Of late, the new live-action Cinderella is kind of a fascinating approach to a classic fairy tale remake. Consider Maleficent, Snow White and the Hunstman, Into the Woods, Once Upon a Time, and others… most of these recent fairy tale reimaginings are about turning fairy tales on their heads, villains into heroes, or princess into badass warriors. This new Cinderella is none of that – it’s about as classic a remake of the 1950s Disney movie as you can get (with a little sprinkling of reality that reminded me of Drew Barrymore’s Ever After from the 90s). Take this face-value wish-fulfillment, princess-for-a-day pretty blonde girl meeting her prince and falling in love story as you want it – is it great that it’s simple retelling or is it terrible that it reinforces all the sexist fairy tale cliches?

I’m ok with the basic retelling being mostly face-value… it really didn’t bug me personally. And it’s not completely cut-and-dried… they do at least give Cinderella a little bit more personality than the classic Disney version (which wouldn’t take much), the prince has more personality too (oh lord – a human would have to have more personality than the wood plank from the 50s), and, finally, the Wicked Stepmother (played with excessive mean-spirited glee by Cate Blanchette) is given a little backstory and enough reactions to things she hears to give her at least a modicum of depth and purpose to her awfulness.

And then there’s Helena Bonham Carter as a possible insane Fairy Godmother (or Hairy Dog Father as she lets slip). She is borrowed from a a very different Tim Burton movie to add some really out there satirical comedy to an otherwise very earnest movie. When the flick finally adds the magical fantasy, it makes a joke out of how very weird it is to turn mice into horses, lizards into footmen, and a goose into a coachman (“I don’t know how to drive a carriage, I’m a goose!”). This is somewhat appreciated in that if they were going to suddenly add magic, at least they seem to realize it’s weird.

Except for the fantasy aspects and having to escape the ball by midnight stuff, the movie plays itself very seriously… which is somewhat of a mistake when the movie has to bring about its tortuous and unbelievable ending. This isn’t spoilers – I’m just referring to the “if you think about it too much, it doesn’t make sense” ending of having to find a foot to match the glass slipper because apparently the prince is too stupid to recognize the women he just fell in love with. Oh well, I can fault the movie a little for this but, then again, this is the movie I bought a ticket to see.

Visually, the movie is absolutely gorgeous to look at – they clearly spent a lot of money on the flick. From the wardrobe, to the sets, to cinematography, they clearly were going for goregous (it doesn’t hurt that Richard Madden as the prince and Lilly Collin as Cinderella are very easy on the eyes). I can’t help but think they are hoping for some Frozen-style marketing over the gowns and glass slippers… because all of that is certainly fabulous.

Overall, this is a great looking, well acted, and fun redo of the Cinderella story… I’d recommend it… though to those with a real feminist bent who don’t appreciate the messages of classic fairy tales and Disney movies, I can’t argue the movie might be problematic. Personally, I think it’s just another option for a story… you have your Frozens, you have your Maleficents, and you have your Cinderalla.

Score: 86