This Stitch Has a Glitch

Lilo and Stitch  

Director: Dean Fleischer Camp

Cast: Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Magnussen, Tia Carrere, Courtney B. Vance, Hannah Waddington, Chris Sanders

Released: May 23, 2025

Since I already reviewed the animated movie from 2002, I thought I would point out the differences in the live action movie and what worked and what didn't work. For the most part, the movie (like most live action Disney movies that are a take on their animated counterpart) follows the original almost exactly, with just a few tweaks. 

In my other review, I mentioned that Chris Sanders and Dean DuBlois, the directors of the original (and more superior) Lilo and Stitch also directed How To Train Your Dragon from 2010. Chris Sanders (remember, he's also the person who came up with the story for Lilo and Stitch) returns as the voice of Stitch. I bring this up because How To Train Your Dragon was also made into a live action movie that came out about a month after this one and that one was directed by Dean DuBlois. While I like the animated HTTYD better (than its live action counterpart), I think the live action HTTYD works better than the live action Lilo and Stitch. If neither of these movies existed in their animated forms (how sad!) and we only saw them in their live action forms, I could see a world where HTTYD could exist in live action without having an animated counterpart. But if you were to watch live action Lilo and Stitch without any context of the animated movie, it would just be odd. I was really invested in the story of these two orphaned sisters and how they would make ends meet, but when Stitch or the other aliens are on screen, it almost just takes me out of it. I think the 2002 movie works better because you can get away more with the absurdity of the story because it's an animation. When it's live action, you notice the absurdity a lot more and it doesn't fit within the world. If that makes sense.  

My TL;DR sentence: I think both Lilo and Stitch and How To Train Your Dragon work better as animated movies, but HTTYD also works as a live action movie while Lilo and Stitch just feels odd as a live action film. 

(Remember, I'm only comparing the two because both live action adaptions came out within a month of each other and the animated movies were directed by the same guys.)

Obviously, I need to compare and contrast the two titular characters. The gist of both of them is still the same: Lilo, an orphaned girl, befriends this strange "dog" she names Stitch. I know this may sound strange, but one of the things I noticed is that in the animated movie, Lilo and Stitch are the same height (Lilo is very short!). This is not the case in this movie; after all, it would be weird as hell if they made Stitch the same size as a six-year-old. (In the animated movie, I wasn't sure exactly how old Lilo was supposed to be, but in this movie, we get confirmation that she's six.) I feel this makes them almost seen as equals in the animated film while Stitch just feels like her pet (which, to be fair, is what he's supposed to be) in the newer movie. 

Lilo is played by newcomer Maia Kealoha and while she is very cute, she wasn't the best at acting. Look, the girl was probably only seven or eight when she filmed this so I wasn't expecting an Oscar-winning performance, but some of her lines sounded really stilted. I'm thinking in particular of the scene where she and Stitch are in this motorized child's vehicle  (which Stitch hijacked from some poor girl around Lilo's age) driving around the island (it's a Big Wheel in the animated movie!) and Lilo says, "Don't you love living on an island with no big cities? It's just miles and miles of water." The line reading just sounds so stiff; it's almost like they told her what to say right before the scene and she said it, but it came out like a line. Which, technically, it was, but the secret of acting is to make people believe you're not acting! In the animated movie, Lilo has a very similar line, only she says, "It's nice living on an island with no big cities." They probably should have just had live action Lilo (heh...Live Action Lilo...that sounds like a superhero name) say the exact same line and just try to capture Daveigh Chase's natural line reading. 

When Stitch lands on Earth, he comes across an outdoor wedding where "Uptown Funk" is playing and spotting a piece of cake on a table, Stitch uses a golf cart to transport himself there.

Uh...damn, I just realized I'm doing the same thing I did in my review of the originial movie where I refer to Stitch as "Stitch" before he's given the name. Just go with it. It's hard not to call him Stitch, you know?

Anyway, we get this ridiculous scene where the bride and groom are about to do a Dirty Dancing-type dance and before the bride leaps into the groom's arms, Stitch goes flying and ends up in his arms instead and of course the guys is freaked out. I think I would be too if this strange blue furry creature landed on me! Stitch starts running under the tables and people are screaming and freaked out (but not freaked out enough in my opinion! Like what do they think this odd creature is? Surely they know it's nothing of this world!). Someone is trying to smack him with a broom which made me chuckle. I did think it was insane that everyone at this HUGE wedding is looking for him and it seems to take awhile before someone finally notices that he's sitting in the punch bowl (EWWW) and then he jumps into the cake as the grand finale. If I were the bride, I would be PISSED! I will say the image of him having four pieces of cake in each of his hands is pretty funny.

We saw at least one person taking photos of him while he was being chased at the wedding. You would think this would go viral, but it never does. I don't really understand the point of this whole sequence (aside from the silly shenanigan) especially because Stitch will still get run over by a truck (in this case it's a trolley).

The live action movie introduces us to some new characters (and has subtracted at least one pretty big (no pun intended) character. I was okay with these new characters because they made sense in the context of the movie. The first is that Cobra Bubbles is not the social worker. Don't worry, he's still in the movie. Instead the social worker is a woman named Mrs. Kekoa and she's played by Tia Carrere, who was the original voice of Nani, Lilo's older sister. I love that they incorporated someone from the original movie into this one so I'm okay with the change and it was fun seeing the two Nanis interact. 

When Mrs. Kekoa (original Nani) visits the sisters for the first time, they do the similar scene in the 2002 movie where Nani (Sydney Agudong) asks the social worker to wait a minute (because Lilo has locked her out of the house) and she runs into the house (after pushing the back door so hard that the chain keeping it locked breaks) and the camera remains on the social workers as we hear some crashing and the record scratching and Lilo exclaiming, "Hey, don't touch that!" before the Elvis song stop playing. I appreciate that they try to replicate what they do in the animated movie, but it was just done so much better in the 2002 movie. It might have to do with the fact that it is probably easier to convey in an animated movie. 

Nani asks Mrs. Kekoa if she would like anything to drink and when she requests tea, Nani puts Capri Sun in a tea cup and microwaves it. Yuck! I did laugh when Mrs. Kekoa mentions the tea is "pretty sweet" and by the end of their meeting, she knows that it's just heated up Capri Sun. 

She tells Nani that things don't look good and that they "have a new director coming into town next week." When she mentioned that, I figured this must be Cobra Bubbles. She wants to come up with some goals with Nani for her and Lilo to achieve by then. These goals include cleaning the house (including laundry and stocking the fridge), paying all the bills, and filing for health insurance for both her and Lilo. Mrs. Kekoa wants Nani to get all these done by Friday. I'm not sure what day it is now, but I hope it's at least Monday to give her some time to get all this done. 

Another new character is the neighbor lady who almost acts like a grandmother figure to the two girls. At first I thought she was David's mom, but I don't think that's the case. She just seems to know David. But I was fine with this authority figure because that means at least the girls had one adult looking out for them. Although there are a few changes concerning her that irritated me. 

After her visit with Mrs. Kekoa, Nani is chatting with her neighbor and this is when we find out that Nani got accepted to her "dream school" which is UCSD which she wants to go there for marine biology? Uh, do they not have marine biology department at a Hawaiian school? It's Hawaii....I mean, you would think. Her neighbor encourages Nani to attend college, but Nani claims she can't go because she has to watch Lilo. Do these girls not have grandparents or aunts or uncles that can help out? I guess not. This was never really touched on in the animated movie either. It does seem pretty unfair for this eighteen-year-old girl to have to become her sister's mother as well....and we know that Lilo prefers her as a sister than a mom. 

In the animated movie, when Jumba and Pleakley are sent to Earth, they "disguise" themselves by wearing clothes and trying to hide their alien features (which doesn't exactly work), but because we're dealing with the (literal) real world in this movie, Jumba and Pleakley disguise themselves as humans. I'm okay with this change because while it was absurd and funny in the 2002 movie, it wouldn't work here. Even though we're dealing with a universe where aliens do exist, this movie does try to be as realistic as it can. However, the way they come by their disguises just baffled me.  

The two aliens are wearing trench coats and have scarfs and/or handkerchiefs wrapped around their faces, and are wearing big sunglasses and straw hats. They're walking down a busy tourist street with a "Federation-certified cloning device", looking for their prey. They're completely covered up,...except for their tails and Jumba's huge heavy elephant-thick legs. (Don't ask me how nobody noticed THAT!) They look absolutely ridiculous...there's no way they could keep up that disguise without looking suspicious. 

They find two guys (Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen) walking towards them who "look like best friends just like us" according to Pleakley. He knocks over one of the guy's golf bags and helps him with it. He touches the human's arm with his green tentacle and the guys doesn't even seem to notice. Yeah, I call bs. This allows him to become cloned and Jumba does the same thing with the other guy. They have now become those humans...but what happened to the two guys? Are they just laying in the middle of the sidewalk? Did their bodies disappear? Have Pleakley and Jumba completely inhabited these humans? Yeah, they didn't really explain that very well. As far as I know, they just killed those two guys. It was amusing trying to watch them "walk" because they're not used to having human legs, though I would argue at least Pleakley had legs more similar to a human's while Jumba had these huge tree trunks for legs. I have to say, it does feel off Jumba not having a Russian accent, though if you think about it, aliens should not have any accent from this world, much less be able to speak English! When they check into the hotel, they're acting all weird, asking for a "hot tube" and when the receptionist asks where they're from they both reply "Earth" and Jumba adds, "We both grew up in Earth." Wait a sec...aren't you supposed to show some sort of identification (like a driver's license) when you're checking into a hotel? The way these two are acting, I'm surprised the receptionist wasn't a bit more suspicious. These two would have been red flags to me, but they just let it slide for the plot of the movie. 

Later, they see something on the news about a trolley that ran over an unusual creature and that it is recovering at the animal rescue. Video footage of Stitch taken at the wedding is shown, but I still think the whole wedding scene was unnecessary.  

The way Lilo acquires Stitch is a little bit different than the animated movie. She still gets him from the animal shelter, but it's her neighbor who takes her there while Nani is at work. They're actually at some outdoor market and the animal shelter is nearby and Lilo asks if she can look at the dogs. 

Before Lilo arrived, Stitch had escaped from his cage and went outside where he sees a sandwich in the garbage and when he goes to gobble it up, darts are shot at him. Jumba and Peakley had found him because he was wearing a tracking device on his collar. He uses the garbage lid to shield himself from the darts and goes back in through the front door where he walks on the ceiling while Lilo is talking to the girl at the front desk. 

It's the neighbor that allows Lilo to get her new blue "dog" after Lilo begs her. I can't believe she just bought a dog without Nani's permission. In the animated movie, it was Nani who took her to the animal shelter with the intention of getting her a dog. I'm not sure why they changed it. Obviously, when they get home, Nani is not happy about this new pet and I don't blame her one bit. An animal is a big responsibility and they already have enough to deal with. The neighbor tells her it was her idea to get Lilo the animal because "a pet might bring some joy." Okay, then maybe suggest that to Nani first, then let Nani take Lilo to the shelter to pick out a pet. 

Stitch being a lil sh*t #1

Lilo and her new pet are in the truck with Nani who's driving to work. (Another difference is that in the animated movie they walked everywhere while in this movie they have the convince of a car.) Stitch is just being an *$$h0le and going wild, messing around with the radio, honking the horn, taking out the CD (who still listens to CDs in cars? What is this? 2002?) and throwing it out the window where it hits the car behind them. Like, Stitch was annoying in the animated movie, but he's probably even more annoying in this one. He rips the fabric of the seat with his claw and Nani comments they'll have to stitch that up.

For some reason, this causes Lilo to scream bloody murder. Nani stops the car and asks, "What?", obviously concerned that something has happened. Lilo replies, "That's his name, Stitch!" Seriously, you screamed like you were getting murdered for that? Why? Anyway, I liked how Stitch got his name in the 2002 movie better. Lilo just straight up said "His name is Stitch" and that was it. Plus she didn't scream before she thought of it, so that's a plus. I don't know why they needed a reason for his name to be Stitch. Sometimes kids just think up a name for their pet as soon as they get them. 

When Nani starts the car, she almost hits the two aliens disguised as humans who are standing on a crosswalk. They know that Stitch knows he's safe as long as he's with Lilo because they can't be attacking him if he's near humans. Nani apologizes to them for almost hitting them and as she continues to drive, Jumba throws a tracking device which attaches itself underneath the car. (Stitch must have gotten rid of the collar with the tracking device earlier.) 

Stitch being a lil sh*t #2

While they're at the outdoor restaurant where Nani works at, Stitch continues to be super annoying. He goes over to this little kiosk that serves drinks and takes out a sprayer and shouts, "Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam!" before spraying Lilo with it and they get into a soda spraying fight. This is not in the animated movie and I have no doubt they wanted to add more obnoxious things for Stitch to do because the kids watching this movie would love it. 

During a fire twirling performance, Stitch decides to grab his own pair of fire sticks and starts twirling them. When he sees a security guard running towards him, he throws the sticks and one of them lands on a table and starts a fire. This is way worse than what happened in the animated movie. (He attacks Jumba and Pleakley who are not here.) The fire is put out, but Nani's boss gives her the death stare. Nani knows who did this and turns to give Lilo and Stitch the death stare of her own. 

Stitch continues to act like an @$$hole. He tries to high five Lilo, but even she knows the situation isn't good and refuses. 

Now we see Jumba and Pleakley show up just as the sisters are leaving. There is a funny scene of Jumba trying to drive a golf cart and he doesn't know how to start it because "there are no instruments." 

It's interesting that after animated Nani gets fired from her job, she doesn't blame it on Lilo, but when real girl Lilo makes a remark that Nani didn't even like that job, Nani snaps, "I don't want to hear it." (Though I certainly don't blame her for being pissed!) 

Stitch being a lil sh*t #3

I've already mentioned that they made Stitch way more annoying in this movie. Well, remember how bad he was the first time he's introduced to the house in the animated movie? He might be even worse during this scene in this movie. They try to give him a bath, but he ends up in the toilet, then goes to the kitchen and wipes his bum across the floor, ewww. He turns on the stove and he smacks Nani in the face (twice!) with the freezer door when he's holding on to the fridge handle and she's trying to grab him. Lilo pulls the "Ohana means family" guilt trip on her and that's how Stitch stays, but if I were Nani, I would tell Lilo, "F Ohana, we're taking this terror mutt back to the pound!" 

We do see Scrump (Lilo's ragdoll) when Lilo shows her to Stitch and tells him, "You can play with Scrump, but be nice." 

Okay, remember when Mrs. Kekoa told Nani that a new director was coming next week and I thought it would be Cobra Bubbles? Well, I was wrong. When we meet Special Agent Bubbles (Courtney B. Vance), he's in a field studying an odd vessel that crashed in a tree (clearly the spaceship Stitch crashed). He's with other agents and one of them tells him, "There's no sign of a pilot, no tracks, no trails." It turns out he bugged the home of the sisters (not sure when that happened) and when he heard a social worker would be coming to the house, he asked an agent for the social worker and remarked, "I'm going undercover." 

At the beach, during the surfing scene, Jumba and Peakley shoot darts at Stitch who falls into the water. He keeps scrambling on top of Lilo's head making her sink so he won't. While all this is going on, Cobra is on the beach and sees that he's not the only one after Stitch. 

Once Lilo gets back to shore, there is a big difference where Nani tells someone to call an ambulance after Lilo spits out some water. I'm not really 100% sure about water safety, but I feel like she's probably okay and the ambulance wasn't needed? Maybe? IDK? I mean, she spit out the water and is breathing okay. 

Looks like I'm right because at the hospital, the doctor pretty much tells Nani that Lilo's going to be okay. Stitch is there too, sitting on David's lap and I'm thinking, They're allowed to bring this animal in the hospital when the doctor asks, "Is that a-" and David says, "It's a service animal." Service animal, my ass! When the doctor mentions she can go up front where they can run her insurance, Nani has a look of horror on her face because there is no insurance. Again, why did you call the ambulance and bring her to the hospital when she was breathing on her own two seconds after getting pulled from the water? 

She must have called Mrs. Kekoa because in the next scene we see her sitting with Nani in the hospital hall, outside of Lilo's room. She tells her, "There's a way that the state will pay for all of this, but it means you have to official relinquish guardianship of Lilo." When Lilo is released from the hospital, Nani tells her they're going to "have to make some changes." 

There's a sweet moment where Lilo and Nani are cuddled on the hammock together singing a song while Nani strums a ukulele and Nani tells her, "I want you to know, whatever happens, I love you so much much."  While this is going on, Stitch leaves and ends up back at the animal shelter. 

The Ugly Duckling storyline is not in this movie which felt a little jarring since in the original film he feels lost like the duck and it was a great analogy. Instead, Lilo shows him a photo book of her family when her parents were alive. I mention this because in the animated film Lilo tells Stitch can go if he wants and he grabs the book before leaving.

The next morning, Mrs. Kekoa and Mr. Bubbles have come to get Lilo, but when Nani goes in her room, she isn't there. Instead, she is outside looking for Stitch. It's interesting that in the animated movie she gives permission for Stitch to go, so there's a big difference there. 

Like the 2002 movie, the Councilwoman checks in with Pleakley and Jumba from time to time. She is not happy that 626 hasn't been captured yet and basically gives Agent Pleakley the go ahead to arrest Jumba and bring him back to Turo, but Jumba has other plans. I mentioned earlier a pretty major character is missing and that is Gantu the humongous elephant/shark-like alien. Instead, they make Jumba the Big Bad of the movie. I don't love this change, but I do understand why they did it. When Lilo eventually finds Stitch at the animal shelter where he's back in his cage and after a heartfelt conversation, Jumba enters and chases them to Lilo's house. 

During the house raid, in front of Lilo, Jumba tells Stitch the only reason he manipulated  Lilo into choosing him at the animal shelter was for his own protection and if does care about Lilo, then he'll leave her here. Stitch surrenders and lets Jumba put the tracking collar on him and follows him to his spaceship. I should also mention that Jumba is now in his alien form during all this. 

We're about an hour and ten minutes into the movie at this point and I can't help but notice that Stitch knows quite a bit of English...more than he did in the animated movie. I don't remember him speaking in full sentences; I just remembered him maybe uttering a word or two in English to make his point so the humans could understand him, but here it seems like he's just having full blown conversations. 

So now we're to the part where the house has collapsed and Nani, David, Cobra, and the neighbor lady find the debris. Pleakley appears from a pile of rubble and tells them Lilo's not there, that she's on the space ship. That's another slight difference, In the 2002 movie, Gantu captured Lilo and Stitch and put them in the capsule attached to his space craft. Here, Jumba's only interested in Stitch and Lilo sneaks on the space ship. I don't remember how Pleakley knows this...I guess he saw her? 

This whole scene in the animated movie is pretty insane with Stitch trying to save Lilo and crashing and hijacking a semi truck and driving it into a volcano....the 2025 movie doesn't do any of that...probably because it's insane and would be a bitch to do all that. That said, it's still pretty crazy, just not crashing into a volcano crazy. 

Just before Jumba is about to put an end to Stitch, Lilo crawls out from her hiding space and distracts him long enough for Stitch to escape from his constraints. Lilo is way too laid back for the situation she's put herself into. She's not scared at all. She's calling Jumba names like Pizza Face and making cracks about him having a disco ball in his space ship. (What was that all about anyway?) Maybe she feels confident because she has Stitch on her side, but she doesn't seem to realize what she's gotten herself into. 

Jumba falls out of the ship and the vessel crashes into the ocean. Lilo is stuck under some wreckage and Stitch is able to lift it up (remember, he's super strong) so she can escape. She tries to save Stitch, but he's too heavy. I think one thing this movie does better than the animated movie is remind us that Stitch becomes super heavy when he gets wet because his molecular density is too great. In the animated movie, it's easy to forget about that because it's only mentioned once in the beginning and when David rescues him after the surfing incident, he doesn't seem to have any issue. Of course, in this movie, live action David does the same and doesn't seem to have any issues so David must have some super strength for a skinny guy. 

Nani puts Lilo on David's surfboard and Lilo begs her to save Stitch and reminds her about Ohana and asks, "What about nobody gets left behind?" They're probably about a half mile (or maybe closer to shore). Nani dives down and scoops up Stitch and walks across the ocean floor holding him like he's an anvil. This reminded me of that one Survivor challenge (don't ask me what season, but probably one in the late teens or early twenties) where the players had to dive down to the ocean floor and carry a heavy chest to the shore...of course they would come up with air and dive down again while Nani seems to do this in one go. I'm impressed she can hold her breath for that long. I'm also a little  skeptical she was able to do that. 

She makes it to the beach and they try to revive him, but it doesn't look like he's going to make it and there's sad music and everyone's sad. Like, who are we kidding here? It's f***ing Lilo and Stitch. We know he doesn't die in the original (spoiler alert!) so we know he'll make it. This felt a little like emotional manipulation.

Then the Councilwoman arrives to take 626 and we're back in sync with the 2002 movie, the only difference here is that they take out Stitch belonging to Lilo because she owns him since she paid for him. I guess we never saw her pay for her new pet in this movie (I'm guessing her neighbor bought him for her) so instead Cobra and Pleakley make a deal with her that Pleakley will watch over Stitch and Cobra will make sure this will never be found out and she seem satisfied with this. I guess they forgot about all those videos taken of Stitch at that wedding. 

There are a few loose ends that we need to tie up. The neighbor lady (you can probably tell that I don't remember her name) has offered to take in Lilo so she'll still be next door. Wouldn't have this been easier if she had just done this a long time ago? This just seems way too easy and it's a bit dumb they didn't think of this before. 

Nani ends up going to college in San Diego to study marine biology and after the ending montage set to "Burning Love" (it's not Elvis or Wynona singing it; it's two kids who are Bruno Mars' nephews (now I get why they had "Uptown Funk" playing during the wedding scene) and let's just say these kids didn't inherit their uncle's talent...I'll just leave it at that. 

The very last scene of the movie, we see Lilo talking to Nani on FaceTime and Nani tells her to "hold on a sec" and disappears from the frame. Lilo is asking her questions about her dorm room and college life, but Nani isn't responding and Lilo asks her where she went. We then see a light and a hand reaches out to touch Lilo's foot. It's Nani behind her and she's come through a portal with one of the ray guns the aliens brought with them. Oh, did I not mention these? They're laser guns you can shoot and it can make you go from one place to another in an instant. It's insane that the girls were able to keep this and I am 110% positive the only reason they had Nani go to college in San Diego was so they could have this asinine scene. 

It felt like they were trying to shove Stitch in our faces, like "Look how cute he is! You came to see this movie because you love Stitch!" There's even a scene where Pleakley mentions to Jumba how cute or adorable Stitch is (I can't remember the exact context) and it just felt like it was pandering to the Stitch Stans (heh). I don't even think this Stitch was even cute. I love animated Stitch, but CGI Stitch is f***ing annoying as hell. 

Skip this one and watch the animated movie. 

If the Shoe Fits

Cinderella (1950)

Directors: Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi

Voice Talent:  Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Rhoda Williams, Lucille Bliss, James MacDonald

Released: April 27, 1950

Oscar nominations:

Best Song - "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" (lost to "Mona Lisa" from Captian Carey, U.S.A. - what the heck is that?!))

Best Score - Oliver Wallace and Paul J. Smith (lost to Adolph Deutsch (yikes on the name, but to be fair, he was born in 1897) and Roger Edens for Annie Get Your Gun)

Best Sound Recording (lost to All About Eve)

Cinderella (2015)

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Cast: Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham-Carter, Stellan Skarsgard

Released: March 13, 2015

The 2015 live-action version of Cinderella was one of the first one to kickstart all the live-action Disney remakes. Yeah, I know there was 101 Dalmatians with Glenn Close, but that came out in 1996 so that's nearly a twenty year gap. Right after 2015 Cinderella, there was The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan, The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Lilo and Stitch, and I'm sure they'll be making live-action Moana and Frozen, but I want to see live-action The Black Cauldron! 

Even though I haven't seen all the remakes, I believe that Cinderella is the best. For one thing, with all due respect to the animated 1950 movie, there was much to improve on, which they did, while also keeping the essence of the original. 

Of all the early era Disney Princesses, Cinderella is my favorite. Aurora just sleeps through the majority of the movie (yes, I know it is called SLEEPING Beauty) and I recently re-read my review of Snow White and thought her to be "very condescending" and "a little bit dumb" (remember when she opened the door to that scary old woman the Queen was disguised as?). Plus I couldn't stand her shrill singing voice. At least Cinderella didn't annoy me and even though the music wasn't my cup of tea, she did have a very beautiful singing voice. Maybe the sound quality vastly improved from 1937 to 1950 or maybe Ilene Woods (voice of Cinderella) was a better singer than Adriana Caselotti (voice of Snow White). Or maybe both are true. 

For this review, since I'm pretty sure everyone is familiar with this story, specifically the Disney version (tis a tad different that the Grim version!), I'm just going to go through some main plot points and compare and contrast the two movies. How fun! 

The beginning/Cinderella's backstory: The animated film, being much shorter than the live version, is quick to get to the story. We get a yada-yadda'd Cliff Notes version of her life before her stepmother and stepsisters entered into it. After her mother dies, we are told that Cinderella's father "gave his beloved child every luxury and comfort, still he felt that she needed a mother's care." This seems to be the main reason he married again, "a woman of good family" (whatever that means). 

In the 2015 movie, we see Ella (oh, yeah, her name is Ella, the Cinderella name will come later ) as a young girl, growing up with her loving parents in a beautiful chateau with many farm animals. It is quickly established she loves animals and believes the mice she has befriended can understand her. 

Cinderella - In the prologue of the animated movie, we are told that even though her stepmother was "cold, cruel, and bitterly jealous of Cinderella's beauty", even though the "family fortunes were squandered upon by the vain and selfish stepsisters", even though the chateau she grew up in was falling apart, even though she was "forced to become a servant in her own house", even though she lived in a tall turret that's pretty much isolated from the rest of the house, and even with all this abuse and humiliation, she remained "gentle and kind...with each new dawn, she found new hope that someday her dreams of happiness would come true." 

Much like her animated counterpart, our 2015 Cinderella (played by Lily James) is also an optimist despite her dire situation. Before her mother dies, she instills some words of wisdom upon her: "Have courage and be kind." This will be her mantra for the rest of the movie (and, really, for the rest of her life). This Cinderella will be a little more bold than the 1950 Cinderella, at one point she will pointedly ask her stepmother, "Why are you so cruel?" While animated Cinderella seems a little more passive, there is a scene where her stepmother and sisters are enjoying that she won't be able to attend the ball and being totally smug about it. While Lady Tremaine is pretending to be sympathetic, telling her there will be other balls, Cinderella just says "yes" and walks away, not letting them get any more satisfaction. 

Cinderella's father: We basically don't know anything about him in the animated film. I was asking myself why he would marry such a bitch, but Lady Tremaine doesn't become truly awful to Cinderella 'til after he dies. We're never told how she treated her while he was alive and it seemed he married Lady Tremaine when Cinderella was still a young girl. In the 2015 movie, Ella is older when her father tells her he thinks it's time "to begin a new chapter" and tells her how the Master of the Mercer's Guild, a man he met on his travels once, had died recently and left behind his widow, "an honorable woman still in the prime of her life." Ella knows he is asking for her blessing and wants him to be happy. 

We are never told what Cinderella's father does in the '50 movie even though they live in a beautiful chateau and Cinderella has a horse, but in the remake he is a merchant who often travels abroad. He's in the movie for about half an hour. He tells Ella he'll be traveling for work and will be back in a few months. He asks her what she would like to bring him back (because he always comes back with a gift for her) and she replies, "Bring me the first branch your shoulder brushes on your journey." Her stepsisters have asked for lace and a parasol, so this proves that she isn't materialistic. 

Because this is Cinderella, I knew he wouldn't be surviving this journey. I thought he might die in an accident, but he fell ill and died. The scene where his driver returns to the chateau and has to tell Ella what happened is so sad, especially when he hands her a leafy branch.

Lady Tremaine - So there are specific scenes involving this wicked woman that I will talk about separately just because they're iconic scenes. She is voiced by Eleanor Audley (fun fact: she also voiced Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty) and is played by Cate Blanchett. I don't know how old she is supposed to be, but Blanchett's Tremaine comes across much younger. She was around 45 when she filmed it and has reddish blonde hair and wears many fabulous outfits where she's always covered up, but still shows off her figure. The animated Lady Tremaine has gray hair, walks with a cane, and wears a very matronly red dress with a high ruffled purple collar. Her eyes are these really piercing green and she loves to wear jewelry to match her eyes: she has an emerald ring, emerald earrings, and an emerald brooch. The 2015 pays homage to it with Lady Tremaine wearing many outfits that have green in them. 

Obviously, we get many more scenes and more character development of the live action Tremaine. We see her take advantage of her stepdaughter's kindness when she tells her how her daughters have always shared a room, but "they're finding the sleeping quarters rather confining." (While she's talking to Ella, the two sisters are fighting with each other.) Ella, who has the biggest room aside from her father's and stepmother's, offers it up. She starts to say where she can stay, but her stepmother cuts her off and says she can stay in the attic and adds that it will only be temporarily while she has "all the other rooms redecorated" and gives her a sewing kit she can take up with her. I like that they show us how this materialized instead of her already living up in the turret like she does in the animated version.

Both Lady Tremaines care about their status, but we see it a little more in the 2015 movie as she likes to throw lavish parties. 

In the '50 film, Lady Tremaine seems to be jealous of her stepdaughter's beauty which is a little weird because Cinderella can't be any older than ten when her stepmother comes into her life. At least in the remake, we see that Lady Tremaine is jealous of Ella's relationship with her (Ella's) father and is quite aware that her new husband is still harboring feelings for his deceased wife. We see her eavesdropping on her new husband and Ella when he's telling his daughter to be good to her stepmother and sisters even though they "may be trying at times" and comments how her mother is always here, that "she's the heart of this place."

When Ella receives the news of her father's passing, Lady Tremaine is in the background, listening to the conversation and when Ella is told about her father, "To the end, he spoke only of you and your mother," she looks hurt hearing this. She announces they are ruined and questions how will they live. Because of their financial woes, she dismisses the household (they had maids, cook, and people who helped with the farm). This is how Ella morphs into their servant (and her name will morph into Cinderella), doing all their work, Lady Tremaine tells her it will help her distract from her grief. 

Anastasia and Drizella - So I have to be honest, I can never remember who is who, but Drizella (I always thought her name was Drusilla) is the older of the two with dark hair and wears green and Anastasia has red hair and wears purple. They're only probably supposed to be a few years older than Cinderella, but the way they're drawn, they look decades older. Man, they look rough!

At the end of the movie when the Grand Duke has come to their house to try the glass slipper on the sisters, I laughed at his reaction when Lady Tremaine introduces his daughters to him. He physically winces because they're so unbecoming. 

 

The live action stepsisters look much more youthful and I like that it's their personalities (and their questionable taste in fashion) that make them ugly, not their physical appearances. I feel like the 1950 movie is trying to tell people that if you're ugly on the outside, then you're a terrible person, which of course, is a horrible message. 

We get the sense that Anastasia and Drisella are silly vain girls when Ella is helping them get ready for the dance and when she asks them, What do you think he'll be like?" (referring to the Prince) and one of them (sorry, I really do not know who is who!) replies, "What does it matter what he's like? He's rich beyond reason." When Ella asks wouldn't they like to know a little about him if one of them was to marry him, the other replies, "Certainly not. It might change my mind." Ha! 

Her sisters are the ones to give Ella her new name. Ella has been sleeping by the hearth because it's too cold in the attic. Because of this, she gets soot all over her face. The sisters are making fun of her and one of them exclaims, "That's what we'll call you! Cinderella!" Her mother laughs and says, "Oh, girls, you're too clever." 

Lucifer and the mice: - Justice for Lucifer! Haha, that sounds a bit odd without any context. Lucifer is Lady Tremaine's fluffy gray mean-spirited cat and I think he gets a bad rap in the animated film. The only times I think Lucifer is a true a**hole is when he takes a swipe at Bruno, Cinderella's dog (they don't talk about Bruno in the remake because he's not in it) and when he gets in the dustpan and trots his dirty paws all over the floor Cinderella has just cleaned. However, we're supposed to think he's evil because he keeps chasing and trying to eat the mice who just so happen to be Cinderella's friends. Um, hello! He's a cat! That's his job to chase and catch mice! It's his natural instinct! Why are we trying to villainize him for that? Okay, I will admit he was being a jerk when he was trying to keep the mice from delivering the key to Cinderella. 

Cinderella's only friends are the mice who live in the chateau (and she's friendly with the birds too). She names the mice and makes clothes for them. The only mice that seem to have names are Jaq and Gus. The mice speak English, but it's hard to understand them sometimes because they speak in squeaky voices and speak in cutesy dialogue where they repeat words or have their own words for things. A part of me wonders if Cinderella is having these conversations in her head with these mice because she has nobody else to talk to (aside from her stepmother and stepsisters, but it's not like they're having conversations with her) and she's just pretending these mice are her friends and she's so far gone that she's even made outfits
for them. But this is an animated Disney Princess movie, so of course they're her friends and can communicate with her. 

There are so many antics with Lucifer and the mice, it's ridiculous! Twenty-six minutes (out of a one hour and sixteen minute movie) are dedicated to these animals. The prince is only in it for a little over three minutes! (BTW, I Googled these times!) I guess back in those days, it was easier to animate animals than humans, but still...

One of Cinderella's chores is to feed Lucifer first thing in the morning. This entails her having to open her stepmother's door (because Lucifer sleeps in her room in his own little cat canopy bed) at the crack ass of dawn and whispering to Lucifer to come downstairs so she can feed him. This is really stupid of Lady Tremaine because you would think this would wake her up. It doesn't, so she must be a heavy sleeper. Also, Lucifer is nothing like my cat because he just wants to go back to sleep and seems grumpy to be woken up. My cat is always ready for his food at five a.m. (and depending on the day, I'm not up for another one to four hours!) and makes sure I know it! 

Also, animated Lucifer totally dies. When he jumps up on the windowsill to escape from Bruno (who was kind of a dopey dog; I was kind of surprised Lucifer couldn't take him!) and ends up falling out the window from that HIGH, there's no way he would have survived. Yes, I know cats can land on their feet, but that was way too high. He's still falling as we move to the next shot, so we're never told his fate, but I believed it was not a good one. I guess he is in the direct to DVD sequel, but that came out in 2002 and I'm guessing nobody who worked on the 1950 movie worked on the sequel (or was even still alive) and I believe their intention was to kill off Lucifer. 

On the other side of the coin, Lucifer (an adorable gray Persian) is shown a few times in the 2015 movie. Lady Tremaine has him on a leash when she and her daughters move into the chateau. He snarls at the four (CGI) mice and Ella picks him up and scolds/coos at him not to bother the mice. No cat falls out of a high tower in this movie. 

Ella has known the mice since she was a young girl and believes that they can understand her. They don't speak gibberish English (or sing!) like they do in the animated version, but they do nod and seem to understand what she's saying. She also doesn't make little outfits for them...because that would be weird, even on CGI mice! 

The Prince - It probably won't shock you to know that the Prince in the remake has more screen time than the mice and cat! He even has a name and meets Ella before the ball. Hurray for character development! Ella is out riding her horse to get away from her horrible stepmother and sisters. It never occurred to me that she was able to leave her house, because she never does in the '50 film (save for the ball), but that one takes place in one day which is insane when you think about it. 

She first sees a stag and hears voices so she knows there are men nearby who are trying to hunt it. She urges it to run away. As the men grow nearer, her horse starts running really fast. A noble young man sees she's in trouble and heads after her on his horse, asking if she's all right. She is able to slow down the horse and tell him she is. Of course, this is the Prince, but she does not know this. She adds that he "nearly frightened the life out of him" and he is amused when she clarifies she's talking about the stag, telling her, "I must confess I've never met him before." They have a cute little exchange and he is totally charmed by her. He asks her, "What do they call you?" Interesting that he words it like that instead of asking what her name is as this is right after she's been dubbed Cinderella and she doesn't want to admit that to him, replying, "Never mind what they call me." He is surprised when she asks him, "What do they call you?", then realizes she truly does not know that he is the Prince. He tells her that his father (the King, heh) calls him Kit, which is true, but he is the only person who calls him that. He also tells her that he lives at the palace and his father (the King!) is "teaching [him] his trade". Ella takes that to mean he's an apprentice. He is very smitten with her and before he leaves, he tells her, "I hope to see you again."

He is played by Richard Madden, best known for playing Robb Stark in Game of Thrones, and let's just say he gets a much happier ending in this movie! 

There is a fun callback to the animated film when we see Kit having his portrait painted. In the original, we see many portraits of the Prince, each one bigger than the last. 

We don't meet the Prince until near the end of the 1950 film. (Remember, he's only in the movie for three minutes!) The stepsisters are being presented to him when Cinderella enters and he sees her and is enchanted by her beauty and walks over to her, totally dismissing Anastasia and Drizella, which was hilarious. They waltz to "So This is Love" and seem to be in love after that exchange. It seems the Prince is only interested in her for her beauty, and doesn't get to know her on a deeper level like he does in the 2015 movie. 

The King - The prince's father in both movies wants his son to marry, but for different reasons. The animated (in more ways than one!) King is discussing his son (who is out of town at the moment, I guess) with the Grand Duke, saying how "it's high time he married and settled down." He adds that he (the King) isn't getting any younger and wants to spend time with any grandchildren before he goes and that he's lonely and "wants to hear the pitter-patter of little feet again." So he's pretty much trying to marry off his son for his own selfish gain.

In the remake, the King is sick and doesn't have long to live, so he wants to ensure that his son will be set up for success and (at first) wants him to marry for advantage. But the King will have a change of heart when he realizes that his son is in love with a country girl and on his deathbed will tell him to marry for love and to "find that girl." 

The planning of the ball/the invitations - In the '50 film, the King wants to have a ball to celebrate his son's return home from wherever the hell he's been. All the eligible maidens in the kingdom will be invited and the King is certain he's "bound to show interest in one of them." Huh...was this animated Disney character from a 1950 movie the first person to come up with the idea for The Bachelor? Because isn't that what this is? The Prince will be home that day and they'll be having the ball that very night. Like, WTF? Who has an extravagant dance the same day they come up with the idea to have one? 

In the '15 film, the portrait of the Prince will be sent abroad "to induce the high and mighty to attend the ball" where he will choose a bride. By this time, he has already met Ella and wants the invitations to "go to everyone, not just nobility," so at least they address how commoners were invited to the ball. I was also under the impression the King had been thinking about having this ball for awhile and didn't just come up with it on a whim.

In the animated film, the invitation to the ball is delivered by a messenger. While Cinderella answers the door, one of her stepsisters is (awfully) playing the flute and the other is (awfully) singing "Sing Sweet Nightingale." She sees that the letter is marked "urgent" (I'll bet it's "urgent" because the ball is that night!) and there's a funny moment when she tells the mice, "Maybe I should interrupt the, uh, music lesson." You can just hear her putting quotes around "music lesson". This is one of those little moments that made this Cinderella have a bit of a personality. 

Lady Tremaine reads the invitation and she and her daughters become super excited when she reads, "by royal command, every eligible maiden is to attend." Cinderella points out she can go to because it did say "by royal command." I don't know, if I were ordered to attend a dance, I would be pretty annoyed. I feel like this should be optional. Lady Tremaine tells her, "I see no reason why you can't go if you get all your work done...and if you can find something suitable to wear." Cinderella is too happy to realize there's probably a catch and promises her stepmother that she will. After she leaves the room, Anastasia and Drizella are aghast that Cinderella could possibly attend the ball and their mother cackles and says, "I said, 'If'".   

Of course, Cinderella will be given so many chores on top of the already many chores she has to do. Jaq is indignant because he knows Cinderella won't have time to work on her dress with all the domestic work her stepmother and stepsisters are ordering her to do. Cinderella has a dress that she wants to wear to the ball that used to belong to her mother. The bodice is pink with capped sleeves with white ruffles and the skirt is white with a light pink sash around the waist and a light pink ribbon at the hem. All the female mice are there when she takes it out and shows them and one of them comments, "It's pretty, but it looks old." Heh. Who does she think she is, Tim Gunn? But as we'll see, these mice will show their dress designing skills and could be valid contestants for Project Runway! Cinderella is looking through a pattern book and decides she's going to give the dress a whole new look. She'll "have to shorten the sleeves, [she'll] need a sash, ruffles, something for the collar..." One of the mice even comments, "It'll be easy." Seriously? It's not like she's adding more ruffles, it looks like a completely different dress! Anyway, the other mice agree with Jaq and one of the female mice says they can fix the dress for her. These mice are definitely a product of the 1950s because when one of the male mice offered to sew, she tells him, "Leave the sewing to the women!" 

There's more shenanigans with the cat when Jaq and Gus see that the sisters are complaining about their "old rags" to the mother, one dropping a sash and the other dropping a necklace. The mice decide they'll be perfect for Cinderella's ball look, but Lucifer makes it difficult for them to acquire, but after ten minutes (I may be slightly exaggerating, but not by much) they finally have the items. 

We see the mice (with some help from the birds) doing all this time consuming work on the dress, which, of course, will be all for naught. Like, their hard work will be ruined in minutes by a few petty bitches. 

But before I go any further, let me go back to the live action remake. Cinderella is in town when it is announced the ball will be in two weeks (NOT that night!) and the prince will choose a bride and every eligible women is invited. Notice that nobody is commanded to go! I think it actually makes more sense how they deliver the invitations to every house in the animated film, because at least you know everyone will be getting one. Maybe the guy making the announcement is just hoping that everyone who is in the town square will past the word along. I do understand why they do it this way, though. Cinderella runs home to tell her stepmother and sisters the news. She is excited mostly because she'll see Kit the apprentice (remember, he lives at the palace!). I love Cate Blanchett's reaction. She literally jumps out of her chair (and Lucifer has to quickly hop off her lap!) and runs to her girls, telling them, "One of you must win the heart of the prince." Because they are in a lot of depth, it will help quite a great deal if they can marry into some money. She sees Cinderella is still standing there and tells her to run into town (which she literally just returned from) and ask the seamstress to make them "three fine ball gowns." Cinderella thinks she is talking about her and her stepsisters, but nope, Lady Tremaine means for herself and her daughters. Unlike in the animated movie, she never tells Cinderella she can go to the dance as long as she finishes all her chores, but she never says she can't go either. 

Like her animated counterpart, this Cinderella also has a pink dress that used to belong to her mother. She thinks if she provides her own dress, she will be able to attend the ball. She works on fixing the dress, though it doesn't go through a complete transformation like the other pink dress. Even though she's the one to mainly work on the dress, we do a get a shoutout to the original with the mice under the table rolling spools of thread or tying a ribbon to a shoe. 

Before they leave for the ball, Lady Tremaine gushes over her daughters (in their super garish dresses), saying one of them is bound to snare the prince and how happy she is she has "two horses in the race." She must be a little bit delusional if she actually thinks one of her daughter has a chance with him. Cinderella comes downstairs wearing her dress, telling them it cost nothing and she doesn't even want to meet the Prince. She wants to go to see Kit, she has no interest in the Prince! Because Lady Tremaine didn't have to pay for an extra dress and because she's taking herself off the table as an option for the Prince, she thinks they will allow her to attend the ball with them. Wrong! Her stepmother tells her she won't meet him because she's not going and that it would "be an insult to the royal personage to take [her] to the palace dresses in these old rags." After Cinderella tells her it belonged to her mother, she disparages her mother's taste in fashion and tells her the dress is "old-fashioned and practically falling apart" and reaches over and rips off one of her sleeves, then tears at the dress a couple more times. Cinderella asks, "How could you?" and she replies, "How could I otherwise? I will not have anyone associate my daughters with you...[it will] ruin their prospects to be seen arriving with a ragged servant girl. Which is what you are and what you will always be." She acts as though she is embarrassed by Cinderella, but I think she is jealous because she knows she would catch the prince's eye and she doesn't want her there as competition. 

The animated version of this scene is the same, but different. Cinderella sees that the carriage has arrived to take her stepmother and sisters to the palace. She informs Lady Tremaine of this and when her stepmother comments that she's (Cinderella) not ready, Cinderella informs her she's not going. This is because she thinks she doesn't have anything to wear because she's been too busy with chores. You know, being that the ball was THAT VERY NIGHT, I find it hard to believe she would be able to finish her dress even without all the chores. Good thing she has all her mice and bird friends. They really should be on Project Runway, seeing they finished that dress in a couple of hours! She goes back to her room and looks out the window where she can see the palace and insist to herself that the ball w
ould be "frightfully dull and boring" (and who is she kidding?) "and completely wonderful." Her mice friends surprise her with the dress and this is the cutest scene in the entire movie. I love how they're all, "Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!" in their squeaky little mice voices and Gus, being a little slow, tells her, "Happy birthday!" 

When she comes down twirling in her new dress and announcing she can attend the ball, her stepsisters aren't happy to se
e her all dressed up. Lady Tremaine notices the necklace she's wearing is the same that Drizella discarded earlier, and, knowing Drizella will get a rise out of Cinderella wearing it, comments how they give the dress a nice touch. Drizella indeed notices that it's her discarded necklace and calls her a thief. Anastasia notices she's using her sash and soon the two sisters are ripping apart Cinderella's dress. It gets way more trashed then the live action dress, which is mainly just a sleeve was torn off. 

The Fairy Godmother scene - So whenever I think of Cinderella, this is the scene that always comes to mind first. Both versions are pretty similar during this scene, with a few differences. Our protagonist in both movies runs outside, upset about what has just happened. The animated Cinderella is crying at a bench and her Fairy Godmother just materializes out of thin air. There's no explanation of who she is or how she got there and once she's talking about her magic wand, Cinderella figures out it's her Fairy Godmother. Honestly, if I were her, I'd be asking why she hasn't shown up a lot earlier!

The 2015 Fairy Godmother (played by Helena Bonham Carter) first appears as an old lady who hobbles over to her and asks her for milk which the kind Cinderella fetches for her. This seems to be a test that Ella has passed with flying colors. The old woman turns into a much younger woman with blonde hair and wearing quite the dress that even lights up. Fairy Godmothers had been established earlier in the movie when Ella's mother tells her young daughter that they are the ones "who look after us." 

Both Fairy Godmothers turn a pumpkin into a carriage and four mice into horses. In the '50 film, Bruno the dog is turned into the footman and her horse is turned into the coachman while in the '15 film, two lizards are turned into footmen and one of the many goose who live on the property is transformed into the coachman. Both girls are told they must leave before midnight because that is when the spell will be broken and everything will go back to the way it was. 

The dress and glass slippers - I figured these needed their own separate category being so iconic and all. I always thought original Disney Cinderella had a blue dress because that's the color I usually associate her with, so I was a little surprised when the Fairy Godmother transformed her tattered dress into the ball gown and it's more of a silver color. It's seemed to change into blue over the years; look at 2015 Cinderella, after all! Now that dress has to be one of the best to grace the screen in recent years. It just moves so fluidly with her and the way the skirt twirls, it just looks like so much fun. The only thing I wasn't too keen on was the little butterflies attached to the top. It just felt very early 2000s to me. Before her Fairy Godmother transforms the dress, Cinderella tells her she wants to keep it because it's her mother's and her Fairy Godmother says she'll just tweak it a little, but to me it's a completely different dress! Maybe the bodice is the same? I don't know, I'm not really fashion savvy so I can't really tell. Before she gets into the carriage, her Fairy Godmother wants to change her shoes because "they're really quite hideous" and gives her the glass slippers, telling her they're comfortable even though they're made out of freaking glass which I appreciated because wearing shoes made out of glass can NOT be comfortable. Plus, putting all your weight on glass shoes just seems like a bad idea to me! 

The ball - Before our Cinderellas arrive, the single ladies are being introduced to the Prince at the ball. In the animated film, they are coming up to him after being announced as his father and the Grand Duke are watching from a balcony. The King isn't happy because his son isn't "cooperating". He looks pretty bored and at one point, even yawns (well, I can't really blame him because he just got back that day from traveling and the ball is that night...I would be tired too!). The only moment we get a glint of personality from him is when he is introduced to Anastasia and Drizella and his reaction to them is an eye roll because they're acting like buffoons. 

In the remake, Kit is sitting in the balcony with his father, watching as all the princesses and non-royalty single ladies are being announced. The King knows his son invited the commoner because he knows Kit is trying to look for the girl he recently met. When he reminds him he's only met the girl once, Kit replies that he's supposed to marry a girl he'll be meeting for the first time tonight. His dad tells him it's different because he'll by marrying a princess. 

Just as it is announced that the Prince will choose his partner for the first dance, Cinderella enters just a few moments later and he walks towards her as she's gliding down the stairs. I think we know who he's choosing to dance with! I just loved it when she twirled in that dress; it was so hypnotic! 

Animated Cinderella immediately catches the Prince's eyes when she enters, so much so that he walks over to her, dismissing her stepsisters who are being introduced to him at the time. Cinderella definitely stand out because of her dress. For one thing, it's the only one that sparkles and it's also the only dress that doesn't have a weird part that poufs out in the back, making everyone's butt look huge. (I'm sorry, but that's how it looks!) When the King sees his son taking interest in a woman, he is beyond excited and prompts the conduct to play a waltz for them to dance to. While they dance, he decides he's going to go to bed and tells the Duke to stay where he is to make sure his son and the girl aren't disturbed and to notify him immediately when his son proposes. WTF? He's been going on all day about how he wants his son to find a wife and he's not going to stay up for the rest of the ball to make sure that happens? Also, it's just so weird and random that the King, the one who is throwing the ball, decides he's just going to go to bed while the ball is still going on. This King is really stupid, I'm sorry. Also, he thinks his son is going to propose that night? I was thinking maybe he thought his son would meet a nice girl, wine and dine her, and then propose. 

One little detail that I appreciate them addressing in the remake is the fact that Lady Tremaine and her daughters may recognize Cinderella at the ball, so the Fairy Godmother puts a spell on her ensuring she won't be recognized by them. In the '50 film, when Cinderella is dancing with the Prince, her stepmother and sisters are wondering who she is. They don't seem to recognize her. I guess since she's wearing a fancy dress and her hair is up, she looks completely different. Lady Tremaine admits, "There is something
familiar about her." Gee, lady, why don't you put two and two together? 

In the '15 movie, when they see the Prince dancing with this beautiful girl, Lady Tremaine tells her daughters, "This does not bode well" and that they "must turn the prince's head." 

Another big difference between the two movies is that in the remake, Cinderella realizes he's the Prince and he tells her he didn't tell her when they first met because he thought she might treat him differently. When they're having this discussion, they're in a room with a bunch of portraits and we see one of Kit on horse, which is a nice homage to the animated movie. They go outside and he shows her a secret garden with a swing. He tells her that he is "expected to marry for advantage" and that his father and the Duke will be choosing the princess they think is best suited for him. We, along with Lady Tremaine, learn that the prince has been promised to marry Princess Chelina of Zaragosa.

In the animated movie, Cinderella has no clue he's the Prince. When she has to run off because she hears the clock striking midnight, she tells him she has to go because she hasn't met the Prince yet. He's about to tell her he's the Prince, but she runs off. 

In both movies, our heroine runs off, leaving one glass slipper behind. In the remake, while the carriage is being turned back into a pumpkin, I like that we see her sitting inside a large pumpkin with seeds surrounding her. As she's walking home, she lets the four mice sit in the glass slipper she's carrying. Why did I find that so adorable? 

Lady Tremaine becomes suspicious - The Duke in the animated film has to inform the King "that the young lady has disappeared, leaving behind only this glass slipper." There's a funny reveal that he was talking to an empty chair and that he was practicing his speech because he knows the King will be irate. And he is. The King is dreaming of playing with his (not yet existing) grandchildren when he hears the Duke knocking on his door and thinks this must mean that his son has already proposed. His face turns beet red when he is told the girl has gotten away. He seems to calm down a bit when the Duke informs him that the Prince loves her and is determined to find her because he wants to marry her. He must have had a conversation with the Prince off screen. The fact that the Prince "loves" this girl he's just met and only danced with and barely talked to is ludicrous. Yes, I think the remake did the right thing with developing their relationship a lot more! He also tells the King about the glass slipper and the King declares that he wants him to try it on every maiden in the Kingdom "and if the shoe fits...bring her in." 

The next morning, Lady Tremaine has heard the news and urgently tells her daughters to wake up. While Cinderella is coming up with their breakfast (apparently they eat their breakfast in bed every morning), she overhears her stepmom telling Anastasia and Drizella how the Grand Duke is coming to the house because he is searching for "the girl who lost her slipper at the ball last night." Cinderella knows she is talking about her and when she hears it was the Prince she danced with last night and how he's "madly in love with her", she drops the breakfast tray. 

Anastasia and Drizella don't know why they should even bother getting up if the Prince is in love with another girl but their mothers tells them, "There's still a chance one of you can get him" and proceeds to tell them about the glass slipper and how he doesn't even know who this girl is. I mean, yeah, he doesn't know her name, but I'm sure he would recognize her and realize one of these ugly stepsisters certainly wasn't her! I guess that makes sense why he's not the one to visit the house to try the shoes on the sisters. He would take one glance at them and wouldn't even let them try on the shoe because he would know neither of them were the girl he danced with! 

Lady Tremaine is telling her stepdaughter what she needs her to do for the day and she gets suspicious when Cinderella has a lovestruck look on her face and walks away singing, "So This Is Love", the same song she danced to with the prince last night. Lady Tremaine suddenly realizes that the girl from last night was Cinderella and follows her upstairs to her room where she locks her in. 

In the 2015 version, Cinderella arrive home minutes before her stepmother and stepsisters and the sisters tell her all about the ball. They start talking about the mystery girl and Lady Tremaine becomes suspicious about how lovey-dovey her stepdaughter is acting.

We see that she has hidden the shoe in a box that she keeps under one of her floorboards. 

The next morning, a proclamation is sent out and it is announced the new King (Kit's father has passed away so he is now the King) has proclaimed his love for "the mysterious princess" who wore glass slippers and "requests that she present herself at the palace" and if she is willing, he will marry her. 

Ella is in town when this is announced (she always seems to be in the Town Square for all the announcements!) and I thought for sure she was just going to head to the Palace because surely Kit would recognize her, but instead she heads home to retrieve her glass slipper only to find it isn't in her keepsake box anymore. It's revealed that her stepmother is sitting in a corner, holding the shoe. She tells Ella about how she was once "a beautiful young girl who married for love...[and] one day, her husband, the light of her life, died." The next time she married (to Ella's father) was for the sake of her daughters, but after that man was taken from her too, she was "doomed to look every day upon his beloved child." She asks Cinderella if she stole the shoe and when Ella tells her it was given to her, she scoffs, "Nothing is ever given. For everything you must pay." Cinderella replies, "That's not true. Kindness if free. Love is free." Lady Tremaine has her own ideas of what she wants to happen. Unlike her animated counterpart, she knows there's no chance anymore with one of her daughters with the new King so she has some demands for Cinderella: "When you are married, you will make me the head of the royal household. Anastasia and Drusilla will pair off with wealthy lords." She says Cinderella will not know how to rule a kingdom and this way they will all get what they want. Cinderella tells her no dice, and is especially not happy when her stepmother says she "shall manage that boy." In retaliation, Lady Tremaine smashes the shoe against the door. When Ella asks her, "Why are you so cruel?", she replies, "Because you are young and innocent and good. And I..." she leaves and locks her in the attic. You get the idea that she was once like Ella, but then became cynical after these terrible things happened to her. 

Lady Tremaine pays a visit to the Duke to show him the remnants of the shoe, telling him that "the mystery princess is a commoner." He tells her that she's "spared the kingdom a great deal of embarrassment" and when she tells him she "would like to keep it that way," he asks if she's threatening him and she simply replies, "Yes." He agrees to her terms of her becoming a countess and "advantageous marriages for [her] two daughters." 

If the Shoe Fits - So in the remake we get a montage of the shoe touring the village and women trying it on. We even see a long line of women at the palace waiting to try on the shoe. There are some comical moments, such as one woman greasing her foot and a woman with feet that stink so bad that when she takes off her shoe, everyone around her faints. 

We don't get a scene like this in the '50 film; we're just told that all the single ladies will be trying on the shoe. The Duke and some small random dude (I didn't catch his name or title, but he's part of the royal parsonage who is there to assist the Duke, I guess) stop at the chateau so they can try the slipper on Anastasia and Drizella. While he is reading from the royal proclamation, Jaq and Gus are trying to sneak the key out of Lady Tremaine's pocket. This will involve more hi-jinx with the mice and cat which will last fifteen minutes (again, I'm exaggerating, but probably not by much). 

They manage to obtain the key and now the two mice have to lug this heavy key all the way upstairs. It seems to take them forever, but before they can get to the door, Lucifer is ready to pounce and this is the scene where he will eventually fall out the window. 

While all this was going on, the sisters are claiming the glass slipper belongs to them. Anastasia is the first to try on the slipper and she has freakishly long feet and the shoe obviously doesn't fit. The dumb little guy attempts to pound the shoe so it will fit her. Okay, A) he's going to break it because it's made of glass and 2) Does he not see how large her foot is? It's like Jeff Probst says during puzzle challenges on Survivor: "If you have to force it, it won't fit!" 

Drizella doesn't have much luck either. She tries to "make it fit", but of course that doesn't work. 

Apparently the sisters were struggling with the shoe for a long time because just as the Duke and the little man are leaving, Cinderella comes running down the stairs. Lady Tremaine is dismissive of her, but the Duke says he has orders. Remember how in the remake it was the shoe that Cinderella already had that was destroyed? Well, in this one it's the shoe that she lost and the Duke has been trying on everyone that is destroyed. When the little man is walking over to present the show on a pillow, Lady Tremaine trips him with her cane and it shatters. But it's okay because Cinderella pulls out the other shoe, because of course she had it! Her stepmother really didn't think that through, did she? The expression on her face when Cinderella pulls out the shoe is hilarious...both her eyes and mouth are wide open. But again, why is she so shocked? She already had the suspicion that Cinderella was the mystery girl and she was right. 

Cinderella will just leave without saying anything and marries the Prince.

The 2015 movie does this scene a little differently. The Grand Duke and the Captain, who is very close with the Prince-turned-King, are the ones to enter the chateau, but they have seemed to brought the whole royal entourage because outside the house is a row of horses holding uniformed guards (or something, I don't know what their title would be). Anastasia and Drisella are super excited to see them because it's "now [their] chance." Anastasia is the first to try the shoe on and she claim that "it shrunk" when it doesn't' fit her. Drisella is straining as she's trying to fit her foot into the shoe. I laughed when the Captain says, "Bad luck, miss."

They're about to leave, but Lady Tremaine isn't worried that the shoe didn't fit her daughters because she knows they're good with the deal she made with the Duke. She tells her girls, "But fate may yet be kind to us, girls."

Meanwhile, Ella is upstairs, singing, having no clue who is downstairs. The mice know because they work together to open the window so everyone downstairs can hear her singing. Of course, the Duke knows who it is and insists they leave. The Captain asks Lady Tremaine if another girl lives in the house and she assures him there is nobody else. He quips, "Perhaps your cat has learned to sing?"and she just laughs nervously. 

One of the men on one of the horses takes off his hat and it's King Kit. Both the Captain and the Duke look surprised so they must not have known he was among them. He asks the Captain to investigate and the Captain is happy to oblige. Lady Tremaine has an "oh, sh*t" look on her face because she knows she can't not take him up to the attic. When she does, she just points at Cinderella and tells him, "I told you it was no one of any importance." Cinderella gets mixed messages when the Captain tells her she is "requested and required to present [herself] to [her] King", then her stepmother tells her, "I forbid you to do this" and the Captain tells Lady Tremaine, "And I forbid you to forbid her!" When he asks her who she think she is, she gestures to Cinderella and says she is her mother. Cinderella tells her, "You have never been and you never will be my mother." I like that this Cinderella gets to tell off her stepmother.

Kit is waiting downstairs with the shoe in his hand and he recognizes her when he sees her and when he asks who she is, she replies, "I am Cinderella," calling herself by that name for the first time.  

Before she leaves,  being the kind and courageous person she is, she tells her stepmother, who is coming down the stairs, "I forgive you." It also shows us that Cinderella is the bigger person.

The movie ends with Cinderella and Kit's wedding and the whole kingdom below them is cheering as they share a kiss on a balcony overlooking their people. We are told that her stepmother and sisters left with the Duke. I'm not sure if this was voluntary or forced! I do wish we had seen her mice friends at the wedding, I thought that would have been a cute touch. After all I assume (in both versions!) that the mice moved to the palace with there. The mice in the animated movie are so talented, that they can make all her gowns! 

As much as I prefer the remake (and even though I haven't seen all the live action remakes, I feel pretty confident saying it's probably theist) to the animated film, you have to give the 1950 film some credit. They didn't have many well-known movies in the '40s, mostly due to the war and when this one came along in 1950 it jump-started their beloved animated movies again and it was a huge box off success, being the fifth highest grossing movie of 1950. Also, Cinderella is just iconic. It's her castle that you see at Disney World and her story has been told countless times. 

I found this print advertisement for the 1950 movie on its Wikipedia page. I just found this really fascinating because I've never seen so many words on a movie poster! Usually they just have the title, the big name actors, the date it will be released, and a tag line to give you an idea of the movie. Walt really wanted the people to see this movie and was selling it big time. "6 years in the making making!" "Even the birds will be singing!" (That one made me laugh because bird seem like the most obvious ones to sing!) "...ready to thrill the world as no picture ever has!" It's a good thing this movie was so successful otherwise this poster would've looked embarrassing in hindsight!