In case you haven’t noticed, we’re big Disney fans in this household. Just a few weeks back, the entire family traveled to Walt Disney World to spend a week in the resorts and parks, and to take part in the Princess Half Marathon weekend. (I promise a recap post on that is coming soon!)

While at Disney, we saw promotions for the new live-action Cinderella movie, of course. And why not – the castle in Magic Kingdom is named for her, she was the most popular princess for a long time (before Rapunzel, Anna and Elsa came along), and her story is one that is known by just about every female from a young age. And with the teasers I saw, I knew we’d want to go watch this movie. Here’s our review of Cinderella.

Synopsis

The story of Cinderella follows the fortunes of young Ella whose merchant father remarries following the death of her mother. Eager to support her loving father, Ella welcomes her new stepmother and her daughters Anastasia and Drisella into the family home. But when Ella’s father unexpectedly passes away, she finds herself at the mercy of a jealous and cruel new family. Finally relegated to nothing more than a servant girl covered in ashes, and spitefully renamed Cinderlla, Ella could easily begin to lose hope. Yet, despite the cruelty inflicted upon her, Ella is determined to honor her mother’s dying words and to “have courage and be kind.”

She will not give in to despair nor despise those who mistreat her. And then there is the dashing stranger she meets in the woods. Unaware that he is really a prince, not merely an apprentice at the Palace, Ella finally feels she has met a kindred soul. It appears her fortunes may be about to change when the Palace sends out an open invitation for all maidens to attend a ball, raising Ella’s hopes of once again encountering the charming Kit. Alas, her stepmother forbids her to attend and callously rips apart her dress. But, as in all good fairy tales, help is at hand, and a kindly beggar woman (Helena Bonham-Carter) steps forward and – armed with a pumpkin and a few mice – changes Cinderella’s life forever.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, Cinderella stars Lily James, Hayley Atwell, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter and Richard Madden.
(from Disney)

The Feature

The 2015 Cinderella follows the primary story of the classic 1950 version nearly identically. There are certain elements that have been changed – notably, the film is not a musical, and while she does get assistance from her mice friends, there are no talking animals in the film.

Where the films differ most is the focus on giving expanded backstory to each of the main characters. We get to see a lot more about Cinderella’s life before her mother died, and we get to see the close relationship between Ella and her father. The mantra of “have courage and be kind” is repeated and we see how it shapes Ella. We’re given a reason for why Ella never fights back or chooses to leave the house and strike out on her own. Similarly, we get to see a bit more between the Prince (Kit) and his father, and we see a charming relationship between Father and Son and between King and heir, and where those two relationships have to come into conflict.

Lady Tremaine is given a bit more backstory and explanation for her motives and for why she never cares for Ella. I’m not sure her backstory is enough to justify the pleasure she seems to take out of torturing Ella, but we learn she’s had her own share of heartbreak, too.

Best of all, however, we get scenes of Ella and the Prince where they do more than just dance. They get to talk to one another, and share secrets and thoughts and ideas. It’s still a short two scenes, and doesn’t leave them with much more time to build a lasting romance than Anna and Hans have in Frozen, but at least it’s more than just “They danced, and therefore they’re in love.”

Lily James gives us a very convincing Ella/Cinderella, and Richard Madden has cleaned up exceptionally from Game of Thrones to make a very dashing Disney Prince. Cate Blanchett plays Lady Tremaine with gusto, seeming very much like a younger Angelica Huston, and Helena Bonham-Carter’s Fairy Godmother is perhaps a bit more scatterbrained than the animated version, but is a heart-warming presence.

The Visuals

Kenneth Branagh has a fantastic eye for the cinema, and with a Disney-backed budget, we would expect nothing less than fantastic from the director who gave us Thor, Hamlet and Henry V. I chose those three films specifically to point out how high the bar was set.

Branagh surpasses it. Cinderella is absolutely breathtaking. From the little details of watching butterflies magically transform into jeweled accents, to the sweeping vistas of the kingdom, to exploring the little details that make Ella’s house a warm and loving home, Branagh uses the camera to overwhelm us visually, using both sweeping wide shots and intimate close-ups. The line between CGI and practical make-up and effects is hard to draw, and everything is given the attention to make the visual world of Cinderella a fully immersive experience.

The Music

Like their other recent live-action reimagining (Maleficent), Disney chose not to make Cinderella a musical. Instead, we get a beautiful score from Patrick Doyle, along with two after-the-credits reprises from the animated feature.

Doyle’s score is more than up to the task of guiding us through the emotional arc of the film, without ever once drawing attention to itself. I leave it to the viewer to decide if this is a good thing or if it merely makes his music serviceable, although Aaron and I lean towards the view that the music should only become the focus of a scene when it is, in fact, the focus of the scene.

During the post credits, Lily James sings “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” and it is very pretty, while Helena Bonham-Carter provides a humorous take on “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” that left a smile on the faces of my entire family.

The Good

Breathtaking visuals, a strong score, and excellent acting gives us a film that manages to retain almost all of the charm of the animated film while giving additional depth to the characters and the story. Cinderella herself is notable for being given significantly more agency and drive in this film, as opposed to the mostly passive version we see in the animated classic. The Prince, as well, is more developed than the animated classic, showing us why the two of them might fall for each other. (And he wisely has the ability to recognize the girl he loves by her face, and not just her foot in a shoe.)

The Bad

The explanation for Lady Tremaine’s wickedness doesn’t really mesh with her actions when she first moves in with Ella and her father, even before his untimely death. Although Cate Blanchett does her best with the role, it never really manages to elevate her above the cartoon version of the character. She still seems to be evil for the joy of being evil.

Additionally, that deeper look at the characters comes with additional run-time, and even with the modest run-time of 112 minutes, Cinderella still felt like it was just a bit too long. Our kids were able to sit through the film, but were definitely a little wiggly during the slower moments. Branagh could have tightened a few scenes to keep it to a more kid-friendly length and (more importantly) pace.

Final Thoughts

I was concerned that it would be a difficult task to bring a classic retelling of Cinderella back to the theaters, considering that Cinderella is thought of by many as weaker when compared to some of the modern Princesses, with a story centered around the girl being swept away from all of her problems by a dashing prince and fairy godmother. After all, it was less than two years ago that we were all charmed by the two sisters of Arendelle as they proved that a fairytale doesn’t always have to end with a handsome prince and a wedding.

Did Cinderella succeed? Mostly. It is, in almost every way I can think of, a better film than the animated one, and we certainly enjoyed it. The story itself still has issues from a feminist perspective, but I thought Disney did a good job of trying to manage those elements by providing more interaction between Cinderella and her Prince, and giving us a Cinderella with a lion’s heart. She fiercely believes in the values taught to her by her parents, unwilling to compromise on those values even at her own expense, and despite her miserable circumstances, it’s those same traits that eventually help her reach her happy ending. Although I’d argue that while “have courage and be kind” are admirable values, they’re less so if they cause you to let yourself be abused.

But at the same time, I don’t think it’s necessary to have a take-away lesson from every movie, and we’re allowed to have a heroine with flaws, mild as they may be in this case. It’s okay to watch a movie simply because it’s beautiful and lets us escape the mundane for a short while into a world where dreams can come true if you just believe. With that goal in mind, this movie is an absolute success. Cinderella is worth watching, and is sure to become a part of our movie collection.

Bonus: Frozen Fever

There is, of course, the segment of the audience who is coming not for the feature, but just to see Frozen Fever, because of the… well… Frozen fever that has struck Disney fans. (No, we’re not immune. We love Frozen, and during our recent visit, we did the Meet and Greet with Anna and Elsa and attended “For the First Time In Forever: A Frozen Sing-A-Long” at Hollywood Studios.)

As a short, one should not expect Frozen Fever to have the same depth as the original feature. It doesn’t, and we shouldn’t expect it.

What it is, however, is a heartwarming short tale about Elsa (along with Olaf, Sven and Kristoff) trying to plan a perfect birthday for Anna (after thirteen years of Elsa being completely absent from Anna’s life during birthdays). But, despite being the Queen of Snow and Ice, Elsa is not immune to the type of cold that comes from a virus rather than chilled temperatures, and her magical abilities interact with her cold to make the day go rather less smoothly than planned.

It’s very cute, and all of the original voices (except for Hans) reprise their roles. The original song for the short “Making Today a Perfect Day” is charming and pleasant, and if it won’t push “Let It Go” out of your child’s playlist, it will at least add some variety to a soundtrack that most parents have heard repeatedly.

(Disclaimer: I was provided free tickets for the preview screening, however I received no other compensation. All opinions are mine and those of my family.)

Big Hero 6 is a movie we had been waiting on for most of this year. With Disney and Marvel coming off of huge successes from Frozen, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy in the last year, we had high hopes that this would be an equal success. After all, both Marvel and Disney seem to have hit their stride in storytelling – combining forces should be a slam-dunk, right?

For the most part, yes. Big Hero 6 gave us much of what we wanted. It’s a superhero film through a Disney lens, perfect for kids while also still engaging and entertaining for adults. It also carefully balances the audience it’s aiming for to appeal to both boys and girls, with a subtle message that geniuses – and heroes – come in all shapes, sizes, and skin colors.

Here’s our full review of Big Hero 6:

Synopsis

From Walt Disney Animation Studios, the team behind Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph, comes Big Hero 6, an action-packed comedy-adventure about the special bond that develops between Baymax, a plus-sized inflatable robot, and prodigy Hiro Hamada. When a devastating event befalls the city of San Fransokyo and catapults Hiro into the midst of danger, he turns to Baymax and his close friends; adrenaline junkie Go Go Tomago, neatnik Wasabi, chemistry whiz Honey Lemon and fanboy Fred. Determined to uncover the mystery, Hiro transforms his friends into a band of high-tech heroes called Big Hero 6.

The Feature

Big Hero 6 is an interesting mix of being a classic superhero story and a fairly traditional Disney film. We have the Disney protagonist  – young, orphaned, ready to go off and have their adventure – but we also have a very typical superhero origin story that could have been taken from the script for Iron Man: genius inventor finds that his technology is being used by an evil mastermind, uses technology left by his deceased family member and his own developed super suit to do battle against his own tech. It’s really almost a Disney version of Iron Man, without the drinking and playboy shenanigans. (But still the gambling.)

This makes for a film that is both extremely satisfying from the point of view of action and spectacle. The scenes of Baymax and Hiro flying through the skies of San Fransokyo are right up there with those of Stark flying in his Iron Man armor, and the battles between the team and Yokai are easily as well done as those of the Avengers facing against the Chitauri. But it also giving us plenty of time to explore the family dynamics and relationship between Hiro and his brother Tadashi (and then later, Baymax).

The team of heroes, aside from Hiro and Baymax, include Honey Lemon, Wasabi, Go Go and Fred. They round the cast out nicely, with each character having enough personality to be distinct, and their various super suits are varied enough to keep the heroes from being redundant. Other members of the cast have certainly enough personality to keep them interesting and make them more than just background, and they’re all fairly consistently developed, which is certainly a plus.

On the downside, one of the glaring missteps that we noticed was that the friendship between Hiro and the rest of the gang is almost completely left off-screen. We have it clearly established that they were all very good friends (and classmates) with Tadashi, and it is implied that Tadashi told them all about his genius-prodigy-younger-brother-who-has-been-wasting-his-time-with-bot-fights. There is a montage that has the potential to establish that Hiro has begun forging friendships with the rest of the gang, but their appearance in that montage is blink-and-you’ll-miss-it short.

Similarly, they’re present at the memorial for Tadashi, but we don’t really see them interacting with Hiro, yet by the time we get to the second act, we’re supposed to just accept that they are all the closest of friends, and that the idea of putting on super suits and fighting Yokai is something they will all just go along with.

A lot of this is simply a result of an unbalanced script. While establishing the relationship between Hiro and Tadashi is vital, a bit too much time is paid to it, and therefore not enough time is left to create the bonds between Hiro and Go Go, Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Fred. In fact, for all that they are each developed a bit, and the characters have distinct personalities and interests, we don’t see a lot of time given to any member of the team.

It’s a tough thing to balance, and certainly something that creators of other ensemble superhero films have struggled with. But one only needs to look at The Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy to see where it works well. Big Hero 6 falls just a little short on that regard.

But what balances this misstep and makes the film delightful is Hiro and Baymax. Baymax is, perhaps, Disney’s most successful “cute sidekick” creation of the past two decades. He’s adorable and cute, but is also absent of the more annoying traits of the cute sidekick. Although ignorant of many things, Baymax is never dumb. His voice is calm and soothing instead of loud and grating. (The one thing I didn’t like as much about Olaf in Frozen.) And he absolutely is vital to the plot, in a way that cute sidekicks never are.

Little kids will want a plush Baymax to cuddle. Older kids will want an armored-up Baymax to play with and to fight alongside the Avengers and Justice League and Incredibles. And parents will wish they had a Baymax to send out in to the world alongside their children.

The Good

We have great action, inspired character design, and a really touching story about two brothers. Add in a villain with a complex motivation, and some great moral lessons and Disney delivers again. One positive is the diversity in the film. Of the five main (human) heroes, we have a mix of ethnicities, and two of five are female.

And while Honey Lemon is animated in a more exaggerated “eyes bigger than her knees” way, Go Go is a more solidly built woman. It might seem like a minor detail, but having thighs that would naturally be larger due to muscle development for a female character is significant to me, and having the two female heroes drawn with such different proportions sends the message that female heroes can come in different shapes and sizes.

The Bad

Insufficient time is given to four members out of the six heroes to make them fully-realized characters. They’re great sketches, but that’s all they are. More time spent forming the core friendship and unifying force of the team would have resulted in a more cohesive story. There were moments where the team felt like background players for Hiro and Baymax.

There are also some moments in the film that might be a little hard for younger kids. While Hiro and Tadashi’s parents are long gone when the movie starts, Tadashi’s death doesn’t come until we’ve already grown to like him and see how much he means to Hiro. His death is sudden and jarring, which could upset some kids.

Equally sad is a moment near the end that left Mira in tears. I don’t want to give away the details, but if you see the film and reach that point (and you’ll know it when it happens) with an upset kid, just know that the very end isn’t as tragic as this moment seems and it will get better. As a parent who often has to get advance peeks at films so I know when I’ll need to reassure my sensitive child, I promise it still ends on a happy note for the characters involved in that moment.

I also can’t understand why they decided to have Hiro and Tadashi raised by their aunt. Some might say the alternate family arrangement is a sign of diversity, but Disney already has a long track record of dead parents. The story would have worked equally as well if one parent was always traveling for business and the other was busy trying to keep up the bakery at home. Or a divorced parent scenario, perhaps.

The Ugly

If you’re a big fan of the appearances of the Big Hero 6 from Marvel Comics, then this movie is not for you. Their names and powers are (mostly) the same, but the characters couldn’t be much more different.

Also, something I wasn’t aware of until after I saw the film, several people were upset by the choice to make Fred a white guy. In the comics he was a member of the Ainu, a group of indigenous people on a Japanese island who historically were oppressed and discriminated against. I can see why Disney made the choice, since few Americans would know anything about the Ainu and it would be difficult to work into a movie designed for kids, but I also understand why it upset people.

Final Thoughts

Again, Big Hero 6 is not a perfect movie, and it would be very easy to fall prey to letting this movie become a victim of over-expectations. Which would be a shame, because what Big Hero 6 is, is a lot of fun. There’s a good heart-warming story at the film’s core, accompanied by some great action, incredible visuals, solid voice acting, and lovable characters.

Don’t overthink it. Sit back, relax and enjoy the film, and I think you’ll find Big Hero 6 to be a worthwhile experience. We really enjoyed the advanced screening we attended (the girls even said that they thought it was better than Frozen, which I had to disagree with them on), and have since gone to see it again and enjoyed it equally a second time.

Also, don’t forget that this is a Marvel movie. Look for the requisite Stan Lee cameo appearance, and be sure to stick around for the post-credits stinger.

Bonus

Disney has typically included an original short film before their films, and they’ve really been knocking it out of the park with the last few animated releases. Wreck It Ralph featured the exquisite Paperman and Frozen gave us the nostalgic Get a Horse. Big Hero 6 one-ups them with Feast, which is both incredibly funny and heart-breakingly sweet. The story of one man’s life through the dog he adopts – seen entirely from mealtimes. If Feast doesn’t tug on your heartstrings, then you’re made of stone.