11 surprising details in Amazon’s new ‘Cinderella’ movie

Cinderella’s dress was meant to be pinkish, according to costume designer Ellen Mirojnick

Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick told Insider that she was “upset” that in the movie, Camila Cabello’s ball dress looks white when in fact the color is meant to be a slightly pinkish blush color. This differs from the marketing as well, where the poster tints the dress lavender for a reason which isn’t clear or linked to any part of the movie.

Mirojnick said: “I saw it last night on a screen and it looked white to me and it is not white at all. To be honest with you, it upset me quite a lot because it was never meant to be white. I chose a blush color and I think that however it was color timed, it wasn’t color timed properly.”

Disney’s animated classic “Cinderella” also had a conflict between the marketing and the actual dress in the movie. Today’s Rheana Murray wrote in 2017 that while the first shot we see of Cinderella’s magical dress is white and silver, it is now commonly known as blue. Murray references a Disney fan blog that claims the dress only appears blue in the ballroom scene because of the lighting.

Cinderella’s fairy godmother is genderless

This retelling of “Cinderella” has a few key departures from the iconic Disney story. One notable change is that Cinderella’s fairy godmother is genderless and the character is played by a cis male actor, Billy Porter.

Kay Cannon, the director and screenwriter of the movie, told Insider that Fabulous Godmother (aka Fab G) was the only character she wrote with a specific actor in mind for the part, and that actor was Porter. Porter was more than happy to take the role and told Insider that he “ran around the house screaming” when he found out he got the part.

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“I wanted to be the male Whitney Houston when I was 14 years old,” the “Pose” star said. ” I got this call and I ran around the house screaming and hollering, ‘I got the Whitney Houston part, I got the Whitney Houston part.'”

He continued: “Dreams do come true even when you forget about them. I never would have imagined that in a million years.”

Porter added that his character is “genderless” because discussion between himself and Cannon led to the conclusion that “magic has no gender” so the character can be genderless.

There’s a new royal family member: Princess Gwen (Tallulah Greive)

This “Cinderella” also introduces another member to the royal family.

Princess Gwen, played by Tallulah Greive, is an alternative for the throne — a threat that King Rowan (Pierce Brosnan) holds over the Prince’s (Nicholas Galitzine) head to get him to behave.

Greive does not have many lines, but in the few she does have, her character becomes this fairytale world’s version of a progressive leader, bringing up solutions to climate change and poverty during the awkward moments in the movie.

Cinderella can’t understand the mice

A key difference between this adaptation of the fairytale and the Disney version is that Cinderella cannot actually understand the mice, despite the fact the audience can. In certain moments it almost seems like Cinderella can hear and understand the mice voiced by British comedians James Corden, James Acaster, and Romesh Ranganathan.

However, towards the end, we hear what they sound like from Cinderella’s point of view and it is just mouse squeaks. Cinderella is able to understand them when they are in human form though.

Cinderella’s stepmother isn’t evil in this modern adaptation

The most dramatic change from the original fairytale is the way the wicked stepmother is portrayed.

Vivian, played by Idina Menzel, is presented less like an evil villain and more like a conservative parent who belittles their child’s progressive ideas. In the narration, voiced by Porter, Vivian is described as a “practical woman,” and the movie paints her as a character who is just trying to do what’s best for her daughters, and Cinderella, even if it hurts their feelings.

Later in the movie, we’re also given context for why Vivian is so set on her traditional ways and, as Cannon pointed out to Insider, this is the only “Cinderella” version where the stepmother is forgiven at the end.

“There’s no villain in the movie,” Cannon explained. “Whenever they’re singing to each other, Camila and Idina, at the end during ‘Let’s Get Loud’ I always tear up.”

“I’m my mother’s daughter, but how she was raised is very different than how I was raised and my worldview. And we clash sometimes, but there is so much love there,” she continued. “I just get emotional thinking about it. This idea that you can bridge the gap through love and understanding is a beautiful thing.”

“Cinderella” is a musical with mostly covers and only two original songs

Alongside the modern updates, Cannon differentiates her “Cinderella” by making it a musical full of cover tunes. The original soundtrack ranges from classics like “Somebody To Love” by Queen to more modern music like Nico & Vinz’s “Am I Wrong?”

Cannon told Insider that each character has their own genre of music throughout the movie, which explains the range. For example, the Prince and his friends were meant to be like The Strokes, which is why they sing a lot of rock songs like The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army.”

There are also two original songs, “Million To One” sung by Cabello and “Dream, Girl” sung by Menzel. Menzel told Insider that it was a “real milestone” to shoot her song because she had co-written it with songwriter Laura Veltz.

She said: “A lot of people submitted songs for this moment in the movie and I went with my friend, Laura Veltz and we co-wrote a song. I submitted it and [Cannon] embraced it.”

Despite this being a story about Cinderella, there may be a nod to the story of “Sleeping Beauty”

This movie may be about Cinderella, but there might be a few nods to other fairytales.

At the beginning of the movie, Ella (Cabello) is sleeping in her basement workshop really close to a pillow of pins. Despite the voiceover warning from Porter, who is narrating this particular scene, Cabello falls onto the pins and immediately wakes up.

This almost seems like a reversal of the magic pin prick that puts Princess Aurora in “Sleeping Beauty” into a deep sleep. This may be entirely coincidental, but with the way this movie makes references to the real world, I wouldn’t put it past them referencing another fairytale.

In Ella’s dream, the shop next to hers is called the Pollen Brothers, which probably has a link to her floral dress

When Cabello sings “Million To One,” there’s a dream sequence where we see Cinderella’s ideal future, in which she owns a shop in town.

In the dream, right next door to her is a flower shop called the Pollen Brothers, which seems very pointedly placed, as Cinderella is wearing a pretty pink floral dress in this scene and there is a lot of other floral clothing throughout the movie.

Fab G calling the mice “disgusting little creatures” is a callback to earlier in the movie

There’s a fun callback in the scene where Fab G finally appears and gets Cinderella ready for the ball. Fab G calls the three mice “disgusting little creatures,” particularly offending the mouse voiced by James Acaster.

This actually references a moment earlier in the movie where the three mice call the caterpillar that Cinderella saves “gross” during its metamorphosis into a butterfly. This caterpillar ended up turning into Fab G — so Ella’s godmother was clearly just throwing the mouse trio’s insult back at them.

John Mulaney and Missy Elliot were originally meant to appear in “Cinderella”

The final cast for “Cinderella” could have been slightly different.

According to Deadline, both Missy Elliot and John Mulaney were originally cast in the movie. Elliot would have done the rap scenes as the town crier instead of Doc Brown, and Mulaney would have voiced one of the three mice in place of Acaster.

It’s not clear why Elliot and Mulaney ultimately didn’t appear, but Acaster’s and Brown’s involvement makes the movie even more British than it already is. Despite being an American production, much of the speaking cast are British, which creates a slightly disorienting clash in accents.

Cannon convinced Cabello to take the lead role in “Cinderella” using an actual glass slipper

In an interview with Variety, Cannon said she went to Miami to meet with Cabello with a glass slipper, like in the movie, to persuade her that she is the right fit for the movie.

Clearly, it didn’t take too much convincing on Cannon’s part. In 2019, Cabello herself told Variety that being Cinderella was a “dream” for her.

“It was one of those things that felt like God handcrafted it for me and was, like, ‘Here you go,'” she said. “I just couldn’t say no. It’s honestly a dream for me. And also a little bit terrifying.”

In fact, Cabello was so excited that she fainted before delivering her speech at its premiere at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, which she revealed on stage at the event.

Read the original article on Insider