Netflix’s New Movie Rewrites Cinderella With a Bold Twist
Netflix flips Cinderella on its head with Steps, an animated reimagining that spotlights Lilith, the maligned stepsister finally telling her side of the story.
Netflix is lining up another fairytale remix. Their next animated feature, 'Steps', puts the spotlight on Cinderella's infamous stepsisters and asks the question: what if the so-called villains were actually the ones trying to fix the story?
So what is 'Steps' actually about?
The movie centers on Lilith, the stepsister who has been branded the problem child. She gets blamed for crashing the Royal Ball with a swiped magic wand, panics, and accidentally turns her sister Margot into a frog. While Lilith is cleaning up that magical disaster, a prince-obsessed mean girl swoops in and basically takes over the kingdom. The only way out: Lilith teams up with Cinderella and, yes, a surprisingly dreamy troll to set things right, un-break the fairytale, and get everyone to their own version of a happy ending.
'Even so-called villains deserve a shot at happily ever after.'
Netflix also shared a first-look still that puts Lilith front and center.
Who is making it
- Directors: Alyce Tzue and John Ripa (Ripa co-directed Disney's 'Raya and the Last Dragon')
- Voice cast: Ali Wong and Stephanie Hsu lead the film; no other cast has been announced yet
- Producers: Jane Hartwell, Amy Poehler, and Kim Lessing
- Where it sits: Part of Netflix's ongoing slate of original animated features, which also includes titles like 'KPop Demon Hunters', 'Pinocchio', and 'Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl'
Why this could be fun
It is a neat flip: instead of dunking on the stepsisters, the movie hands the narrative to one of them and makes her the person trying to fix the mess. Also, the notion of a 'dreamy troll' feels like the kind of weird, specific swing that either totally works or becomes a running joke in your group chat.
The leads, at a glance
Ali Wong is, of course, a Netflix staple thanks to multiple stand-up specials, most recently 2024's 'Single Lady'. She also headlined Netflix's 2023 limited series 'Beef', which netted her major hardware, including a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy.
Stephanie Hsu broke big with 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (2022) and has kept busy since, popping up in Marvel's 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' (2021), as well as 2024 projects like 'Didi', 'The Wild Robot', and 'The Fall Guy'.
No release date yet, but with this creative team and that twisty premise, 'Steps' just jumped onto my animation radar.