CINDERELLA is a familiar tale that people know across cultures and movies especially the well known Disney animated movie.  This live action version of CINDERELLA is very colorful and beautiful to look at, but I found it to be boring for the first hour.  Cinderella is mistreated by her step-sisters and evil Stepmother (Cate Blanchett) while the Prince actually has a personality in this version of the fairy tale, but I wish they made this a better and more fully realized take on the classic story because Kenneth Brangah feels like he is phoning it in as a director.  The story of CINDERELLA is timeless where anyone can reach for their dreams while others will backstab to get at that dream too.   Fans of the animated tale will recognize elements from that film’s story in the live action take.  It is a very safe movie for young girls and the whole family, but CINDERELLA is too safe and boring.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

A FAIRY TALE COMES TO LIFE-the filmmakers and cast reflect on the enduring impact of the classic tale and bringing it to life as a live action movie

COSTUME TEST FUN- look at a variety of costume tests and lighthearted moments from the cast

STAGING THE BALL- a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to create the ballroom scene

ELLA’S FURRY FRIENDS- a look at how they got the animals to perform in the movie

 

Alternate opening on Ella’s childhood, but sadly Disney has opted to make the five deleted scenes (with introduction by director Kenneth Branagh) a digital only offering and unfortunately not making them available for the blu-ray (which makes me wonder if they will include in a double dip)

 

FROZEN FEVER short film which is also available on the Disney Animation Shorts Collection blu-ray and it is the closest thing you will see as a sequel until they make FROZEN 2.

 

The movie is also in standard definition on DVD which has the ELLA’S FURRY FRIENDS featurette and FROZEN FEVER short film as extras.  Then there is a code to download a digital HD copy of CINDERELLA to stream and download along with DMA access to the above mentioned deleted scenes.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  CINDERELLA will appeal to some fans of Disney movies, but I think I rather watch MALEFICENT again and one Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare movies.   I wish Disney included the deleted scenes on the blu-ray instead of taking the route of including them as a DMA extra which juts smells like a later cash grab when they double dip this movie in the future.

 

This review is ©9-19-2015 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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