Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Something in the Water

Jaws
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, and a mechanical shark dubbed Bruce
Released: June 20, 1975

Oscar nominations:
Best Picture (lost to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
Best Editing (won)
Best Dramatic Score (won)
Best Sound (won)


This movie recently celebrated it's 50th (!!!) anniversary and what better time to review it? Jaws is a very revolutionary movie, being known as the first summer blockbuster. It really is that quintessential summer movie, being set on an New England island beach town during the Fourth of July with a killer shark lurking in the water. This was Spielberg's third movie he directed (well, technically fourth, but the very first movie he directed was only shown at a theater in Phoenix where he grew up called Firelight when he was only 17. (Yes, I got all this information from Wikipedia.)) Anyway, I'm not counting that one. 

I had only seen this movie once before. I think I was in middle school when my brother rented it. There were a few things I remembered, like the very first scene when the young woman goes for a midnight swim and becomes a midnight snack for the shark.

New York native Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) is the police chief of Amity Island. We're never really told where Amity Island is, we just know it's off the coast of New England. We do know that the movie was filmed on Martha's Vineyard, a place I've visited! Now I was only in Oaks Bluff (shout out to Stephanie Wolf Designs, this amazing store with these beautiful earrings I'm obsessed with!) and the movie was filmed in a town called Edgartown which is just south of Oaks Bluff. Now I was thinking it was probably an hour drive from Oaks Bluff, but no, I just Googled the distance and it's an eighteen minute drive! Obviously my view was seriously distorted!

Back to the movie! Brody and his wife live in a cute little house by the water with their two young sons; Michael, who is around 12 and his brother, Sean who is four or five. They also have this really cute dog, who, I'm not gonna lie, I was really worried about. Yes, I'm the person who is more worried about the pets than the kids! 

The boy who was with the girl the night before called the police to report her missing. I'm kind of surprised he did this because he had passed out on the beach from too much drinking after she went in the water, so I don't think he even saw her get attacked. Wouldn't he had just assumed she made it out of the water? And it's not like this was his girlfriend and he hadn't heard from her the next day and that's what made him call the police. These two had just met the night before at a bonfire fire when she went frolicking by him and motioned for him to follow her. I'm probably giving this too much thought. 

On his way to the beach, we see Brody pass a big sign welcoming tourists to Amity for the "50th Annual Regatta." There's a painting of a girl relaxing on a floaty lounger in the water. This sign will have an amazing callback later.   

It doesn't take long before another officer finds the girl's remains that have been washed up on the beach. According to the sickened look on his face, it isn't pretty. We just see her hair and a hand and later we will find all that is left of her fits in a small box the size of a basin so there's not that much left of her. Brody puts her cause of death as "shark attack" in his report and buys supplies to make signs to tell the public the beach. is closed. 

It's almost July 4th and when the Mayor finds out that Brody wants to close the beaches, he's not too happy. Amity is a tourist hot spot where many people come to enjoy the beach and spend their money at the local stores (especially around the Fourth!) and he suggests that maybe the girl's body got mauled by a boat propellor instead of a shark. For some reason, the medical examiner is also present for this conversation (small town, I guess) and when Brody questions him about that, he says he was wrong and he'll amend his report. Why does the medical examiner care if the beaches are open/closed? Does the Mayor have something over him? The Mayor tells Brody if people find out about a shark, there will be a panic and no one will want to come to their island for the Fourth (and then they won't want to spend all their money!). This was the first moment I thought FOR SURE the mayor was going to become fish food for the shark.

So the beach remains open and Brody is there with his family with many other people. There's only a few people in the water. A kid around twelve named Alex Kitner who had just asked his mom if he can swim for another ten minutes, goes back out with his inflatable lounger, which, in my opinion, should only be reserved for the pool. How can you relax in the ocean on an inflatable lounger? A guy is on the shore playing fetch with his black lab, throwing a stick into the water for the dog to chase. I was thinking, Spielberg, I swear to God, if you kill off that dog...

Brody is just surveying everything and we get a few faux shark moments: 

-a woman is floating on her back with her eyes closed and something gray pops up near her, b
ut it's just some guy in a swimming cap who seemed to come out of nowhere. Seriously, where did he come from? 

-a young woman starts screaming, but then we see her boyfriend pop up from under her and she's on his shoulders. 

All of a sudden, a BUNCH of people go into the water and I'm thinking, all this splashing is going to attract and alert the shark to this area. I'll find out later I'm right about that. Brody's two sons also are in the water, or maybe it's just his oldest son, I don't remember. 

The guy with the black lab is calling for his dog and since we never saw the dog getting attacked, I'm going to tell myself the dog got thirsty and ran home to get a drink of water. Yes, that is totally what happened! The dog is okay! And anyway, if the shark had already had a doggie snack, why would he attack a human next (which is what he will do)? The dog is okay, folks! No body, no shark attack, is what I say! 

Alex Kitner, the twelve-ear-old kid, is the one who is viciously attacked. Now, if this movie were made today, they would have introduced him to the audience a little earlier, perhaps have him be a friend of Michael's so his death would hit a bit harder. Not that it wasn't horrific a young boy is attacked by this shark. There is A LOT of blood, it's like a fountain. If I were there that day, there's no way in hell I would ever set foot in any body of water ever again! Oh, yeah, did I tell you that this movie is rated PG? What kind of parent would take their young kids to see this? This was before the PG-13 rating was a thing (like a decade before), but this definitely would be a PG-13 if it came out today. 

Everyone is scurrying out of the water and there's a terrible moment when Alex's mother is calling his name, but of course he doesn't answer her and his ripped floaty washes up to the shore. 

Soon after, there'a a town meeting at the school for a discussion about what had happened and what they're going to do about it. Brody tells them they're going to put "shark spotters on the beach." When asked point blank if they're going to close the beaches, he tells them they are and everyone starts grumbling. Who are these people? A young boy is killed by a shark and they still want to go back in the water? The f***? He tells them they'll be bringing in an expert from Oceanographic Institute from the mainland. 

The Mayor tries to calm the people down by telling them this will only be for twenty-four hours and Brody tells him he didn't agree to that, but everyone ignores him. They're still pissed even about the twenty-four hours. These people really only care about their money and making sure people are spending money at their shops. 

While everyone is arguing, we get the introduction of  Quint (Robert Shaw), which is my least favorite scene of the movie because he gets everyone's attention by scraping his fingernails down a chalkboard and, ugh! I HATE that whole sensation/sound. It just mades me SHUDDER. That scene was way worse than any shark attack! Quint is a fisherman and tells them he can catch this shark. He'll find it for $3,000, but wants $10,000 to kill it. Okay, so of course I had to go to the conversion calculator! Three thousand dollars in 1974 (the movie came out in '75, but it's set the year before) would now be $19,608 (I rounded up) today in 2025. Ten grand would now be a whopping $65,360! (Again, I rounded up.) This guy would be making out with nearly $85,000 today! I guess thirteen thousand dollars was a lot of money back in the mid '70s! Too bad he won't be around to enjoy any of it (spoiler alert!)! He wants that much because he knows it's not going to be easy (spoiler alert: he's right about that!)! The Mayor tells him they'll take his offer under advisement.  

Later that evening, Brody is at home, studying a book about sharks at a desk when his wife sneaks up right behind him and leans in over his shoulder. He clearly sense something and jumps, startling her and she tells him that he scared her! Lady, why would you sneak up on someone like that? You clearly started him! 

Brody realizes that his youngest son is sitting in a boat tied to the dock while the older one is sitting on the dock (or maybe it's the other way around). He yells at whichever son to get off the boat and when he tells his wife he doesn't want the kids in the ocean, she replies he's not in the ocean, but on a boat. Lady, do you not realize that a shark could easily just tip this little row boat over? She looks at his shark book and sees an illustration of a shark crashing into the bottom of a boat and yells at her son to get off the boat. 

After the death of her son, Mrs. Kitner had posted an ad (that was put in the back of the newspaper) rewarding $3,000 for the person who killed the shark who killed her son. It's evening when we see two guys looking to collect their bounty. They have an idea to entice the shark with one of the men's wife's holiday pot roast. He says they better catch something since they're using it. (Something tells me the wife didn't give him permission to use it!) The other guy joke that $3,000 will buy him a lot of roasts. Side note: who the hell has a pot roast for the Fourth of July? That is a day reserved for hot dogs and hamburgers, grilled chicken perhaps. NOT a frickin' pot roast! That's something you have for Christmas. What kind of American are you if you're not eating grilled hot dogs on the Fourth? Look, I honestly don't care if you have hot dogs on the Fourth, but POT ROAST? The hell? Am I the only one who thinks that's weird? 

Anyway, the two guys have tied the roast to a buoy, then have tied the chain connected to the buoy around one of the dock's posts. Some time has passed and we see the buoy moving and the chain on the dock starts to uncoil so they know they have caught something. The shark is so strong that part of the dock falls off, taking one of the men with him. The guy starts swimming back, then we see the dock turn around (I guess to show that the shark is following him, even though it doesn't make sense why the shark would be attacked to the dock). I did laugh when his friend calls out to him, "Charlie, take my word for it, DON'T look back! Just swim!" I thought FOR SURE Charlie was going to be the main course after the little appetizer of the pot roast for the shark, but he manages to make it back unharmed. This guy doesn't seem like he's in great shape; there's no way he could out swim a shark, so the shark must have just been toying with him. 

The next day, on the docks, we see a bunch of people who have seen Mrs. Kitner's ad and are out hunting for the shark. We also meet Matt Hooper (a young Richard Dreyfuss) who is from the Oceanographic Institute. He wants to see the remains of the girl on the beach, the first (known!) victim of the shark. He reads the girls' cause of death as "probable boating accident" as the medical examiner takes her remains out. This is the scene I was referring to earlier when I said what's left of her fits in a small box. From what Hooper examines, he tells them this was clearly not a boat accident nor the cause of a propellor. 

We see many of the men who are trying to catch the shark out on their boats just being so careless and I thought FOR SURE at least one of them was going to become shark chow. They obviously didn't know what they were doing and weren't even equipped to kill it. One of these dummies didn't even know what "chumming" was. However, someone has caught a shark and thinks it's THE shark. This shark is pretty small and I know it's not our guy. (Plus, there's more than an hour left of the movie so of course it's not the shark!) Hooper takes measurements of its mouth and tells Brody that they don't align with the wound bites found on the victim. He wants to cut the fish open since the digestive system of a shark is very slow and if they cut it open, they can see what it's eaten in the last 24 hours (how long has it been since the boy was killed?). Speaking of which, Mrs. Kitner has arrived from her son's funeral, dressed in all black. She approaches Brody and slaps him, telling him she found out about the girl who was also killed by a shark and how he knew it wasn't safe to go in the water. The Mayor is standing next to him during this whole exchange and he seems to have no remorse because he knows he is the one who convinced Brody not to close the beaches. By now, I'm one hundred percent convinced this guy will be a victim of the shark's. (Spoiler alert: he's not! If this movie was made today, he totally would be.)

That evening, Hooper and Brody do cut the shark open to make 100% sure it's not their shark. All they get are some fish, a can, and a license plate. There's a joke about how it came up from the Gulf Stream in souther water because it's a Louisiana plate. 

They go searching for the shark at night (no, thank you!) and come across fisherman's Ben Gardner's boat drifting in the water. Hooper wants to check the under the boat. There is absolutely no reason for him to do that right this instance since they're going to haul the boat to the shore anyway. But he does and we quickly see why this scene is here: it's for the jump scare (which totally worked on me; it scared the sh*t out of me!) we get when Ben's ghoulish corpse pops out from the boat. This startles Hooper too and he drops the shark tooth he had collected from the boat. 

They both tell the Mayor about this great white shark. The Mayor still isn't budging about closing the beach and doesn't seemed all that concerned. As they're walking, we see them stop in front of the sign we saw earlier. The girl on the sign has painted on wide eyes and a painted on open mouth. There's a dorsal fin in the water near her and above her an air quote bubble with the words "Help!!! Shark". The Mayor is not amused by this and already he has people painting over it. He doesn't need any advertisement of a shark! 

Brody tells him they could still save August if they close the beach now and start shark hunting, but the Mayor just laughs at him and tells him they WILL be open tomorrow for the 4th. He adds that Brody can do whatever he needs to do to make sure the beach is safe if he's so concerned...just short of actually closing the beach. 

The ferry arrives crowded with tourists ready to spend their money and swim in the ocean! It's unclear to me if they know about the shark attacks. I don't think they were making the national news, much less the local news. 

On July 4th, the beach is packed, but nobody is going in the water. Hmm, perhaps these people know that humans can get attacked by sharks in three feet of water, about ten feet away from the shore; a fact that Hooper confirms for Brody in an earlier scene.

There's a reporter on the beach (played by Peter Benchley, the author of the book this movie is based on) who's talking about Amity Island and the shark. 

The Mayor orders suggests to somebody he knows (it looked like an older couple with their grandkids) to get in the water. The two adults, especially the woman look pretty scared, but they go in with the two kids. Once they go in, more people go in. There are several boats out on the water with men who have guns and are watching the water with binoculars. 

Brody sees Michael and his friends about to take a sail boat out and he tells them to use the pond instead...the pond that is connected to the ocean! How is that going to help? This is probably one of the dumbest things Brody does in the movie. 

We see the Mayor giving an interview of how he wants to reiterate that they "caught and killed a large predator that supposedly injured some bathers." First of all, yes they caught A large predator, but not THE predator. Second of all what is this "injured" nonsense? That shark straight up ripped them apart and all his victims died. How did this a**hole not die (I'm talking about the Mayor!)?

There's a lot of underwater footage of legs thrashing around in the water which I'm sure look like a tasty treat for a shark. A dorsal fin pops up right behind two oblivious girls. Another girl sees the fin and starts screaming, causing a panic. The lifeguard starts blowing his whistle and Brody tries to get him to stop since the noise will just attract the shark (although I think any shark would already be attracted to this area with all the splashing). I guess there was no contingency plan for what to do if a shark appeared! But that whole scene reminded me when Sam Neill is telling everyone to stay still around the T-Rex in Jurassic Park.

Once it is revealed that it was actually two young brothers snorkeling underwater with a cardboard fin, I wondered if I was a terrible person for hoping the real shark would show up and make a snack out of one or both of them. But on the other hand (fin?), also kudos to them because these people do need to be scared out of the water. If you know there's a blood thirsty shark in the water, why would you go in the ocean? There is an amusing moment when the two boys look up and see all these guns pointed at them from the people on one of the boats. The little brother points at his older brother and tells them, "He made me do it." 

A girl standing near the estuary sees a fin and yells, "Shark!" Well, guess where it's headed for? That's right: the pond! The very pond that Michael and his friends are in! The very pond that Michael and his friends are in that is CONNECTED to the ocean! Well done, Brody, well done! :::slow clap:::

Michael and two of his friends are on the boat working on a sail. Some guy in a boat rows up to them and behind him you can see a fin. It's almost comical how obvious there is a shark in the water and nobody seems to notice it. The guy is asking the boys a question when he falls into the water and gets his leg bitten off and becomes the shark's latest victim. One hour and four minutes into the movie and this is the first time we see the shark. Previously, we had only seen his dorsal fin. 

Michael and his friends make it out of the water, but Michael has passed out from shock and is taken to the hospital. Now the Mayor realizes he's messed up and Brody wants him to hire Quint to kill the shark, which he does.

That was the first hour of the movie. Now the second hour of the movie will focus on our three main characters (Brody, Quint, and Hooper) out on Quint's shabby fishing boat attempting to find and kill their shark. 

Before he leaves, Brody's wife asks him what she should tell the kids and he replies to just tell them he's "going fishing." I mean, he's not totally wrong!

Once they're out to sea, Brody starts chumming the water to attract the shark. We get some foreshadowing when Brody accidentally unties the wrong knot (I forget what he was trying to do) of a rope that was holding canisters with compressed air. Hooper tells him, 'If you screw around with these tanks, they're gonna blow up." 

There's a passage of time (there will be a lot of these!) until Quint gets the sense that the shark is near. He straps himself into a chair that is bolted to the boat and hooks the pole to the contraption. Despite all that, I feel like that still wouldn't hold him in! He knows he has something and is reeling the line, but can't see anything. My question is, would a fishing pole really work on a shark? Especially one so big? 

Every time someone would get super close to the edge of the boat, I would scream at my TV, "What are you doing? GET AWAY FROM THERE!" Seriously, sometimes they would lean over, like they weren't expecting a huge shark to pop out from under the water. In one scene, that does happen and it made me jump a mile! 

There's more passage of time and Brody chums the water again. His back is towards the water as he's throwing chum in the water and this is that famous scene when the shark pops up right behind him. You see this scene in every retrospective or TV special about Jaws, so I knew it was coming, otherwise, it would have probably made me jump! I love Brody's reaction. He quickly stands up and stares at the shark, then walks to the cabin and tells Quint, "You're gonna need a bigger boat," unquestionably the most famous line of the movie. Hell, one of the most famous lines in cinematic history! 

Now they all see the shark swimming near the boat and Quint measures it to be 25 feet. Now, I Googled how big a great white shark gets and females are 15/16 feet while the males are 11 to 13 feet, so I guess this means this is a female shark? (Even though I constantly refer to it as a male.) Isn't one of the sequels one of this shark's offspring getting revenge on the people who killed its parent? IDK, that sounds pretty ridiculous, but I've heard the sequels are pretty bad. I've only seen the one that takes place at an aquarium (?) and even then I barely remember it. 

There is a very narrow strip of wood (it reminds me of a plank) at the front of the boat that looks very unsteady and is surrounded by a railing that doesn't look like it will keep you from falling into the water. From there, Quint shoots at the shark with a harpoon and a barrel is attached. I guess the barrel is so they know where the shark is. 

The barrel disappears under the water and more time passes as darkness starts to fall. The three men are in the cabin, having just eaten dinner when Quint tells a harrowing story of how he was on the USS Indianapolis during the war which delivered the Hiroshima bomb to the island of Tinian (yes, I had to look this up on Wikipedia!). After it was delivered, a Japanese submarine "slammed two torpedoes into [the] side" and 1100 men went into the water. The vessel sunk in twelve minutes and they didn't see the first shark, a thirteen-foot tiger shark, until half an hour in. Because their mission was top secret, no distress signal had been sent. The men huddled into groups and tried to fight the sharks away, but that didn't work and 100 men were lost after the first night. So if anyone has a vendetta against sharks, it's Quint! 

It's the next day and they have shot a second barrel at the shark. Brody wants them to lead the shark to shore instead of the shark leading them out to sea. The shark is so strong, it's able to tow the boat where he wants to go. Honestly, I'm not that surprised because Quint's boat is the shabbiest thing. It's not that they needed a bigger boat (though that certainly would have helped!), they needed a better boat. The Orca is a terrible boat for this kind of excursion. 

The shark had rammed into the bottom of the boat so now it's starting to flood and they cut the barrels away so the shark doesn't cause any more damage. They start heading towards the shore and the shark is following them.

One thing that baffled me is that when Brody attempts to call the Coast Guard, Quint takes the receiver from him and smashes the radio. Dude, what are you doing? The boat is flooding, there's black smoke coming from the cabin, the engine is about to run out of gas, and while you can see the shoreline, you're still pretty far from land. Oh, and let's not forget there's a very LARGE and very HUNGRY shark out there. (Actually, he was probably more vengeful.) Maybe he's thinking he won't get the money if the Coast Guard comes and this is his best shot to kill the shark. 

Soon half the boat is underwater because of the flooding. Quint gives the other men life jackets. Hooper wants to "pump 20 ccs of strychnine nitrogen into [the shark]." He won't be able to stick the needle into the thick skin, but if he gets into a cage underwater, he can get him in the eye or mouth. He makes it sound so easy! (Spoiler: it won't be that easy!)

The cage with Hooper is lowered into the water and here comes the shark, but it passes by him and disappears into the dark murky water. Hooper has a spear fashioned into a needle and is ready to jab the shark, but unlucky for him, the shark sneaks up from behind him and rams into the cage, causing Hooper to drop the spear. Oopsie daisy! The shark is biting at the cage and bending the bars and soon Hooper is exposed. The shark's jaws are so huge he could swallow a person whole, no problem. Yikes! Hooper fights against the shark and manages to escape and hide behind some rocks while the shark is thrashing against the cage. The other two men bring up the cage and when they see it's all mangled with no Hooper, they think the worst. 

Now the shark has leapt onto the boat's stern like he's my cat leaping up on my bed. Quint starts sliding towards the shark's upper jaws and even though Brody is doing his best to hang onto him, he slips from his grasp and slides down towards the massive jaws of the shark. He's kicking his legs against the shark, but he is no match against the aquatic man-eater and soon everything below his sternum is in the shark's jaws. While I was watching this, I couldn't help but think, That looks like fun! Not the getting mauled by a shark part, but the acting part of being in this scene and having a mechanical shark thrash you around, back and forth. It really did look like fun! Okay, yes, there's blood squirting everywhere and Quint is screaming, but it's so obvious the shark is fake and the whole thing is ridiculous, it's hard to be horrified by it. They both disappear under the water and the boat is sinking even more. Not even a minute has passed when the shark pops up again. He sure ate Quint really fast! 

Brody throws one of the canisters (remember, they're full of compressed air) into the open jaws of the shark. For some reason, the shark is trying to chow down on this metal container. For a shark who's been outsmarting the humans for most of the movie, this is the one time where he's just an idiot for the sake of the plot. 

Brody has now climbed onto the the crow's nest, the highest point of the boat, which is now almost parallel with the water and aims his gun at the shark, trying to get the perfect shot. As he finds the perfect aim and shoots, he says, "Smile you son of a -", then the canister is hit and it blows up and the shark blows up. He's 100% dead. Hooper pops up and Brody is surprised but relieved to see him and they both laugh. I guess they're going to split Quint's reward money. Actually, I wonder if they even did get paid. I can see the Mayor or whoever was supposed to hand over the reward money, refusing on a technicality since they promised it to Quint and he's gone. 

They use the barrels to swim back to shore...which still seems pretty far from where they are. But I know Roy Scheider is in the sequel so at least we know Brody made it back! 

Friday, May 30, 2025

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 BookBeauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, MulanThe 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!