When I first heard that Disney was making another live action movie, I silently groaned. I really disliked Maleficient. I love the animated version of Cinderella, and I was a little worried about what might happen with a live-action Cinderella. Since my daughter’s favorite Disney movie is Cinderella, she had already made plans to see it with my niece on opening day. I had assumed that the two of them would go, and depending on her review, my husband and I would take our younger children to see it at a later date.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago. I had heard that Cinderella’s golden carriage would be in Disney World at that same time we were going. I wanted to see the carriage up close and personal. I had also heard that they have a 10 minute preview of the movie at Hollywood Studios. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to see the preview.

The day that we went to Hollywood Studios the carriage had still not arrived due to some delays in moving it. Then when we went to see the preview we had just missed the last showing of the day. It looked like our trip would end without seeing the carriage and the preview. However, later in the week we decided to park hop back over to the “Park that Is Getting a Brand New Name That Hasn’t Been Announced Yet.” Since we were going to be there I decided I would try to see if the carriage was there. It had just come that day! It was more beautiful than the pictures showed. I guess I had envisioned some poorly made for limited use prop. This thing is gorgeous! And we got to see the preview too. WOW! We were impressed.

We came home talking about how we wanted to see the movie when it came out. We decided to go as a family. So we bought our tickets in advance and went to an early showing. Here are my thoughts:

• Cinderella, the movie, is visually stunning. The countryside, the palace, the dress, the costumes, the carriage, the detail are all impressive.
• Cinderella’s parents are good and kind, and meeting them before they die gives the movie a sad element. 
• Cinderella’s stepmother is mean, mean, mean!!! I wanted to rip her eyes out. In the original story written by Charles Perrault, birds peck out the eyes of the stepsisters. There were several scenes with the stepmother and stepsisters that I was wishing the birds would come and peck their eyes out (or at least poop on their heads).
• I loved Cinderella’s fairy godmother. She is cute and spunky and just what I think of when I think of a fairy godmother.
• There are some surprise changes made to the movie, but nothing that will make people hate it.
• There was one moment in the film where I thought they were trying to make me sympathize with the stepmother, but then she became even more evil and conniving and that feeling went away.
• Cinderella’s mother tells her to “Have Courage and Be Kind.” These are words she carries with her always. These are good words to remember for all of us.

This was a very good movie. AND, most importantly, it is not just a girly movie. My boys loved it too!