My kids have been watching Cinderella (among other princess movies) and I keep rewriting the story in my head. Sometimes it comes out a bit more Jane Eyre, where the prince has his secrets, and poor naive Cinderella gets to grow up and find her way in life before the love of her life finds her. Sometimes it's more true to life, where all they get is the ball, and then it's back to reality. Possibly after the prince shows up post-ball he and Cinderella don't have much in common. I love that Cinder Edna book, Disney should have made that one into a movie. Unfortunately my husband hates tuna and won't eat it in any of my 16 recipes.
Fairytales are lovely but it seems to me that nothing can live up to the ball. It doesn't seem likely that Cinderella would get a chance at that kind of magical moment more than once (well, there's II, and III, but they went straight to DVD so even Disney knew they were reaching). So when the fairy shows up to say "Hey, pay attention, this is your one big night, you're gonna have to live on this one for the rest of your life." It makes it sound a little like that show with the Gypsies who get married in the crazy dresses but at least they have one good memory to combat the statistics on the rest of their life. I only watched one episode of that show but it really got to me.
I think Cinderella could have lived her whole life happily with a glass slipper tucked away in the trunk in her room. Of course, the glass slipper in the trunk and the marriage to an accountant who doesn't like tuna would have just made her dreadfully normal. But who would buy a ticket to see that?
