Movie Report : Cinderella Stories

The Roaring Twenties were a very important time in America’s history. I chose this topic to discuss because I think it brought about many great changes, especially for women. Women were finally able to break away from tradition. They wore shorter dresses, cut their hair short, and expressed themselves more. Some women also enjoyed dancing and became flappers. This is one of the first times women have been able to do things like this, which I think is extremely important. The only downfall of the 1920’s was prohibition, which outlawed alcohol. I’m not really sure why they outlawed it during this time period. This was supposed to be the era of fun and prosperity, and many people drink for fun. However, this did not stop people from drinking,

In Peggy Orenstein’s article, “What’s wrong with Cinderella?”, she analyzes the obsessions young girls have for stereotypical feminine products and toys, such as princesses and the color pink. Orenstein claims that such obsessions have negative effects on girls as they grow into women, restricting them into playing a specific role in adulthood. Although the author expresses much bias, she effectively supports her claims through her positions as a feminists and parent.

Have you ever had a dark and gloomy day? Imagine having that feeling every single day. The Grimm’s Cinderella was written in 1812. 1812 was one of the harshest years for America. An event that formed it was the war against Great Britain and the United States. Not only was there a war, but there was also a series of disastrous harvests. Taxes got higher, and more than twenty people who were involved with a Luddite Act were hung. In 1812, there was also the only assassination of a prime minister, who was shot dead in the House of Commons. The Grimm Brothers have put the dark times of 1812 into their stories. Some of their stories contain violence, child abuse, and wicked mothers. They came up with these types of stories after their father died, and when they struggled out of school. That gave them enough time to research and put together a collection of folk tales. Now you can see why the Grimm’s Cinderella was dark and gloomy. Although the plot stayed the same, over the years, the story did get lighter. Disney’s Cinderella came out in 1950. In 1950, learning information was not by fear, but by engaging happiness. Disney’s Cinderella transforms the Grimm’s Cinderella into a happier atmosphere. While some similarities between Disney’s Cinderella and Grimm’s Cinderella are noticeable, the differences are pronounced, especially when referring to the slippers, her father, and the ball.

What people see is not necessarily all they get; there are more significant aspects that encompass what people use, hear, or see, besides the obvious messages employed throughout popular culture. It is not uncommon to find hidden messages within our culture today, especially in the context of movies. One movie in particular, the newest Cinderella, is full of these hidden messages. Besides the common message that is employed throughout Cinderella over and over again, the message to “have courage and be kind”, there are several hidden meanings that are often not discovered by viewers. These messages include “being a light” when surrounded on all sides by darkness, believing in the unbelievable, recognizing the fact that parent’s greatly influence their children, and seeing that it is okay to want a happily ever after kind of love.

The story that most of us know as “Cinderella” actually has a lot of different versions. These different versions contain several elements that are similar, but yet even more elements that differ from one another. The three main difference between all the different versions of this story are the characters, how others treat the main character, and the setting in which these stories take place.

Disney makes over $3 billion on their Disney Princess products every year and now have over 25,000 items in their princess collection (Orenstein 2). Disney has played a big role in shaping not only societal viewpoints on what young girls should like, but also what little girls believe they should enjoy as well. Gender stereotypes have been around for a long time, but now with technology advancements, such as media in western society is able to play a bigger than ever role in influencing people’s perspectives. Not only do we see gender roles and stereotypes in television shows, but also in advertisements and in children’s toys. Although many readers of Peggy Orenstein’s “What’s wrong with Cinderella” have argued that the princess culture is corrupting today’s young girls and making them more dependent on men, a closer examination shows that many girls grow out of the princess phase with no negative repercussions and choose whatever passions they want.

Today everywhere you look girls of every age seem to be caught in the glitz and glam of being that fairytale princess from the stories of their childhood. In “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” Peggy Orenstein argues that it has come to a point where the craze for princesses has corrupted the minds of the young girls everywhere, and how it may be teaching them self-worth it has also led groups of girls to believe that they can lead the same lives as these fictional princess characters that sing to creatures and have magical powers. Also, to make matters worse companies like Disney keep feeding into this hidden epidemic of.

Cinderella Man was an incredibly magnificent and uplifting film that followed the life of the “Bulldog”, later entitled “Cinderella Man”, starring Russell Crowe as James J. Braddock, the American heavyweight boxer. Primarily, Cinderella Man embodies strength and willpower as once-undefeated heavyweight fighter, Braddock’s loses started to rapidly accumulate, so bad that he was released from his boxing contract and was merciless impeded from fighting. Correspondingly, deprived of work the bulldog began to undertake hard labor during the Great Depression to counterbalance myriad bills and overdue payments. Moreover, Braddock and his wife Mae together had three children to nourish. Correspondingly, years later, Joe Gould played by Paul Giamatti, was Braddock’s old boxing manager and contracted him one last concluding fight, which he won. Hence, the Bulldog started to train again and James J. Braddock was reborn after countless winning comebacks. Ultimately, Jimmy undergoes a fairy tale rise from a poor local fighter to the heavyweight-boxing champion of the world.

Cinderella lived with her step mother and was always pushed around and forced to work. Cinderella’s step mother was not kind to Cinderella. Her step mother was always making Cinderella do everything and not her two step sisters. Cinderella’s step sisters, Drizella and Anastasia were the favorite to their mother. The fairy godmother came to save Cinderella’s night and used her magic powers to help Cinderella, as she was a caring and nice godmother to Cinderella. The prince was a good man trying to find the perfect women for him at his royal ball.

In the novel, “Cinderella”, the brothers Grimm described the bird coming to aid Cinderella, so she may go to the ball. However, the fantasy aspect of something coming to your rescue does not always occur. The authors state, “Then the bird threw a gold and silver dress down to her, and slippers embroidered with silk and silver. She put on the dress with all speed, and went to the festival.” (Grimm and Grimm).The birds can be characterized as a type of fairy godmother that comes to assist Cinderella in overcoming her wicked stepmother and stepsisters. However, in today's society, not many people have the opportunity to get assistance in achieving a desire they wish to have. Many would argue that Cinderella could have just wished to have a better

Cinderella accepts her chores outlined by her stepmother, never complaining about the asymmetry of domestic expectations between herself and the favoured stepsisters. Further, she never questions why she is being treated differently; rather, she accepts her stepmother’s authority, displaying the instructional relationship between parent and child as outlined in the common conduct book. Interestingly, the “otherness” of the stepmother (as opposed to her birth mother) does not change this dynamic. Cinderella still accepts the nature of the authoritative relationship, submitting to her motherly figure. In addition, she also refrains from complaining to her father about her ill-treatment.

Each person in the world has heard of Cinderella, no matter what kind of version it may be. Cinderella is the one fairy tale story that has been popular and will always be the one tale that has to be told to children. Words and story lines might be twist and turn, but in the end the knowledge of the story will be learned in similar ways. As we all know when one story is told another is created, when one is at its best then another is at its worse. One version will always be better than another, but no matter what version it might be the story will be told.

Disney reigns supreme, and part of that supreme reign is an unquestionable privileging of patriarchy, and in particular: whiteness. Beginning with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, all of Disney’s princesses have been predominantly white. As Walt Disney Company sets its position as a media powerhouse, it places itself the center of controversy with its recent movie The Princess and the Frog. The film is steeped in racial controversy since Disney first announced their plans for the first black princess.

     When examining adaptations of fairytales you must look at the original source. This can be a very difficult task because with fairytales we never really know where the original came from. I will base my paper on the theory that the original tale of Cinderella comes from the Grimm Brothers version of Ashputtle. In comparison we will examine two movies. First there is the Disney version Cinderella. Secondly we will look at the movie 'Ever After'.

During the twenties people were living throught one the best years in American History. People were happy, successful, and prospering. However this all changed on October 29th, 1919. This is also known as “Black Tuesday”, The Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Great Crash, or the Stock Market Crash of 1929. On this day more then 16 million stocks were sold. Since this was such an enormous number the market could not handle it and disintegrated. People lost all there money due to this and started the Great Depression. Farmers were unable to sell crops. Also, they were getting huge dust storms which would ruin their crops and their land. Since nobody had any money people had to live in “hoovevilles”. They could not afford food, clothes, a bed, or any other everyday resource that people take for granted. The movie “Cinderella Man” shows a fullproof example of what it was like for the people who lived through it. James Braddock is a good, sucessful, and loved boxer who invested all of his money into the Stock Market. Once it crashed he lost all of his money, couldn’t get a job, and was unable to provide for his family. He breaks his hand as well as take an embarissing defeat. For these reasons and more gets his oxing license taken away. Braddock finally found a job at the dock, but he was not promised work everyday. After his hand heals, he gets another chance at boxing and wins. Then, he gets his license back and decides to fight Max Baer. He risked death by