Show of hands: Who else remembers when the 1997 Cinderella starring Brandy came out?
*Glances around* ✋
Right, moving on.
I did, indeed, see Brandy’s Cinderella when it came out and enjoyed it in the way of a nine-year-old kid enjoying a fairy-tale movie. Great songs, happy ending, amusing dialogue.
I’m sure I’ve seen it once or twice more over the years, but I rewatched it again this past weekend, and somewhere between Cinderella fleeing the ball and the end, I realized just how many times this story has been told.
And how no two retellings are exactly alike.
“What if someone comes up with my idea?” is one of the most frequent concerns I see among new writers. As someone who used to be a new writer, I understand this anxiety. We all want to think we’ve created something completely novel, and we all fear that the impact of our completely novel idea will be lost if someone else tells a similar story first.
With some years of writing and editing behind me, and armed with three Cinderella movies in mind, I’d like to offer a brief comparison of how the same girl’s story is retold over and over, but with different emotional impacts. For new writers, I hope this will serve as a calming reminder that you both have a unique story to tell and that someone else has definitely told it, just not the same way you have.
🟪 SPOILER ALERT: The below comparison contains spoilers for the 1997 Brandy Cinderella, as well as the 1950 animated Disney version and the 2021 Amazon version starring Camila Cabello.
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I could actually write an entire blog series on Cinderella. Fairy-tale symbolism and adaptations are very much my happy place. To avoid turning this into an epic, I want to focus on the post-ball scene when Cinderella is thinking back on the night and how it changed her. Or, as we’ll see with the first movie, the lack of such a scene.
Disney’s animated Cinderella (1950)
Personally, I feel this version of the tale fell down a bit on presenting Cinderella as a fully fleshed-out person, but that is also another post about how media is a product of its time (which I’ve written here). This version doesn’t address any meaningful change on Cinderella’s part as a result of the ball. She looks back on the event as a lovely moment away from the life she’s resigned herself to—a beautiful dream she can relive when things get dark. It’s not until the prince shows up at her house that she even considers how her future could change. And even then, it takes a bunch of mice to save the day so she can slip her foot into the glass slipper and live happily ever after.
The Cinderella of this movie robs herself of agency by instead choosing to believe everything will work out if she just believes. While believing certainly is the first step toward making things happen, her lack of follow-through means she ends the same as she begins. Her arc depends on those around her taking action, not on her personal journey.
Side Note: Disney isn’t known for its sequels, but in this case, I actually recommend Cinderella III. It’s an interesting take and offers meaningful context to the events of the first movie.
Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Brandy (1997)
Confession time: When I was a kid, the depth of this version went right over my head. To nine-year-old me, it was little different from the animated version (or the earlier Rogers and Hammerstein versions starring Julie Andrews and Lesley Ann Warren). Rewatching it as a story-wise adult, it became clear early on that this was not the case.
Sprinkled throughout this version are references to Cinderella’s life before her father died—back when she believed her stepmother and sisters were real family. It’s subtle, but Cinderella realizes little by little that promises made do not have to be promises kept, particularly when those promises have harmed her. But it’s not until after the ball that Cinderella realizes she doesn’t need to stay in an abusive situation because she promised her father she would.
Following the ball, Cinderella has a one-sided conversation with her dead father in which she tells him she now knows what it feels like to be loved. More importantly, she now knows she deserves to be loved for who she is. Thus, she decides to leave her home on her own terms even before she gets wind of the prince’s search and realizes there’s a chance to be with him. Naturally, the two are reunited, but it’s after Cinderella chooses herself, making her personal arc in this movie one about self-respect, not just romance.
Amazon Prime’s Cinderella starring Camila Cabello (2021)
I also saw this one when it came out, and it took me two views to really see how this story both stayed true to the Cinderella tradition while making something new.
Before we get to post-ball, a little set-up. Leading up to the ball, Cinderella uses every free moment to work on designing her own fashion, which she hopes to use as her ticket out of her stepmother’s home. By itself, this is a new angle, but the way it’s used at and beyond the ball takes Cinderella in a different direction. Instead of strictly attending to meet the prince and have a night of escapism, Cinderella also does so to immerse herself in the fashion of the day. In the process, though, she finds herself faced with a choice to either pursue her dreams or give them up for the prince, who she really does love.
This version also deviates from the Cinderella formula by, wait for it, involving the prince. Rather than just searching the kingdom for the only girl who apparently wears a certain size shoe, he also grapples with what he wants and what he’s willing to give up to get it. Without getting too far into the weeds, the result is two people choosing each other and the lives they truly want. End result? A version of Cinderella that shows how classic stories can be adapted to reflect modern-day healthy relationships, both with ourselves and others.
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Well, a bit longer than my usual Tuesday posts, but turns out, I had a lot to say. Or chose to say a lot because, again, fairy-tale symbolism and such is my happy place. There is much more I could say about these three movies, but just looking at Cinderella’s final moments of each illustrates how vastly different the same story is shown.
So again, new authors, I hope this post was a helpful reminder that your ideas are always based on something and that no one can tell any story like you can. It’s a tough fear to deal with, but once you do, writing gets a lot less scary. Promise.
👋 Fair travels,
Mary
P.S. A big thanks to MabelAmber from Pixabay for the image.
