I think there is a part of everyone that enjoys really bad movies, movies like The Room for an obvious example. Movies that have so little actual quality, that they become experiences in their own right. B-Movies and "So Bad They're Good" movies have cult followings for a reason, so finding something like say... A DVD collection of ten knock-off princess movies would be a huge score for someone who is into these kind of movies. Though calling this movie a knock-off is not the most fair as Cinderella is a classic fairy tale, and many people have made their own versions of it, not just Disney. However, watching this movie really makes me think it was made quickly and cheaply to capitalize on the Disney movie.
Why try to capitalize on a movie that came out in the 1950s? Well, during the 90s, Dinsey was going through a period of time known as "The Disney Renaissance" where Disney was on top of their animation game, releasing movies like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King in this time. It lasted until the mid-2000s, but left a massive legacy. Now, this is only an assumption, but I can't help but feel that it isn't a coincidence that a bunch of these cheap princess movies came out when Disney was back on top.
You all know the tale of Cinderella, a young woman loses her mother and her father remarries a vain and nasty woman with her own vain and nasty daughters, who force her to do all the housework and generally treat her as a servant. One day, the royal family host a royal ball to help their son find a lady to engage, and Cinderella is kept from going to the ball. However, with the help of her fairy godmother, she is able to go to the ball and charm the Prince who falls in love with her, but she has to make it home before midnight and then the Prince tries to find her by means of the glass slipper that fell off Cinderella's foot as she was running off. It's a classic story, needs no updates and it is told in a serviceable way here. I cannot say that this is the best retelling of Cinderella however, as their are a couple things that bother me, such as when Cinderella is told she cannot go to the ball.
The scene would typically go one of two ways, either the stepmother sabotages Cinderella, or, in this movie's case, she makes her do an impossible task. Going this route, you would expect that Cinderella would just miss doing the task on time, or that her stepmother would be picky about how it was done. Instead, she gets her fairy godmother to do it. Yeah, the fairy godmother does not appear in Cinderella's darkest moment, she appears at the start of the movie and does this impossible task, and messes up. It kind of shoots what the Disney movie said about hard-work paying off, and instead this movie goes for the message of "Kindness is more valuable than beauty", which is a fine message, but is not executed well.
Character wise, this movie has none. Characters have the most basic of basic characteristics. Cinderella's step sisters are vain, one likes to eat, her stepmother is cruel, the Prince's parents are parents, the Prince is bland, Cinderella is bland, the Fairy Godmother is bland. Characters aren't engaging or anything really. It is tough to get invested in an emotional scene when the only character we get is told through a pointless narrator. It doesn't help that the voice actors aren't doing their best, or if they are then that is just sad. Character voices are annoying or badly acted, which is worse when the characters start singing. The songs are bland, forgettable and badly sung, and this movie struggles with making me care about the characters singing them.
The technicals of this movie are some of the worst I've ever seen. Animation wise, the movie looks visually fine, but some animations just did not look right, like when characters were spinning, I honestly felt like I could see where the in-betweens would have gone. This is why when a character is spinning, there is usually a model that animators reference, this was something that was figured out back in the thirties with Snow White. Lip Sync is also a problem, but it is not really distracting. What really is distracting is the use of stock sound effects. The use of stock sound effects makes this movie much more cartoony, but the animation is not cartoonish at all, making them sound really out of place. They also added to the idea that this movie was made cheaply to make even the sale of five movies a profit. Technically speaking, this movie is one of the worst.
This Cinderella movie is garbage. Yes, there are worse movies out there, movies that would teach kids awful behaviour and morals. However, what's just as a bad as a movie that offers awful morals is a movie that offers nothing to the viewer. I can imagine the only enjoyment a child would get out of this is when the Fairy Godmother says "Begone" to Cinderella as a friendly fare-well. Other than that, they are gonna find out they got cheated when they watch a real Cinderella movie, not even the Disney ones, Ever After would be a good option too, or you could read them Ella Enchanted instead. This movie has no merits to be recommended on, has bland characters, bad songs, stock sound effects, cheap looking animation and is not a good adaptation of the Cinderella story. This movie is a cringe inducing slog to sit through and I say, that makes it worth avoiding.
Why try to capitalize on a movie that came out in the 1950s? Well, during the 90s, Dinsey was going through a period of time known as "The Disney Renaissance" where Disney was on top of their animation game, releasing movies like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King in this time. It lasted until the mid-2000s, but left a massive legacy. Now, this is only an assumption, but I can't help but feel that it isn't a coincidence that a bunch of these cheap princess movies came out when Disney was back on top.
You all know the tale of Cinderella, a young woman loses her mother and her father remarries a vain and nasty woman with her own vain and nasty daughters, who force her to do all the housework and generally treat her as a servant. One day, the royal family host a royal ball to help their son find a lady to engage, and Cinderella is kept from going to the ball. However, with the help of her fairy godmother, she is able to go to the ball and charm the Prince who falls in love with her, but she has to make it home before midnight and then the Prince tries to find her by means of the glass slipper that fell off Cinderella's foot as she was running off. It's a classic story, needs no updates and it is told in a serviceable way here. I cannot say that this is the best retelling of Cinderella however, as their are a couple things that bother me, such as when Cinderella is told she cannot go to the ball.
The scene would typically go one of two ways, either the stepmother sabotages Cinderella, or, in this movie's case, she makes her do an impossible task. Going this route, you would expect that Cinderella would just miss doing the task on time, or that her stepmother would be picky about how it was done. Instead, she gets her fairy godmother to do it. Yeah, the fairy godmother does not appear in Cinderella's darkest moment, she appears at the start of the movie and does this impossible task, and messes up. It kind of shoots what the Disney movie said about hard-work paying off, and instead this movie goes for the message of "Kindness is more valuable than beauty", which is a fine message, but is not executed well.
Character wise, this movie has none. Characters have the most basic of basic characteristics. Cinderella's step sisters are vain, one likes to eat, her stepmother is cruel, the Prince's parents are parents, the Prince is bland, Cinderella is bland, the Fairy Godmother is bland. Characters aren't engaging or anything really. It is tough to get invested in an emotional scene when the only character we get is told through a pointless narrator. It doesn't help that the voice actors aren't doing their best, or if they are then that is just sad. Character voices are annoying or badly acted, which is worse when the characters start singing. The songs are bland, forgettable and badly sung, and this movie struggles with making me care about the characters singing them.
The technicals of this movie are some of the worst I've ever seen. Animation wise, the movie looks visually fine, but some animations just did not look right, like when characters were spinning, I honestly felt like I could see where the in-betweens would have gone. This is why when a character is spinning, there is usually a model that animators reference, this was something that was figured out back in the thirties with Snow White. Lip Sync is also a problem, but it is not really distracting. What really is distracting is the use of stock sound effects. The use of stock sound effects makes this movie much more cartoony, but the animation is not cartoonish at all, making them sound really out of place. They also added to the idea that this movie was made cheaply to make even the sale of five movies a profit. Technically speaking, this movie is one of the worst.
This Cinderella movie is garbage. Yes, there are worse movies out there, movies that would teach kids awful behaviour and morals. However, what's just as a bad as a movie that offers awful morals is a movie that offers nothing to the viewer. I can imagine the only enjoyment a child would get out of this is when the Fairy Godmother says "Begone" to Cinderella as a friendly fare-well. Other than that, they are gonna find out they got cheated when they watch a real Cinderella movie, not even the Disney ones, Ever After would be a good option too, or you could read them Ella Enchanted instead. This movie has no merits to be recommended on, has bland characters, bad songs, stock sound effects, cheap looking animation and is not a good adaptation of the Cinderella story. This movie is a cringe inducing slog to sit through and I say, that makes it worth avoiding.
No comments:
Post a Comment