Running Time: 146 minutes

Cinderella adaptations have always been popular with me (I’ve been told I watched Disney’s cartoon version almost every day as a child), so it was only a matter of time before I stumbled upon The Slipper and the Rose.

This was recommended to me by one of my favorite tumblr blogs: fairytaleslive and it popped up again on my favorite costume review website, Frock Flicks.

Of course, the plot is straightforward and predictable, and I think the 2015 Disney live-action adaptation of Cinderella borrows heavily from it. We have a prince who wants to marry for love, and his parents who would rather he not – since their tiny country of Euphrania is on the brink of war. And of course we have our Cinderella, who doesn’t really have much of a choice in the matter because her home life is pretty miserable.

The fairy godmother was way more interesting than in almost every other adaptation (except probably Ever After, since Leonardo da Vinci worked his own version of magic). Here, the fairy godmother is implied to be running other fairytale happy endings as well: writing 400+ more tales for Scheherazade to relate in the 1001 Nights, complaining that Snow White was also headstrong (like Cinderella), and displaying tokens of gratitude from Robin Hood and Marian.

It really is excellent in terms of costumes, setting, and overall grandiose musical spectacle. I was watching a riveting dance number while waiting for the train home, and a lady (who I guess was looking over my shoulder) tapped me and asked for the title.

The costumes were beautiful and fairly period accurate. The wigs were mostly decent, and the cuts were appropriate. Some were stunners, others were meh – but we take what we get.

I also admired the locations they chose because it was appropriately fairytale-like. I read somewhere that it was mostly filmed in Austria, so the castles would make sense, I guess.

Probably the most surprising thing about the film for me would be the snark. It’s British, and they had some zingers that appealed to my sense of humor. For instance, I could barely keep a straight face when watching this little number of the Prince singing about his dead ancestors and his eagerness to join them in the family crypt.

The King also had hilarious lines and an overall demeanor that I relate to. Like when the Prince came home after meeting a princess who was bald and had no teeth, the King made jibes about him (the Prince) being obsessed with teeth after, and pointing out potential partners who had good teeth.

All in all, it was mostly enjoyable. The music numbers were so-so and a little cringey, the dialogue was pretty solid on account of humor, and the general Cinderella-level expectations were met. Still, I think the best Cinderella adaptation would be Ever After for film, and Ella Enchanted for literature – as much as I love Anne Hathaway, that film was a travesty against Gail Carson Levine’s work.