards says they have to. It’s revealed that this guard is Kit in disguise (my theory is the Captain clued him in that the Grand Duke is not to be trusted) and he orders the woman to be brought before him.
Lady Tremaine brings the Captain of the Guard up to the attic and presents Ella. He asks her to come downstairs and to present herself to the king. Lady Tremaine, though, forbids it so he asks her on what authority. She insists she’s Ella’s mother but Ella tells both that Lady Tremaine has never been her mother. She heads downstairs with the Captain.
After taking a deep breath, Ella decides to embrace her true self. She enters the parlor and presents herself to Kit and explains that she’s not a princess but a servant girl who loves him and hopes that he can accept her as she is. Kit says he will if she will accept him as he is – an apprentice still learning his craft. She agrees and he puts the shoe on her, confirming that she is the woman he loves.
The stepsisters rush in and try to ingratiate themselves with Ella but it doesn’t really work. Kit escorts her out and before she leaves, she tells Lady Tremaine that she forgives her. Lady Tremaine slowly collapses under the weight of Ella’s kindness and probably dawning comprehension of how karma works. The voiceover says that Lady Tremaine, her daughters and the Grand Duke left the country shortly after that and never returned.
With the portraits of their parents looking on, Kit and Ella celebrate their marriage and the promise of happily ever after.
So how was it?
It was pretty good. It was a faithful adaptation to the movie but it went more in depth for certain things. We got to see more of Ella and her parents, including her mother, and more about why she was so kind and selfless. She chose to be and to always see the good in the world, just like her parents taught her. James brought an authenticity to this aspect of Ella and still imbued her with an inner strength to show that she wasn’t really a doormat, just someone whose own kind nature was being manipulated and used against her.
The movie also fleshed out Lady Tremaine and explained how she ended up using Ella as a servant, why Ella would allow herself to become a servant in her own home. I thought that was very well done and that Blanchett played Tremaine with a lot of depth. She and James played well off each other.
Madden played Kit as an earnest and genuine man who is struggling to figure out who he should be and who he wants to be. Like many other Cinderella adaptions lately, this movie has the main characters meet ahead of time to avoid that “they got married after sharing only a couple words together” trope. I also like that Kit was able to recognize Ella once he saw her, though I do like the theory that the prince in the original movie just suffers from face blindness.
Bonham-Carter was a lot of fun to watch as the Fairy Godmother. She blew into the movie, gave Ella some hope and then blew out. It was wonderful.
And if you watch nothing else, at least try to find the scene where the Fairy Godmother transforms everything into a carriage for Cinderella. It was fun to watch and the effects were amazing.
I’ll probably write about some long released properties in the future as I continue to explore the many offerings on Disney+. So keep your eyes peeled!
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