Cinderella 2021 review!

Amazon Prime have released their remake of Cinderella and not everyone is having a ball! On Friday 3rd of September, Amazon Prime released their version of Cinderella. With wonderful magical moments and moments of disjointed content, this story could have done with the fairy god mother to make some changes! So, here is our Cinderella 2021 review:

The story:

The new take on Cinderella was enjoyable, with many powerful moments that contrast to your average fairy-tale. The story was based on Cinderella wanting to be a business woman as a designer and dressmaker. The prince doesn’t want to be King, whereas the younger sibling wishes to rule. True love, in this tale, consists of compromise, arguments, following your heart and pursuing your dreams. For young children, seeing this kind of story line is so powerful. Seeing something real and that encourages ambition and individuality, is something for all the cast and crew to be extremely proud of creating.

Direction & Musical Score:

With screenplay and direction by Kay Cannon, I thought we would be in for a treat! I felt her vision come to the life through the screen empowering young people with real and inspiring moments. However while there were some beautiful scenes, there were also a lot of scenes that fell flat. Due to poor direction, actors were left unable to play to their strengths. The score for this musical version of Cinderella, consisted of a variety of pop and rock songs. Original songs written by various different artists also featured. The original songs were far more appropriate and well-suited to the movie. While the musical arrangement of most songs were fantastic, some songs felt heavily predictable, cheesy and unnecessary to the plot.

Casting:

Camila Cabello

Casting was unusual for this film! There was a range of outstanding actors, to poor actors that felt like they just had friends in the casting department. Camila Cabello is a worldwide pop sensation, after hearing she was cast as Cinderella, I was worried and unsure as to whether she would be a good fit for the film. However, I was blown away with Camila’s fantastic portrayal of Ella (Cinderella). Her acting was real, authentic and she has beautiful quirks that added an extra dimension to her character.

Principal Cast

Nicholas Galitzine played Prince Robert, I feel he too did a wonderful job. He created a romantic love story while steering away from his troubled life and having the courage to do the unexpected. Idina Menzel played Vivian (step mother), she brought empathy and understanding to the stepmother role. While there was a warmer side, Idina still created some darker moments through her acting and amazing vocals!

Other cast members who shone were: Pierce Brosnan as King Rowan alongisde Minnie Driver as Queen Beatrice. Tallulah Greive stood out as Princess Gwen and Billy Porter as Fab G (Fabulous Godmother) also gave a noteworthy performance.

Other featured characters

Unfortunately, there were a lot of poor casting choices that were hard to ignore. James Corden was one of the producers of this film, so it is understandable that as an actor with a love for musical theatre, that he would want to appear in a movie musical. However, James Corden added no value to the story or the plot of this film. Additionally, it looked like he had cast some of his comedian friends to join him. Including Romesh Ranganathan, James Acaster and Rob Beckett. While Rob Beckett and James Acaster did fit the casting and the style of humor written for them, others failed. James Corden and Romesh were unable to create the funny awkward moments, which led them to just look awkward and uncomfortable.

Extra lines and moments were given to James Corden, which devalued his performance. The limelight should have been placed on other characters, and the bad acting distracted us from being focused on Cinderella! Good acting is about complimenting the story not distracting us from it.

Cinderella review 2021, summary:

Overall, I felt that this movie got better throughout, leaving us with a happy ending as all good fairy tales should! I would re-watch this for some light-hearted enjoyable and cheese filled fun. However, I do feel that younger audiences will enjoy this tale more and be deeply inspired. An enjoyable watch but this wasn’t a rags to riches tale!