A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes (When You’re In Your Late Twenties)

Recently, the juggernaut that is Disney started what I can only assume is going to be a whirlwind of live action movies.

Cinderella was made for people like me. Late twenties, female, grew up watching the animated classics, pretending that their broom was Prince Charming and the ball was that evening (for practice of course…) and beginning to have (or think about having) children.

I’m biased. I love Disney – I don’t really care that they acquired Marvel or Star Wars. I don’t even care that they’re probably probing my dreams for live action ideas.

Let me not mince words about this. They nailed this.

Lily James, who played our heroine, herself hails from the highly popular Downton Abbey, and is the perfectly wide-eyed and beautiful Cinderella. Richard Madden, who played the tragic Rob Stark from Game of Thrones, is a stunningly handsome Prince Charming. And let us not forget the evil stepmother and stepsisters, Cate Blanchett from The Lord of the Rings, Sophie McShera from Downton Abbey and Holliday Grainger from The Borgias. My particular favorite of this all star cast was for the role of The Fairy Godmother played by Helena Bonhem Carter. If you haven’t seen the film yet, I implore you to wait until the end of the credits where Bonham-Carter does an impressive cover of ‘Bibbity Bobbity Boo’

The film looked like what I can only describe as an Instagram filter that enhanced the assaulting colors of everything evil and served to soften the beauty and pastel colors that encircled Cinderella.

The storyline didn’t stray far from the original animated version but it did include a few extra bits that the Illene Woods version left out. For example, we received a pretty hefty backstory on both Prince Charming and Cinderella’s childhood family lives.

For those of us that weren’t obsessed with fairy tales as a child or are dutifully attending as a significant other, there was enough action, storytelling and captivating cinematography to keep the whole crowd satisfied.

The only slight criticism I can give for the movie involved the lack of musical numbers. To me that was the one thing that didn’t really get carried over from the original animated films.

People who I spoke to after the movie also mentioned that they felt the theme of the movie “Have courage and be kind,” was perhaps a bit to flagrantly used throughout the movie. Additionally another person was a bit put off by the fact that Cinderella’s flowing blond locks were rather mismatched with her over dyed dark brown eyebrows.

I don’t disagree with any of these criticisms, but they just weren’t enough for me to give it anything less that a 5/5 nerdskulls.

Check out the trailer below: