Cinderella's Character | Quite a Story To Go With It

My Spoiler Free Review in a Nutshell for Disney's Cinderella 2015:
Five Bibbidi Bobbidi Boos out of Five
If you, your small children, your teens, your sons, daughters, husbands, wives, boyfriends or roommates enjoy this movie even a fraction of the amount my family did, it is well worth the price of admission.
Not enough information? Continue below the picture for a more in depth look.

Warning: Some possible slight spoilers below.

A Different View of Cinderella?

My kids joined me last Friday as we went to Star Cinema Grill (a local dinner at the movies establishment) for what I *hoped* would be an awesome princess movie. My daughter and I loved the trailers and hoped for a good solid movie if not pure magic. In all honesty, my son only agreed to go because he knew he could eat pizza and ignore the movie if he wanted to do so. I had some trepidations about the movie myself.

Ahsoka goes to see Cinderella.
(Christopher declined to create photographic evidence of his going to a princess movie.)

Frozen, although a musical tour de force, resulted in my daughter hero worshipping Elsa. I have no problem with her as a character, but she does rather come across as Simba from the first half of The Lion King. She is unable to accept her responsibility and spends most of the movie depressed, shutting out her loved ones (first in her home and then in her ice palace on the hill), attacking her family, eventually becoming captured and nearly killing her sister.
Cool movie?
Definitely.
Great role model for small girls?
Maybe not.
So, as I said, I went into this movie with reservations. For the first time in forever (to shamelessly borrow a lyric), I did not purchase the Disney Store costume dress for my daughter in advance of the movie premiere. I wanted to know who we would be getting into first.
The movie is superb, with beautiful cinematography that begs for me to rewatch the film. The lush settings are simultaneously fantastically grounded like a historical drama while maintaining a luminescent quality that invites magic into the realm of reality. The costuming? It is glorious. I only wish that this kind of clothing still could be worn in everyday life.
Helena Bonham Carter, one of my longtime favorite actresses, defied expectations and delivered a Fairy Godmother who is warm, loving, by turns reserved and goofy. She is *the* Fairy Godmother. The prince is charming, of course, but Kit is also a prince who is open to others, strong enough to change his mind and not going to be manipulated. Cate Blanchett's stepmother is perfection. From her perfect coiffure to the controlled fear in the face of a ruined life out of her control, she breathes life into one of the most evil and plausible of all the Disney villains. All of the supporting actors lend wit and reality without drawing away from the main plot.

But what of Ella, the girl who would become the little cinder maid?
When Kenneth Branagh started talking about his approach to Cinderella he said he envisioned Cinderella as a movie about someone who's super power is kindness. I'd be proud for my kids (yes Chris too) to be influenced by this kind of character. 

This trailer does the best job encapsulating the character of Ella:



Rather than showing strength as a physical thing (like Divergent and Hunger Games do so frequently at the box office), Ella develops strength of character through mourning and mistreatment. This movie does the service of showing bravery as being true to your convictions amidst a very real possibility of consequence and rejection, of choosing to maintain innocence in the face of evil rather than growing bitter. The prince learns to be more noble from a chance encounter with her before ever meeting Cinderella at the ball. Ella is asked why she doesn't leave by the former domestics and offers a good response. The mice may or may not talk, but her godmother is brought to action by Ella's goodness in the midst of a shadow of her fading golden childhood.
All of Cinderella's motivation turns out to be noble, kind and good.
Remember how I put off ordering my daughter Ella's ball gown?

You *shall* go to the ball!

I would have bought it on the way to the car after the film if my phone wasn't dead. I ended up ordering it as soon as they restocked her size. I wonder if my little princess will like it?