Cinderella

As we continue to discuss the originality of movies or the lack thereof, I find it is most evident in fairytales. Fairytales like Snow White or Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast are so often recreated that the storyline is often confused. Cinderella is the most common fairytale to be recreated. Since the creation of Cinderella by Walt Disney in 1950, there have been various recreations of the story of Cinderella. Even this creation is a recreation of the original Brother Grimm’s story. Just to name a few versions of Cinderella in no particular order:

1. Ella Enchanted

2. Enchanted

3. Into the Woods

4. Ever After

5. A Cinderella Story

6. Another Cinderella Story

7. Cinderella Man

8. Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella

9. Cinderella (2015)

10.Walt Disney’s Cinderella

11. Cinderella II

12. Cinderella III: A Twist in Time

13. The Glass Slipper

14. Happily N’ever After

15. Cinderella (2000)

16. Charming

This list may seem long, though this list only includes the many popular versions. My video that I showed in my show-and-tell shows what movies are highlighted as the best versions. There are hundreds more versions all around the world of Cinderella. So the question comes into play about how original stories can be when the storyline continues to be stretched and altered with each new version. Cinderella is constantly altered in creative and imaginative ways.

Have writers become so unoriginal that they have to copy the stories of others or is the story so original that writers find success in remaking it? The versions vary slightly from the typical story of Cinderella that everyone knows; a young girl loses her father and becomes daughter to an evil stepmother who uses her as a maid, but after going to a ball a young prince saves her from her fate. This storyline is so well-known, especially after each recreation, though to be recreated and not an exact copy then it has to be changed in some slight way. Almost each of the versions have become successful because of the strong emotions for the original. They may be copies of an original story, but the story is so successful that even the recreations have become originals after time. So time seems to play a role in the originality of a story.

Even Disney chose to remake its own original animated movie and recreate it. This time they decided to use live action, but they knew that it was time after seventy-five years to bring back something so original and beautiful. The story is based off of the original storyline and the only difference is the difference in animation and live action. Yet even though it lacks originality it became so successful.

This means the beauty must lie in the original and not in the recreation. The original movie is rooted in each of its recreations. Because recreations involve the original then they are beautiful due to the use of originality. Each new version of Cinderella may lack an original storyline, but is capable of being on its own original depending on the variations. The success of the original will always be deemed greater as it was the first of its own success, but the recreations can still be successful because of the original that it pulls success from.

Originality is also not always reflective of the most original, but the most successful. Walt Disney’s original Cinderella story is a spinoff of the Brothers Grimm tale. The tale is not well-known because it was not as successful. It is the original or at least where the “original” originated from. So maybe success can be more important than originality. If everyone builds off of one solid idea, then eventually the most successful will be the most well-known. Cinderella is such a great story that has become more popular than any other fairytale, not just because of its originality, but because of its many many many recreations. It just happens to be that Walt Disney’s original animation of Cinderella is the most well-known.