bygone-age replied to your post: Why the 1997 Disney Rodgers &...
I’ve only seen this once, but it was a fucking delight. I’m off to trawl through Amazon for a copy.
This version was essentially the ONLY Cinderella I knew as a kid. My sister and I had seen the original Disney film and I think we did own it on VHS as well, but it’s just so DRAB and DULL in comparison to this one! From the songs to the acting to the colors, it just... is infinitely superior as a Cinderella adaptation.
Little me had no idea what diversity was or how important it was, I just knew that this version was way more enjoyable to watch and I was the kind of person who watched something over and over and over and over if I liked it (still am really).
And now, as an older person, I can recognize that its diversity played an important part in WHY it was as good as it was and why it still remains the only Cinderella adaptation I recognize today. Lily James who? Richard Madden who? And of course Helena Bonham Carter can’t hold a fucking candle to Whitney Houston.
It’s also one of the few films that continues to make me laugh over a decade later. Most films’ jokes seem to grow old over time and each time I go back they’re less and less funny, but the acting in this film is good enough that I continue to double over at the jokes when I go back to watch it.
And god, the SINGING! These people cared about casting the roles with actors who could fucking SING (lookin’ at you Beauty and the Beast 2017, just casting people cuz you think they LOOK a part instead actually being able to... I don’t know... DO the part) and sing WELL. Those songs get stuck in my head like nothing else after I listen to them and I’ve listened to a few versions of those songs done by some of the actors who sang them on Broadway and it really still just doesn’t compare (forgive me, Julie Andrews). What feel like pretty flighty boring little Broadway filler songs end up as full-on bangers when Whitney Houston and Brandy sing them.
I could go on and on about how amazing this film is and how any fan of Cinderella should go see this version immediately or at least look up some of the songs/scenes on YouTube to watch just to get an IDEA of how amazing it is.