Following the demise of her father, young Ella is been, maltreated by are step family, but her golden chance is about to come and a fairy is just near to help.
Cinderella is a wonderfully realized family feature that retains the strengths of its source material while at the same time updating it for today's audiences.
Kenneth Branagh's live action adaptation of Cinderella is a delightful rendition, if surprisingly traditional, that honours the classic fairy tale with a sweet, humorous and earnest treatment befitting a Disney film.
Some of the supporting players, most resplendently Cate Blanchett as the wicked stepmother and Derek Jacobi as the ailing king, are very fine. The film never soars, though.
Even allowing that Blanchett wrings a wee bit of actual pathos from the added backstory of her character's bitterness, these performances, like the CG concessions of animated animals, are irritatingly overdone.
When gown (James) meets jodhpurs (Madden) in the pivotal ballroom scene, the chemistry is palpable. In a scene that could have been a large bowl of Edwardian cheese, the two young actors give off plenty of old-fashioned romantic sparks.
Nearly a century after that black-and-white cartoon short, and 65 years after a "classic" animated feature that missed the mark, Disney finally got Cinderella right -- for now and, happily, ever after.