Cinderella/Everafter Comparison

Sarah Hubbard September 19, 2010 Children’s Lit Review/Analysis One EVERAFTER/A CINDERELLA STORY Cinderella is a classic childhood fairy tale of a young woman who’s mother and father both die, leaving her with a wicked stepmother and two wicked stepsisters. There have been several movies portraying this classic tale. One of which is Everafter starring Drew Barrymore. In this movie a girl loses her father and mother leaving her to be a servant for her stepmother.
She meets a prince and falls in love. In another Cinderella type story line A Cinderella Story starring Hilary Duff, a girl who loses her parents end up with her stepmother and two sisters. She falls in love with the popular boy in school, who ends up being her prince charming. Both movies are based on the same classic fairy tale yet they differ from each other and the classic story. The storyline of Everafter is more similar to the classic tale than that of A Cinderella Story.
Everafter has all of the usual similarities to the classic version for example, her parents die, she ends up with her evil stepmother and two evil stepsister (one of these sisters ends up being good in the end), she falls in love with a prince, she gets help from two woman working in her house, she loses her glass slipper, prince charming finds her and presents her with her glass slipper and they live happily ever after. In the version known to most children, Cinderella does not fall in love with the prince until she goes to the ball and has to be home before midnight.

In this movie she meets the prince while he is borrowing a horse from her manor. She dresses up like a countess and he falls in love with her. At the ball when she goes to tell him who she really is, he gets mad and she runs away, losing her glass slipper. In the children’s version of the story the prince goes house to house trying to find the one who fits into the slipper and she will be his bride. In Everafter, the prince realizes what he has lost and goes to her house only to find she has been sold. He then has to go rescue her and presents her with her glass slipper.
In both stories they live happily ever after. A Cinderella Story varies much more. This movie is set in present time and in America, whereas the others are thought of as older times and set in Europe. This movie still has the classical story line but with a twist. She lives with her step mom and two step sister, she does all their chores, there is a boy whom she falls in love with, she has help from a woman who has been her friend for all of her life, there is a search for the mystery girl, and she drops something when she is running away because it is midnight.
That is where the similarities end. There are many more differences from the classic tale in this modern day movie. The character Sam (Cinderella) and Austin (prince charming) exchange emails and chat online before meeting. Austin has a girlfriend who is mean to Sam. After finding out who Sam really is Austin does not fall in love with her right away. Sam tell Austin to stop pretending to be someone he is not and then Austin shows who he really is and only then can prince charming fall in love with Cinderella. They go off to Princeton together and live happily ever after.
I enjoyed Everafter more than I did A Cinderella Story because Everafter seems more of a fairy tale, more of a dream or fantasy. Whereas A Cinderella Story seems like it could happen in everyday life. For me, I would rather fantasize that I could be a princess and find my prince than fantasize about talking to a boy on the Internet and going off to college with him. I think that the differences in A Cinderella Story did detract from the experience for me. On the other hand I think in Everafter the differences enhanced the movie.
For example, getting to know the relationship between Cinderella and the prince enhance the love you feel for the characters. In the Cinderella I knew as a kid it was more like love at first sight. In this movie their love grows in to a relationship, which makes it seem more likely to actually happen. These movies would attract a child viewer because every little girl knows the story of Cinderella. The modern day twist may make a little girl believe that something like this could actually happen to her and learn from the moral of the story.
I think that Everafter would be more appealing to a young girl because what little girl doesn’t want to be a princess. Both of these stories shows that in the end good things happen to good people and the bad guys get what they deserve. I think that is a very inspiring message to send to a child. I would recommend both of these movies to everyone. There is no inappropriate language or messages that would be offensive to anyone. Everafter is one of my all time favorite movies and I have never heard anybody say anything bad about it.
This movie would be appropriate for little kids, teenagers, young adults, adults and older people. Both movies are Cinderella type stories so they would probably influence girls more than they would boys. A Cinderella Story is aimed more at teenage girls. Younger girls may also like this movie but older people might think it was for younger more immature kids. In conclusion, the classic fairy tale of Cinderella is portrayed in both of the movies, Everafter, and A Cinderella Story.
Each movie has similarities to the classic fairy tale, but Everafter is closer to the original story than A Cinderella Story. A Cinderella Story has a modern day twist, with technology and high school. Everafter on the other hand is set back in time and has a European setting. Both girls in these movies lose their parents and end up serving their stepmothers and step sisters, they both fall in love with someone in a different “class” than themselves, yet both end up showing the guy that it class doesn’t matter when it comes to love and they all live happily ever after.