Cinderella is the latest Disney classic to get a live-action retelling, following 2014’s box-office hit Maleficent and preceding Beauty and the Beast in 2016.
The film is expected to waltz past $65 million in its opening weekend.
Here is some of what top critics are saying about Cinderella:
“The color, vibrancy and unabashedly romantic heart explode off the screen in Cinderella,” The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney raves, adding, “The studio’s opulent update is enhanced by sumptuous physical craftsmanship as well as the limitless possibilities of what CG technology can achieve.” He writes that James plays her part with “unaffected sweetness” and notes that Blanchett’s “feline malevolence is priceless.” According to Rooney, this Cinderella has mass appeal. “Anyone nostalgic for childhood dreams of transformation will find something to enjoy in an uplifting movie that invests warm sentiment in universal themes of loss and resilience, experience and maturity,” he writes.
The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane writes, Branagh has delivered a construction project so solid, so naive, and so rigorously stripped of irony that it borders on the heroic. ” He also writes, “as for the costumes, I imagine that the Academy Award already has Powell’s name on it, and has been shoved in a drawer until she can swing by and pick it up next year.”
Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips calls it “satisfying” and “refreshingly free of all snark,” as it “reveals Branagh to be a workmanlike wrangler of digitized fantasy.”
The New York Observer’s Rex Reed writes, “Let’s be honest. There is no denying the fact that this is the best Cinderella of them all.”
The Guardian’s Guy Lodge notes, “Blanchett is certainly the best thing in Branagh’s perky, pretty, lavender-scented cupcake of a fairytale adaptation.”
USA Today’s Clauda Puig praises the film, writing, “With its vibrant sparkle and enchanting visuals, Cinderella almost makes you believe in magic. The oft-told story has a surprisingly fresh exuberance.”
Us Weekly’s Mara Reinstein writes that Branagh “keeps his film old-fashioned and, well, a little safe.” While “some may quibble that this kind of snark-free narrative is hopelessly dated in 2015,” she writes, “That’s what makes this rendition so charming and timeless.” Best of all, she marvels, “the prince’s fete is a visual feast,” adding, “Cinderella’s grand entrance proves why she’s the ultimate belle of the ball.”
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