Cinderella is charming, simple entertainment #FandangoFamily

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.  A commoner with a good heart gets these magic slippers made of glass.  She goes to the ball that the Prince is having, they hit it off immediately, but she has to get back to her country house before the stroke of midnight.  Of course you’ve heard it before because  Cinderella is the template that dozens of wannabe classics have vied to become.  The new live action version of Cinderella, despite a rough beginning, largely succeeds because it sticks to the classic material.

Cinderella starts slow.  We meet her, see her ailing mother and catch the routine that happens at their country estate.  Her mother dies when she is a young girls and the audience sees a fast time lapse of her growing up with her father.  As the years pass he meets another widower and her two daughters, and the erstwhile Brady clan is together.

However, shortly after putting their patchwork family back together, he dies suddenly and our main character is forced to live in her house with the wickedstep mother and her two catty sisters.  From here Cinderella meets the Prince in the forest who has no idea that he’s royalty and of course that only encourages him more.

Their meeting in the forest gives him the idea to open up the big ball to everyone in the kingdom.  The ball needs to be held quickly because the King is about to die and the ball is being held for the purpose of finding a bride.

For me Cinderella became fun when the Fairy Godmother appeared and started to create things for the ball.  Those scenes are light, zippy and fun-plus nobody dies.  For what I remember being a happy movie there sure was lots of death, granted it was natural or off screen, but lots of main characters bit the dust.

The big reveal when the (new!) King finds Cinderella at the country estate is nice and puts an expected, but surprisingly effective bow on the movie.

Cinderella wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, nor as bad as it could’ve been.  However, this film isn’t for me, it’s for children. The set design immediately stands out as impressive.  The scenes in the cottage and at the palace during ball have detail that seems to have spared no expense.

Cate Blanchett as the Evil Stepmother is a scenery chewing delight, to an extent.  Her character really has no redeeming virtues and she portrays her with glee.  However, from a story perspective how could Cinderella’s father, a caring, sweet man ever care for someone who is so cold?  I know, it’s a fairy tale, she was acting, had pixie dust or he was blinded by his daughter’s lack of a mother.

Whatever misgivings I had about Cinderella were immediately put off by the 13, 11 and 9 year old girls who I saw the film with.  I loved her dress.  The characters were funny.  She was so pretty.  The director did a great job with the scenes.  They had nothing but praise and high notes to say about Cinderella.

I asked them if any of their boy friends would enjoy the film.  “Oh no”, they all quickly stated.

Cinderella is a good family film.  Children, especially girls will like watching it and seeing a new take on the tale that they already know.  Boys will like the film about half way through once the pumpkinturns into a carriage and will tolerate it the rest of the way.  Parents might be bored but will be secure in the fact that this is family friendly entertainment.

Cinderella is not the only family movie that’s out in theaters now.  You can check out an entire, current list over at Fandango Family.  If you’re active and chatty online you can play with the Fandango Family media wall.   It”s got photo ideas, some costume DIY and more.  Facebook you can also chime in about thoughts on current family movies.  For instance you could say that Cinderella was “meh” and be met with masses of crowds who disagree with  you.  Another option is just to follow Fandango Family on Facebook to get in on some giveaways, previews and more.