Who Did It A Better Cinderella, Drew Barrymore Or Anna Kendrick?
After watching the popular film adaption of Into The Woods, several times, I couldn't stop comparing what Anna Kendrick did with the character compared to Drew Barrymore in Ever After. I'll let you be the judge yourself:
5. Beauty & Look Factor
Drew Barrymore was 22 when they filmed Ever After in 1997, while Anna Kendrick was 27 turning into 28 while filming Into The Woods in 2013. While age difference may not be too dramatic, Drew freshness did carry over to her role.
Ever After took place in a fictional Renaissance France (Early 16th century) while Into The Woods take place in a fantasy land. Both dresses are very worn out and distressed to reflect what a poor peasant in a quasi-slavery situation would wear THANK GOD for the unions!
4. Cinderalla's Stepmother & Stepsisters
In Ever After Cinderella who does have a name and that name is Danielle for you all! she's a lively spirited maid who's friend with the other house staff and treated cruelly by her stepmother Rhodmilla de Ghent (standing ovation for Anjelica Huston) and
stepsister Marguerite (Megan Dods) yet treated with compassion by stepsister Jacqueline (Melanie Lynskey) the performances are realistic, although at times Megan's characterizations were over the top. Although Danielle (like in the original tale) put up with her step-family bull&*!@# once she starts to fall in love with the Prince she grows a backbone and confront them... unfortunately that didn't go too well for Danielle (Insert gory Passion of Christ image here).
In Into The Woods Cinderella seems to be the only maid for the entire manor and seems to be always down (understandable due to the circumstances) but even after she made it to the ball she still have the same low energy. Her stepmother
(Christine Baranski) and stepsisters Florinda (Tammy Blanchard) and Lucinda
(Lucy Punch) not only are cruel but they portray their characters way too cartooney which makes the difference between Cinderella and her step-family even more abysmal. In this incarnation Cinderella never rebels or question their actions and after she marries Prince Charming her step-family goes to join the royal family.
3. Cinderella's Talents
In Ever After Cinderella was a sweet and compassionate young girl who was quite an intellectual, reading all her father library's books with a special affection to Utopia (real life book written by Thomas More in the 16th century) since was the last book her late father read her to bed (Seriously? read a college level book to a child... but that's another discussion). Not only she's a confident smart cookie she's also good with sword fight!
In Into The Woods Cinderella was a very indecisive and gloom maiden taught to be kind and nice by her late parents, sometimes enjoy to do house shores, fascinating no? Not all is basic in her, she can communicate with birds ( a flight of sinister black birds) and sings beautifully (kudos to Anna Kendrick for belting out all those show-tunes!)
2. The Dress
In Ever After costume designer Jenny Beavan was inspired in the 16th century Renaissance (the time where the story takes place) to create a cream color hand beaded lace gown. The famous "Just Breath" moment where she arrives to the masquerade (in this tale incarnation it's a costume ball) she arrives with a pair of fairy wings which together with the make up resembles a fairy godmother (which in the popular incarnation of the tale gives Cinderella the dress). In this story, the dress was Danielle's mother dowry along with the silver tone jewel encrusted mules; Although her stepsister Marguerite intended to use it herself for the ball, the other house staff hide it in time.
In Into Woods costume designer Colleen Atwood based her dress in the original Into The Woods musical production which in turn based on the original Cinderella tale where her sleepers are in gold color so she decided to make the whole ensemble monochromatic. This corseted dress is old gold metallic fabric and organza. In this story, Cinderella goes to her mother's grave and wishes to go to the ball which enables the weeping willow (tree that grew over her mother's grave out of her tears... okay...) to transform Raggedy Ann into a gold statuesque court lady.
1. Happy Ever After?
In Ever After after Danielle was publicly humiliated in the masquerade by her stepmother and the next day she was sold to a rich merchant as a house slave, you think you had it bad in life? that's rough man! After famous Leonardo Da Vinci
(Patrick Godfrey) who in this tale is the friendliest Italian around makes the Prince (Dougray Scott) rectify on his actions and after his cancelled wedding he goes to save Danielle just to find that she freed herself from her slaver. Romantic stuff blah blah blah, they got discreetly married making probably the first cleaning lady turned into a princess in history. The king and queen summons her stepmother Rhodmilla (who's currently a baroness) and stepsisters but when they arrive to court, guess who they found in the arms of the prince? exactly! bam bitch! Not only that but the sovereigns didn't find amusing that Rhodmilla lied to the queen thus stripping her of her nobility titles and ready to be shipped as a slave to the new found Americas. However, kindly Danielle interceded for her stepmother asking the queen to show Rhodmilla and Marguerite (Jacqueline was smart enough to step away from the house drama) the same kindness she showed her when she lived with her. Yes, Rhodmilla and Marguerite are shown as servants working in the royal laundry. Cinderella and her Prince seems to be happily ever after, both passionately dedicated to each other. Centuries passes and all this story is narrated by an exiled French aristocrat who's descendant of Danielle.
In Into The Woods Cinderella also marries the Prince (Chris Pine), in also a very short span of time after he places the golden shoe on her feet. Cinderella's vengeful flight pecks the stepsisters eyes leaving them blind, talk about pay back! Right after the wedding, the town joins to celebrate the newlyweds only to be shocked by what it seems a massive earthquake, panic ensues and the Prince tries to calm the town folks saying it was an earthquake but that he was going to investigate. Little did he know this was caused by a giant woman who landed in the realm seeking revenge and leaving destruction left and right. While resting the prince encounters the Baker's wife in his path and take no time to seduce her, he didn't know that Cinderella's flight were watching and ready to gossip a la Perez Hilton. Cinderella in the meantime is lamenting, once again, over her mother's grave which have been destroyed as collateral damage of the giant. After joining the Baker and then sing a song about pointing fingers on who's fault all this destruction and death was her birds took no time to spill the beans which at the moment wasn't a priority but she was planning to address it. Later on the Prince finds her and in a sheepish way she question him about his indiscretion and he treated it very casually, like infidelity it's not a big deal at least not if you're a prince charming. He told her that things weren't like he expected and he needed more *cough* vagina *cough*, she expressing very little emotion like any respectable WASP should told him that she wishes a basic life and they bid farewell, which it seems to be in the context of this tale, a verbal divorce. The ends shows Cinderella joining a new family composed of a widowed fat baker and his non-stop crying baby, a dumb-witted giant killer and a hungry girl stripped of a fabulous wolf fur hood, yeah...
If you haven't watch either movie or it has been too long go ahead and rent or buy and enjoy such fantastic films and make your own critiques.
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