My Favorite Disney Movie

Photo Credits: The Walt Disney Studios

On my website questionnaire for any inquiries or messages, I ask the sender their favorite Disney movie. I always get asked what mine is, naturally, because I’m such a HUGE Disney fan! Honestly, I don’t have a straight answer, until NOW! I have finally chosen a favorite Disney movie! Usually I answer “favorite Disney/Pixar: a tie, Nemo/Ratatouille! Favorite series, Pirates of the Carribean”, but no legit singular Disney-only movie!

I have dark hair, so I always identified with Belle, but really didn’t have a favorite princess movie. For the art, I loved Sleeping Beauty. A little darkness, a princess of course, but no real favorite. Last week, Robby, Bane and I stayed in the Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort. We only had about 5 days to burn, and usually because of the distance and 12 hours of driving, we do Disney World in 6 nights/7 days. We didn’t want to make the trip to Disney with only a partial week to spend, and we also didn’t want to do the parks with a 15 month old. We knew it would be more work than we wanted to deal with right now, after all, we wanted a relaxing trip! So, Hilton Head SC it was! On the way there, Bane screamed and cried, and against my mommy rules, I stopped and bought a car dvd player to help him stay occupied. We played with him and had all sorts of toys and snacks, but they couldn’t do the trick. So, dvd player it was! I grabbed a few $5 dvds to last the trip, and saw Cinderella (the live action version – definitely NOT $5… it was $24.99 for blu ray I believe!) just came out… and I figured, Cinderella is the epitome of a Disney movie… a classic. Why would Disney make a bad Cinderella movie?! If they dropped the ball on that, it would be a great disappointment to Walt! If it wasn’t great, at least I added it to my Disney movie collection!

So, I watched the movie one night when Robby fell asleep early – since Cinderella isn’t really his jam. The original Cinderella also didn’t do it for me, but I thought I’d give it a try! I must say, I was completely blown away. Why? For the girls, do you remember that feeling of excitement and wonder you got when you watched princess movies as a little girl? That butterfly feeling? The joy of dreaming of a prince and living with all the lavish fun pretty things that are of course materialistic, but fun to dream of as an innocent little girl! I HAD THAT FEELING! I’m not a materialistic person, and I could sleep in a shack and be perfectly happy as long as the bugs don’t bite! But, that feeling I had as a little girl came flooding back to me — that feeling I got on my wedding day, the feeling of excitement, of pretending to be a princess. Seriously, how does a movie do that to a 30 year old?!?! I also thought, I know the ending, I know the story… what could possibly surprise me? Cinderella is a winner, for sure!

The actress that played her, was lovely — she was innocent, gentle and kind spirited… or at least very believable as the perfect princess (don’t get me wrong, I do like cool princesses like Merida, but we’re talking the classic idea of a princess). Cate Blanchett was the perfect evil stepmother — she was beautiful, elegant and regal, yet her script made her vindictive and a complete b that you loved to hate! The pagentry, the costuming, and the sets were magical! The moment she walks down the stairs and enters the ball, I had GOOSEBUMPS! The story built up to that moment so well — the writers did a fantastic job by making you so excited for her in that moment from the way they built up the story! … and of course Helena Bonham Carter was a funny and peculiar Fairy Godmother!

It had the essence and respect of the original film by Walt, but completely modernized. Every moment of that movie was magical, and I highly recommend this as a MUST SEE! I have since watched it about 5 times (okay, some in the car on our trip to waste time, sometimes in the background… I’m not sitting around doing nothing all day ;) haha), it’s such a joy to watch!

Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20DF6U1HcGQ