Cinderella (2015)

Now we turn to the live-action version of Cinderella.

The Movie:

Despite the box-office success of the live-action 101 Dalmatians, Disney didn't return to their library of animated classics for source material until 2010, when a live-action Alice in Wonderland was released to much financial success.  That movie though was a quasi-sequel, and the next Disney live-action re-imagining was the perspective flip of Sleeping Beauty with Maleficent.  Cinderella, though began Disney's formula of straight-forward remakes.  This movie garnered critical praise and performed well at the box-office, and it was nominated for an Oscar for costume design.

This Cinderella pretty faithfully follows the tale as portrayed in the 1950 animated version, but it also fleshes out the story.  In this version we actually start with Cinderella as a young girl and both her parents.  The entire sequences of events from her mother's death, her father's remarriage, and then his subsequent death plays out and isn't just given as a back story.  The prince is given some more backstory and a name, Kit, and he and Cinderella actually meet once before the ball.  And speaking of names, Cinderella is really just Ella, with Cinderella being a cruel nickname given to her by her step-sisters.  This version only has four mice, and they don't talk.  They also only appear in their interactions with Cinderella.

I saw this movie in the theaters (as part of a double-header with Avengers: Age of Ultron) during my last Disney countdown in 2015, and I fell in love with it then.  I still enjoy it now, and it's probably my favorite of the live-action Disney remakes.  Kenneth Branagh's direction shows off plenty of spectacular set pieces and lets the marvelous actors shine.  Lily James is stunningly beautiful as Cinderella, and she plays her with such charm that you truly believe she is the kindest soul around.  Robb Stark himself Richard Madden is perfectly charming as Prince Kit, and Cate Blanchett is wonderfully evil as Lady Tremaine.

This Cinderella doesn't have the songs like the animated version, but it doesn't need them with Patrick Doyle's lush and sweeping score.  This is actually one of my favorite scores of the last several years.  There is one song that pops up in the film, and that is Lavender's Blue, the old English folk song.  This is a song that Disney has long included in its canon thanks to its use in the 1949 film So Dear to My Heart.  (Oddly enough, the arrangement in that film got an Oscar nomination for best original song.)  Here the song functions almost as a leitmotif for Cinderella and plays an important part in the plot at one point.  Three songs are used in the closing credits, "Strong," written for this movie and recorded by Sonna Rele, "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes," covered by Lily James, and "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo," covered by Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the Fairy Godmother.

Presence in the Parks:

Typical of Disney's live-action remakes, Cinderella is found in the parks due to the animated version and not the live-action one.  However, movies that are new tend to get some promotion in the parks, and when I last visited in 2015, this movie was the most recent Disney film.  As such, Cinderella's carriage was on display in the Streets of America section of Hollywood Studios.

Cinderella's Carriage, Hollywood Studios, May 2015