The new “Cinderella” movie opened in theaters on March 13 and reminds us how far women’s portrayal in film has come since the movie’s debut in 1950. This is obviously not the first remake of this classic fairytale, and it is also not alone in Disney classics that have been made into live action films such as “Peter Pan” and the forthcoming “Beauty and the Beast” to be released in 2017. There have also been multiple spin-offs to the classic Cinderella tale, such as “A Cinderella Story” starring our childhood favorite, Hilary Duff, and its sequels. So with all of these movies revolving around the same story line, it leaves me with the question: Do we really need another adaptation of this classic fairytale?
No, we don’t. We’ve seen this story play out so many times growing up – girl has a relatively miserable life, girl meets boy, girl waits around for boy to come save her, boy does and they live happily ever after. And yes, it is a familiar and fun story and it appeals to a wide audience, but it is pretty outdated. And it’s not that Cinderella was or is a bad princess to look up to, but her story is a product of her time. However, seeing new Disney princesses like Elsa from “Frozen,” Merida from “Brave” and Tiana from “The Princess and the Frog” gives girls a more modern view of women.
These are princesses that are less dependent on their respective princes and show a more accurate view of today’s society than “Cinderella” does. These new movies give girls who are growing up a better view of what they can accomplish. Additionally, it further establishes the fact they don’t need to wait for a man to come and save them. These empowered princesses give girls positive role models to look up to. Don’t get me wrong, I love the story of “Cinderella,” and it is one I grew up with like most of us did. I could probably sing all of the songs from it, and it’s true, being saved by a prince isn’t the worst way for life to pan out. However, when “Cinderella” was first written and created, getting married and becoming a housewife was the expected option for girls. Finding a man and waiting around for him to come “save” you was the way to go, but that is not the case anymore. Women have many more opportunities today: they can go to college, obtain positions of power and land good jobs.
Unfortunately, we haven’t reached a total point of equality with men yet, but we have many more opportunities than women that came before us. Therefore, it makes more sense for girls of all ages to see movies that depict powerful women with dreams that reach further than meeting their own Prince Charming. And Disney is definitely moving in that direction with its newer movies. Most of these movies are focused on the princesses achieving their dreams rather than falling in love and getting married. So, kudos to Disney for keeping up with the times and knowing that women now have so much more of a role in today’s workplace and world than just cooking, cleaning and homemaking. As well done as the new “Cinderella” movie probably is, it just seems redundant at this point. The movie industry should stop focusing on these overplayed fairytales and start focusing on innovative movies with strong female characters.
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