7 ways Camila Cabello’s Cinderella will be too woke for OG Disney fans: Amazon Prime’s ‘Ella’ is now an ambitious dressmaker who puts off marrying the prince
- Director Kay Cannon’s controversial plot rewrite gives Ella more agency and adds a Princess Gwen inspired by Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren
- The musical also stars Pierce Brosnan and Minnie Driver, with Nicholas Galitzine as the prince and a nonbinary Fabulous Godmother played by Billy Porter
The latest Cinderella film, now streaming on Amazon Prime, is not your mother’s fairy tale. “This iconic story is told over and over again because it’s always for the new generation,” said its writer-director Kay Cannon. “I was excited to make a modern retelling for this new generation that’s significantly different from what I grew up with and what my mother grew up with.”
Although this distinctly “woke”, 21st-century retelling has taken its shots from a number of critics, Cannon stands behind the changes she’s made, giving Ella some career ambition, closing a few logistical loopholes and tweaking the ending of the story: “If I were a kid now, I’d be happy to see this version of Cinderella because I do think a lot of people will see themselves in her that maybe couldn’t before.”
Here are seven changes this modern day musical Cinderella made to the well-known fairy tale:
Ella’s designer dreams
In this Cinderella, Ella – played by Camila Cabello – wants to make dresses and sell them as a means of supporting herself. This allows the character, usually a damsel-in-distress, her own ambition and agency. “Giving Cinderella some drive is just so that she can want more out of her life, and be able to actively go after it,” said Cannon.
It also solves the key problem of the basement: it’s no longer a place of punishment but a cultivated workspace. “She wasn’t put there by her stepmother; she put herself down there to work hard and make her own dreams come true,” explained Cannon.
That meet-cute moment
