Cinderella Featurette—Just an old fashioned love story

Like I said when I first learned about Disney's new take on Cinderella with Kenneth Branagh at the helm, I am really not thrilled; it feels like the same old antiquated outmoded way of thinking about male—female relationships.  I can't help but feel a bit worried about how exquisite and sumptuous a picture it paints—he's gorgeous, she's gorgeous, the production design and cinematography, everything is all so bloody gorgeous—are we teaching a whole new generation of girls values that real life can't possibly live up to? Will little girls by the millions force mummy and daddy to buy them brand new Cinderella costumes for Halloween—yes, I'm going to have to write a whole post dedicated to the costume design alone! And more importantly will they spend their lives dreaming of and searching for Prince Charming to look after them? And just think about the uptick in weddings featuring the bride arriving in some hideous lit-up pumpkin shaped carriage! Ugh!

But I have friends, grown women my age, who can't wait to see this, to be swept away by the beautiful fairy tale vision it creates. One can't argue it's visually stunning! Do I need to take a chill pill and let the frothy dream carry me away? I will say this much, check out the ears on the horses driving Cinderella's carriage when the clock strikes midnight; see how they pop out into oversized mouse ears? Absolutely adorable!

Here's your Sunday Slacker video; I'm going hunting for my sense of humor.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, Cinderella stars Lily James (Downton Abbey) and Richard Madden (Robb Stark on Game of Thrones) as Prince Charming. Written by Aline Brosh McKenna (We Bought a Zoo) and Chris Weitz (The Twilight Saga: New Moon), Cinderella also stars Cate Blanchett as Lady Tremaine, Sophie McShera (who we all love as as Daisy in Downton Abbey, don't we?) as Drizella Tremaine, Holliday Grainger (The Riot Club) as Anastasia Tremaine and Helena Bonham Carter as The Fairy Godmother.

And here's the trailer, which maybe, maybe puts Cinderella in a slightly more empowered light.