Pop Culture

King: Cinderella remakes should take risks to further advance story

This weekend, Disney’s “Cinderella” smashed its box office competition with a $70 million opening. Generous reviews lauded the movie’s storytelling and genuine spirit, not to mention the film’s aesthetic: Pantone has nothing on the spectrum of hues in the ballroom scene.

But for all of this, something is missing. Maybe a glass slipper. No. This reboot isn’t saying anything we didn’t already know about our friend Cindy. In fact, I would venture to guess that Hillary Duff had more to add in “A Cinderella Story.”

Remakes have in history improved upon their predecessors. Probably the best example of this is Buffy the Vampire Slayer´s hugely successful leap from film to TV. Many popular American films are foreign works just wrapped in an American flag and re-gifted to audiences. And although Cinderella’s transformation was indeed “Disney Magical,” it really just felt like actress Helena Bonham Carter was conducting a special affects circle jerk that didn’t really have a purpose other than gawking. But, then again, I guess you wouldn’t expect much subtlety from the guy who directed “Thor.”

Cinderella will keep cropping up in popular culture, and filmmakers will reap the rewards, but if they refuse to take risks and advance the storyline, it is the audience who will really suffer

Last week, Linda Holmes wrote an article for NPR detailing the several reiterations of the story of Cinderella. Most of them stick to poor girl goes to ball in disguise, is recognized and swooped up by prince. The heroine in an Italian rendition is born in a gourd and talks to the prince until she pops out and the prince makes her his slave. Holmes attempts to pin down an outline:



“You have a mistreated young woman, forced to do menial work, either cast out or unloved by her family. She has an opportunity to marry well and escape her situation, but she gets that chance only after being mistaken for a higher-status person, so she has to get the man who may marry her to recognize her in her low-status form, which often happens either via a shoe that fits or some kind of food that she prepares.”

This frame, says Holmes, has served as the skeleton of hundreds of Cinderella stories over the past 400 or so years. And it isn’t going away anytime soon. The tale has proven it can perfectly camouflage into any time period, and it can be what people need it to be, which can range from a grisly Brothers Grimm fairytale to a made for TV movie starring Selena Gomez. We know that the story will always be successful. Disney’s 1950 Cinderella made $85 million at the box office, that’s just shy of $850 million in today’s worth. With this guaranteed success, we shouldn’t still be getting the exact same Cinderella we got 60 years ago.

The last worthwhile production of the story was in a 1997 TV movie with Brandy as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother. It was one of the first times American pop culture showed a woman of color as Cinderella, followed up by Keke Palmer in the 2013 Broadway musical — only after Laura Osnes had departed from the role. Yeah, black people weren’t royalty in Europe in the 1600s, but mice couldn’t talk then either.

Since we are going to be stuck with this story for years to come, let’s take some risks. Embrace diversity when writing the leads. Modernize the story for today. Switch the genders to make the prince a princess and Cindy a Sid. Hell, put her in a gourd. I want to see that movie.

Eric King is a sophomore magazine journalism major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @erickingdavid.





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