A Modern Cinderella Tale is a 2010 family film directed by John and Sean Dunson and

starring Ashlee Hewitt and Sterling Knight. The screenplay was written by Bo Ransdell, Ryan Dean
and Thomas Martin and produced by Sean Dunson, John Dunson and Carlucci Weyant.
Hewitt stars as Elle Daniels, an intern who dreams of becoming a singer. Hewitt announced to fans
she was filming for the movie on June 20, 2009,[1] while Knight's involvement was confirmed on
March 5, 2010.[2] The film premiered on April 24, 2010, at the Newport Beach Film Festival. [3] It was
released on DVD on April 26, 2011.[

Plot[edit]
Elle Daniels (Ashlee Hewitt) has dreamed of being a famous singer-songwriter for as long as she
can remember. On the day of her audition for Berklee, the plane her parents are travelling in
crashes. Crushed, Elle moves in with her uncle Allen (Thomas Calabro), who runs a small,
independent record company called Spunn Records.
Allen offers Elle a job as an intern and even though this means supporting Spunn's biggest act: a
bubblegum pop trio called Sensation, led by the horrendous Stephanie (Katherine Bailess). Elle
swallows her pride and tries to forget about her dreams. She becomes good friends with fellow intern
Kit (Juliette Hing-Lee), and spends her days phoning radio stations and running errands.
But then Ty Parker (Sterling Knight), a famous pop singer extraordinaire, shows up at Spunn, saying
that he needs something different, even if it means his fans shunning him. Allen agrees to set him up
on a duet with Kandi Kane, a British pop star with "a million hits online" and Ty agrees to think about
in search of something new and willing to take any risk it takes.
Elle, being convinced by Kit to start singing again, goes to the recording studio and sings "Love is
with Me Now", which Ty hears, and mistakes her for the British Kandi Kane, awestruck by her voice.
Surprised and pleased, Elle plays along, leaving at midnight when she receives a text from uncle
Allen. After discovering that she accidentally over recorded the Sensation single and feeling guilty for
lying to Ty, Elle goes into hiding, donning stupid disguises.
Ty, who is all jumpy about signing Spunn, is also shocked to discover that Kandi is anything but
blonde on an awkward meeting set up for the two by Allen, and leaves in a fit of rage, snapping at
Allen that this time, it's about what he really wants.
Ty is determined to find the girl he met with the help of TJ (Brandon Mychal Smith) but fails.
Stephanie discovers that the song was Elle's and Sensation team up with Kandi to show Elle her
place. On Kit's advice, Elle decides to give true love a shot, and with Kit's would-be boyfriend Andy
(Shawn Caulin-Young)'s help, she reveals herself through the song she performed in the studio. Ty
hears her sing, and Elle is viciously insulted by Sensation and Kandi for being an obsessive fan.

Instead of supporting them, Ty walks out and comforts the heartbroken Elle and they start dating. He
also convinces her that her talent would never hurt her, and the death of her parents had nothing to
do with her. Allen also tells Elle that he admired her parents very much and the song that she
accidentally over-recorded was "beautiful."
All seems to be well and Ty convinces Elle to audition for Berklee again. They write a song
"Fairytale" together, until Kandi returns for her claim on the single and emotionally tortures Ty to
leave Elle or she would sue everyone related to him. Ty calls her a horrible person, but agrees to
break up with Elle anyway to protect her.
Heartbroken, Elle misunderstands everything, which causes Kit and Andy to carry out an
investigation where they hear the receptionist calling Kandi "Miss Smirkle." Although suspicious,
Andy's courage fails, but Kit kisses him for support and he mans up immediately.
Pretending to have a pastry delivery for her by the studio, Andy goes to Kandi, buying Kit time to
break into the room, where she is shocked to unearth the fact that Kandi is in fact Brenda Smirkle,
an average girl who is using Kandi's identity and is anything but British.
After getting immense proof on tape, Kit reveals "Brenda's" secret to Allen, who suggests that she
leave before he calls the police. In the process, he also dumps Sensation, and Stephanie is revealed
to be bald. Ty rushes to make Elle's audition and arrives just as she is standing tongue-tied on the
stage. He backs her up with a guitar and she blows the judges away by singing "Fairytale". She is
immediately accepted to Berklee and forgives Ty after the performance. Both of them share a long
awaited, heart felt kiss, where Elle narrates that fairy tales do exist.
The film ends with colorful credits where "Happily Ever After" by Ashlee Hewitt plays in the
background, indicating what happened to all the main characters. Elle graduated from Berklee, Ty's
album went triple Platinum, Brenda (aka Kandi) was pretending to be a different pop star, and Kit
and Andy were happily together with their own detective agency.

Cinderella theme[edit]

Cinderella by Edward Burne-Jones, 1863, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The AarneThompson system classifies Cinderella as type 510A, "the persecuted heroine". Variants
of the theme are known throughout the world.
The Cinderella motif may well have originated in classical antiquity.
The Greek geographer Strabo recorded in the 1st century BC in hisGeographica (book 17, 33) the
tale of the Greek slave girl Rhodopis, "Rosey-Eyes", who lived in the colony of Naucratis in Ancient
Egypt. It is often considered the oldest known version of the story:
They tell the fabulous story that, when she was bathing, an eagle snatched one of her sandals from
her maid and carried it toMemphis; and while the king was administering justice in the open air, the
eagle, when it arrived above his head, flung the sandal into his lap; and the king, stirred both by the
beautiful shape of the sandal and by the strangeness of the occurrence, sent men in all directions
into the country in quest of the woman who wore the sandal; and when she was found in the city of
Naucratis, she was brought up to Memphis, became the wife of the king ...[25]
Herodotus, some five centuries before Strabo, supplied information about the real-life Rhodopis in
his Histories. He wrote that Rhodopis came from Thrace, and was the slave of Iadmon of Samos,

and a fellow-slave of the story-teller Aesop. She was taken to Egypt in the time of Pharaoh Amasis,
and freed there for a large sum by Charaxus of Mytilene, brother of Sappho the lyric poet.[26][27]
Another synopsis is given by the Roman author Aelian (ca. 175ca. 235),[28] showing that the
Cinderella theme remained popular throughout antiquity.
Aspects of Cinderella may be derived from the story of Cordelia in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia
Regum Britanniae. Cordelia is the youngest and most virtuous of King Leir of Britain's three
daughters, however her virtue is such that it will not allow her to lie in flattering her father when he
asks, so that he divides up the kingdom between the elder daughters and leaves Cordelia with
nothing. Cordelia marries her love, Aganippus, King of the Franks, and flees to Gaul where she and
her husband raise an army and depose her wicked sisters who have been misusing their father.
Cordelia is finally crowned Queen of Britain. However her reign only lasts five years. The story is
famously retold in Shakespeare's King Lear, but given a tragic ending.
Another version of the story, Ye Xian, appeared in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang by Duan
Chengshi around 860. Here, the hardworking and lovely girl befriends a fish, the reincarnation of her
mother, who was killed by her stepmother and sister. Ye Xian saves the bones, which are magic, and
they help her dress appropriately for a festival. When she loses her slipper after being recognized by
her stepfamily, the king finds her slipper and made her his first wife (eventually rescuing her from her
cruel stepmother).
The Indonesian and Malaysian story Bawang Merah Bawang Putih, are about two girls named
Bawang Putih (literally "White Onion", meaning "garlic") and Bawang Merah ("Red Onion"). While
the two country's respective versions differ in the exact relationship of the girls and the identity of the
protagonist, they have highly similar plot elements. Both have a magical fish as the "fairy godmother"
to her daughter, which the antagonist cooks. The heroine then finds the bones and buries them, and
over the grave a magical swing appears. The protagonist sits on the swing and sings to make it
sway, her song reaching the ears of a passing Prince. The swing is akin to the slipper test, which
distinguishes the heroine from her evil sister, and the Prince weds her in the end.
In the Vietnamese version Tam Cam, Tam is mistreated by both her father's co-wife and half-sister,
who stole her birthright by winning a wager of fishing unjustly proposed by the stepmother. The only
fish that was left to her was killed and eaten by her step-family, but its bones served as her protector
and guardian, eventually leading her to be the king's bride during a festival. The protagonist
however, turns into the antagonist in part two of the story, by boiling her stepsister alive and then
fooling her stepmother into cannibalism by feeding her her own daughter's flesh.
There is a Korean version named Kongji and Patzzi. It deals a story about a kind girl Kongji who was
constantly abused by her stepmother and stepsister Patzzi. The step-family forces Kongjwi to stay at
home while they attend the king's ball, but a fairy appears and gives her an attire more beautiful than
everyone else. The motif is same as in Perrault, concerning a king falling in love with her. However,

the story goes on with Patzzi drowning Kongji in a river and disguising herself as Kongji to live with
the King. After the king finds out he puts Patzzi to death and feeds her to the unknowing stepmother.
Several different variants of the story appear in the medieval One Thousand and One Nights, also
known as the Arabian Nights, including "The Second Shaykh's Story", "The Eldest Lady's Tale" and
"Abdallah ibn Fadil and His Brothers", all dealing with the theme of a younger sibling harassed by
two jealous elders. In some of these, the siblings are female, while in others, they are male. One of
the tales, "Judar and His Brethren", departs from the happy endings of previous variants and
reworks the plot to give it a tragicending instead, with the younger brother being poisoned by his
elder brothers.[29]

References[edit]
Notes
1.

Jump up^ Bottigheimer, Ruth. (2008). "Before Contes du temps passe (1697): Charles
Perrault'sGriselidis, Souhaits and Peau". The Romantic Review, Volume 99, Number 3. pp. 175
89

2.

Jump up^ Zipes, Jack (2001). The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and
Basile to the Brothers Grimm. W. W. Norton & Co. p. 444. ISBN 978-0-393-97636-6.

3.

Jump up^ Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin
Press, 1988.

4.

Jump up^ Roger Lancelyn Green: Tales of Ancient Egypt, Penguin UK, 2011, ISBN 9780-14-133822-4, chapter The Land of Egypt

5.

Jump up^ Basile, Giambattista (1911). Stories from Pentamerone, London: Macmillan &
Co., translated by John Edward Taylor. Chapter 6. See also "Il Pentamerone: Cenerentola"

6.

Jump up^ A modern edition of the original French text by Perrault is found in Charles
Perrault,Contes, ed. Marc Soriano (Paris: Flammarion, 1989), pp. 27479.

7.

^ Jump up to:a b "Perrault: Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper". Pitt.edu. 2003-10-08.
Retrieved2014-06-17.

8.

Jump up^ Aschenputtel, included in Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm,

translated by Lucy Crane, at Project Gutenberg

9.
10.

11.
12.

Jump up^ Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to Donkeyskin"

Jump up^ Marina Warner, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales And Their
Tellers, p 213-4 ISBN 0-374-15901-7
Jump up^ Jane Yolen, p 23, Touch Magic ISBN 0-87483-591-7
Jump up^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 116 W. W. Norton & company,
London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4

13.

Jump up^ Maria Tatar, p 28, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, ISBN 0-393-05163-3

14.

Jump up^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 126-8 W. W. Norton &
company, London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4

15.

Jump up^ Mardrus, Joseph-Charles; Powys Mathers (June 1987). The book of the
Thousand Nights and One Night 4. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 191194. ISBN 0-41504543-6.

16.

^ Jump up to:a b c "If The Shoe Fits: Folklorists' criteria for #510"

17.

Jump up^ Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to Cinderella"

18.

Jump up^ Kourlas, Gia (October 24, 2013). "A Fairy Tale Heroine Finds Her Magic
Tree." New York Times.

19.

Jump up^ Off Broadway Musicals 1910-2007, by Dan Dietz

20.

Jump up^ "Aschenputtel". YouTube.com.

21.

Jump up^ "YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved 2013-09-23.

22.

Jump up^ "Three wishes for Cinderella (1973)". Imdb.com.

23.

Jump up^ "Aschenputtel". Imdb.com.

24.

Jump up^ "If the Shoe Fits". Imdb.com.

25.

Jump up^ Strabo: "The Geography", book 17, 33

26.

Jump up^ Anderson, Graham (2000). Fairytale in the ancient world. Routledge.
p. 27.ISBN 978-0-415-23702-4. Retrieved 25 March 2010.

27.

Jump up^ Herodot, "The Histories", book 2, chapters 134-135

28.

Jump up^ Aelian: "Various History", book 13, chapter 33

29.

Jump up^ Ulrich Marzolph, Richard van Leeuwen, Hassan Wassouf (2004). The Arabian
Nights Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 4. ISBN 1-57607-204-5.