Why I Loved the New "Cinderella"

I'll admit: I loved the new Disney movie Cinderella.

Why? It certainly wasn't because I liked the first one. In fact, Cinderella has been one of my least favorite fairy tales up until now. Beauty and the Beast was probably my favorite, but this new movie has blown that out of the park. Why?
For starters, isn't every girl's dream to be loved and valued by a man? A good man who'd do anything for her? The prince chose to spend an entire party with Cinderella (a serving woman) instead of thousands of other beautiful women. Then he kept the shoe she left behind and spared no effort in using that shoe to find her again out of an entire kingdom full of people. Now tell me - don't you think Cinderella felt valued by him? Girls, wouldn't you love to feel that way? Well I know I would.
Of course, that is the basic story of Cinderella. Why did I like the newest version of it in particular so much? The answer isn't too surprising: it was the characters.
One of the primary complaints against some fairy tales is that the princess and prince are one-dimensional. No one likes one-dimensional characters. The new Cinderella managed to give both the prince (the only name I've got for him is Kit) and Cinderella herself actual characters. Cinderella was still the optimistic, dreamy, kind girl we know from the first Disney movie . . .

Please tell me I'm not the only one that was annoyed by her incessant cheeriness.

. . . but she was different in that she wasn't supernaturally cheerful. She didn't sing while she worked, she collapsed exhausted to go to sleep by the fire place after she was done working, she was hurt when the step mother and sisters left her out of something so basic as a meal.

In others words, she had more than one emotion. She didn't prance through her hard life singing to birds.

As for the prince, he had character because he existed outside of Cinderella's life. He was worried about his dying father, his father was pushing him to choose a princess for a bride, and he tried to keep the fact that he was a prince from Cinderella because he thought she'd treat him differently otherwise. He had a nickname. It made him more human, as opposed to a cutout picture of the perfect heroic prince we got in some of the older Disney fairy tale movies (Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Sleeping Beauty, etc.).

Another thing to like about the new version is that, wonder of wonders, the prince didn't fall in love with Cinderella at the ball. They met beforehand, and yes - it was a little bit of instalove - but their relationship had a little bit more time to develop than it did in the original Disney movie. Their initial meeting is what motivated the prince to invite all the maidens in the kingdom to the ball, and motivated Cinderella to try to get there. It made the whole plot so much stronger.

A few other things that made the movie fantastic? Helena Bonham Carter as the hairy dogfather I mean fairy godmother . . .

. . .Cinderella's incredible ball gown . . .

I want to twirl around like that too.

. . . the animated mice . . .

 . . . and the fantastic job done on the costumes and the excellent acting from Cate Blanchett as the evil Lady Tremaine.

Just go see it. My dad even liked it, and if you're a girl and want to feel all gushy inside, this movie should just about do it. Take a fluffy blanket and a bar of chocolate to the movie theater. Fantasize that you're Cinderella. You'll love it. 

Have you seen the new Cinderella? What about the older ones? What do you like and dislike about each? Leave a comment!