![]() Keincolor told Vox that Brandy’s Cinderella inspired him to want to be a writer and entertainment creator. Still, though it might have been seen as a fluke at the time, the film’s impact was real. “I think without the power of Whitney they may have replaced Brandy as Cinderella, which is unfortunate to think about,” he said. Keincolor observed that it took a producer with the power of Whitney Houston to make Cinderella what it became. To this day, you can’t stream the movie’s songs on Spotify or other licensed platforms. According to Kendra James’s fantastic oral history of the production, Cinderella ran into multiple hurdles from pre- to post-production: from producers balking at casting a Black actress to play Cinderella - one unknown producer suggested casting Jewel instead - to Atlantic Records refusing to release the soundtrack because the label didn’t think the musical fit Brandy’s “urban” image. There’s also the unfortunate truth that Hollywood tends to see things like Cinderella as a ‘fluke.’”Įven at the time, the film’s rosy, “racism is over” ’90s aesthetic was something the production team had to fight for. “If you don’t have the people on board who have the power and are willing to go to the networks and the studios and fight for inclusive casting, nothing changes. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron were very deliberate with what they tried to do with that film, and they fought for that vision,” he said. “Whitney was intentional about what she wanted to do with that film. He described the movie to Vox as “a perfect storm” of elements that worked. Twitter user keincolor is another 20-year-old with a longstanding love of the film. This was to me how Black Panther is to Black kids today.” In other words, even though it was a fairy tale - and perhaps because it was a fairy tale - the Brandy Cinderella was an ode to Black excellence and artistry that felt revolutionary in 1997 and still feels revolutionary today. “In school, the only Black history we’re taught is slavery and oppression, so this was huge for me. “This might sound dumb, but I didn’t even think we could be princes and princesses,” Cameron, a 20-year-old from Texas, told Vox. ![]() It would be hard to overstate the impact these straightforward visuals had on generations of children of color. tGroFh7UCr- Jason Carlos February 4, 2021 Yes, Cinderella is absolutely iconic because of Brandy and Whitney - but Paolo Montalbán was one of the first times I saw a Filipino person on screen. Bernadette Peters played Cinderella’s stepmother the king and queen were played by Victor Garber and Whoopi Goldberg, while their son, Brandy’s prince, was played by Filipino American actor Paolo Montalbán. Executive produced by Houston, who hand-picked teen pop artist Brandy for the lead role, the movie featured a fantastical, “colorblind” multicultural cast. In the years since it aired, “The Brandy Cinderella, ” as it would henceforth be informally known, has become renowned in particular for its casting. The film’s famously multicultural casting was a precedent-setter In fact, it’s been dubbed by some “one of the most important movies of the ’90s.” And with many people drawing comparisons between “The Brandy Cinderella” and other recent attempts to do colorblind casting, there’s no better time to revisit what made this film a cultural phenomenon. While critics at the time of its release were polite but chilly - “this is a cobbled-together ‘Cinderella’ for the moment, not the ages,” the New York Times declared - Brandy’s Cinderella has held massive sway over the hearts of the ’90s kids who watched it, as well as subsequent generations who grew up with the film on DVD. The release marks the first time the movie has ever been available on streaming - a huge milestone for a film whose cultural reception has long outlived its initial critical appraisal. The 1997 TV adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, starring Brandy Norwood and Whitney Houston, landed on Disney+ on Friday, February 12.
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