I Can't Drive, I'm a Goose

A good amount of things have happened since I last wrote on here. Things including the Parks and Rec finale (which left me with so many emotions), my birthday party (which was 90s themed and totally rad), a very big choral festival (I might have to write about that at some point), and a Stop Hunger Now event at my school (go look them up it's a great organization). I also got a spot on my school's newspaper staff for next year!
There was one other awesome thing that happened though, and that's what I'm here to tell you about this evening.

Last night, I and seven other friends had the wonderful opportunity to see an advance screening of Disney's new Cinderella movie. The screening was held in a movie theater about 20 minutes outside of my city and I just need to take a quick moment to appreciate how beautiful this theater was. The ceiling was even shaped in a way that your voice echoed and you could hear people talking on the other side of the lobby!

The whole event was just such a thrill. There were three super lovely security men that guarded our phones (we weren't allowed to have them in the theater) and even our popcorn when we asked them to. When we walked into the room for the screening, there was an entire row of seats reserved for local critics and other official people. Not enough showed up to fill the entire row, so we snatched the reserved signs off the empty seats before we left. What rebels we are.

Right before the movie started we got a first look at the cutest Frozen animated short. The overall theme was that it was Ana's birthday and Elsa was trying to make it absolutely perfect but at the same time she had a bad cold. It also featured a brand new song! It kept the audience laughing and giggling through out. After the movie we were greeted by a lovely Disney representative who gave us comment cards to fill out and was just such a cheery person in general. Nice people are my favorite.


Now to the actual movie:
What a beautiful remake. I mean seriously, I have been so happy with Disney lately and after seeing this movie I continue to be. It stayed very true to the original Cinderella movie but with more layers added on to it. The adaption went so much more in depth with all of the characters including both parents, the step-mother, Ella and the Prince's relationship, and the Prince's life. There was so much more to these characters. Another aspect that can't go unmentioned is the use of color and costuming to tell the story. The constant use of green and black in the step-mothers wardrobe to portray her greed and envy and dressing the step-sisters in very youthful clothing to show their immaturity. I even noticed that shade of the Prince's eye's would get darker or lighter depending on his emotions. Aside from the metaphorical use of color, the costumes in general literally made me want to cry. They were so beautiful! I mean PLEASE somebody give Sandy Powell another Oscar.

Cate Blanchett as the Step-mother with Holliday Grainger and Sophia McShera as the step-sisters

Richard Madden as the Prince

Helena Bonham-Carter as the Fairy Godmother

I also want to talk about Lily James because I've seen some things online saying that she wasn't "pretty enough" to play Cinderella, or that she was "too plain". That's utterly ridiculous. If they had made Ella anymore stereotypically prettier or sexier then I would not have liked this movie as much. I loved that she had kind of funny teeth and a longish nose. I loved that she had brown eyes instead of blue. Her beauty wasn't supposed to be a kind of "in your face" beauty. It was supposed to be subtle but still apparent.

Lily James as Cinderella 

That brings me to my last topic regarding this film: the moral of the story.
There were three main messages that were made obvious to me while watching. The first was obviously the main point because Ella repeats it to herself multiple times and that is "Have courage and be kind".  I think that's a beautiful message to be sending to an audience. That phrase literally becomes Ella's life motto in the film. The other two I picked up were 'love me for who I am' and 'forgiveness is key'. I'll let you all figure out where those came in when you go see it for yourselves.

One last shoutout I'd like to make to Disney because my friend Crystal wrote an email to the company last night when we were on our way home from the screening. The email basically just summed up her happiness about the film and just a little while ago she got a reply! The response was such a gracious one and so lovely to read. They even said they'd pass her email along to the production team! How awesome is that?!

You can see the trailer [here] if you haven't already.
All images are from imdb.com and the title is one of the funniest lines in the movie.