CREDIT: WALT DISNEY STUDIOS MOTION PICTURES
If you compare the Cinderella remake to the original, it falls flat. Awesome CGI doesn't distract from overacting and the fact that the animals aren't real.

We’ve heard the tale a hundred times – a girl in rags lifted from the darkness of her life after one magical night. The orphaned child with an evil stepmother and two wicked sisters, Cinderella is a story we all know by heart. Remake after remake has been done – Ever After being a personal favourite of mine – and Disney has decided, after 65 years, to release its own live action version of the classic tale.

Sadly, for the most part, this really does just feel like a wholly unoriginal redo, with this Ella being as bland and helpless as the original. Those few brief moments of defiance we do see often appear to be in service to the plot rather than believable actions on part of the character. The most that can be said of the main character is that she’s nice. There’s a distinct lack of depth, which is even more noticeable thanks to the great number of Ellas we’ve seen that range from intelligent and bookish to strong and sassy.

While fans of Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones will be pleased to see some familiar faces, it’s important not to expect too much of the roles the actors are in. It’s clear that every actor has been requested to overact, not one of the women know how to curtsy, and the only character the audience can possibly sympathize with is Cate Blanchett as the stepmother. What’s really odd is seeing Bellatrix Lestrange in the role of Fairy Godmother, waiting for the plot twist where in return for a fancy dress Cinderella is given the Dark Mark and forced to serve He Who Must Not Be Named.

This said, there are some things Cinderella does well, especially in the design department. The costumes are all extremely well suited for each character. It’s clear that a lot of thought and work went into each outfit – although less thought went into which era they were supposed to represent. The few CG embellishments that were added – most notably the animals – were also thoughtfully created and managed to be reminiscent of their cartoon counterparts while still being a little more realistic. Why one would bother with realism while still having magic as a large part of the story is a mystery but perhaps better than having half the movie be about the talking mice.

One of the biggest problems might be that – at least for the theatrical release – the audience first sees the animated short Frozen Fever, which features all of the favourite characters from Frozen. It’s a difficult transition to go from the mindset of one of the best Disney animated musicals to a live action film with an indifferent heroine, especially considering how well developed Anna and Elsa are as characters.

As with every Disney movie, Cinderella is well produced, but the film really could have done more to shine through as a new classic. Instead, thanks to some poor direction and fairly boring characters, this will be a soon forgotten film, doomed to rot away in the Disney vault.