Life, one sip of tea at a time

Cinder- Bella Or 10 years a slave princess Or the Mouse whisperer:- A Review on Disney’s Cinderella

Where to begin ? Where to begin ? It’s been a few weeks since I watched Disney’s latest film Cinderella, and I can tell you that it most definitely leaves a bad taste in the mouth. With a star studded cast and mind boggling CGI, the film still fell short….why ? Primarily because like most mistakes made whilst making fantasy romance comedies, they drag on for far too long, making the movie more or less a biopic about slavery, and not even a very good one at that.

While I adored Kate Blanchett’s performance as the evil stepmother, which was both flawless and riveting, I felt that the others were overshadowed and forgotten, especially Cinderella, who is a pale, lifeless doll with the occasional emotional twitch here and there. I felt that Disney could have been a tad better in presenting the character of Cinderella, especially not as a lonely individual, and forced into servitude by her ‘Evil’ stepmother, who plays the part of the Damsel to be rescued by the timely appearance of her fairy Godmother(Helena Bonham Carter), whose leniency against child abuse permits Bella to be mistreated for years, culminating in the act of them tearing her ballroom dress to shreds. Yet, the fairy odd-mother expects forgiveness on her part by providing Bella with the bling necessary to outshine everyone else at the royal ball. I understand hat magic works in mysterious ways, but had Bella not proved herself countless times over by resisting the urge to poison the food of her oppressors? I would not put it past a woman whose closest friends consist of the vermin infesting the walls of the manor. The plot, while it does have some interesting points, does fall flat more than once, leaving a great deal of yawns within the theater..

The Coup de grace of the film though was something not from the film directly. You guessed it….the frozen short film “Frozen Fever’ which we have all been waiting for ever since it’s announcement. Safe to say that everyone I knew came for this film with the promise of watching a 20 minute frozen short film. After the beloved franchise’s cameo it proceeded to butcher everything that enticed and awed you as a child.

Much akin to the image I just uploaded. After Tim Burton’s ambitious take on Alice in wonderland took the audience by storm, the live action remake of Cinderella fell far too short of what was promised. Instead of the mice who we knew and loved in the first movie, we are introduced to poor CGI clones of Reepicheep from Narnia. Sadly, these ones are neither swashbuckling musketeers, nor do they possess the benefit of a human wardrobe. But hey….!! FROZEN FEVER. Gotta admit, they set us suckers up for the fall….especially with the new duet “Make today a perfect day” (Good luck getting that one out of your head)

I for one fear for the future of Disney’s Live action remakes, for they have strayed from the path of what makes their movies so wondrous. While they have never been lacking in animation, they have not produced anything note worthy in the past three years. The budget wasted on this film could have been better spent in making a full length sequel to FROZEN.