That Cinderella story...

[butterfly]

I'm in love with the Cinderella story. I've never actually seen a version of it that I didn't adore. The Disney version with the talking mice? Love it. Rodgers & Hammerstein's version? I've enjoyed all three versions that I've seen (I just saw Julie Andrew's version for the first time today, which is why I'm thinking about it -- and a post about how much I adore Julie Andrews would take all day to read, I think). I absolutely loved Ever After: A Cinderella Story.

Something about the story speaks to me. In part, it has to do with the power of wishing. Everything starts with a wish -- that's what the fairy godmother tells Cinderella. Hard work is often required, but the wish always comes first.

For me, the entirety of the Cinderella story is about Cinderella, of course. The prince is mostly an icon, a representation of a wish. The person in the story, the one with all the edges and desires and humanity, is Cinderella. There's a little bit of Cinderella in all of the characters that I love, because Cinderella is that aching, yearning part of the human soul that reaches out and says, "I want more." Buffy looked at what Giles and the Watchers told her that her life was destined to be and said, "No. I want more than just being a Slayer." Rose wanted to be more than 'just' a shopgirl. Daniel is the constant reaching out for knowledge, the hunger to learn more than he already knows.

This is not all I am. That's what all my Cinderellas think when confronted with the world's expectations of them. She's the girl who won't stay in her appointed place, who looks at the limitations placed on her and believes that imagination and hope can give her a miracle. He's the boy who refuses to believe in the word 'impossible'. That willingness to leap is what gives them such strength -- the same kind of strength that I'm working on trying to get for myself.

"Because the world is full of zanies and fools,
who won'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."

Comments

[jic]

Now I want to write a Cinderella story with the essence of her that you just described, and without all the crap that makes me dislike Cinderella stories. Because I like what you see, but I think I haven't seen it as much because it gets covered by other parts.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I really must show you the R&H version of Cinderella, because that's the one that I really fell in love with! It has absolutely no talking mice.

[unoriginal-liz.livejournal.com]

That's just wow. I never thought of it in terms of the Cinderella story, but that is exactly what I like about Buffy and Rose (not much of an SG1 viewer). That they do go after what they want, and refuse to be bound by what other people say they should want, or should be. Of course, your way of saying that is much prettier, though :)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Thank you kindly!

I do find that many of the things that I loved as a child still apply to the things that I love now, and there are few things that I find as enjoyable as mixing together all the ideas from all the things that I've loved to find out how they reflect on each other. There's a reason that I love Cinderella and not Sleeping Beauty, and that reason is part of why I love Buffy and Rose (Lois Lane, Elizabeth Swann, etc.) so much.

[jenelope.livejournal.com]

That's a really lovely way to look at it. You may have actually softened me toward her. I'd be happier if she took a more active role in obtaining the things she wishes for, though.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I guess that I don't see the role of the fairy godmother as making the journey easy for Cinderella as it is to make it possible at all. Cinderella wishes and when opportunity knocks, she opens the door. Which doesn't mean that I didn't adore the much more pro-active version of her in Ever After -- I did. But I don't fault the earlier versions for being less so (Sleeping Beauty, on the other hand, is a fairy tale that I dislike in both its darker, more original version, and also its softened and more modern ones).

[rjrog77.livejournal.com]

Ever After is one of my favourite retellings of the Cinderella story too, but my favourite is still probably The Slipper and the Rose (with Gemma Craven and Richard Chamberlain).

I've been a sucker for Cinderella stories/movies since as long as I can remember; it's good to find someone else who likes them too :)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Ever After is one of my favourite retellings of the Cinderella story too, but my favourite is still probably The Slipper and the Rose (with Gemma Craven and Richard Chamberlain).

Ooo! I haven't seen that one. I'm going to go put that on my netflix queue. Thanks for mentioning it.