‘Cinderella’ equal parts gorgeous & bland: 8-year-old kids will love it

Fairy tales have been great fodder for the Disney studio since the very beginning. Its first full-length feature – “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” – premiered in 1937, and there have been 15 animated fairy tale movies since then, culminating, of course, with the most financially successful of them all, the ubiquitous “Frozen.”

Disney’s live-action versions haven’t made as big a splash as often, but when they do, they’ve been huge at the box-office too. Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” made over a billion dollars worldwide and Angelina Jolie’s “Maleficent,” over $800 million.

After the release of “Cinderella,” Disney plans live-action versions of “The Jungle Book,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Dumbo” and an “Alice in Wonderland” sequel.

I don’t know what these next few remakes will be like but if “Cinderella” is any indication, they may signal a return to near-slavish re-creations of the animated originals. That’s not all bad, but it’s not all good either.

Unlike “Maleficent” for instance, which turns Sleeping Beauty inside out by giving us a sympathetic look at the “villain,” or the brilliant Stephen Sondheim musical “Into the Woods” which offers psychologically sly takes on a whole raft of classic characters, this Cinderella is a relatively straight-forward version of the 1950 Disney movie.

Director Kenneth Branaugh was given explicit instructions that he could not stray from certain iconic aspects of the animated version – that Cinderella’s dress had to be blue, and mice had to turn into the pumpkin carriage’s horses, for instance. Branaugh takes on that challenge with relish. The most beautiful scene in the film occurs at the ball, of course, when Cinderella appears in a gorgeous, sparkly blue dress, mesmerizing the Prince and all in attendance.

Their long, graceful dance together takes place in an elaborately ornate ballroom awash in the bright, brilliant colors of all of her rivals’ gowns. The visuals here more than match the animated version.

That also goes for the elaborate carriage scenes, first, the transformation of a pumpkin into the most-golden of carriages, and then, especially, the gradual de-transformation, as the carriage rattles on as fast as it can before it returns to its vegetative state. It’s an exhilarating chase scene with a welcome dose of humor thrown in, as one by one the horses start sprouting mice ears and eventually shrink into tiny mice. Again, this scene bests the original, primarily because accomplishing this in “live action” seems more impressive, even if we know it’s all CGI.

The rest of the movie recalls the original but with less effect.

Lily James (Lady Rose in “Downton Abbey”) is well-cast as the bright-eyed and long-suffering Cinderella but her prince, while pretty too, is earnestly earnest, and that’s about it.

The great Cate Blanchett is wasted as the evil step-mother who dresses to the nines and glowers but not much else. Veteran actors Derek Jacobi and Stellan Skarsgaard have small supporting roles of no real consequence.

Only the fairy godmother, played by Helena Bonham Carter, has much spark. She’s the one character who flirts with a contemporary sensibility: just before she creates the glass slippers, she dryly explains to Cinderella, “Oh, I’m good with shoes.” She’s a welcome breath of fresh air after all the forced sincerity elsewhere in the film.

Perhaps the crucial difference between the animated and live-action versions is the length. The 1950 Cinderella was only 74 minutes and included 6 songs; this new version is 112 minutes, with only one song.

When a movie is as short as that first Cinderella, you can get caught up in the rapid storytelling and the sweep of the music and be less apt to notice the thin storyline or the flat characters. But add another full half of the original’s length to the movie’s duration – that’s an extra 38 minutes – and cut out five songs, and you may very well start wanting a little more than a traditional fairy tale can offer.

A bland prince is forgivable in a short film overflowing with songs, but he can be a real drag when you have to spend an interminable 38 more minutes with him.

Here’s where re-jiggering the story, a la Maleficent, might have come in handy, as a way to revive waning interest.

Being “live action” also can overburden a rather slight fable. My hunch is it’s easier for audiences to accept an animated rendition of something simple, even simplistic, than a live action version, which tends to bring with it more “realistic” expectations of life. One solution to that might be to develop slightly more interesting and complex characters. This “Cinderella” tries that in small doses, but to no great effect. Cate Blanchett’s Evil Step-Mother is given an explanatory backstory but it’s given so cursorily, it barely registers.

Overall, “Cinderella” is a surprisingly traditional, irony-free version that’s equal parts gorgeous and bland.

Eight-year-old girls won’t be so critical.