Branagh's Cinderella - A Modern Fairytale?

There's no denying that Kenneth Branagh's new Disney film is a cinematic masterpiece, full of stunning scenery, breath-taking costumes and stellar acting from the lead Lily James; her stepmother Cate Blanchet and Helena Bonham-Carter playing a wonderfully ditzy Fairy Godmother.

The film remains largely true to the original fairy-tale and so the familiarity holds the attention of the young audience, despite it being probably their first Disney experience without huge-eyed computer animated characters - although they did still cast actresses with alarmingly minuscule waistlines.

The movie has been cleverly marketed to younger girls with the lure of the much anticipated sequel to Frozen, a short 7 minute animation which re-introduces us to Elsa and Anna.  So given the impressionable audience, do we still want our daughters aspiring to this rags-to-riches 'heroine'?

Well, Branagh has gone some way to appease the feminists, but probably not nearly far enough.  The main deviation from the traditional storyline is that Cinderella first meets the Prince in the forest - although of course she has no clue as to his fine breeding.  This meeting as equals, with her in her scullery maid outfit is meant to show us that true love transcends beauty (although that may be easier to believe if she weren't so stunningly attractive even with soot smeared on her face).

The fact that she hankers after this young 'apprentice' not knowing his title, is indeed better than the previous Disney plot line where she toils away in the vague hope that 'someday her prince will come' and whisk her away from her domestic drudgery.

The notion of the ugly sisters is abandoned too, shedding off the idea that kindness and physical beauty are intrinsically connected.

The key message throughout is that 'courage and kindness' will win the day.  So rather than being a feisty modern-day heroine, she gently and quietly overcomes her troubles.  There were plenty of times when I was silently screaming for her courage to outweigh her kindness and tell her step-sisters where to get off.

So, Cinderella's love for 'Kit' who she's met in the forest is pure and untainted by material desires, and that's a step in the right direction.

It is however the Step-Mother that perpetuates the myth that women must be kept by a man.  She marries Ella's widowed father to save her from financial difficulty, and then her first reaction on hearing of his demise is that they'll face ruin.  So, why not...I don't know...get a job?  No, instead she'll try and orchestrate an advantageous marriage of her daughters to keep the wolves from the door.

Still, as much as this film is about love of the romantic kind (and it is impossibly romantic), it's also about familial love.  The deep bond between her and her father is genuinely beautiful, and will ring true to any father returning home to his family after time away.  Her undying love and devotion to the memory of her mother is heart-breaking.  The tender father/son moments too, between the grown-up Prince and the King (played by Derek Jacobi) are not often seen on screen.

Branagh puts flesh on the bones of the traditional tale, making Ella's demise from her perfect life to a down-trodden servant more believable.  He deals with the rawness and tragedy of death more honestly than previous Disney offerings, and he has made 2015's Cinderella a more rounded character.

It's a shame though that most of the audience will probably only remember the beautiful gown and the glass slippers.