analysis of ' a cinderella story' opening scene

Narrative: the opening scene is typical of a childrens film, with an introduction to the characters.The title of the movie gives the audience clues about the narrative as Cinderella is a well known story, and therefore would make the audience think that the movie is going to be along the lines of the fairy tail story. However during the opening scene we are told by the narrator that 'this is no fairytale'. The opening of this movie conforms to the typical 5 stage narrative structure of childrens film. Firstly the equilibrium is defined as she is leading a happy life with her father, secondly there is a disrupition of the equilibrium which in this case is the death of her father. Thirdly is the recognition of distruption ,which is shown and talked about in the opening scene by the narrator as she explains that her step mother has taken over all of her father things including the girl herself who is banished to a horrible room on her own. The next few stages are not shown in the opening but we can assume that there will be an attempt to repair the disruption and finally a reinstatement of the equilibrium which in the case of childrens films is the cliche 'happy ending'.

characters: we are introduced to all the characters in a typical fashion and the main character is established as she is the narrator and has most of the screen time. The characters are typical of a childrens film as the main character is a good child and presumably the hero of the film, along with the villains who in this film are the step mother and sisters. The characters appearance also conforms to the conventions of childrens film as the good character is blonde with blue eyes which presents her as innocent whereas the villains have dark hair which is stereotypically regarded with suspicion in relation to good and bad.

Genre: the genre is a hybrid, which presumably consists of fantasy, in relation to the title 'cinderella', adventure and comedy

Themes: The themes of ' A Cinderella story' are family, shown in the relationship between her and her father who she describes as her bestfriend. Love could also be a theme as with the actual story of cinderella, she finds love. overcoming tradgedy is also a theme as she has to move on with life despite her fathers death.