Fairy Godmother In Training

✨🍓🌈She/Her⭑⚝Tarot ˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗⋆.˚ ⋆.˚ Writing ᡣ𐭩 .𖥔˚ ♡ Fairy Tale Magic 𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊 Also Embroidering, Gardening and Theater ˙ᵕ˙ᰔᩚ. 🍄☁️🐿️ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆If you happen to find my glass slipper, please return it to Pelican Town or Beach City ཐིཋྀ,🐭🕛✨🧹

[roseunspindle]

Cinderella

[princesssarisa]

is it just me, or the disney fandom has a weird case of racial bias? all the new female characters, Raya, Mirabel, Asha, Moana, are hated for being 'girlbosses, and the fandom seems to suggest a 'prettier', more 'delicate' and 'feminine' type of princess, which sounds a little weird to me, and regards to the male characters, it's the princes of color who get the most hate. Aladdin the liar, Shang the sexist, Naveen and Maui are manbabies..it feels really insidious, especially when these comments come from the same person.

Yes. I think it started from a place of good intent, wanting to defend the three Walt-era Princesses after so many years of people bashing them and calling them anti-feminist. But it’s taken a turn so that a lot of fans just seem to want more heroines like the Walt-era Princesses and enjoy bashing all the heroines who are less sweet, poised, and delicate - or less white, for that matter.

As for the Princes and other heroes, I have seen the white ones excessively criticized too - e.g. Snow White’s Prince the stalker/necrophiliac, Adam the abuser, John Smith the colonizer, Quasimodo the Nice Guy, Flynn Rider the jerk, Kristoff the boor. And I haven’t personally seen too much criticism of Shang; if anything, I’ve seen more fans who try too hard to insist he does nothing wrong. (“He doesn’t care that she’s a woman, he’s just upset that she lied!”) But I’m sure those defenses are in response to excess criticism that I just haven’t seen. And I can’t get over how hard some people are on Aladdin! It does make you wonder: if the exact same story took place in a European setting, with white characters, would they be as hard on him, or would they empathize a little more?

[ariel-seagull-wings]

@princesssarisa

To be fair ...

John Smith WAS a romaticized portrayal of an actual real life colonizer that the Native American comunity has been calling out for decades, so I wouldn’t really put him as unfairly overly criticized like the other male characters.

[princesssarisa]

That's true. When you just take the fictionalized version of John Smith by himself, to write him off as just a colonizer is to ignore his character arc, but the real John Smith had no such redemptive journey, and the story of Pocahontas saving his life was probably fiction.

[therapeuticfairy]

Hi im having trouble finding the tales from the sea cinderella on YouTube? All i get are like aquatic videos. Do you have a link?

Hii, yes! You have to search for it in arabic or it won't show up (I use a translator). Here's the highest definition version I was able to find ^_^

[costumeloverz71]

Leslie Caron in The Glass Slipper..

[cinderellasource]

[ariel-seagull-wings]

@therapeuticfairy @themousefromfantasyland @princesssarisa @the-blue-fairie @thealmightyemprex

[therapeuticfairy]

The more I think about Elphaba and Glinda's relationship and the way some people romanticize it, the more upsetting it gets for me, especially after rewatching Wicked: For Good.

In case someone needs to hear it: a true friend doesn't work with a fascist movement trying to erase your existence, a true friend doesn't think about using your family for blackmail! (like WTF, people never talk about that and it's seriously so so fucked), a true friend doesn't hit you because the man she liked didn't like her back and likes you instead.

[therapeuticfairy]

Today I did a rewatch of the Cinderella made for TV movie from the year 2000 directed by Beeban Kidron and starring Marcella Plunkett (she was 30 at the time, making her one of the older actresses to portray the character, despite still being fairly young).

This is a very underrated movie in my opinion and one of my favorite retellings.

The first thing I wanna mention is that this film has one of the most visually distinct identities out of any Cinderella film. This is a very trippy, esoteric and psychedelic film. From the moving backgrounds made in what feels like water painting, to the persistent animal imagery, it's a movie that has a lot of symbolic value. The fairy godmother here is a hermit mermaid-like woman, who doesn't even like Zezolla (the real name of Cinderella here, taken from one of the earlier written and lesser known versions) at first. She very openly says she doesn't like people, she is happy being kept away from other people's eyes. The first interaction between the two of them is priceless: "Are you a witch?", "People call any woman living on her own a witch". She also has a past romance with Zezolla's household elderly butler. There's also a question about how much she actually does vs is actually Zezolla manifesting the magic herself? The Fairy Godmother says: "I don't make magic, everything we already want already exists". And instead of a carriage, she teleports through water??? Well that's friggin cool!

But a Cinderella story is only as strong as the portrayal of the main character and Marcella Plunkett is definitely one of my personal favorite portrayals. Zezolla is fairly introverted and she looks between sad and angry in most scenes. She's very defiant, of course not aggressive, but she definitely tells it as it is. She comes off as very relatable to an asexual life experience, her stepsisters in this versions are always talking about men in a very allosexual way (and so is their mother). She also could definitely be read as neurodivergent (just like Leslie Caron's portrayal). Even though she does fall in love, being in a relationship clearly has never been a priority for her before. You get the feeling that even though she's very secure about herself and clearly supposed to not be that young, she still gets treated like a kid by people around her (something, once again, both asexual and neurodivergent people experience).

Her costumes are great. Her rags fall into that category of a dress that was once nice and pretty but has become dirty and in disrepair, with the addition of an apron (kind of like a goth Lily James). I also like that her work involves shoving coal, which explains the "cinder" part. Her ballgown however, is where the costume design really shines, as she kind of looks like a fairy (which is surprising more versions don't go for this) and her "glass slippers" in terms of shape are definitely contenders for a surprising historical accuracy to how "slippers" might have been in certain time periods during France (of course not actually accurate since they are made of purple rose petals, also very cool) and I like they don't have a heel, they are flats which fits her character of being a simple honest person so well, as opposed to her step family. The origin in narrative is really interesting too as the Mermaid Fairy Godmother basically tells her she won't make shoes for them because shoes are "for people who don't like their feet, so I'm not interested". And she gets rejected at the castle at first because she dares try to enter barefoot. And then is her mother, as a separate entity from the fairy and represented in the tree, like Grimm's version, who makes purple rose petals fall to her feet and create the shoes in another trippy esoterical sequence.

This is an amalgam of many things and that is clear in how the relationship to her father is like (taking after the Grimm's version), which literally copies dialogue from King Lear. The father is really mean and upsetting in this version and is strongly implied it is because he is horny for the stepmother. He is so mean to his daughter.

And the step family themselves like I said are very very allosexual (non asexual, for people who might not be familiar with the term), to uncomfortable levels in my opinion. They'll just casually be wearing lingerie around Zezolla who herself clearly feels very uncomfortable. They want money, that's their whole motivation. Also they are like actually evil, they try to poison the father, shoot animals for fun, slap Zezolla (which again is very uncomfortable), try to kill the father and the butler with axes??? and will outright deny her anything to eat. The stepmother explicitly marries Zezolla's father because he is of noble blood (although not very rich, thus only one member in the staff) to get invited to the ball and marry her daughters to the prince.

To talk about the prince we need to mention the other element in this chimera of an adaptation. It is set in the 1950's. Cinderella's clothes feel old timey compared to the rest taking that in account, she still dresses like a fairy tale character. But she and the Fairy Godmother are the only ones. Everyone else and especially the step family is dressed in high 50's fashion. The prince is, of course, very charming and also dressed in 50's fashion, wearing a black leather jacket and going around in a motorcycle. But they don't develop him a lot, although I do like that he sees in Zezolla someone who actually wants to do something different with the kingdom. It is very interesting that at the stroke of midnight (signaled by the Prince's digital watch) she is back in her rags in front of him and runs away, which is also very brutal. The ball in general, even though it has some sweet romantic moments between the prince and Zezolla, feels like is going wrong all the time.

It's crazy that the stepmother suggests cutting the toes of her daughters, like in Grimm's, but she suggests that to the prince himself! Absolutely no chill from this woman. Once the stepmother realizes it's inevitable for Zezolla to try on the slipper, she basically threatens her into behaving and looking shallow in front of the prince in order to scare him away (once more, forcing her to fit into something she isn't).

Because of how many things this movie is trying to do at once, it can feel unfocused at times, but definitely feels like one of the more mature retellings of the story. Not edgy, not gory, not subversive: mature, like grown up, not talking down to it's audience and in that it really humanizes Zezolla herself and her plead for a life where she just can live calmly and out of an extremely toxic family environment.

Definitely recommend watching it if you get the chance.

@princesssarisa

@ariel-seagull-wings

[therapeuticfairy]

One of my favorite film quotes ever and a reminder of why looking at the Cinderella story through the lenses of human rights opens a whole new level of interpretation and enjoyment of the story and it's archetypes.

[antoniabishop]

Cinderella

[therapeuticfairy]

This is such a mood

[ohmydisney]

Things You Only Notice When You Watch Beauty and the Beast for the Hundredth Time

1. Everything going on in the stained glass window.

Your eye is naturally pulled to the prince in the middle, but there is a lot happening in the window. Who are those two dogs, why are they wearing studded collars, and why are they the only ones looking directly at the prince?

2. The hungry cat. 

There is a cat dangling off of the fish the woman on the left is trying to get for a cheaper price. He must be very hungry.

3. Belle’s dried flowers.

Belle is drying flowers by hanging them from her ceiling. Now that we know this, we somehow love her even more (something we did not think was possible).

4. Beast definitely did not decorate this room.

The fireplace is framed with gold hearts, there’s a floral pattern on the chair, a portrait of a woman in pink, and a still life with flowers. Is this Mrs. Potts’s doing?

5. That’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” behind Cogsworth!

How have we never noticed this famous (Baroque) Vermeer before??

6. Speaking of which, this painting to the left of Lumiere also looks familiar… 

Yup. It’s “The Laughing Cavalier” by Frans Hals!

7. Belle and Beast’s dinner menu.

Is it just us or does it look like this meal is entirely comprised of cake, pie, and jelly?

8. Gaston seems to have a devil horse. 

Let’s consider what we’re seeing here: Gaston’s horse has red pupils and its nostrils are filled with flames. Devil horse is the only logically conclusion.

9. There is a man stuck the stone pillar on the right side of the doorway.

How did he get up there? We know the enchanted objects wreaked some serious havoc, but what happened??

10.  There’s a golden swan to the very left of this frame.

Was this one of the enchanted objects we never saw? Why haven’t we seen it in the ballroom before? Was it a wedding gift?

[tropicalt1na]

In honor of Disability Pride month…

I’d like to talk about something that’s has been bothering me since the movies came out. Throughout the 20+ years of this fandom existing there has been more or less a kind of unspoken tolerance between sapphic fans that loved the story being centered around two gay/bi women and the neurodivergent and disabled community that found a deep connection to the story as they saw themselves represented in Elphaba, or the supporting characters struggles. Because the story at the end of the day is not just “about the girls stupid” its a story about struggles of being othered and the toll it takes on someone that just can’t be…normal. Neurodivergence, depression, and disabilities both congenital and later acquired are thematically represented in their character arcs.

For many who her story resonates with, Elphaba losing, isn’t a study of how radicalism accomplishes nothing and she should have followed Glinda if she wanted to change things, its a completely relatable outcome to someone that has been there, who has the stakes set up so thoroughly against them just because of who they are and its something they can’t change, so they have to work 10x harder to prove themselves capable, and still lose in the end. For me as a early diagnosed ADHD-inattentive/OCD comorbid I feel for her struggles where you give 100% of yourself to something you believe in only to f*ck it up in planning or execution to where it spirals in the most self sabotaging way.

And before you go “oh girl your projecting onto Elphaba, you ‘outcast rebel weird girl” lets look at some of her qualities and why she’s so relatable to the neurodivergent community: Elphaba’s overly sincere, incredibly empathetic, irritatingly inflexible, and (more-so in the musical) emotionally volatile and can be seen as lacking emotional regulation, she also misses social cues, big ones….

These are qualities that have resonated with fans for decades before the movie was a thing, and since it came out we have lost something tragic in the fandom. The theater gays and the outcast weirdos who have loved this story since they were children were suddenly drowned out by some of the new fans that were either fans of Ariana, pink aesthetics, edgy bully gays here for Yuri and nothing else, or identified with popular influencer vibe Glinda radiates effortlessly, none of which is very compatible with the original community, and any push back resulted in social media dog-piling, reddit downvoting, and often popular backhanded think pieces that try to bury anyone that clashes with their own interpretation.

So anyway’s this was meant to be intro to a series of posts of how disabilities tie into the arcs of the characters. Followup will consist of less rant about fandom drama, I promise.

[princesssarisa]

These are things I've felt too but have never found the exact words to describe.

[therapeuticfairy]

People seem to forget that the point of the pink aesthetic of Glinda has a lot to do with political propaganda (that's also why they based the posters of Elphaba around Oz on how some propaganda was made during World War II). The idealization of Glinda because of Ariana's portrayal has made us lose sight of how Glinda represents how violent environments reward you for not speaking up and how privilege is built on becoming part of "totality" (like philosopher Emmanuel Levinas would say) and not otherness.

Also as a queer sapphic woman it also has been kind of upsetting to see some people treat Elphaba and Glinda's relationship as some kind of romantic story (because of the portrayal in this movie) when Glinda constantly chooses to sustain and lead a system that keeps a hateful rejection of Elphaba's otherness. There's no love there, only the preservation of the own privilege.

And from a disability perspective it even feels at points like she treats Elphaba like an accessory (which is very real to how some influencers build their fame on taking selfies with vulnerable communities, yet never actually do anything for them besides gaining more fame). All of these elements of the narrative felt very clear to me always, so it was surprising (in a sad way) to see how people missed them because they too, like the people of Oz, were charmed beyond empathy by Glinda's pretty dresses and singing voice. Which is not to say you can't love pink aesthetics and pretty dresses, I know I do! But it's also important to look with empathy and intersectional awareness far beyond that.

And on that regard, Elphaba will always remain at the heart of the story as a reminder of how it feels to inhabit the world through the lenses of disability in an ableist world and how it feels to be immediately recognized in the public space as "other" while being rejected because of that (especially if that otherness comes from something you were born with without choosing it, just like Elphaba).

[tropicalt1na]

This so much. I never thought I would see the day where people miss the main message of Wicked as if they were Ozians themselves completely captivated by Glinda’s charm charisma to the point they overly sympathize with her side of the story and not looking at what’s actually being told, that its deconstructing what is behind the label of “good” not that she always was, though it ends with her promising sincerely to be better which makes her an interesting character that shows growth only after its too late and she’s locked into a lie of a life. Glinda is and has always been a cautionary tale, that has somehow recently become the underdog people root for instead of Elphaba who’s meant to be that, because the narrative was unkind to Ariana Glinda and they don’t understand why their “underdog” gets the bleak ending when she helped create all those circumstances that ended her up there.

A couple days ago we were discussing Elphaba and Glinda’s uneven relationship dynamic and I said how I never liked the lyrics to Popular, I think we stirred a pot and got a few reactionary posts, one that had Glinda putting the flower in Elphaba’s hair with the caption “she’s being tortured, she being bullied, she’s being traumatized, ect…” I’m like ‘that’s the only friend/girlfriend she’s ever had she literally doesn’t know that she can be treated better’ She has had no experiences or personal relationships to know it can be any different.

Absolutely, trends come and go, and the hype the movies had has already died down, but you know who stays long after? The ones that that the message and story resonates with, the ones that were deeply moved by it, they stay, while the toxic fans, self proclaimed media analysts (that only analyze in favor of their bias mind you) move onto the next fandom space because they are attracted to the conflict a big fandom generates over the subject matter that brings in sincere new fans that love it.

[therapeuticfairy]

And for me the craziest part (and maybe a hot take) is that I honestly don't believe Glinda's ending is that bleak. The story ends with her having even more power and privilege than before, I know some might consider this a punishment but it is also a reward in many ways (more in my opinion), becoming effectively the absolute ruler of Oz with no one in her way, getting all the people's praise and getting actual magic.

Yes, she lost Elphaba, but that's something she caused through her actions (and honestly Elphaba will probably be better without Glinda in her life). But besides that, she definitely was socially and politically rewarded by the end of the story.

[therapeuticfairy]

I'll be honest. I never understood the Loki appeal during the early 2010's. However I now feel that way about the character during the current point in the timeline he is in as of currently.

My reasoning? His character growth has actually made him a genuinely likeable character. Seeing how he has grown to care for others, appreciate life and try desperately to save his friends and basically every life in the universe (and multiverse) makes him actually attractive.

As an asexual panromantic woman that will always speak more to me than his reluctant villain era (not that reluctant to be honest during that time period).

[tropicalt1na]

In honor of Disability Pride month…

I’d like to talk about something that’s has been bothering me since the movies came out. Throughout the 20+ years of this fandom existing there has been more or less a kind of unspoken tolerance between sapphic fans that loved the story being centered around two gay/bi women and the neurodivergent and disabled community that found a deep connection to the story as they saw themselves represented in Elphaba, or the supporting characters struggles. Because the story at the end of the day is not just “about the girls stupid” its a story about struggles of being othered and the toll it takes on someone that just can’t be…normal. Neurodivergence, depression, and disabilities both congenital and later acquired are thematically represented in their character arcs.

For many who her story resonates with, Elphaba losing, isn’t a study of how radicalism accomplishes nothing and she should have followed Glinda if she wanted to change things, its a completely relatable outcome to someone that has been there, who has the stakes set up so thoroughly against them just because of who they are and its something they can’t change, so they have to work 10x harder to prove themselves capable, and still lose in the end. For me as a early diagnosed ADHD-inattentive/OCD comorbid I feel for her struggles where you give 100% of yourself to something you believe in only to f*ck it up in planning or execution to where it spirals in the most self sabotaging way.

And before you go “oh girl your projecting onto Elphaba, you ‘outcast rebel weird girl” lets look at some of her qualities and why she’s so relatable to the neurodivergent community: Elphaba’s overly sincere, incredibly empathetic, irritatingly inflexible, and (more-so in the musical) emotionally volatile and can be seen as lacking emotional regulation, she also misses social cues, big ones….

These are qualities that have resonated with fans for decades before the movie was a thing, and since it came out we have lost something tragic in the fandom. The theater gays and the outcast weirdos who have loved this story since they were children were suddenly drowned out by some of the new fans that were either fans of Ariana, pink aesthetics, edgy bully gays here for Yuri and nothing else, or identified with popular influencer vibe Glinda radiates effortlessly, none of which is very compatible with the original community, and any push back resulted in social media dog-piling, reddit downvoting, and often popular backhanded think pieces that try to bury anyone that clashes with their own interpretation.

So anyway’s this was meant to be intro to a series of posts of how disabilities tie into the arcs of the characters. Followup will consist of less rant about fandom drama, I promise.

[princesssarisa]

These are things I've felt too but have never found the exact words to describe.

[therapeuticfairy]

People seem to forget that the point of the pink aesthetic of Glinda has a lot to do with political propaganda (that's also why they based the posters of Elphaba around Oz on how some propaganda was made during World War II). The idealization of Glinda because of Ariana's portrayal has made us lose sight of how Glinda represents how violent environments reward you for not speaking up and how privilege is built on becoming part of "totality" (like philosopher Emmanuel Levinas would say) and not otherness.

Also as a queer sapphic woman it also has been kind of upsetting to see some people treat Elphaba and Glinda's relationship as some kind of romantic story (because of the portrayal in this movie) when Glinda constantly chooses to sustain and lead a system that keeps a hateful rejection of Elphaba's otherness. There's no love there, only the preservation of the own privilege.

And from a disability perspective it even feels at points like she treats Elphaba like an accessory (which is very real to how some influencers build their fame on taking selfies with vulnerable communities, yet never actually do anything for them besides gaining more fame). All of these elements of the narrative felt very clear to me always, so it was surprising (in a sad way) to see how people missed them because they too, like the people of Oz, were charmed beyond empathy by Glinda's pretty dresses and singing voice. Which is not to say you can't love pink aesthetics and pretty dresses, I know I do! But it's also important to look with empathy and intersectional awareness far beyond that.

And on that regard, Elphaba will always remain at the heart of the story as a reminder of how it feels to inhabit the world through the lenses of disability in an ableist world and how it feels to be immediately recognized in the public space as "other" while being rejected because of that (especially if that otherness comes from something you were born with without choosing it, just like Elphaba).

[therapeuticfairy]

Ever since 2015, because of the live action Cinderella film, I've been thinking about what the correct translation for kindness in spanish would be. People usually say "amable" (literally "loveable") which usually people take to mean "polite", so for me it doesn't encapsulate the meaning of the word in english. The other translation is "bondadosa" which kind of means to have "goodness".

So I've decided to do my own translation, although a bit longer: "poner amor en los actos", which means "to put love in your actions".

[princesssarisa]

The Virgin Mary's statue watching over Cinderella (Russian animation, 1979).

@therapeuticfairy

[craftedrabbit]

This piece was made back in August, but I forgot about it. I was in a phase of creating art based on fairy tales; This piece is based on Cinderella, fleeing from the ball.

[princesssarisa]

Have you considered analysing how different adaptations depict Cinderella running away from the ball and how she transforms back? Most of us love the transformation right before she goes to the ball, but it is equally visually impressive how they depict the de-transformation and stroke of midnight scene on movies and TV adaptations.

There are indeed some very memorable versions of this moment in different adaptations.

Disney's animated film was especially innovative in its choice to have Cinderella get back into her carriage, ride away, and almost reach home before the last stroke of twelve changes everything back, with the palace guards chasing after her on horseback all the while. This obviously doesn't happen in Perrault's tale: there the de-transformation happens before she exits the palace grounds, as when the Prince asks the guard at the gates if he saw a lady leaving, he says no, just a peasant girl in rags. But Disney adds great suspense by having her ride away at breakneck speed, with the guards in hot pursuit, and then at the clock's last chime, having her hair come loose, the coach change from white to pumpkin-orange, and the wheels turn back into vines before everything fully changes back.

It's no wonder that several other versions copy that sequence closely. These include the 1979 Russian animated short, the 1996 anime Cinderella Monogatari, Disney's 2015 live action remake of course, and the 2021 Sony/Amazon musical. Although they usually add their own unique touches too After 1979 Russian Cinderella de-transforms, she sits down in tears under a statue of the Virgin Mary (which probably represents her own mother's spirit still watching over her), and the Prince, King, and royal courtiers don't even notice her as they run past her in search of the "lady." The 2015 remake adds the slightly melodramatic CGI touch of having the horses slowly regain their mouse features and the coachman and footmen slowly regain their animal features – and cleverly, has one of the footmen take advantage of this and use his newly-reformed lizard tail to slam the castle gate shut and keep the Grand Duke and guards from following them any further.

And then there's the cheesy comedy added in the 2021 musical, where the James Corden footman keeps his human head for just a few seconds after the rest of his body has changed back into a mouse, where the coachman changes back into a mouse while the coach is still moving, which forces Girlboss Cinderella to take the reigns herself to save them from crashing, and the drawn-out pause where they think they're all going to fall when the coach changes back, only to be relieved when it doesn't, but then, WHAM, it does change back and they fall after all. But before all that silliness happens, I do like the way Cinderella's gown de-materializes – since it was conjured up out of tree blossoms, at midnight it slowly flurries away into floating petals. (Which recalls some adaptations of the Grimms' Aschenputtel, where the gown forms from the leaves of the tree on her mother's grave, then changes back into leaves which return to the tree when she gets home.)

Another version of the de-transformation that especially stands out is in 1976's The Slipper and the Rose. There, the palace's outdoor staircase isn't just a single flight of stairs, but several flights of stairs that wind this way and that, each ending with a newel post topped with flowers in a stone pot. Each time Cinderella reaches a landing, turns a corner, and is momentarily hidden by the post and flowers, her gown becomes more disheveled and gradually changes from pink to gray as it turns back into her work dress, while her white wig comes loose and slowly turns brown as it changes back to her own hair. All this happens amid magical showers of pink rose petals from the air above her. By the time she reaches the bottom of the stairs, she's changed entirely back to her former self, and then she sees that the coach, horses, and coachman have changed back too.

In the 1985 Faerie Tale Theatre version, the fact that all the magical transformations and de-transformations take place in explosions of smoke and sparkles reinforce how jarring the sudden reversion is for Cinderella, as she's just about to climb into her coach when the explosion happens, and when the smoke clears we see her sprawled on the ground in her rags, knocked down by the blast, next to the pumpkin, mice, and rat.

But even simple versions that just have an instant, non-explosive de-transformation as Cinderella runs down the stairs, and then have her run past the pumpkin and mice as she escapes into the night, can be very effective. In the 1997 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, the wave of golden sparkles that sweeps over her and changes her finery back to rags is beautiful and magical despite its simplicity. The 1947 Russian version uses a simple stage-like trick of having Cinderella slip behind a column, then reemerge on the other side in her rags, but then has a tense and poignant moment as she hides behind the column to keep the Prince from seeing her as he comes outside. And the emotions a Cinderella actress conveys can be just as important as any magical effect. Mary Pickford in the 1914 silent version and Brandy in the 1997 musical both poignantly look themselves over in disbelief and disappointment that their finery is gone, but then quickly shift to fear of getting caught and hurry away. And even more heartbreaking is Lesley Ann Warren's 1965 Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella, who is truly distraught to see her gown become rags again and runs away sobbing.

The two cruelest de-transformations, however, are in the two French silent versions directed by Georges Méliès, where the Fairy Godmother appears at the palace, angry that Cinderella disobeyed her by failing to leave the ball before midnight, and personally transforms her gown back to rags as punishment. The 1899 version is the worst, because this takes place in the ballroom in front of the Prince and the whole court, and the stepsisters other ladies in laughing at her when they see who she is. At least in the 1913 version, the Fairy Godmother spares her such humiliation by letting her escape into a hallway first.

I've also noticed that several adaptations have the pumpkin shatter after it changes back from the coach. In Disney's animated film, the guards run over it on their horses, while in other versions it just shatters when it falls to the ground. Either way, the sight of its destruction definitely reinforces that Cinderella's night of magic is over.

I hope future adaptations find creative new ways to handle this scene.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @therapeuticfairy, @themousefromfantasyland, @the-blue-fairie, @thealmightyemprex, @adarkrainbow, @cinderellasource