Analyzing the Movies based on Cinderella

The why, what and how behind my Viz

The story of Cinderella is one of the most common childhood stories we all grew up with.

When I grew up, I noticed that there are tons of Movies based on Cinderella. And they keep coming 😄 So it was just another day when I was scrolling through my YouTube suggestions and there it was, another Cinderella movie coming out in September 2021. My first thought on seeing it was “Again Cinderella?”. I’m sure you all must have noticed it too but never thought how many are there in reality. Now I wish I could get the exact number but that is next to impossible.

So that’s the backstory to my Cinderella viz. I wanted to see for myself how different each version of Cinderella is. And when I started looking through google, I found so many versions of it in different languages. So I decided to go with the set of movies that I could find in English and also preferably the ones that I can watch.

That brings me to the chosen 25 movies. I wanted to make sure I pick movies ranging from old to new. There were some that were very much like the original story.

Movies by the Released Year

How did I get the data?

The first step was to get a list of movies. This is where IMDB and Wikipedia helped me get a subset of movies. 17 out of 25 movies were available on OTT platforms and YouTube so I watched those at first.

I sort of went back and forth on the data points that I wanted to capture in my story.

• Is the role of Cinderella always played by a Woman?
• Is Cinderella’s father dead?
• Did Cinderella live with a Step Family?
• Is the role of Prince Charming always played by a Man?
• Did Cinderella go to a ball?
• Is there a Fairy Godmother?
• What does Cinderella leave at the ball?

And lastly, Wikipedia and IMDB were a great help to get details on the movies that I couldn’t watch.

Before I started with my data collection process, I didn’t even imagine Cinderella or Prince being played by the opposite gender.

So finding the answers to these questions opened up my thinking! :)

The most fun part of this whole process was watching the movies 😆

Hit two targets with one arrow

Few things that I enjoyed in the movies (Spoiler Alert!):

1. Ella Enchanted showed a fun version of Cinderella where a fairy gave her the gift of obedience as a kid. She “had” to obey anything she is told.
2. Another Cinderella Story had some fun music. And it was interesting how the glass slipper was replaced with “Zune” (a music player) she left at the dance.
3. Not Cinderella’s Type was a completely realistic take on Cinderella. There wasn’t any ball or any way she meets the prince. It was a movie showing how a friend (her prince) and his family saves her from her aunt and uncle who used to mentally abuse her.
4. Cindy is a version of the Cinderella tale with an all-black cast. Spoiler Alerts! She actually doesn’t marry the prince (in this case an Army Officer), instead marries her neighbor who had helped her get to the ball.
5. Cinderella (2021) is a musical version with a very diverse cast. Cinderella is an ambitious woman who aspires to become an affluent dressmaker and run her own business. I also liked that the princess (Prince’s sister) is chosen as the successor by the king. I loved the music in this movie!
6. A Cinderella Story: Starstruck is the story of a small town farm girl, longs to spread her wings and soar. She didn’t have any friends except for the animals on her farm. Now, this may sound odd but I felt like the role of the fairy godmother is played by her pet pig, Jon Ham. I know how this sounds 😆 but hear me out. So when is she locked in by her step brother, the pig brings her the keys to the barn. In a way, he keeps her safe and happy.

We all love the story of Cinderella. But with time, it needed a much awaited change in the way Cinderella is portrayed. She is not helpless or waiting for a prince to save her. She is ambitious and fearless :) That is what I liked the most!

Also, most of these movies did not have magic and hence no fairy godmother. But there were people like her friends, relatives and sometimes even a pig who helped Cinderella through her journey.

Now, if you’re as curious as I then jump into the dashboard and find answers to the above questions :)

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/priyanka.dobhal0993/viz/MoviesbasedonCinderella/MoviesbasedonCinderella

Cinderella Viz

As a future plan, I want to extend this list with more movies that I find. I also want to analyze the diversity and the dreams of Cinderella shown in the movies.

If you want to take a stab at analyzing the movies, here’s the dataset
https://data.world/priyankad0993/movies-based-on-cinderella

Take care and stay safe! 😃

Priyanka Dobhal

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