Cinderella's Ball

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I am pleased to announce that Ashley @ [insert title here] is celebrating her third blogversary (fairytale style), and in honor of that, I’m joining a link-up/tag she's created. Her blog party will run until the 24th, and it's fabulous and fun, so you should go check it out. *gives you puppy eyes* 

What are you still doing here? 

What would you wear to a fairytale ball?

I would wear some sort of dress, preferably dark blue and scary-looking. (I know, very specific.)

What shoes? (I don’t mean to be tedious, but this is Cinderella’s Ball.)

Shoes? SHOES? Shoes are for the weak. I would go barefoot. (Or maybe I would wear combat boots.) 

What is the most necessary accessory? 

A. Shoes! 

B. Your royal signet ring. 

C. Wildflowers for you hair. 

D. This beauty doesn’t need accessories. 

E. A red cape. 

F. Your crown. 

I would wear a crown made of wildflowers. 

What is your favorite fairytale?

Little Red Riding Hood. Scary wolf? Dark woods? Yes, please. 

At the ball, you would: 

A. Eat cake. 

B. Dance. 

C. Talk to ALL THE PEOPLE! 

D. Find a nice quiet corner from which to Sherlock people. 

E. Spy out your rival’s resources. 

F. A combination of…

I choose option F. Basically, I would camp out near the cake table and watch people from the distance. I might also dance with myself…while eating cake. *shrugs* 

You see a dwarf with his beard wedged under a boulder. He’s mistreated your help before, so you: 

A. Leave him. He deserves it. 

B. Point and laugh. 

C. Steal his gold. 

D. Help the little folk out. 

E. Trim his beard. It’s obviously a nuisance. 

Hmm. If I answer this question honesty, you’re probably going to assume I’m soft, which won’t do since I plan to be your world ruler. So I’m just going to go with C. I would steal his gold. 

Do you know anyone who reminds you of a particular fairytale? 

Yes, but if I told you about this person, the magic would be lost. 

If someone asked to marry you when they first met you, your reaction would be: 

A. Um, yes. Nobody’s cuter than them. 

B. Depends. Do they have a lot of money? Are they are serial killer with a lot of money? 

C. RUN! They’re clearly a lunatic. 

D. Love at first sight means wed at first sight. 

F. You can’t say ‘yes’ to everyone who asks to marry you. They should get in line. 

G. You fly solo. 

As a general rule, I prefer to fly solo, but if this guy had a lot of money and wasn’t a serial killer, I could be tempted to reconsider. Of course, before tying the knot, he would have to sign a paper saying that, if he were to die under random, suspicious circumstances, I would get to keep his money and his property. 

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Your true love will: 

A. Give you a library. 

B. Fetch your shoes for you. 

C. Be a shallow walnut head. They’re easier to manipulate. 

D. Find you immortalized in a glass casket. They’re too late. 

E. What is this strange concept called true love? 

F. Oh, right. You fly solo. 

I will take the library. Final answer. 

Name three big events in your life, or something that took you three tries to get. 

Well, I could be wrong, but I believe it took me three tries to make a decent batch of fudge. 

Name something you have seven of. 

If you’re talking of something I have at least seven of, I would say books. If you’re talking about something I have exactly seven of, I would say seasons of Star Trek: Voyager because I own all seven. (I’m so proud of me.)

Who is your nemesis? 

A. A step-mother. 

B. A giant. 

C. A wicked witch. 

D. A dwarf whose name is either unknown or impossible to enunciate without a glossary. 

E. The Big Bad Wolf (Not just any wolf, The BBW). 

F. That insufferable youngest step-daughter of yours.

Yes on F, most emphatically yes—that insufferable youngest step-daughter of mine is my arch nemesis. (Contrary to popular belief, The BBW and I are BFFs.)

When you meet your nemesis, you dress: 

A. As formidably as they. 

B. Innocent and sweet. 

C. Like a warrior. Let’s weapon up! 

D. Rags; it’s all you’ve got. 

E. Like a huntsman. 

F. With the intimidating superiority of an evil queen.

I would dress like warrior, but I would also dress with the intimidating superiority of an evil queen. I would be a scary, evil, warrior queen. Fear me. 

Who are your allies? 

A. Seven dwarves. 

B. Your fairy godmother. 

C. Jack the Giant-Killer. 

D. ALL the forest animals. 

E. Not to be obvious, but dragons are the way to go. 

F. Your prince charming…or knight in shining armor, your preference. 

My fairy godmother is a dragon, and she makes for a most invaluable ally. 

Do you have any retelling recs for us to either watch or read? 

For movies, I would recommend watching EVER AFTER (because it’s my favorite Cinderella retelling of all time) and HOODWINKED (it’s a humorously reimagined version of Little Red Riding Hood). For books, I would recommend CINDER (and the rest of the Lunar Chronicles), ELLA ENCHANTED (Cinderella but cooler) and FAIREST (the Gail Carson Levine FAIREST, not the Marissa Meyer FAIREST, although that one is interesting as well). 

What is your favorite song from a Disney princess movie? 

It would take an entire post to explain why I like this song so much. Eventually I will probably write that post, but in the meantime you will have to wait in awful suspense. (Cue evil laughter.)

And there you have it, my little coffee beans. What would you wear to Cinderella’s ball? What are some of your favorite fairytale retellings? What is your favorite Disney princess song? Are you going to join the link-up? (The answer is yes.)

Cinderella (2015) vs. Ever After (2002)

Warning: There will be spoilers—lots of spoilers.

   

So, I finally got a chance to watch the 2015 live action remake of Cinderella, and I was rather surprised to find that I liked it. A lot. Since falling in love with a random romance is a rare occasion for me, this warrants discussion. But, I can’t talk about Cinderella without also including Ever After. Hence this post.

Ella and Danielle. Both Ella and Danielle are strong in their own way. While Ella is sweet and kind, willing to endure great cruelty in order to keep the peace, Danielle is fiery and aggressive, eager to fight back when she feels it’s necessary. Each of the two girls serves her stepmother faithfully, and each has a compassionate heart. But that’s where the similarities end. In Cinderella, Ella remains locked in her attic room until the Prince hears her singing and sends his captain up to free her. In Ever After, by the time Henry arrives on the scene to save Danielle from Pierre, Danielle has already escaped.

Ella, always courageous and gentle, offers her stepmother forgiveness, even though the woman has asked for no such thing. She is far too pleased with her happy ending, and far too loving, to return cruelty for cruelty. Danielle, on the other hand, makes it very clear that she cares nothing for her stepmother and stepsister, and while she saves them from execution, she does not hesitate to give them their just deserts.

The Romance, The Ball, and the Slipper. In Cinderella, Ella and Kit meet a grand total of two times (that we know of) before their engagement. Obviously these people aren’t much for procrastination. While both their previous encounters are brief, they do learn more about each other than the characters in the original Cinderella do. Instead of simply falling for her good looks and her mysteriousness, as Prince Charming does, Kit recognizes Ella’s gentleness, courage, and kindness. Still, the time frame doesn’t offer much chance to get to know each other. And I have a difficult time believing it’s a good idea to marry someone you hardly know. At least, though, we can give bonus points to Kit for remembering what Ella looks like.

In Ever After, Danielle and Henry have more of a chance to get to know each other before making the decision to tie the knot. While we do have the ball scene and the slipper scene, they are essential to the plot in a much different way. Up until the ball, Danielle has led Henry to believe that she is a courtier. Admittedly, her original reason for posing as a courtier is justifiable, and it’s understandable that she would be reluctant to reveal her true identity. But the fact is, the two of them have had plenty of time to hang out and build an actual relationship beyond the traditional “love at first sight” plot device.

Here, the ball is a defining moment, not because the Prince falls head-over-heels for her and forthwith decides to marry her, but because Danielle’s stepmother exposes her for the commoner she is, and Henry casts her out. Rather than accepting her, as Kit accepts Ella, Henry nurses his wounded pride, and for a while we have to worry that the two won’t end up together. Only later, at the insistence of Leonardo da Vinci, does Henry seek Danielle out. The slipper scene is thrown in more as a satisfying conclusion to the story, rather than as a search and rescue mission culminating in an aha moment. After all, Henry doesn’t need to know who belongs to the slipper—all he needs to know is if he still belongs to the woman who wears the slipper.

The Stepmother. Both movies share the same stepmother, so to speak. Each stepmother had married the father, hoping to receive love and acceptance, only to find that the Cinderella figure owns all of the father’s heart. Naturally, greed and jealousy combine to make a cruel woman.

The Stepsisters. One major difference here is that, while, in Cinderella, we have the two traditionally evil stepsisters, in Ever After only one of the stepsisters is evil. Another divergence is that, in Cinderella, the two stepsisters really have no chance of winning the prince’s heart, whereas, in Ever After, one stepsister almost manages to snag, if not his heart, at least his hand in marriage.

The Beginnings. Here’s where I get a little nitpicky. While I very much enjoyed both movies, I do think the beginning of Ever After is far superior to the beginning of Cinderella. Both start off with a picture of our Cinderella figure’s happy life before the evil stepmother ruins everything. But Ever After manages to craft a bittersweet, amusing, heart-wrenching introduction, while Cinderella starts off with a heavy dose of cotton candy, then rushes through the sad stuff, leaving us with more exposition and less story.

 

So there you have it, my little coffee beans. If you want a movie that sticks closer to the original Disney animation, complete with the actual fairy godmother and the cute animals, I definitely recommend the 2015 Cinderella (rated PG). But if you prefer a more realistic, down-to-earth retelling, and if you feel that Leonardo da Vinci (painter and inventor extraordinaire) would make a better fairy godmother figure by far, then I suggest you check out Ever After (rated PG-13). Also, if you’d like to read any Cinderella retellings, I recommend ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine and CINDER by Marissa Meyer.

 

Have you seen either or both of the two movies? What are your thoughts? Which one is your favorite? Do you have any other Cinderella retellings to recommend?