As the literal (literal!) 811th Cinderella adaptation (and Disney’s 85th), Sneakerella makes a valiant effort at being relevant. It isn’t always successful due mainly to familiarity and a grueling run-time, but its cast is appealing and its colorful musical numbers have style.

The movie is a gender-swapped Cinderella story about a kid who works in his (evil) stepfather’s sneaker store. He secretly designs kicks and when he has a chance encounter with a pretty girl, he realizes only later that she’s the daughter of basketball legend Darius King (making her, of course, a princess). What follows are all the usual Cinderella tropes only with a twist based mainly on shoes.

So the glass slipper is replaced by stylish kicks… and while that’s not the most amazing change, it is at least something. This film, in fact, loves sneakers more than I’ll ever love anything in my life. It was a little hard for me to get into its groove, especially when I think of sneakers as a great way to not step on broken glass. But if you are a sneakerhead, you’ll probably enjoy this movie more.

The three main leads are super charming and do a lot to elevate the tired material. The lead is Chosen Jacobs who gets more to do here than he did as Mike in two It films. His best pal is a newcomer named Devyn Nekoda who is particularly bright and appealing.

The film’s musical numbers breath life into (and extend the length of) the film. They have an energetic style and I was into them. They are also a reason the flick runs just shy of two hours though… but really the thing that’s driving me to drink about the flick is just how tired the drama gets. And, sure, that’s partly because I – and everyone on the planet – already knows all the beats of this story.

But, hey, maybe if this is your first (or second or third) Cinderella story, this will all be super engaging for you. For the rest of us, the movie works a lot of the time, even if it barely makes a case for its need to exist (as the literal 2004th Cinderella adaptation (and Disney 122nd)). An appealing cast and high energy do a lot of hard work on its behalf though.

Score: 78