Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh)

[TGM]

Cinderella

Director: Kenneth Branagh

imdb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1661199/?ref_=nv_sr_1)

http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/cinderella-2015-poster.jpg

[TGM]

So yeah, this was most definitely NOT worth sticking around after Frozen Fever for. And quite frankly, all things considered, it's actually pretty insulting at that for them to place a short for something as progressive as Frozen in front of it in the first place. Barf.

[Stay Puft]

I didn't know this existed until a week ago, when I saw a trailer play in front of another movie. And I didn't know Branagh directed it until I saw this thread just now.

Is Disney trying to get live action versions of all of its animated classics up on the big screen? A curious and cursory google glance tells me there's also a Dumbo and a Beauty and the Beast movie in the works?

[Watashi]

Yeah, it's the current phase that Disney is trying to cash in. Tim Burton is directing Dumbo. Bill Condon is directing Beauty and the Beast. *shudder*

Jon Favreau is also directing The Jungle Book coming out next year.

I had no interest in Cinderella until the stellar reviews came in. Now I'll likely check it out soon.

[Watashi]

I'm surprised they haven't announced a Sword in the Stone live-action film yet. A Disney "Pirates-esque" adaptation of The Once and Future King seems right up their alley.

[Stay Puft]

Disney should hire Terrence Malick to direct its live action Pocahontas.

[TGM]

I had no interest in Cinderella until the stellar reviews came in. Now I'll likely check it out soon.

How the hell is this shit getting stellar reviews? I'd easily recommend Into the Woods as a better recent live action Disney Cinderella more worth your time over this entirely pointless and insincere drivel, and I don't even think that one's any good, either. :\

[transmogrifier]

I'd rather watch another Robin Hood movie.

[Ezee E]

I'll definitely see a live-action Dumbo if there's a promise of Pink Elephants remixed by Bassnectar.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIpwDPudnMM

[megladon8]

Yeah, it's the current phase that Disney is trying to cash in. Tim Burton is directing Dumbo. Bill Condon is directing Beauty and the Beast. *shudder*

Jon Favreau is also directing The Jungle Book coming out next year.

I had no interest in Cinderella until the stellar reviews came in. Now I'll likely check it out soon.

So we are getting two Jungle Book movies next year?

So random...

[Mal]

This was lovely, very lush and sweet. Not a single weak link in the cast. I can imagine that some will find it sticks to the source a little too much... but I'd rather watch this film than another mediocre Maleficent.

[Henry Gale]

Saw this a week ago, and forgot to swing by here to mention I kinda loved it.

It absolutely feels like a film from a different time, and I couldn't be happier that it was actually made now to realize it as gorgeously expansively as Branagh has here with the budget that he was allowed. There's just such a warm, unjaded joy flowing through it all, and the Ella character created here (and especially as embodied by Lily James) is the perfect vessel to allow the film's beautifully unsuspecting aesthetic and emotional nature to revolve around and gravitate towards.

The story, as presented here, isn't as much one-note as it is just very assuredly pure in its ambitions. The idea that Ella manages to enchant the lives of everyone she comes across because of the values of and emotional strength she was taught by those who loved her, and how she continues to stand by them, regardless of what obstacles the world around her may force her to want to break out against and contest. It's a very different "strong woman" tale that has slowly (and still maybe a bit too slowly) become the trend in modern cinema over time, one that tends to relate more to social oppression with the need to assemble forces to fight aganst, because here, in a fairy tale world that doesn't possess deeper menacing traits, that sort of thing isn't necessary. Ella's strength always remains in treating everyone around her in ways she feels will help them or, in the worst of circumstances, correct their ways, instead of ever giving them what she may selfishly feel they "deserve" or the story may need to serve them as a karmic arc. I've seen a couple of articles portray this as something that makes her seem weak and without agency, but I think that's to completely misread the foundations of the themes, the triumphs of her character and to suggest they should've completely changed what it clearly wants to present to young, impressionable audiences.

But aside from those sort of discussions, the movie is just such a lovely, simple departure from the "gritty" fairy tale takes of recent years, filled with muddled mythology and boring excuses for battle-minded action scenes. (The most intense action here is, what?, a fencing training scene? Maybe the race to the ball?) And like Efron said above, it just looks and feels so just lush. Branagh's insistence on going against the current production climate and sticking with 35mm cinematography may not have made sense for every project (like, say, his Jack Ryan movie that I never saw), but here, it provides a visual reality that's so classically warm, vibrant, creamy and just downright dreamy to compliment what he captures in the frame that I couldn't imagine it any other way. And it's those sort of subtle sensibilities behind it that really made it feel like quietly unique blockbuster. What makes it feel like a relic with a questionable manufacture date will most likely be the thing that allows to feel fresh forever.

***½ / 8.0

[Watashi]

Cinderella > Inside Out

Absolutely beautiful. Everyone is on point. The direction is luscious. This takes the Disney story and improves on it by giving a real voice to its heroine. The moral is so simple and sweet, it's hard to tear up at the exchanges between Ella and her mother.

One of the best movies of the year.

[Grouchy]

Eh, mostly forgettable except for Cate Blanchett's performance, but it is in no way a bad movie. Lily James is kind of a boring screen presence.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Gorgeous production design goes a long way toward absolving the somewhat languorous pace and uninspired shot selection. This story is so well-known that it's really hard to make it not play like a checklist of necessary moments, especially in a film that makes no effort to tweak the material. Although it's nice to see the story presented without overblown action or condescending appeals to millennials. Blanchett affecting Norma Desmond is a nice touch.

Hope some kids who watch this find their way to "Ever After," which was a bit sharper.

[Sycophant]

Three drive-by thoughts:
1. Princes should marry for political advantage
2. CGI can't impress unless it interacts with live action footage in an impressive way
3. Jean Cocteau or GTFO