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Ranking Disney's Various Cinderellas from Best to Worst

Including Cinderella 1950, Rodger's & Hammerstein's Cinderella 1997, Cinderella II: Dreams Come True 2002, Cinderella III: A Twist in Time 2007, Once Upon a Time 2011&2016, and Cinderella 2015.

By Sasha NicholsPublished 3 years ago 19 min read
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1. Cinderella 1997

  • Cinderella: "I'm not sure I want to meet this stranger. I doubt if he has any idea how a girl should be treated.
  • Prince: "Like a princess, I suppose."
  • Cinderella: "No. Like a person. With kindness and respect."

This Cinderella isn't about being kind, she is about true love and dreams. Not to say she isn't kind, but she has no animal friends to specifically show her being kind (we do see mice but they do nothing outside of what mice would do). We do see her kindness, in her honest but tactful way she tells her step-sisters when a hat is unflattering. And again when she is almost run over by a carriage, someone comes over to help her (the Prince) and says that they didn't care if they were in anybody's way, but she says she is sure they must have been off to somewhere important, giving them the benefit of the doubt.

  • Step-Mother: "Remember, girls, we hide our flaws until after the wedding."
  • Cinderella: "Shouldn't a man love you for who you are, in spite of everything?"

She is a romantic, believing in true love. Cinderella finds happiness and reprieve in her daydreams rather than friendships with animals (or friendships with anyone, she is pretty much alone accept for her stepfamily). Wishing to escape from where she is, but feeling stuck because she promised her father before he died they would stay together as a family.

  • Cinderella: "I've always hoped that someone would come and take me away from here."
  • Fairy Godmother: "If you want to get out of here, you're going to have to do it yourself. The music's in you, deep down in your soul. When you find it, nothing will be able to keep you from walking out that door."

Her fairy godmother comes to her and helps her go to the ball. She also tells her that only wishing for her dreams won't help her achieve them and tells her that her father wouldn't have wanted her to be treated like this. Though, it isn't that she tells her that she shouldn't have dreams, but that having dreams isn't enough to make them come true. Cinderella later shares similar advice with the Prince.

  • Prince: "You know what I wish? I wish--
  • Cinderella: "You know, the trouble with most people is they sit around wishing for something to happen instead of just doing something about it."

After returning from the ball, we see how her romanticism and dreams inspire her stepsisters to daydream too. Then, when her stepmother is even crueler to her, insulting both her and her father's memory she is hurt. Now that she has experienced love from someone, she decides she deserves better and she can't stay anymore. And in the end, when we get the classic scene of the stepmother locking the door so that she can't come out to try on the shoe only for the door to be opened anyway...she isn't there. She has already left. She didn't wait for the Prince to save her. She saved herself. He meets her outside and recognizes her as the girl he met in the market and at the ball. And they get married. So, he is still part of her happily ever after and does take her to a better place. But it really resonated a lot with me that she didn't need or wait for someone to save her, that even though he took her to a better situation, she got out of the bad situation herself first.

  • Cinderella "I know I promised I would never leave here. But after tonight, I don't see how I can stay...I deserve better, Father. I deserve to be loved. That's what I found out tonight. And that's all that really matters."

Not related to the character, but related to why this is such a great adaptation: there is a diverse, highly talented cast (including Whitney Houston, Brandy, Jason Alexander, Whoopi Goldberg, Bernadette Peters, and Victor Garber), the costumes were colorful and extravagant, there were great messages and funny lines, and the musical numbers were really well done.

"Impossible! But the world is full of zanies and fools

Who don't believe in sensible rules

And won't believe what sensible people say

And because these daft and dewy-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes

Impossible things are happening every day!"

Cinderella 1950

Pretty, sweet, and kind. The Classic Disney princess that can talk to animals and receives help from them.

Her making clothes for the animals highlights her kindness because her own apron is torn and she has so little of her own, but she still goes out of her way to make outfits for all the mice and birds (even shoes and hats!). But as kind as she is, she also retains some sass and has moments of sarcasm.

Of the Cinderella's, I think based on what is established, she had the hardest upbringing. She looks very young when her mother died and is still young when her father remarries, only to die himself. We are told that her stepmother abused and humiliated her while wasting the family fortune even before she had to be a servant. So, she grew up in a really horrible environment and so to retain her optimism, hope, and compassion is really a commendable achievement.

It also establishes early on that she has a problem with her shoes falling off. She also has an impressive ability to balance whole breakfast trays on her head. In the end, though her friends had to help her get out of the attic, she still went rushing down to let them know she was there to ask to try it on. And didn't wait to be asked, she was sure of what she wanted and went after it.

Cinderella III

The movie itself is out of sync with the movie proceeding it, as it would have had to have occurred before Anastasia found love with the Baker, but the actions that the step-mother took would likely have gotten her arrested (if they ever bothered to return her to human form). But the Prince jumping out the window the way he did, on the advice of talking mice no less, was everything.

Very in line with the 1950 version, she was persistent and strong, but still kind. She didn't let her step-mother having the wand stop her from trying to be with the man she loved. She has a lot less going for her and a lot more stacked against her, but still actively fights for what she wants. And yet, despite the extremes her stepfamily has gone to, she still shows compassion for Anastasia and jumps in front of her to protect her without hesitation.

Cinderella II 2002

"I've been trying to obey someone else's rules for who I should be and how I should dress."

She retains who she was in the 1950 version, still kind, hopeful, and strong-minded. She doesn't let being royal go to her head or change her, choosing to instead change traditions (for the better). We also get to see her struggle, not just against a villain, but herself as she tries and fails to learn all that she thinks she is supposed to know. And how she works hard to overcome it, both through hard work and coming up with a new solution.

We also see that she not only is not harboring any hard feelings against Anastasia, but that she wants what is best for her as she actively works to help her find love of her own. Though, I feel like the Cinderella III version of Cinderella wouldn't have just listened as the stepmother tried to drag Anastasia away from the baker and would have stepped out of the shadows to defend Anastasia's decision.

Into the Woods 2014

She could have used the advice that 1997 Cinderella received. Though, the message of this movie is more "careful what you wish for" than it is about wishes coming true.

Seemed a little judgmental when the Baker's wife said her husband was working to undo a spell considering her mother's ghost got a tree to magically make a gold dress and gold shoes for her so she could go to the ball.

We see that she forgave her step-family (or decided that being blinded and having parts of their limbs cut off was enough punishment) as they are on the wall with her after her wedding.

Her love for the prince diminishes quickly (though, it is understandable). And is kind and tries to help others (even in dangerous situations). She also was kind to not tell the baker about his wife's infidelity.

Once Upon a Time

A bit of a conundrum. With a penchant for crime. Perhaps a little selfish too. Certainly, the most flawed of the Cinderella's. But still interesting enough as a character to keep her from being on the bottom of the list.

In the fairytale world: She witnesses her fairy godmother murdered in front of her, then immediately asks the murderer to help her. Says she will do anything for her life to change, but doesn't just leave instead choosing to make a deal with a murderer promising that she will give him anything he asks for (at a later date). Later in the show we are shown her life with her stepfamily and she doesn't seem afraid of them, as she backtalks to her stepmother without hesitation. We also don't really see her stepmother being any meaner to her than any other version's of the stepmother. It does seem to suggest at one point that she was kind to mice as Gus attends the ball with her as a human.

  • Cinderella "My life is wretched."
  • Rumpelstiltskin: "Then change it."

She later tells her step-mother where her stepsister ran off to (despite her sister actually being kind to her and helping her) so that her stepmother won't break her shoe. In a way, choosing her chance for a happy ending over her sister's. She could have lied about where her sister was going, her stepmother wouldn't have known in the moment. And then after the Prince found her and proposed, she ran to help her stepsister and the first thing she did was tell her stepsister that she was engaged (to be fair, she did start with a short kind of dismissive sounding "sorry"). She literally runs up to see her stepsister crying over her lover's unconscious body and the first thing she does is announce her engagement? Didn't even ask if he was okay or elaborate why her engagement would help her stepsister marry him (if he was still alive) or even try to explain why she did it. Nope, it was "sorry that your mom might have just murdered your love in front of you, but I'm going marry my love".

In Storybrooke: She decides to keep her baby and breaks into Mr. Gold's store and knocks him out to steal something back from him. Despite not being sure if she is ready to be a parent and having already sold her baby to Gold, she changes her mind and plans to run away with the child. After just committing a crime.

Later in the show, she ends up running a daycare. She is very grateful to Emma and is being kind to others, helping and offering free babysitting to the new people's kids. She runs a Mommy-and-Me class and helps other mothers, which is all good.

But then her husband's gun goes missing and he automatically assumes that she has taken it to shoot her step-sister. And he is concerned enough that he goes right to Emma to get her to track her down and go after her. It says a lot about her character that her "true love" would jump to the conclusion that she was capable of hurting (even killing) her sister and then didn't even go after her himself. It also shows how closed off she is that she didn't tell him how it was her sister that kept her from running away before he could find her. Especially because he passed the rose on from his servant to her, so he would have likely known that she was not as horrible a person as she seemed.

Ashley did stand in front of her sister when her stepmother threatened her, but it also seems like she a) was doing it out of guilt more than anything else and b) not really expecting her stepmother to actually do anything because despite her stepmother proclaiming that the gun was not personal enough a weapon, she still looked surprised when she got stabbed.

Cinderella 2015

To sum up her character, she is kind...and that's basically it. To quote another movie on this list, "you're not good, you're not bad, you're just nice". That kind of fits her. There wasn't much depth to her character and she came across kind of bland, kind of hollow, and kind of weak. There are four main reasons that this Cinderella comes off as less developed and deep than the other Cinderella's on this list (in my opinion).

The first and simplest is the narration. There is constant narration throughout the movie that takes away her depth and her thoughts and gives them to her fairy godmother (the narrator) instead. Even the story, her story, isn't being told in her own voice.

The second is that the stepmother did not seem nearly as wicked as the other versions (especially since several of the others were ready to murder people or dismembering their own daughters). And I felt actually kind of sorry for her. Not to justify her cruelty, but I do see where it came from. Unlike in the animated version where she just seems like she was mean and that's all there was to it. In this, it is clear she also lost her spouse who she loved greatly (she called him the light of her life), but had to keep her head for the sake of her daughters. And times were such that he could easily have chosen to not marry (and it's not like Cinderella was still so young that she needed him to marry so she would have a mother-figure). She, on the other hand, would have needed to marry (both for herself and her daughters--she says as much to Cinderella). She finds a nice man to marry, but he consistently shows that he is more in love with his wife's memory than her. She tries to be a good wife to him and she tries to bring joy back to the household and instead of joining in, he continues to basically sulk and mourn his previous wife by himself and constantly travels. Her own spouse has died more recently than his as well. She even overhears him basically saying that she and her daughters are difficult and that he still misses his first wife. Which is understandable, he did love her. But it must have hurt to hear that after all her attempts to make him happy. And his words I imagine inspired jealousy in the stepmother towards Cinderella, because he basically makes it clear he loves Cinderella, his first wife, then the house because it is a memory of his first wife, and then maybe her. It couldn't have helped that upon his death, it was Cinderella that the messenger was instructed to notify about his death. It wasn't "your husband and father died" direct to all of them, it was specifically to Cinderella "your father died and he wanted me to give you this".

Another reason is that the timeline is so condensed. In the animated version, Cinderella is much younger both when her father remarries and when he dies. So, she puts up with her stepfamily and their mistreatment much longer (in this as well, it seems like his death causes the loss of income to the household as opposed to the animated version where the step-mother spent it all on herself and her daughters while abusing and humiliating Cinderella, even before she had to be a servant). In this version, it is shortly after his marriage to the step-mother that he dies. And the step-sisters seem to had barely even finished unpacking when he left. So, she gives them her room and is sent to the attic. Ella finds the attic too cold and sleeps in the kitchen instead.

(Months pass between his leaving and his death, but she has been in the attic the whole time. So, for it to be too cold, when there was no fireplace before, it seems more related to the season now being winter rather than her having to do chores. We aren't specifically told when he left, but it would suggest that it is the first winter she has spent in the attic. Meaning it was less than a year since he left that she slept by the fire.)

After waking up by the fire covered in ash (seems basically like the first night she spent by the fire), she becomes Cinderella and makes the transition to "servant" not family (as they tell her she can't eat at the table with them). She then meets the Prince moments later when she almost runs away on a horse, setting the rest of the events in motion.

Everything really could have happened all within the same year: from her father's marriage to her own. So, it basically diminishes the message of "staying kind" even when you have a harsh childhood, because she didn't grow up with them. She grew up with two parents that were kind, devoted, and loved her. Her mother died, probably when she was around ten or eleven (obviously heartbreaking, I can't even imagine how much it would hurt if my father died). And then she had her father, who loved her greatly, to herself until she was an adult (19), so 9+ years. He then got married, and she had to spent a comparably short amount of time with people who were cruel to her when she was already an adult, who could have left at anytime as well. Her whole childhood was shaped by love, not cruelty or mistreatment like most of the other Cinderella's. And she had human friendships, something none of the other Cinderella's had prior to the ball. So, unlike them, she received kindness from other humans even while she was being mistreated by her stepfamily.

As a side note to the timeline, because it is so condensed we also see very little screen time of Cinderella with them. She says that she was "always nice" to her step-mother, but...she barely seems to say anything at all to her. She doesn't attend her step-mother's parties, though it seems clear she was invited, instead choosing to talk to the mice by herself. She offers her room to the step-sisters, which was nice...but also practical. There are two of them it makes sense that if they were to share a room it would be a bigger room than a room for one person. In the scene where she first goes up to the attic, it is Cinderella that refers to them as stepsisters and says she is glad to be away from them (even calling the attic a refuge), while they refer to her (twice) as their sister (without the "step" distinction). She later makes faces of disgust at one of her sister's poor singing. And that is really the extent of what we see of her "kindness" to her stepfamily, only hiding it when she sees her stepmother notice. And she was not particularly kind to the cat either (making no attempt to help him after he injured himself) all because he did what comes naturally to a cat, chasing mice. Even when things were good, before her father's death and her transition to servant, she basically avoided them or placated them and that was all. Which I don't think is really the same as kindness. Now, I'm not saying that her being nice or trying to get along with them instead of basically distancing herself from them before her father left for his trip and died would have changed anything, but it does make me question what she considers to be kindness.

The final reason, at least the final one that I will include as I don't want this to get too long, is that she didn't open the window herself. I get it. The mice hadn't really had their big moment to save her yet, but COME ON. She could see the guards were outside and knew why they were there. And surely she saw the mice doing acrobatics to try open the window. I mean, she couldn't even help them open it so that they didn't accidentally fall to their deaths once the window was opened? Really? I mean, she was singing and knew they might hear her, so like...was that some sort of incredibly passive attempt to get their attention? Animated Cinderella broke out of the attic and ran down the stairs begging to have a chance to try the shoe on. She didn't wait to be let out of the attic and she didn't wait to be asked to try it on. This Cinderella didn't even ask to try the shoe on. The guard came into the room and she stood their in complete silence. The only reason she said anything was because the stepmother called herself Cinderella's mother. So, like...if she had just said that she was Cinderella's boss or aunt would Cinderella have just continued to stand there in silence while staring at him blankly?

Also, this really will be the final point, but she has been "Cinderella" for like...maybe a month at this point? And she HATED the nickname and almost ran away because of it (with the narration saying it "transformed her into a creature of ash and toil"), so why when asked her name by the prince would she say her name was Cinderella? That just doesn't make sense to me.

Disclaimer: I want to end by saying that these are my opinions and are not fact. I would also like to say that while I always felt more like Belle than Cinderella, I did see myself in her. My family was not always kind and while I never had a wicked stepmother, I did have an emotionally abusive and manipulative mother. One response that I have gotten in the past is that I don't give Cinderella enough credit for staying kind even though she grew up in an abusive household, but I think that having grown up in a similar household seeing Cinderella save herself or even just actively work towards something was more inspiring to me than her just waiting for someone to help her (i.e. why 1997 and 2005 are the highest two while 2015 is the lowest). And while it does take strength to stay kind and hopeful in a toxic environment, being kind and hopeful doesn't mean only being passive or being a doormat.

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Sasha Nichols

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