By Julia Conforti, staff writer
The live action rendition of the classic Disney tale Cinderella was released March 13, to the joy of Disney fans everywhere. Hype was built up for this film ever since Maleficent was in theaters, which had a brief teaser of a glass slipper with the promise of the princess returning to the big screen.
The cast of the movie was spectacular, and was very appropriate for every character on screen, no matter how little screen time that character received. Lily James was the brave and kind Ella (crudely nicknamed Cinderella by her stepsisters) and she delivered every line with a suave that is quite admirable. Her voice and features made her quite fitting for the role of Cinderella, and her talent did not waver even for a second, adding to the immersive plot. Eloise Webb, the young actress for Cinderella, did wonderfully as well and did look very much like James.
Other memorable castmates were Helena Bonham Carter as the fairy godmother and Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother. All the actors gave an outstanding performance and the amount of effort they all put in showed.
The music, done by Patrick Doyle, complemented whatever was happening on the screen magnificently. It was charming, saddening, sweet, and ominous and whatever else the specific scene called for. Something worth mentioning is that there was no singing of the classic songs in this movie. In the credits, however, ‘A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes’ was sung by James. There was no singing (excluding a lullaby for the young Cinderella) of the original’s memorable tunes.
The costumes were all exquisite, as well. From Ella’s blue ball gown all the way to the coachmen assigned to take care of Ella’s pumpkin carriage, the outfits were amazing and historically accurate.
It is also worth mentioning that there were a scarce amount of historical inaccuracies, simple things such as Ella writing with a modern day pencil in place of the appropriate quill and ink used in medieval times.
The sets all possessed a grandiose amount of detail or, in the case of Cinderella’s room in the attic, lack thereof. The stepsister’s rooms were exceedingly cluttered, the gardens were large and had a considerable amount of vegetation there, the castle was enormous and had a ton of background materials to tie it all together.
You can’t train a mouse to stay near a girl, or force a pumpkin to shapeshift into a carriage, so special effects were necessary and they were very deserving of praise. A notable scene is “midnight approaching,” and the spell gradually fading away. If it were even remotely close to plausible, one could almost believe that the events transpiring on screen were actually happening.
While no movie can be perfect, Cinderella was fairly outstanding and charming and deserves a solid four out of five stars which is something to raise one’s glass slipper to.