The latest Cinderella remake has been finally released on Amazon! Starring Camilla Cabello as Cinderella, this new version has her wanting to be a dressmaker instead of marrying a dreamy prince. As much as I love a feminist twist to an old story, this movie somehow did not impress me. It was like they took fantasy, fairy tales, and romance movies and put them all together in a sort of halfway-blended milkshake.

When I first saw the preview, I got very excited. I mean, I’m their target audience. It shows Cinderella 一 who lives in the basement with her three mice friends, designing dresses for her dream business 一 as a wild, outlier heroine that wants to make her own decisions. Sounds promising, right?

It was disappointing.

You would think that they would stick to the basic script with minimal changes, but unfortunately, they didn’t. When I think of Cinderella, I think of a mean stepmother and stepsisters and the perfect dress from a fairy godmother. This movie managed to ruin both. The stepmother has one personality trait: greed. She’s dogmatic, just like she should be in the story. Every time Cinderella has a chance to follow her dreams, she effectively bashes them to small pieces. However, the writer tried to throw in another unneeded twist. The stepmother starts pouring her heart out to Cinderella, saying that she used to be a pianist, and once she married, her husband forced her to stop. This backstory doesn’t really match up with her marrying-is-the-best-thing-ever personality and seemed forced.

As for the magical dress, I think they could have made an amazing scene. Throughout the movie, you see clips of this dress in the center of all her drawings. It’s white, with purple and blue highlights and an airy, light design. That dress, to Cinderella, is that one magical possession she loves. “That dress is pure fantasy. I don’t even know if it’s possible.” Then her magical helper comes along, uses that design, to make her that exact dress using flower petals and magic. Unfortunately, it looks nothing like her gorgeous drawing. This dress is all pink, with sleeves that aren’t connected to the dress and sequins on the sides.

Even if filmmakers didn’t make the stepmother as mean as I wanted, and the dress wasn’t the same, I do think that there are positives to this rendition. I have some cousins who are 7 years old. I think they would really enjoy it. The songs are catchy and memorable. The movie teaches about following your dreams, standing up for yourself, and female empowerment. It rewrites the narrative of girls’ dreams. The cast is very diverse.

Even though it has some good messages, I still didn’t enjoy it. As much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t fully appreciate it.

2 Stars