Are Lady Tremaine and her daughters Ella's only family?
Well, she does have a godmother...
Presumably, yes. Her mother died prior to the movie (possibly even during infancy - though I thought her mom died when she was 5 since she obviously remembers her mom wearing the dress she planned to fix up) and her father died when she was still a small child. If she had other relatives, they surely would've stepped in or even been living with her and father. Also, the reason her father remarried was he felt she needed "a mother's care". An aunt or grandmother could've easily filled that role if she had any.
Depends on the version you're reading. From what's implied, yes, her stepfamily is her only family and, even if she did have other female relatives, traditions of the era would dictate that he remarry for her sake, though, she's not mentioned to be a baby when he does. In Disney's version, it's implied they were rich at one point, so, as far as her care in between her being a baby and him getting remarried, she probably had a wet nurse (baby formula wasn't invented until 1860).
Cindy, you're out passed curfew
Possibly Cinderella's biggest Idiot Ball moment: Assuming the Disney version isn't the only one where this happens, what made Cinderella think "Midnight = GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!"? What did she have to lose by letting the spell break in front of the Prince? He would've witnessed that magic was real, and then she could've explained the how she got all her stuff to get to the ball and why the original pink dress was destroyed. I doubt the Prince would've refused to believe her after already being in love with her by then.
He could've thought she was a witch who was trying to enchant him to marry into the royal family, or a fairy trying to play a trick on him. It's certainly the sort of thing that happens in fairy tales. And Cinderella doesn't know if the Prince would take kindly to being tricked in such a manner.
Except she didn't know he was the Prince to start with. She made the excuse of running out after midnight by telling him that she 'hadn't met the Prince yet' and runs off before he could tell her that he was the Prince. She believed he was just a handsome guest at the ball which explains why she was surprised when she found out it was the Prince that was looking for her by royal decree.
The fairy godmother might be a little more at blame here. She told Cinderella everything would reverse at midnight. It's kind of understandable Cinderella assumes that means she'd have to leave. Perhaps if the godmother had said something along the lines of "You can dance all night, but be warned...", Cinderella may have opted to stay. On top of that, she was panicking when she remembered. Generally, when people remember things all of a sudden, they tend to panic because it takes them a few moments to remember exactly what it was for. Basically, she just acted on impulse.
Not to mention, she may have been afraid her stepmother would see her there. I can't imagine Lady Tremaine would've been too happy to find that she had attended the ball, or even managed to attend, and as mentioned above, Cinderella didn't know at that point that the man she'd been dancing with was the Prince, who would probably have done something to keep her out of trouble and help her.
And she never expected anything permanent to come of this. She just wanted one magical night to sustain her through a life of drudgery.
Maybe she was ashamed of her rags and didn't want the Prince to see them. Maybe it also had to do with transportation; Cinderella's chateau seemed to be quite far from the palace and it would take a lot for her to walk there (not to mention the Tremaines would notice her absence there).
Keep in mind that dress codes were very strict in those days, especially for civilized festivities such as royal balls. Just being SEEN there in a tattered dress would be a major offense.
She promised her godmother, the only person who has shown her any kindness in years.
Shouldn't the slippers be gone, too?
If the glass slippers were created by the fairy godmother's magic, and the magic ended at midnight, then how did the lost slipper still exist by the time they were trying them on everyone?
Always thought that the fairy godmother left the shoes as mementos, in the Disney version at least, since we have that scene where Cinderella cradles it and directs her thanks to the sky as if the funny old magic lady is also Jesus.
Well she is a fairy *God* mother. The "big" fairies from classic Disney movies all seem like they're tied to the Heavens in some form. The Blue Fairy from Pinnochio flew in from the sky. Cinderella's aformentioned fairy Godmother. And the three good fairies from Sleeping Beauty seemed to be descending from the Heavens from a beam of light.
Maybe the shoes have to be together in order to disappear.
It's just like the bound armor in Oblivion, damage it and drop it, then it won't disappear when the time runs out.
Cinderella is the story of a fairy godmother's successful plan for helping a deserving young woman.
The remake hints that they last because the godmother conjured them up out of nowhere, whereas everything else was just something else transformed (the carriage was a pumpkin, Cinderella's gown was just her own dress etc.)
Cartoon Cinderella was wearing a pair of red/dark pink shoes when the transformation happened so the glass slippers would've been transformed from those shoes as well. I'm with the other user who said that the Fairy Godmother left them as mementos.
Was she really the only one who could fit it?
Was Cinderella really the only person in the kingdom who the slippers could fit?
Hm, there's no actual reason on the story itself, but the Grimms mention the sisters cutting chunks of their feet to fit the shoe, so probably it's because her feet were incredibly and amazingly small.
As I understand it, the story has its roots in an old Chinese tale, so the "delicate beauty" implied by Our Heroine's tiny feet were really the result of foot-binding. Squick.
In the Chinese version, the heroine's feet were naturally small, and that is why her sisters (who had to get theirs the hard way) were so jealous of her. Must have been uncomfortable though...
They were custom made, so, yeah.
I've seen versions of the story where the slippers magically change size so that Cinderella's feet are the only ones that fit in them.
Cinderella is the story of a fairy godmother's successful plan for helping a deserving young woman.
The Witches Abroad retelling lampshades this by having Nanny Ogg of all people possess the same foot size.
Duke: But, Sire, this slipper may fit any number of girls. King: That's his problem. He's given his word, we'll hold him to it.
And then Cinderella III: Twist In Time took it further: the stepmother uses magic to make the shoe fit Anastasia's foot first and so they go to the palace instead of Cinderella. When the prince sees Anastasia, he knows that she isn't the woman he danced with and realizes the possibility that the shoe could have fit multiple girls.
She could have a really weird foot size (very narrow, very wide, quarter size, etc.)
That was how it was explained in Ella Enchanted, that the slippers were fairy made (which was why they didn't break) and why they were so small - fairies were notorious for having tiny feet. Ella had a few drops of fairy blood in her, so she too had very small feet.
In Just Ella, she actually got the shoes by creating a wager that a glassblower could make her shoes she could walk in. If she made it ten steps, she got the shoes for free.
I always thought they were enchanted to be unbearably uncomfortable to anyone who wasn't Cinderella, like how in the '97 Rogers and Hammerstein's version where the stepmother puts it on and it fits, but it really hurts her to wear. Like yeah, Cinderella has the same size feet as other girls and women, but the shoes would reject anyone that wasn't her.
She very well could have been yes. The idea of searching via the shoe is not actually as ridiculous as you would presume if you think about it. First of all, you could say that Cinderella had particularly tiny feet. Second, consider the material. They are glass slippers. The major problem with glass slippers is, of course, the chance that they will shatter and stab your foot all over. The fairy godmother could have magically reinforced them, but the prince doesn't know that. With shoes, you never want them to be too big, since your foot could easily slip out. With a glass shoe, you could slip your foot out and step on the shoe, and stab your foot. But what about the shoe being too small? If a shoe is a little small for you, as in you can get your foot in but it's tight, that's not really too big a deal. Shoes made of cloth or leather can stretch out with use. But glass is not flexible like that. If it's too tight on you, that puts more pressure on the glass and increases the chance of it shattering. Plus, there's the problem of friction burns. This troper had to wear a plastic leg brace for several years, occasionally getting new molds. One of those was too close in one spot, and this troper had a habit at the time of moving in the brace. Not too long after getting the mold, the skin in that spot began to burn horribly because it had dried out, cracked, and nearly blistered, and that was through socks. The same thing could happen with glass. Essentially, barring magic (which, again, the prince doesn't know about), in order for glass slippers to be in any way practical, they'd have to basically be molded to the exact size and shape of the foot, with only the barest amount of space to reduce friction burns. It would have to be an absolute perfect fit. They aren't just looking for anybody who can get their foot in there, they are looking for the person who exactly matches this shoe, which is practically a footprint. Combined with particularly small feet, the list of potential matches would be rather narrowed down. So, all in all, there is a certain logic to the "try on the slipper" idea.
In the story of Rhodophis (the first Cinderella story recorded, betwixt around 7 BC and 24 AD), her sandal fitting is how she winds up with the king and, since other variants mention the shoe's fitting, that could be coincidence. That aside, one thing about shoe size is that the foot's shape factoring into it and foot shape can be pretty unique——The Goodmother made the shoe to fit only Cinderella's foot and it might've still been enchanted. In terms of the slipper being glass, that was a mistranslation that stuck; she was really supposed to have fur boots.
Where was she at before all this?! Cindy really needed the Godmother
This applies mostly to the modern "fairy godmother" versions — WHERE THE HELL WAS THIS GODMOTHER BEFORE THE BALL?! The godmother couldn't be bothered to help out Cindy at all when she was being tormented by her stepmother and stepsisters?
Cindy hadn't asked for help before. In the Disney version, she's cheerful despite the way they treat her until they destroy the dress. In the earlier fairy tales, while she's unhappy as a servant, the magic help only appears when she cries at her mother's grave and expresses a wish that she could go to the ball (she's never even given a chance to make a dress in those versions.)
Actually, why does the fairy godmother help at all? She lives in a mansion, has plenty of food to eat, and even though she's treated poorly, she maintains a really good attitude.
A really good attitude that had finally reached the breaking point. Cinderella had taken the final piece of abuse needed to completely shatter her optimistic mind and was giving up all hope on her dreams and actually all hope of happiness. That was what finally called the fairy godmother.
In Ella Enchanted and the Roger's and Hammerstein's version of Cinderella, the fairy godmother was involved in Cindy's life, she just didn't know said godmother was magic. As for why the godmother didn't help her earlier, in Ella Enchanted there were rules as to how much or what kinds of magic fairies could use (which was why there was so much trouble, the fairy that cursed Ella used a spell that was too "big" to be used). The godmother for Ella would only use smaller spells, for things like housecleaning or cooking. In the musical, it was never really stated why the godmother never helped Cinderella, but it was implied that she thought her goddaughter's dreams were silly. She only decided to help her that one night because she was so moved by Cinderella's wishes to go to the ball.
This was addressed in Jim Henson's Hey, Cinderella! of all things. When the fairy godmother shows up, Cinderella asks what caused her to appear. The godmother says "Because you cried!" When Cinderella points out that she's cried before without the godmother appearing, she gives some excuse about being busy. It's also shown that the godmother wasn't too with it (she implies that she left Pinocchio in a whale and forgot about him).
Or else it's just that they aren't allowed to interfere too much. As compared to spiriting a girl away from her wicked stepmother and setting her up with an entire independent life, giving her a dress to go to one dance isn't much interference at all.
Perhaps Fairy Godmother was under the same rules as Flora, Fauna and Merriweather? She's allowed to give one really big gift with her magic to a child in her care but only one, everything else must be either so minor as to be unnoticeable or indirect. So she waited until she could grant a gift that could change Cinderella's life for the better long term rather than something superficial or short term.
Mercedes Lackey suggests in the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series that godmothers 1. are extremely busy and 2. don't have much magic of their own. While the Background Magic Field that runs fairy tales is happy to give them a boost when the plot demands it, they don't have the time or the magic to do more than intervene at just the right moment.
Cindy is very complacent, isn't she?
Why doesn't Cinderella ever do anything about her situation, in any of the adaptations? In the Hilary Duff and Selena Gomez versions, it gets even stranger. Instead of Cinderella fearing her Step-Evils, why couldn't she make them fear her? Neither of them had to do those stupid tasks.The worst thing these diva stepmothers could do is pull them out of school, which would be illegal anyway. I just think these girls could have done a lot more to improve their lives, with just a little bit of brute force and perhaps tying the ditzy stepsisters up in respective closets.
What exactly could Cinderella do? Tell Lady Tremaine and the two step-sisters to eff off? Wow, nice going, hun, you just made your life a lot more miserable than ever before!! She had no power in that place. It was this life or be in the streets. Tying them up and shoving them in closets would grant her a stay at some jail.
In Ella Enchanted, Ella does take revenge whenever she can. She slips her stepmother herbs that make her fall asleep at a banquet, tricks Hattie into smelling a flower that makes her tell the truth for a period of time, and slips mice and spiders into Hattie's bed. Which is pretty impressive when you consider that Ella is the one who has a genuine reason why she can't outright refuse to be a servant and leave (the curse).
But unlike poor Cindy, Ella had the help and support of her fairy godmother, the Prince, a magic book, among other things. She was also considerably much more intelligent than her stepfamily and found it easy to trick or insult them without them noticing, so she could get away with some things. There's also Ella discovering she has the ability to make her voice "persuasive" which helps her out later on, like when she is captured by ogres and otherwise would have been eaten.
Rewatching the Disney version, I get the impression that their Cinderella is just too nice for her own good and wouldn't wish harm on anyone. You'd imagine that if the Prince wanted to punish Lady Tremaine and her daughters, Cinderella would be all "Oh, but they're not really that bad." She's just that kind of person.
^ I doubt that; we see Disney's Cinderella frequently complaining her life ("Time to start another day!", "Goodness, morning, noon, and night...", "Oh, now what do they want? All right, all right! I'm coming!"). Women's rights just sucked in those days; a woman just up and leaving home and supporting herself on her own was a lot harder, if not an impossibility, compared today. Her step-mother took her father's fortune when he died, so she essentially had nothing and nowhere to go. Women's only hope of leaving home in far too many settings is marriage — unfair, depressing, but true.
^ There's also the chance that Cinderella, not Lady Tremaine, was her father's heir, considering she was his blood, so to speak. Lady Tremaine might have needed to keep her around just to keep the house (else she'd have already thrown her out on her cheery backside). She made sure things never got too dire-just this side of unbearable, really-so Cinderella wouldn't risk life elsewhere, but it was far from comfortable.
^It either was marriage or the other option was being a (paid) servant in another family's household. Because she wouldn't have been seen as an equal in that house, the Master if alive could have beat her and maybe "force himself" on her and his sons (if he had any) could also force themselves on her...
That's actually relatively unlikely for a couple of reasons. For one, any house with multiple servants would be less than happy with it (it could happen to them, too), and you REALLY don't want to lose staff and subsequently have trouble replacing them due to a bad reputation. In cases with only one servant, you especially don't want to get a bad reputation because you're going to likely want someone with established skills, which would allow such persons to be a bit choosier about their bosses. This doesn't even get into the other reason, into the problems high society persons would suffer should such actions get out to the rest of high society. Not counting anything involving the law, which would vary based on time and place of the story, there's this notable concern with rivalries and familial prestige. Whether they cared about what someone actually did or not, having an accusation to bring against a rival that would be considered credible (who would know better than the house staff?) could very well ruin an accused family even if no action is taken by the government itself. And there were other respectable jobs for women before the modern day, they'd just require a bit of convincing by Cinderella to get hired on. Considering her personality, that would be very easy.
There is also the fact that if she is outnumbered...
There's also the fact that no one would likely hire a homeless orphan girl (she might be accused of having some scandal) to begin with if she tried to run away. Also, I'm pretty sure going to the ball to meet some guy who would like and marry her so she can leave her stepmother's house is doing something.
In a TV movie version of the story, the Godmother asks Cinderella why she doesn't just leave and improve her own life. Cinderella reveals that she promised her father on his death bed that she'd keep the family together. During the conversation, we are led to believe that she got along with her stepmother and sisters before his death and they had gotten progressively worse in the years since.
This was actually stated in the expository narration at the top of the film before the track/cut to Ella being woken by the birds.
In Maid in Manhattan, Marisa IS trying to improve her life on her own—she's preparing to apply for a management position before she's distracted by her romance with Christopher.
That is also the case in Ever After. Danielle wouldn't leave the manor because it was her home and she knew that the Baroness and the two daughters would never take care of it. She was also the only one who was looking out for the interest of the servants, many of whom were Old Retainers she'd known all her life.
In Disney's version (first sequel) it's shown she's very popular in town and she's many friends in there, many of them with business. Why didn't she ask them for a job? Or, if she is so beloved, why none of them offered her? They must know how she passed from a wealthy girl to a servant in her own home.
That might depend on Cinderella's age. Remember, a lot of the early Disney fairytales had heroines that were around 16 to be true to the original story, even if they looked like they were in their 20's. Cindy might have been one of these cases, which means she has to stay with the Tremaines and can't get hired/live in someone else's home without the stempmom's permission. Unless she wants to be arrested or something for "running away."
The beginning of the Disney film shows that poor Cinderella was just a little girl when her father passed away. You go and try telling someone who's been raised through childhood waiting on her stepfamily's beck and call and has no friends outside the house that she should "just leave" and that it's her fault if she doesn't. Odds are, Cinderella knew nothing about the world outside her house - it would seem in character for Lady Tremaine to have scared her with threats of how no one else would've wanted her, a la Mother Gothel, and Cinderella didn't even recognize the Crown Prince after dancing with him through the entire night.
One thing that bothers me is this: Cinderella, in most versions, is nobility. From what I understand, nobility hobknobbed as that was how they kept their influence in court and amongst other nobles. This means that while Cinderella, being young, may not have gone visiting, she surely would have been seen by her father's friends when they came to visit him. Did no one notice that their friend's daughter who is now a marriagable age and might make a fine wife for their sons is nowhere to be seen after her father passes? Did they not think to check in with her, or to invite her to visit along with her stepmother/sisters to see if one of them would be a good match?
Depending on the version (if it even says anything about him at all, most don't) Cinderella's father is usually less of a nobleman and more of a wealthy scholar or businessman who "married up" by hooking up with the Wicked Stepmother. Chances are if he had friends, they were probably not of a social class to be checking up on a Lady who had lost her husband — and even if they were, it's unlikely the stepmother would have allowed them to visit if she thought they would object to how she was treating said late husband's daughter.
Not to mention that nobility or not, if a girl is essentially downgraded into a servant, a guy probably wouldn't want her in times like that. In Ever After, Danielle looks utterly ashamed and near tears when she confesses to Henry that she was the daughter of a noble lady because she was still a servant.
Why does she lose one of them if they fit so well?
If the shoes are made to fit Cinderella's feet perfectly, why does she lose one of them?
The shoe doesn't cover most of the top of her foot, and...well, there's a reason shoes are usually made of flexible material.
Well Cinders was in a rush to get to the carriage before the time limit expired. She's also wearing a ballgown, so she has to be trying to make sure she doesn't trip on the skirt of that too. Disney's version foreshadows this actually by having a couple of moments where Cinderella loses her shoes while she's going up the stairs - so it's a character tic for her.
Missing chars?
The page on Boris Karloff says that his first role was the demon king in Cinderella. Which version is this?
Apparently this quote refers to a play he was in when he was nine years old, so not any of the official filmed ones. Googling it doesnt bring up anything, maybe it was just his theater's version?
There's a throwaway line in The Hundred and One Dalmatians about a dumbwaiter bringing up food from the kitchen like "the Demon King in a pantomime," so it may have just been a Christmas panto.
Her secret should have come out sooner
According to the narration, Lady Tremaine kept her true character secret until after Cinderella's father died. How did she manage not to reveal it through the whole dating, marriage and death of Cinderella's father?
About the Disney version: Right after the mice sing their song and Jaq and Gus go after the stuff for Cinderella's gown, they see the stepsisters complaining about always having to go wearing the same old sash and beads, to the point of calling them "trash". If that's what they thought, then why did they have to tear Cindy's gown later on because of them?
Because they're just that spoiled. The fact that they rip up her dress over accessories they don't even like makes their Kick the Dog all the more epic and the scene that much more heartbreaking.
Because it was just an excuse. They needed a reason to keep Cinderella from going to the ball. Lady Tremaine recognizes the beads and the sash as belonging to Anastasia and Drizella. The two step-sisters then tear her dress, making it impossible for her to go to the ball. They couldn't have cared less about the beads and the sash.
Because they're jealous bitches who hate the idea that Cinderella could take things that they don't like and look good in them.
My main problem is the whole deal that sparked from that scene. Lady Tremaine told Cinderella that she can go to the ball as long as she had her own dress. When Cinderella came down dressed for the ball, why couldn't have Lady Tremaine kept her word? A deal's a deal, after all.
Do you really expect such a wicked woman to keep her word? The whole point of telling Cinderella she could go to the ball after finishing her chores and finding a dress was that she wasn't supposed to be able to do it. The ridiculously long list of chores meant Cindy'd have no time to find or make a dress, if she even had time to finish the chores at all. When Cinderella unexpectedly kept her end of the deal, Lady Tremaine had to come up with a Plan B. Remember, Cinderella is obviously prettier than either Anastasia or Drizella; there is no way their mother would let Cinderella go to the ball and take attention away from them.
Well in her own mind, Lady Tremaine is using Exact Words. She says "as long as you can find something suitable to wear". But once her daughters ruin the dress (at her manipulation), it's not longer 'suitable' for the ball - therefore Cinderella can't go.
And notice how the scene plays out. Lady Tremaine says that they did make a bargain and "I never go back on my word", before bringing Drizella's attention to the beads. The sisters then rip the dress from there. Lady Tremaine simply let the events unfold, again exploiting Exact Words.
When Lady Tremaine locks Cinderella in her room in the Disney version, why doesn't the fairy godmother show up and unlock the door? She was willing to make an entire dress and carriage for her earlier, so surely unlocking a door would be no trouble.
She's not there to fix Cindy's every problem with a wave of her wand (if she were, she'd probably have shown up a lot sooner). Cinderella's friends were helping her escape, and they succeeded. She didn't need magic that time. Had they failed, maybe then the Godmother would have intervened. Just like before, she showed up only after the attempt by the animals to help Cinderella attend the ball was unfairly ruined.
According to Word of God (the infamous David Koenig's Mouse Under Glass), the writers felt that it would make Cinderella unsympathetic to have the fairy godmother just hand her a happy ending. Having the little mice and birds, who Cinderella has spent years protecting and acting as a mother figure towards, be the ones who rescue her avoids this issue, since it makes it a Karmic Jackpot.
What happened to the sister's baker boyfriend from the second film? Is the third movie before that one?
In effect you're right, the third movie was more a retelling of the first story; the second one was the true sequel.
The end credits of the third movie show a still shot of the baker offering her a cupcake, implying that they do end up together the second time around as well.
Why is the cat considered a villain? I know he's Lady Tremaine's pet, but for most of the movie, all he's really trying to do is eat the mice. Isn't that what cats do in real life?
He also tracks mud over the floor (making multiple paths) right after Cinderella wiped it (see here).
He also baits the dog and, when he traps one of the mice under the cup towards the end, it seems pretty obvious he's doing it not to catch a mouse but to foil the attempt to rescue Cinderella.
They're not really just pets, though—clearly the cat is more intelligent than real-life cats. And he was a very malicious cat. You'll notice Cinderella doesn't treat him like a feared villain, just the mice, who *do* have a reason to be scared of him.
I think Lucifer may have started out just trying to catch mice, like all cats like to do, but after so many years of being thwarted by Cinderella he began to really hate her. Thus all the malicious behavior.
Lucifer also takes great glee in Cinderella's suffering, such as when he looks smug after Drizella has a moo-cow about Gus, and snickers at her in another part of the film when she's in trouble, and Lucifer deliberately acts to prevent her from getting the key and going downstairs, all for the sake of eating Gus. Lucifer is just downright malicious, and is the only character to actually even come close to pissing Cinderella off by tracking dirt around after she cleaned the floors like that.
He's a cat. I don't see how he's acting that odd for a cat, especially if he has a vendetta against her for getting in the way of his mice.
The difference is that here, in the Fairy Tale universe, these mice are depicted as rationally intelligent and self-aware to a human-like extent — They even compose their own music, for crying out loud. And while less overtly anthropomorphic, so is the cat. An intelligent creature killing other intelligent creatures for pleasure (he explicitly is well fed and has no need to supplement his diet, but hunts the mice solely For the Evulz) is commonly considered evil in fantasy settings, regardless of whether such behavior might be appropriate to its ecological niche. For example, it's perfectly natural for trolls to eat hobbits, yet we have little trouble thinking them evil for doing so. Think of the mice as smaller and hairier hobbits.
The cat is pure evil. Notice how he only chases the mice when they want to assist Cinderella in any way. In the third movie, he was more than willing to go along with Lady Tremaine's plan to keep Cinderella from getting married. He was also about to catch Cinderella in the castle while she was hiding. That's no ordinary cat. It's no wonder he ended up getting Killed Off for Real.
According to a tie-in book, Cindy's father was allergic to cats; thus, Lady Tremaine used him for her murder scheme, and kept him for other, unknown, evil plots. Of course, I don't consider this canon.
What I'd like to know is, whatever happened to that poor heroic (and underrated) dog Bruno? He seemed to have up and vanished when the second and third movies came along. Which really makes no sense at all during the third film. When we saw a flashback of Cinderella locked up in her room. We should have seen Bruno too, so what gives?
He's not as marketable as the mice and (I guess) the birds.
Plus, thanks to laterDisneyfilms, they have plenty of dog characters as is.
Well the dog is probably not as useful as the mice and birds. The birds can fly up to the high floors of the palace while the mice can sneak around. The dog would easily be seen and thrown out.
What if Cinderella didn't make it in time to try on the slipper? You think Tremaine would've murdered her, or worse?
Probably not. Since the slipper didn't fit Anastasia or Drizella, the duke would leave and nothing would change. Lady Tremaine would have just kept Cinderella working in the house, gloating that she has finally won. She still needs a house servant doesn't she?
Well, by this point, she's too much in love to resume working for her step-family and would plan on trying to return to her prince, no matter the cost (similar to Ariel). And since we've got a Fairy Godmother, it's possible that love would also be magical. Thus, the only way to stop Cinderella from finally having her wish would be to murder her.
Ok this is what bugs me. At the time period that the movie takes place. Its highly unlikely that a woman on a subsequent marriage would keep her first husband's last name. So to me that implies that Tremaine is Ella's last name too. To explain why the Steps have the last name? Probably because Ella's father adopted them.
Or if she was the one with the 'name', she might have kept her own. It's mentioned somewhere above that Cinderella's father could have been 'new money' while Lady Tremaine was a penniless aristocrat. Except she wouldn't have her own name she would have had whatever name she got from her first husband and on a subsequent marriage during this time she would take her new husband's name. And her husband would adopt her kids hence they would get the name too.
It's a fairy tale with a fairy godmother and transformation magic, and you're worried about historical accuracy?
It's implied that the one with the money was Ella's dad NOT the step family. That the new money was probably the step-family.
That's completely contradictory. 'New money' refers to someone that recently became rich, as in that generation is that family's first rich generation. Lady Tremaine not being the one with the money would by definition make her not 'new money'.
There is historical precedent for women retaining their birth name upon marrying, yes, even before women's liberation. A woman might keep her maiden name just to show she still identified with her native family (Anne Boleyn still signed letters with the surname "Boleyn" even after marrying Henry Tudor, the King), or if she was of a noble or titled family she would keep her name, even if her children might not (in The Importance of Being Earnest, this is why Lady Bracknell is the mother of Gwendolyn Fairfax.) Lady Tremaine's daughters might have their fathers' surname, but Cinderella would likely be the only one in the family with her father's last name. As for the status of Lady Tremaine's husband, and whether Tremaine is his name or hers originally, I really don't know.
In the remake Tremaine is her husband's name (and her widow is a Sir Francis Tremaine) but it's never said in the animation. The sisters do get introduced as "Drizella and Anastasia Tremaine" at the ball however.
How in this or any other conceivable world did Lady Tremaine think she was going to marry off one of her daughters to the Crown Prince? Anastasia and Drizella have precisely zero redeeming qualities. They're not pretty. They're not nice. They have no discernible skills or talents. They don't come from money. Where, exactly, are you going to find an eligible bachelor who could stand one of them for more than two minutes, let alone marry them? I know, I know, it's just a fairy tale, but still...
Compared to her sister, Anastasia isn't completely hopeless; she does attract a suitor in the second film. Granted he's just a merchant, but still...
She may see them as better than they are, due to either mother's love or desperation. Note that, despite the very obvious lack of talent, they still sing and (attempt to) play the flute.
Or she thought that even if the prince rejected them, there could be other men at the party with money and power. And after the ball, the prince said he would be married to the girl who could wear the slipper, whoever she was.
Balls were still the primary way for young ladies to meet people, and Anastasia and Drizella didn't seem to go out much. So Lady Tremaine may indeed have been hoping that she could secure marriages with at least respectable men with nice amounts of money.
Indeed in the live action film she does make a show of introducing her daughters to various gentlemen there, and part of her bribe to the Duke is in exchange for advantageous marriages for them.
There is a theory that they were once wealthy (not aristocrats but still rich), so, if we take that theory as truth (based on what we see), then Tremaine's motive to marry off her daughters is because they're running out of money and, if one of her daughter's becomes wealthy, then so would she (in a way).
Indeed, in the narration, it says that the family fortunes were squandered by the stepsisters.
And her daughter's husband would be obligated to take care of her as well; meaning she's trying to secure a comfortable future for herself.
At first, Lady Tremaine doesn't know Cinderella is the girl who danced with the Prince at the ball, and it Cinderella's daydreaming and humming the tune from the ball ultimately tipped off her stepmother. But when you really think about it, Cindy should have been in a pickle either way. Lady Tremaine wouldn't have wanted the Grand Duke to notice Cinderella since that means he would have insisted Cindy try the glass slipper on. And Tremaine should have KNOWN Cindy would have a better chance of fitting the slipper that her daughters, even if (as far as she knew at the time) there was a probability that she wouldn't. So hypothetically, how would Lady Tremaine have kept Cinderella out of the picture had Cindy not inadvertently blown her cover?
She possibly might have given her a chore to do that took her to the other part of the house, or tried to stop the Grand Duke from letting her try the slipper on; using the logic that she's just a servant girl who didn't go to the ball and therefore can't have danced with the prince.
The latter is exactly what happened in the film when Cindy stepped in at the last minute. And the Duke still proceeded in letting her try the slipper on. Also, Lady Tremaine shouldn't tell him that Cinderella DIDN'T go to the ball, because that would just be confessing she defied the King's command. EVERY eligible maiden was supposed to attend the ball with no exceptions, so Lady Tremaine would have faced a sentence for either refusing to allow Cindy to accompany her family to the ball, or FAILING to get her to attend in the first place. (Drawing the "But sire, she doesn't have any elegant dresses!" card is no excuse.)
Cinderella gets locked in her room when the Grand Duke is on his way. Jaq and Gus go out of their way to get the key and help Cindy escape. However, their is a window in her attic room facing the front of the estate. Couldn't Cinderella just wait for the Grand Duke to arrive, yell for his attention from the window, explain that she's locked in her room, and prompt the Duke to use his royal authority to DEMAND to see her?
Come to think of it, she really wouldn't need to do anything other than get the Grand Duke's attention, because that alone would confirm there's a young lady of the estate other than Anastasia or Drizella. And the Duke would still insist on giving her a chance to try the slipper on. Lady Tremaine can't oppose his orders because that would be tantamount to defying the King.
Possibly she was afraid that screaming to a royal official from the top of an attic window might make her look like a Madwoman in the Attic and give him a bad impression. If she were able to escape from the room and act like a polite young lady, then the Duke would more likely to give her a chance.
And she also has her trump card of producing the other slipper just in case her stepmother tries to block her. It would be possible but harder to do from the upstairs window.
Following on the bit above about the cat being a villain for sadistically killing very human-like, dress-making and singing mice, this troper just realized that Lady Tremaine is arguably a far worse person for being guilty of mass murder by mousetrap than for harassing her stepdaughter. To Cindy she's "merely" an awfully cruel parent; to the mice she's a Hitler/Stalin figure, with Lucifer her chief executioner . . .
And in reverse, this re-emphasizes the importance of the Establishing Character Moment of Cindy saving little Gus (and thus by implication also his friends, earlier and offscreen) out of said traps. Think about it. Instead of merely suffering stoically, she's actually a sort of Scarlet Pimpernel figure rescuing people doomed to arbitrary execution by tyrannical authorities, then hiding them and providing them with shelter and clothing. Isn't this a tad more heroic than the mook-bashing most Action Girls in modern animation are saddled with?
Not really. As "cute" as the mice are marketed to be (which is YMMV in itself- personally they come off as annoying, to me), they're still vermin, ones Cinderella repeatedly keeps freeing and keeping as pets/slave labour because she's lonely. If she was routinely freeing them outside back into the wild, that might be the kind thing to do, but without Lucifer keeping the mice in check, they'd probably breed and overrun the house. It's not really comparable to the things an Action Girl in modern times does.
Maybe it's not comparable in real life, but this isn't real life. This is a fantasy movie. It seems clear that they're not going to overrun the house, and are not vermin in the same sense that they are in real life.
Disregarding how strange it is that the King proclaims that his son will be married to whoever fits her foot into the slipper, which has already been addressed above, I know...after the slipper the Duke has with him breaks and Cinderella brings out the other one, no one has any real proof that she's telling the truth. I know it makes sense for the Duke to just take her at her word because if he tells the King he lost the slipper, he's probably going to get his head chopped off, but it still makes things even sicker when you look at it. Not only is the Prince marrying someone just because she had the same foot size and shape as the shoe that his mystery love left at the ball, but now he's married to someone who has the same foot size and shape as a shoe that only resembles the one that his mystery love left at the ball.
Well as soon as the Prince met Cinderella again, he'd recognise her. She'd also be able to tell him what they did and/or talked about - which was something they did privately. She had plenty of evidence to back up who she was besides the shoe.
Why isn't Lady Tremaine punished somehow in the end? Sure, Cinderella is to kind to play any karma against her step family (leaving them to marry the prince is already a punishment in its own). But Lady Tremaine is in trouble with the LAW! She pulled wool over the government's eyes by A) Not bringing Cinderella with them to the ball when royal command insisted that EVERY eligible maid attend! And B) LYING to a palace representative that she and her daughters were the only residences of their estate. (Right before Cinderella stepped in to prove her wrong, making her deception MORE humiliating) There's no way the Tremaines should get off scott-free in this predicament.
The 2015 remake recognises this and clarifies that they were banished from the kingdom. But even without any on screen confirmation in the original, their future isn't looking too bright. Not only did they make a spectacle of themselves in front of the Grand Duke, their status as abusers of the new Princess would make them extremely undesirable to anyone in the kingdom - and that means no advantageous marriages for Anastasia or Drizella. The narration also says that the stepsisters squandered the family fortune, which is why Cinderella is doing all the chores. They're likely going to end up as recluses similar to the Edies in Grey Gardens. But if you want to take Cinderella III as canon - Anastasia earns her redemption, while Lady Tremaine and Drizella get a proper comeuppance.
Why did they drastically change Cinderella's hair and dress color? She was not blonde, and her dress was definitely not blue. Her dress was sparkly-white (but some would call it silver), and her hair was burnt orange. I mean, the dress I guess I can understand since it looks blue in some scenes, but it's mostly in scenes with dark lighting, but this is only because pale shades like silver and white reflect the colors around them, and the atmosphere was primarily blue at the ball. It's nowhere near the blue that it is marketed as. It's still white/silver in close-ups. However, the change to her hair is ridiculous. It clearly isn't blonde. It's nowhere near blonde, so why did they change her hair color in merchandising and the DVDs? I mean, compare to how it originallywas◊ to the◊ recolor.◊
It's all about merchandising; bright, primary colors like yellow and blue stand out to children better than reddish-brown and silver.
At least for the dress, I believe they changed it to blue because when it was silver it looked too much like a wedding dress, and they wanted to avoid people confusing it for her actual wedding dress seen at the end.
Also the minor problem of "burnt orange" translating to ginger. Either the role of ginger chick was already taken by Ariel, or they figured blonde would be more popular/relatable.
So...is this the place to post questions about the 2015 live-action remake? If so, I was wondering why Cinderella (Ella) promptly refuses when her stepmother offers to let her marry the prince in exchange for Ella cementing a position for her as head of the royal house, instead of just saying she would and then exposing her treachery to the prince later on? The excuse the move gives - that Ella won't let Lady Tremaine hurt him the way she's harmed her - seems not just flimsy but entirely unnecessary, given she could just feign her agreement and then drop the act once they go to the palace.
Because Ella's not that kind of person. She grew up believing in being kind to people - and manipulating her stepmother like that is not something she was prepared to do. Ella's happy ending is remaining a good person, unchanged by her stepfamily's abuse. If Ella had done that, then her happy ending would have been tainted - screwing someone else over to get what she wanted. Before the prince finds her, Ella makes peace with the fact that she wouldn't see him again. She resolved to be kind and look back on the memories fondly. This puts her in contrast to Lady Tremaine. She suffered a tragedy too and ended up ruining someone else's life for her own desires. Ella suffered a tragedy but resolved to move on from it.
How would her happy ending be "tainted", if all she would do was lie to her stepmother and then tell Kit the truth? Lady Tremaine didn't do anything to earn or deserve a life of luxury in the palace - she's technically not even related to Ells -so what would Ella be "screwing her" out of if she lied?
That is exactly the point. Lying to her stepmother and intending to throw her to the wolves later is still effing someone else over for your own desires. Ella wanted to be a good person, and do right by her mother's wishes. Her happy ending is not getting the prince - it's remaining a good person in spite of the abuse. Had she either given into her stepmother's wish or manipulated things so that she'd be effed over, it would have been a signal that she'd been broken by the abuse in some way - and she probably doesn't think her mother would be too proud of doing something to screw someone else and hiding behind Pay Evil unto Evil reasoning.
Or more simply, she didn't think her stepmother would go and break the shoe and lock her in the attic. Up until then, she'd only been verbally abusive and making nasty taunts.
Cinderella and the Prince meet and go off for their lovely little Falling-in-Love Montage. Then we see them sitting together as the clock strikes twelve. Clearly they've spent a significant amount of time together, but somehow, they never thought to share their names?!? How did this happen?
Cinderella: I haven't met the Prince.
Prince Charming: The Prince? But didn't you know... Please come back! I don't even know your name. How will I find you?
It's possible the Prince did say his name; he just assumed Cinderella knew he was the Prince already, so he neglected to mention that part. And Cinderella probably would've been reluctant to say her name, in turn, even if he'd tried talking her into it - since she hadn't known he was the Prince, she may have figured some commoner wouldn't have been willing to fight her evil stepmother for the right to marry a servant girl.
Well, I've been to parties where I'd met someone had the time of my life with them but wouldn't even think of asking for their name, so it's possible Cindy and the Prince got so caught up in the moment they didn't even think of asking each other's names.
The Prince was probably hoping to save that for the end of the ball, but she left too abruptly for it to go as planed.
The prince did say his name when they first met - "they call me Kit. Or at least my father does, when he's in a good mood" - and in this case Ella is trying to avoid detection. The godmother gave her a little enchantment to make her stepfamily not recognise her, but she's possibly worried that if she gives her name, she'll be found out. One of the prince's servants might hear it from him, gossip could spread and make it back to her stepfamily - "apparently that girl with the prince was called Ella" - and they might treat her worse than usual.
The OP was referring to the animated film, where the Prince is never given a name.
Is "Lady" Lady Tremaine's first name, or just her title?
Well the funny thing about titles is that sometimes the title did become your name. For example Mary Tudor's governess was Lady Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. But she was often called Salisbury or Lady Salisbury. It's entirely possible only Lady Tremaine's husband would call her by her first name. The proper way to address her would be 'madam' by others.
^ That's just genuinely how titles and surnames work. She'd be Lady Margret, or the Lady of Salisbury, but never Lady Pole.
How could the fairy godmother be completely oblivious to Cinderella's torn up dress until looking closer? Didn't she know why she was there in the first place?
Probably can be explained by pacing. After all, the Gorgeous Garment Generation and the glass slippers are the big moment of that sequence. But the Godmother certainly seems dizzy enough that getting enough materials for a coach, a footman, a driver, and some horses would be foremost on her mind — whatever Cindy is wearing is probably fine, right?
The whole reason Cindy ran into the garden to cry was because her stepsisters ripped her dress apart, and thus took away her last chance to get to attend the ball. What did the Fairy Godmother think REALLY happened prior to looking closer at Cindy's dress? Did she assume it was like in the 2015 remake, where Lady Tremaine didn't cause much damage to Ella's dress, and simply denied her permission to attend the ball regardless of the dresses condition? Or did she think Cinderella just missed the carriage that was escorting her step-family to the palace?
It’s called “characterization”, and it’s something Disney does all the time with their supernatural characters — think the Genie, Sisu, or Flora, Fauna and Merriweather. They like to give them stronger personality traits, presumably so that the audience remembers them more easily than if they were just a basic supernatural archetype who’s there to help the main character and nothing else. The Fairy Godmother knew what Cinderella was upset about, but because she’s also characterized as an absent-minded old lady, they just had her forget about it until Cinderella pointed it out again.
I’ve heard it said that Cinderella didn’t know the young man at the ball she fell in love with was the Prince and was just a guest at the ball. Um…what? That never made sense to me. Didn’t she realize the whole point of the ball was to find a potential wife for the Prince?
That's correct, but just because the ball was meant to find a wife for the prince, that doesn't mean there wouldn't be any other men there for Cindy to dance with. The invitations said that "every maiden" was to attend, but not that only maidens were allowed or expected to.
And wouldn't the Prince also invite his friends?
As referenced above, balls were massive social events and basically the way to meet people. Plenty of young men are going to turn up at a party that includes every eligible woman in the kingdom; after all, the Prince can only dance with one girl at a time.
And it was actually necessary for there to be men at the event as well - because a ball would need a roughly equal balance of ladies and gentlemen to allow for dancing. A party where only the prince and one woman at a time can dance would be extremely dull. Every maiden invited would likely have a chaperone too, including their fathers, brothers or other male relatives.
Why would the mice bother to steal the sash and string of beads from the stepsisters? Could they not make Cinderella's dress pretty enough just using what they had in the room? Granted, they did witness the stepsisters reject them, calling them "trash", but it still didn't seem like a smart move for them. It's not like the stepsisters wouldn't recognize them when they saw Cinderella wearing them, or even accuse her of being "a thief" (which they do). The stepsisters clearly did not want Cinderella to go to the ball, and the mice just allowed the stepsisters a supposedly perfect excuse for keeping her from going. They are spoiled brats, after all.
It looks like they were following a design in a book based on what Cinderella was hoping to do. The dress was her mother's, so it was probably a good twenty years out of date, and she may have wanted to update it to be more fashionable for the ball. I think the sash was there to complete the pattern at the front, because they didn't have enough ribbon? Since Cinderella only seems to wear her nightgown and the dress she does her work in, maybe she simply doesn't have enough material. Or maybe she'd have been a better seamstress at using what she had, but the mice don't appear to have that experience. It seems like it was a last-minute attempt to help Cinderella out, and they just scavenged for whatever they could find - assuming that since the sisters threw them out, they wouldn't miss them.
No doubt all of their clothes were made from cast-off scraps and ribbons that no one ever missed. They probably just thought that was where you get fabric.
As far as the mice knew, Lady Tremaine has never stooped that low before. So they were probably willing to give her the benefit of a doubt that she would just say something like "I didn't think Cinderella would ever have time to make a dress like that today. But I gave my word. She's in!" Or they thought Anastasia and Drizella would just stick their noses up and not even notice the beads and sash (And they did, since they didn't start tearing the dress apart until Lady Tremaine pointed out the beads)
Why was Lady Tremaine so determined to stop Cinderella from trying on the slipper once she came downstairs? At this point, both her daughters had already tried it on and it was clear it didn't fit either of them. So what was she hoping to gain by tripping the footman with her cane and causing the slipper to shatter? Besides, that was outright defiance of the king's orders and not a smart move for her to do in the Grand Duke's presence, as she could get severely punished for that.
She doesn't want to lose the servant girl she's enjoyed her power trip over for years.
Such a wicked woman would not be thinking rationally in that moment. Not only has she been embarrassed in front of the Grand Duke by her daughters, but neither of them fits the slipper and so there's their chance at getting advantageous marriages down the drain. Then Cinderella, whom she'd thought safely locked in the attic, somehow escapes to snatch away what she wanted for her daughters? She snapped and tried to ruin Cinderella's chances because she's just that petty.
^It doesn't take a motivation more complicated than that. She was a cruel, spiteful woman and she behaved cruelly and spitefully.
If Cinderella can understand mice, why can't she understand birds, cats, and dogs?
It's implied that she's taught the mice how to talk. Notice how Gus is basically nonverbal when she first meets him, and his vocabulary never gets much above that of a small child.
I think she does understand them (or the birds at least). When the birds wake her up, she responds to them as if she does. They just don't speak French like the mice. It makes since that Cinderella probably taught the mice how to talk (either that, or that's just a normal thing in-universe).
The opening narration says that Cinderella remained "ever gentle and kind" despite her stepfamily's mistreatment. Does she, though? She may not say anything to their faces, but she clearly hates them, and she indulges in petty, passive-aggressive comments when they're not around. Yes, they're contemptable people, but she's not exactly kind to them, she just never lets her true feelings about them show. She's "stoic and patient," maybe, but not kind.
It's rather farfetched to say that Cindy HATES her stepmother and stepsisters. She does try to give Lucifer the benefit of a doubt and claim he has good qualities, even though she can't think of any. Who says she doesn't feel the same way about her step-family? Also she IS kind to her animal friends and other people she wouldn't have anything against. Someone in her predicament could be a LOT more psychologically messed up.
Not showing them her true feelings and continuing to do work for them without any show of gratitude would be considered kind.
With the scrapped plot from Snow White where the Queen locks Prince Florian in her dungeon, why didn’t the filmmakers have Lady Tremaine lock Prince Charming in her basement until he married one of her daughters? Now that obviously would get her in trouble with the King, but who was she to care?
You're seriously asking why she would care about the legal repercussions of imprisoning the heir to the throne? Lady Tremaine would never incur such a high risk of incriminating herself when she had nothing to gain by holding him hostage; all she needed to do was convince the royal court that Cinderella wasn't there. Even if that were disregarded, Lady Tremaine possesses no such ability to pull off such a feat, considering the Prince would obviously have guards with him if he were to be visiting her home in person. The Evil Queen and Maleficent both had the benefit of being powerful sorcereresses (and ruling monarch, in the former's case) to aid them in their goals, but Cinderella's stepmother holds no such sway.
In A Twist in Time, the prince does understand them, so we can assume yes to the first one.
Based on his title, the Grand Duke should be an influential nobleman in his own right, so why is he basically the king's manservant?
Because he's still SUBORDINATE to the king. Given that the prince has been "avoiding his responsibilities long enough", the king would want a right hand man who also holds political high grounds. The Grand Duke is an ideal choice because the king can still sentence him to death if he declined this "promotion". Something the king can't do to his son for multiple reasons.
Since the King is a widow, if Lady Tremaine is THAT desperate to take over the kingdom, why didn’t she just marry the King (then off him, like it’s theorised she killed Cindy’s father)? Granted, this WOULD make her like the Evil Queen from Snow White, but still....
Unless the king is actually looking for someone to marry, she doesn't have any chances. He's only determined to find a wife for his son so that he can get grandchildren before he dies. Also, who says Lady Tremaine wants power? She mostly wants to secure a luxurious future for her daughters, and the luxury that SHE gets by extention is mearly an added bonus.
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