The girlbossification of Cinderella commences in the latest trailer for the Amazon Prime musical

Camila Cabello stars as the business-oriented Cinderella in the non-Disney take

Film News Cinderella
The girlbossification of Cinderella commences in the latest trailer for the Amazon Prime musical
Nothing says Girl Boss like a pantsuit Screenshot: Amazon Prime Video / Youtube

Welcome to the Rhythm Nation, the setting of Amazon Prime’s already cringeworthy adaptation of Cinderella, starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Minnie Driver, Nicholas Galitzine, and Billy Porter. Despite the general audience most likely knowing the details of one of the most popular fairytales of all time, the trailer takes plenty of time take us through all the twists over the course of three long minutes. Cabello stars as the business oriented Ella, who seeks to make her own way in the world and make a name for herself through selling dresses. Menzel takes on the role as her heinous stepmother, ruining her chances to go to the ball and garner investors for her business venture.

Once Porter as her Fab G (fairy godmother) bibbidi-bobbidi-boops Cinderella into a blue pantsuit, her girlbossification begins. Jetting off the the ball not to meet a man but show off her dress designs, she ends up catching the eye of the most boring, earring-donning prince on the planet. After expressing his wishes to marry her, she denies him, telling him that she wants to get out of the basement and start her own business. Girl, what if you married the rich man and still made your dresses? That’s another way to get out of the basement, but have it your way.

When it comes to the time period that this story is supposed to take place in, who the hell knows. Cinderella’s in 1800s garb at one moment, but in the next she’s in a periwinkle pantsuit (go on, girlboss). Also, because it’s a musical and rent is due, James Corden is there, offering quite the jump-scare as he transforms from a mouse to a human.

Roger and Hammerstein already led a classic, diverse version with Brandy as the star (and Cabello is no Brandy), A Cinderella Story offered a fresh take on the storyline (and no one will ever be a better narcissistic stepmother than Jennifer Coolidge), Drew Barrymore and Julie Andrews dazzled in their own takes on the romance tale, and who could forget Anne Hathaway’s performance as Ella the Enchanted? Even Disney tackled its own live-action remake of the classic tale in 2015 with some beautiful gowns, but nothing beats the 1950 animated original! So, we guess there’s no other reason this adaptation was made than to torture us.

27 Comments

  • jonathanmichaels--disqus-av says:

    Ooh, James Acaster and Romesh Ranganathan as the other two mice, my British comedy button has been pressed 

  • Velops-av says:

    The trailer feels like they shoehorned High School Musical: The Musical: The Series into Cinderella’s glass slipper.

  • capnandy-av says:

    Oh, nooooooo, this sounds awful.If you want to make Girlboss Don’t Need No Man, go on ahead and make that, nobody’s stopping you! But if you didn’t want to make Cinderella, why did you make Cinderella?

    • anthonypirtle-av says:

      Because Girlboss Don’t Need No Man: The Musical isn’t a recognizable IP.

    • domino708-av says:

      I’m gonna make a Cinderella where Cinderella is a Special Ops soldier, and the evil Stepmom is a Terrorist cell leader. And the Fairy Godmother is her CO, and the mice and pumpkin are the crew of the helicopter she flies around in… And the prince is a hostage, and she uses special glass bullets to shoot her terrorist stepsisters…

      Cause it’s empowering.

    • mdiller64-av says:

      I’m writing a spec script for a reboot of Sleeping Beauty in which she suffers from insomnia, never meets the prince, and spends the entire movie trying to get funding for her startup.

  • fast-k-av says:

    The animated original is a fun step back in time, but none of them quite hold me like Ever After. I rewatched it during the pandemic as an adult, and the prince doesn’t live up to my memory, but every scene with Drew Barrymore and Angelica Huston fighting in it is mesmerizing. The way it’s written and acted really feels like there was a lot of thought put into what it would actually feel like to grow up in that toxic household and the scars it would leave on a person. The scene where Danielle tells the baroness that all she ever wanted from her was for her to be a mother? It’s soul crushing. Powerful work by two amazing actors.I also watched the Brandy version of Cinderella earlier this year and thought it was delightful. But compared to Ever After it’s like a sweet dessert. Which is exactly the sort of movie you want sometimes. Disney’s live action Cinderella from 2015 was also enjoyable, some great costumes and impossible waistlines, appropriately dreamy prince, but not something I feel compelled to revisit over and over.

    • bookwormandpoet-av says:

      Ever After is SO FUCKING good. Sure, it isn’t perfect (SUPER white and the prince is a little meh) but God, it is so truly feminist and emotionally true. It will never not me by comfort movie. I don’t understand how this movie is so underrated and dasmel in the distress Princess Bride gets all the love. 

      • fast-k-av says:

        As someone who doesn’t have the best relationship with my parents (not the worst either, they weren’t evil step-parents or anything) and has dated several men who were either not great for me or out-and-out abusive the relationship with the prince actually rings pretty accurately. Plenty of people who were raised with dysfunctional relationships (or had them early in dating) will absolutely fall for the sort of funny, charming suitor who listens and tries to make them feel good at least some of the time. It’s like if you had a friend who dated a serial cheater who emotionally manipulated them and then finally ends up with a sort of bland partner and is absolutely psyched that this person remembers their birthday. Danielle’s world was rocked because a handsome guy valued how smart she was and admitted that he was wrong about something important to her, two things she hadn’t experienced much in her life. As a viewer I’m not totally enamored by the prince, but I get why she fell for him.

        • bookwormandpoet-av says:

          I think you’re completely right. I never thought about it from that point of view. Also, I’m sorry about your parents. I hope you found a better guy now! 

    • mdiller64-av says:

      There’s a very earnest sweetness to the 2015 live-action version that I found charming, and Cate Blanchett as the stepmother is a lot of fun. 

      • fast-k-av says:

        I remember feeling like they gave Cinderella herself more personality and motivation, the whole “have courage and be kind” motto was endearing.

        • hamburgerheart-av says:

          as if she’s going to develop in to this mature and multi-dimensional personality scrubbing floors and fending off stepsisters. You don’t get both.

  • cinecraf-av says:

    I might have been opened to this…until James Fucking Corden’s ass turned up in this.  

  • weedlord420-av says:

    I don’t know I think you guys are overreacting it doesn’t seem that ba-
    Once Porter as her Fab G

    oh no my eyes are bleeding

  • docnemenn-av says:

    Every single thing about this trailer annoys me to an irrational degree, considering I wasn’t going to watch it anyway.Up to and including the fact that you’ve got Romesh Ranganathan and James Acaster in your movie and give them no dialogue in the trailer, but manage to fit in a James Corden pratfall.

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