![]() ![]() Accepting one’s victimization does not make one any less of a victim, even if ultimately you do so with such grace and dignity that you are a fit bride for a prince. What were her options, really? To endure her situation with grace, or anger, or despondency? Agency of this kind is incredibly limited, and Branagh’s inattention to the cultural context of Cinderella’s world is a weakness of the film. The long and short of it is this: While Branagh presented Disney’s newest Cinderella as less of a victim because she made a courageous choice, her choice was merely choosing which way she would endure her abuse. Say that out loud and spark millions of deep conversations in minivans on the ride home.” Unmarried women weren’t always free to move out on their own. As Joanna Weiss points out in the Boston Globe, “An easy answer, had Disney chosen to give it, is history. From a storytelling perspective, it’s truly an opportunity lost: A quick conversation on the constraints Ella faced as a young woman alone in the world would have strengthened the film, giving it more power. It’s a strange answer, for surely her devoted parents would never have wanted her to value a mere building more than her own health and well-being. Her answer makes little sense: She states that she promised her parents to always cherish the family home, and so she stays. It would have been easy enough to address them in the market scene, where a former servant of her father’s household asks Ella why she stays with her stepfamily. None of these questions are addressed in the film, which is unfortunate. In the cultural context of Ella’s (vague and undefined) historical era and geographic locale, what range of choices would a young woman in her position really have? Could she have chosen to leave her family home if she had wished to? Did she have any extended family to go to? With her skills and mannered upbringing, could she have pursued employment as a lady’s maid, or would that not have been appropriate for a young woman of her station? Here’s the underlying problem: All choices happen in a context. If Ella’s courage and kindness lead to abuse and deprivation, what good is it? As presented in Cinderella, however, Ella’s choice to submit graciously to abuse is a problematic message that weakens the film. Parents, critics, and members of the pro-girl-empowerment community want girls to grow up to feel they are in charge of their own lives. She chooses to respond to their cruelty with unearned kindness, even when they eject her from her room, stop feeding her properly, force her to tend an estate once managed by many servants, and taunt her, calling her "Cinderella" instead of Ella. Because it is her choice, the film positions Cinderella is not merely a passive victim, but a young woman with agency. In Branagh’s retelling of Disney’s animated classic, then, Ella makes a courageous choice to stay in her father’s home with her stepfamily. Passive victims like Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty are passé, out of step with modern values. After all, in the broader media culture, bold, empowered young women are on trend (think Frozen’s Anna and Elsa, Brave’s Merida, and The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen). Imbuing Cinderella with courage and kindness has a purpose: Director Kenneth Branagh uses it to give 2015’s Cinderella more agency than her cartoon predecessor from 1950. ![]() Western later introduced a line of Big Little Golden Books for slightly older children.This sentiment recurs throughout Disney’s new live-action Cinderella. From the moment Ella’s dying mother offers her this advice, it becomes the driving force in Ella’s life and the through-line in her characterization by actress Lily James. ![]() With the idea of producing a colorful, more durable and affordable kind of children's book, Duplaix partnered with Simon & Schuster to print the first 12 titles in the series in 1942. The beloved Little Golden Books series of children's titles were the brainchild of Georges Duplaix, who in 1940 was head of Artists and Writers Guild Inc., a division of Western Publishing. They were, at the time, $4 million in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. It became the greatest critical and commercial hit for the studio since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs of 1937, and helped reverse the studio's fortunes. ![]() The twelfth Disney animated feature film, Cinderella was released on February 15th 1950 after two years in production. Designed and produced by The Sandpiper Press and Artists and Writers Guild, Inc. Story adapted by Jane Werner from the Walt Disney motion picture Cinderella. Illustrations by the Walt Disney Studio adapted by Retta Scott Worcester. Folio, original illustrated boards with gilt detailing, pictorial endpapers, illustrated with full page color illustrations throughout. First edition of The Big Golden Book retelling of one of the most celebrated Disney films. ![]()
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