Ever After vs. NEW Disney Cinderella?

Cinderella is well crafted and beautifully done. The way a classic fairy take should be. Love the scenery and costumes!!!

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Ever After is my favourite telling of Cinderella to date. I have enjoyed most Cinderella adaptations (including this one) but it doesn't hold a candle to Ever After. But I will disagree with you on a few points:

if Ella didn't meet Robb Stark and Helena Bonham Carter she'd be absolutely screwed. If Danielle didn't meet Henry and Da Vinci she'd figure something out

Except, Danielle's only plan until she started to fall in love with Henry was to hope for a marriage between Henry and Marguerite (whom she incorrectly assumed to be equally cold, uncaring and compassionless people) so her her step-family would move into the palace and she could stay at the manor.

Just like Ella, Danielle stays with her step-family. She tolerates their abuse in a dignified manner. Now, like Ella, we know why Danielle put up with her step-family's coldness. First, she wanted to save her family home. Over the years, she watched her step-family run her father's successful estate into the ground, the servants who helped raise her be fired or quit and watch her family be forced into penury, subsisting only because of her step-mother's noble status, her father's reputation, and the small farming they're able to do. Second, she desperately wanted to step-mother's love and acceptance.

The film never presents Danielle as having any plans to leave her family home or throw off her step-family's abuse. The 16th century setting really prevents any such actions. As a female servant, Danielle was considered to be chattle. She could be bought and sold, executed, and tortured without any right to due process. We see two of the three in the film and one is threatened If she did leave her family, her lowly status would leave her homeless and with few prospects of supporting herself (prostitution or hard labor would be her options).

Oh and even though she freed herself from Pierre le Pieu's estate, he could still easily kill her himself or turn her over to the authorities. Horrible things happened to servants who attacked their masters. Thankfully, Henry would never let that happen. Also, when she married Henry, she became not only a French Princess but the future Queen of France.

Still, the elements often hated by people are needed to tell a Cinderella story. The orphaned child, the abusive step-family, the orphan stuck in their care, etc.

However, there are the twists within the story that make it really stand out as a Cinderella story.

While Danielle puts up with her step-family's abuse, she had her limits. She finally let's Marguerite get what's been coming to her after Marguerite insults her mother. It's nice to see a more realistic Cinderella. She's sweet but, like everyone, she has her limits. Ella is too sweet. It's almost to the point of being unrealistic.

What really sets Ever After apart is that we get to see the love between Danielle and Henry develop and grow. While Henry and Danielle have a physical attraction to each other, that isn't close to being the crux of their relationship. At their first meeting, Henry doesn't go after Danielle because she's beautiful. He goes after her because she speaks with confidence and is educated (she can quote Thomas More). She's different from the other beautiful women Henry sees on a daily basis. Danielle, despite her claim that Henry is insufferable, keeps talking about home to the point where even her friends have noticed and question her authenticity. Danielle was probably shocked that Henry freed Maurice. Like Henry hasn't mixed with many peasants, Danielle hasn't mixed with many in the gentry. Just her step-family and Pierre le Pieu. She's never seen a shred of kindness of them so she is probably flabbergasted when the heir presumptive showed compassion to her friend.

But it goes beyond that. Danielle and Henry fall in love because they can relate to each other (Danielle feels trapped as a servant and Henry feels trapped as a prince), common interests (both are passionate about living and learning), and that they bring out the best in each other (Danielle learns that not all gentry are like her step-mother and step-sister. Some (like Henry) are capable of great compassion and love. Henry learns to discard the prejudice he had towards outsiders and the poor.). Now, that's a love story!

This Cinderella tries to give more insight into the romance between the Prince and Cinderella to show that it isn't just Cinderella beauty and the Prince's handsome features that made the two fall it love. Many adaptations of Cinderella now feature the characters meeting prior to the ball (when Cinderella is still dressed in rags) to show a spark between the two. In this, Kit falls in love with Ella because she is kind, sweet and courageous. A nice tale but not handled nearly as well as Ever After.

Lizzie

To love another person is to see the face of God! - Les Miserables

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If Danielle didn't meet Henry and Da Vinci she'd figure something out. She'd be just fine.

I highly disagree with this. If Henry or Da Vinci never showed up, Danielle would still be where she was. If she could've left, then why didn't she leave prior to Henry and Da Vinci coming into her life? Danielle was pretty much waiting for her stepfamily to leave (since Marguerite was so beautiful, she could've married a wealthy nobleman) and/or for Rodmilla to die. You could argue that Ella waited for the same things too. I LOVE Ever After, but I think people are giving it way too much credit. Also, Danielle was never really gutsy or spoke up to her stepmother until after she fell in love with Henry.

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