|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cinderella
A fairy tale written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. A wealthy man's wife dies leaving only a single daughter. Later he remarries and his new bride brings with her two daughters,
beautiful but with wicked hearts. They cast the girl to the kitchen to be their servant and thus she earns her name of Cinderella. Time passes and the king's son proclaims
he shall hold a ball and choose a bride. Cinderella wishes to go, but the stepmother says she is too dirty and has nothing to wear but if she will manage an impossible task she may.
Cinderella cries to the little doves and they fly in and help her. When the time comes for her to go to the party she prays at the tree by her mother's grave to be covered in silver and gold.
A little bird drops down a gown of gold and Cinderella attends the ball and the prince falls in love with her. He wants to see her home, but she escapes him, and meets him again and does
so again. Finally, he covers the steps in pitch so that she loses a gold slipper, which is so small only his true bride's feet could fit it. The prince arrives at her house, and the first sister
tries the shoe up in her room but her toe is too big. The mother hands her a knife and says to cut it off for once she is Queen she will have no need to go on foot. She does so
and walks downstairs, hiding the pain. The prince rides off with her but the birds cry out their is blood coming from the shoe and she is not the true bride. The prince sees this is true, and
asks the other daughter try the shoe. The same thing happens only her heel is too large. Finally, after riding back with the second sister the prince asks if there are no other
daughters. Only the dirty child of the first wife they say, but the prince insists she come to him. Cinderella tries the slipper and he looks into her face and knows her to be his true bride.
In the version written by Charles Perrault the slipper is glass and she is helped by a godmother.
Cardcaptor Sakura
Ep. 14 of the TV Series, has Touya as the princess in a school production of the play.
Cinderella
Manga by Junko Mizuno. From Amazon.com: "This is the classic fairy tale turned on its head. In Cinderalla, Dad and the stepsisters are zombies, the family runs
a yakitori restaurant, and the prince is so sick he's on a permanent IV support system. Junko Mizuno's work possesses a postfeminist consciousness, and the book's
psychedelic tone is enhanced by the artist's playful, "grotesque-cute" color illustrations."
Covered in Cinders
By Aya Kotokawa. A stand-alone short story that keeps close to the original tale. The
heroine's mother dies when she's very young and tells her to plant a
hazel tree on her grave and shake it whenever she is troubled. Of
course the stepsisters and stepmother soon show up and are as nasty
to the child as they can be. The one ray of hope for her is the
upcoming ball (that will last three days) in which the prince will
choose a bride, someone to love soley and make the most fortunate
person in the land. Now when you have *noone* around who loves you
or has anything kind to say, that's something worth trying for. But
instead of being allowed to go to the ball, she is told she must
separate out beans, good for the pot and bad for the stomach. All is
not lost though, doves come down to help her in her task and she
sees a hazel branch in one's beak. She is reminded of the words of
her mother. At her grave, she tearfully asks for help.
Next we see her appear at the ball before the prince, radiant in a
gown of flowers of flowing lace. The prince's position in this
version can be taken two ways: he has fallen in love with her or
that he is obsessed with her. By the way his face is drawn and the
way he says "you are mine" it seemed it could be either or a little
of both. So in this version, the dark appearance of the prince also
connotates a darker side as well to contrast the innocent
Cinderella. Besides her meekness and that she rarely speaks, her
innocence/goodness is reinforced by the doves who have watched over
her and already come to her aid.
The heroine escapes from him on the third night and leaves only the
slipper. The search is on for the one who fits the shoe. The first
sister on finding her feet are too big, cuts off her heel to make it
feet, but the doves fly about the carriage leading her away and tell
how the blood flows from the slipper. There's another sinister hint
here as when the knife is drawn (the thought is hatched to take off
her heel), the hazel is shown behind the instrument. Perhaps the
mother is watching over her child in this instance. The doves and
the hazel are both drawn in the panels along with the carriage and
sister who is found out, linking the two and their ever-watchfulness
over their charge.
The second realizing her toes are too big, cuts them off, but is
found out by the prince himself by her trail of blood. He coldy
tells her it was a foolish thing to do. When the prince learns there
was one other in the house, a servant, he decides to go himself to
seek her. Finding the girl with but one shoe, he has her try the
other, and then holds his princess to him. The doves fly about them
proclaiming it is the true bride.
The stepmother will not rest though, learning her daughters
mutilated their feet and that our heroine was the one all along
destined for the prince. She vows to stay beside the girl and bring
her misery. Before the wedding the stepmother tells her they must
stay beside her to share the happiness. Our heroine is now in a gown
of white with a veil and butterfly wings. (Not only do the wings
symbolize a transformation into the princess, but I'd say
emotionally too. Her eyes look cold when her stepmother says this,
so she now is probably not the meek, helpless girl of before, and
perhaps knows this. Not just because she will be a queen, but
because of those who watch over her - see the next scenes. Too,
there were implications the prince before had sexual designs on the
woman he'd chosen, so in this version there is an implied
consummation between the two, which would symbolize a maturation and
awakening in the girl. Thus, another reason for the butterfly wings).
The next scene is the wedding, the prince and princess happy at
last, and the stepsisters attacked by the doves, having their eyes
pecked out.
As you can see, this is not the cleaned up Cinderella, but closer to
the Grimm's darker version. It's only thirty pages long, but quite a
bit is packed into the pages. The artwork in this short manga story
is nice and this version because of the artwork really hints at the
link to nature the young girl is given by her mother's death and how
her spirit watches ever over her daughter.
Fashion Lala
Fashion Lala is another Cinderella retelling, this time set in a
small town in the 1980s. I get the feeling though it's not Japan, but
somewhere in perhaps England or the US. The story opens with an 80s
style dance number, complete with sexy silhouettes and laser lights.
This is the 80s dream for kids and teens, dancing and freedom to be
themselves. With the opening finished, we are introduced to Miho, our
protagonist, a little girl who lives with her aunt and three cousins
who run a dress boutique. Either from job stress or a just plain bad
attitude about being stuck raising Miho after her father left, she
isn't nice to the little girl at all and hardly has time for her.
She's excited though because there is going to be a dance contest for
the Disco Dance Queen (in place of the traditional Cinderella ball).
And while Miho herself is too young to enter (contestants must be 15)
her dream is that one of the dresses she designs will enter (she's an
aspiring designer herself). Everyone's gearing up for the big event
of course; everyone but the mayor's son, a rebel named Kid who's
against his father's use of politics and the fact his father probably
rigged the event. We learn the mayor has a mistress who is going to
be entering the contest the mayor himself is sponsoring (our twist on
the prince who doesn't like the idea of the ball). So while Miho has
her big dreams, Kid plots to wreak the event utterly. The two have a
few chance meetings, notably you get the impression Kid is charmed by
Miho's sincere belief in her dreams and honesty and innocence. Kid of
course is older and seen too much by being on the streets and has
serious issues with authority. But somehow a mutual understanding and
friendship is between them. She tells him at one point she earnestly
believes a "goddess of dreams" will show up at the contest, something
he can't imagine happening in their town.
While Miho's aunt scoffs at her designs and is working on dresses for
the girls in town for the big night and for her own daughters, the
kindest daughter, Shuri, comes to Miho in secret and asks her to
design her dress. Miho gratefully accepts and works her hardest to
design a fine dress. When the night is arrived, she comes home to
find Shuri in tears and to learn her aunt has cut the dress and
ripped it to shreds once learning of it (the ruination of
Cinderella's gown before the ball). Shuri of course will still wear
the dress her mother designed for her, we assume. But the dress and
all her work and design embodied her dreams she wanted to take to the
dance and see shine.
Earlier in the movie, Miho had found a dusty book, but thought
nothing of it. Now the two fairies (her fairy godmother in essence)
on the cover, seeing her cry, feel sorry for the kind girl and decide
to help her. They transform her into Fashion Lala for one night. She
becomes a blond beauty of 15, wearing a beautiful gown Miho herself
sketched. The magic will last only for one night they tell her. With
this, she's sent to the dance (which by now has been ruined by Kid
and his gang of bikers). But Lala takes the stage and sings and
dances with great feeling. During her number, Lala magically changes
into different outfits, all of which were designed by Miho. For her
this is her dream, simply to be at the dance in what she's created.
For Kid, Lala upon the stage, embodies a "goddess of dreams." Someone
who did find what they wanted, purely, and has no impure intentions
coming from their heart.
The story ends with Miho waking the next morning and her father
arriving home (probably a serviceman) for her.
Mary Bell TV Series
Mary Bell's Car is actually a carriage out of a flower that is an obvious homage to the pumpkin carriage of Cinderella. Mary Bell herself
is also seen in a Cinderella gown in front of it in the closing credits.
Minky Momo Movie
When Momo is transformed and while she's with Peter, she wears a gown very similar in design to Disney's Cinderella. He thinks of her as his equal and his hoped for princess it seems.
Pretear
Himeno's mother dies when she's very young, but her poor, novelist father remarries a wealthy widow with two daughters.
Princess Tutu
From Chris: Episode 10 is called Cinderella and starts with a telling of the fairy tale.
Sailor Moon
From ep. 101, Usagi wants a pair of glass slippers for her birthday and imagines Mamoru as her prince in a day-dream sequence out of the fairy tale. The monster of the day for the episode
and the next is Cenicienta, which is Spanish for Cinderella.
Shoujo Kakumei Utena
From Beth: From episode 30, "The Barefoot Girl." Utena sprains her ankle and Akio takes her to the hospital. When they come back to Ohtori, Akio removes the shoe off her injured foot and keeps it in his car. Later on, when he is driving with Touga, the latter picks up the shoe and makes a comment about Cinderella. I thought this points out how both Akio and Touga try to make Utena be a princess rather than the prince she wants to become. It is also interesting to note that this is the episode where we meet Mrs. Ohtori (Kanae's mother) and when she speaks with Akio, he removes one of her shoes in a similar fashion. Then, she makes the statement "You're my only prince."
Others:
Cinderella Boy by Makoto Yumeno
Cinderella Boy by Monky Punch
Cinderella Monogatari from Tatsunoko Productions
Soushun Cinderella by Mio Mizuki