View source for A Wish Your Heart Makes : From the Grimm Brothers' Aschenputtel to Disney's Cinderella by Charles Solomon

{{infobox1
|title=A Wish Your Heart Makes : From the Grimm Brothers' Aschenputtel to Disney's Cinderella
|sort=Wish Your Heart Makes : From the Grimm Brothers' Aschenputtel to Disney's Cinderella, A
|author=Charles Solomon
|reviewer=John Lloyd
|genre=Entertainment
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=9781484713266
|pages=176
|publisher=Disney Editions
|date=March 2015
|summary=A surprisingly good example of its kind, this lavish pictorial guide both reminds us well of the original Disney cartoon Cinders, as well as whets the appetite for the Branagh remake as best it can.
|cover=1484713265
|aznuk=1484713265
|aznus=1484713265
}}
It's not a useful thing, to have sniffy presumptions, when you're a humble book reviewer.  The same applies of course in the world of cinema, and a lot else besides, but I do have to admit to be really quite dubious about the thought of a live action remake of Cinderella, even before seeing, reading or hearing anything on which to form a proper judgement.  Did the world need it, I wondered – the original was great enough, and surely so much a sine qua non in animation history.  What would some new young cast members, and Kenneth Branagh, add to – or possibly would they overlay – decades of cinema audiences' joint memory?  Surely it would be a pig's ear.  Well, if this luscious first book regarding the new film is any indication, it's actually going to be pretty good.  The format of film tie-in guides itself doesn't always engender much hope in the likewise prejudiced – but I confirm this, too, is an item well worth bearing in mind.

The simple numbers are that we get eighty pages on the Disney original, and sixty on the new remake, but the balance isn't dangerously skewed in any way.  Instead, with an introduction that gives us a mention (and picture) of Dore, Perrault and Prokofiev, in regard to previous presentations of the Cinderella story, the book is really quite all-encompassing.  The writing is clear and educational, and the editors have done a great job of not repeating themselves in the many picture captions – it's the mark of a poorer book when the same information is twice on the page.  (Although someone clearly doesn't know how many metres are in a mile.)  The actual contents of the chapters regarding the animation are great – going no real length to describing how the film was made, but really highlighting ''why'' – the palette, the architecture distorting, and the very characterful capacity of the heroine all being reasons why the film is so emotional.  The writing here is worthy of a good media studies essay on the matters, while never being dry and emotion-free.

The many quotes regarding the remake are not quite up to scratch, however, which may be an indication of the standards of the modern day – the difficulty and repetitive manner in which many people state their intentions regarding their modern Cinders doesn't give much confidence in how subtly they convey them on film.  But the book does serve as a fine advertorial for the upcoming movie – while we get to see a brilliant Faberge egg of a coach, and ''that'' dress, we don't see all the important screen shots beyond some lovely digital pre-vis images.  The cast is strong, the look is much less distinctive in comparison to the classic, if what we see here is any indication, but the intent and talent do seem to have done well, belying my previous doubts.

That's clearly the point of this book – much as in the way the author previously tied Perrault to ''Maleficent'' through past classic films, so here he has to tie the known with the unknown, and to encourage us to buy (into) both options.  I guess there will still be many for whom the new film just isn’t that – an option, but for me I have learnt to reserve my judgement.  And as for this book, with its gently encyclopaedic appreciation of both iterations, delightful picture archive, and quality coffee-table status, it's definitely capable of making you learn a lot, and to think again.

I must thank the publishers for my review copy.

For the very young, the original story can be found [[Cinderella by Sally Gardner|here]].  The best background reading of any film we've met recently was, prior to this, [[Interstellar: Beyond Time And Space by Mark Cotta Vaz]].

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