Twenty years ago, fairytale remixes were all the rage in family animation. Everyone wanted to reheat Shrek’s nachos, contemporizing fairytale tropes, alongside pushing hip, postmodern humor along with it. You had your Shrek knock-offs (Happily N’Ever After), then Shrek (unable to keep his sh-treak by Shrek the Third), and Hoodwinked (the most underrated of them all).
Nobody, however, felt the heat more than Disney Animation, whose Tangled and Frozen were successful attempts to update their fairytales with a modern twist. The latter succeeded by creating a cultural phenomenon with a story about sisterhood that, although admirable, always seemed to be missing something. Netflix Animation’s surprisingly funny and heartwarming fairytale, Steps, exemplifies what Frozen always lacked: quality character writing. To my surprise and delight, this strong-willed character-driven romp reimagines the Cinderella story from the perspective of an evil stepsister, rewriting the incorrect history that has been told about them. While some may perceive it as a copy of the familiar films, particularly Frozen, it is a robust glass slipper of a sister-centric family flick.
In a fairy-tale world, outcast sisters Lilith (an unrecognizable Ali Wong) and Margot (Stephanie Hsu) are overshadowed by their perfect stepsister Cinderella (Amanda Seyfried)—people love her, animals will do everything she needs—prompting Lilith to adopt a punk-goth identity. After a royal-ball misunderstanding, Lilith learns Cinderella’s fairy godmother (Bette Midler) has been pulling the strings to her perfect life. Unbeknownst to her, Lilith seizes her wand, starting a chaotic chain of events—including Margot being turned into a frog and the wand falling into the hands of her bratty, mean girl bully Priscilla (Nikki Glaser)—forces the three sisters on a race-against-midnight adventure to get the clueless Prince (Daniel Radcliffe) to put on her glass slipper, and stop Priscilla from ruling the kingdom.
Picture Credit: Netflix
Heart, Heritage, and Complicated Sisterhood
Steps underwent numerous retoolings in its development, changing from an animated musical to an action-packed comedy. The sacrifice is well worth it, as its writing (including Ava Tramer, James Madejski, Jen Chuck, Dana Schwartz, and Felicia Ho) and story team (including Oates and Garfunkel’s Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci) serve a fresh spin to the Cinderella tale.
The movie uses a lengthy setup, remixing the well-known Cinderella beats from Lilith’s point of view while focusing on racial discrimination and exploring her inner life. The film captures a genuine immigrant experience story, particularly in its portrayal of Lilith’s struggle to assimilate into a predominantly white community and the isolation coming with it. Given that, like the lead, the co-director Alyce Tzue is of Chinese heritage, it’s honest in depicting her lingering childhood trauma, heightened by her sardonic sense of humor as a defense mechanism and an emotional wall. It takes the best attribute of Shrek, where it dissects its protagonist’s loneliness and pushback against the world that refuses to acknowledge them or see them as people, while longing for acceptance, all the same, while wringing out a great character too. Man, I love Lilith.
The film spends substantial time working through the sisters’ fractured dynamic, setting the whole structure on them slowly rekindling their relationship, with the humor and budding sisterly banter between them. But a lot of it is Cinderella having to come to grips with her white privilege while also harboring her own genuine, valid dilemma towards Lilith for often referring to her as the eponymous title. Yet it never lets her off the hook for her past grievances. When focused on them rekindling their relationship the film is at its strongest, going to either hilarious or emotionally daring lengths, propelled by Ali Wong’s and Amanda Seyfried’s lively voice performances.
Picture Credit: Netflix
Visual Style, Big Laughs, and Pacing Flaws
At first, I was taken aback by Steps‘ cutesy, blocky character designs of the leads; however, the art direction later captivated me. It has a good blend of not being overly simplistic; geometric curves and sharp-edged features give it a punkish personality, sometimes steampunk as they venture into the orc territory. It bears something like a (gotta nerd out) Psychonauts game mixed with those Barbie direct-to-VHS movies from the 2000s. The animators extract some amusing expressions from these designs, which are further enhanced by the silly, extremely funny screenplay.
Seriously this is among the funniest comedies of the year. Lilith and Cinderella’s comedic banter is great. However, everything involving Prince Charming and his silly reason for not recognizing Cinderella always got a belly laugh out of me. The same is true of Priscilla’s henchman Roderick (Peter Dinklage) and his desire to be the bodydad that stepped up rather than the bodyguard to step in for the villainous megalomaniac Priscilla.
The excessive writer count does seep its way through its structure. It spends a lot of time in the setup, but once its second act kicks in, it’s threaded by the familiar action-oriented set piece to set piece, not allowing the story and steampunk settings moments of breath, especially transitioning from a biker troll set piece to introducing suave hot troll inventor love interest for Lilith named Gef (Young Mazino doing his best Keanu Reeves). Moreover, the narration framework that introduces Lilith is moderately excessive in over-explanation, as the fourth-wall device where she talks to the camera, MTV-style, is not employed to bookend the story as it is to open.
Picture Credit: Netflix
Landing the Plane: Why the Ending Works
Steps completely hinges on whether the resolution would land its plane, and to my surprise it does with nuance, precision and an emotional gut punch to boot. It takes a bold swing that not even Ray Gunn or a contemporary Disney animation would have the courage to accomplish what it does in its third act either.
In a time when POC opportunities are diminishing and even parents are not as engaged in discussions with their children about race relations as they once were, Steps is a miraculous film that will provide its audience of marginalized children a sense of belonging and also provide White individuals with a compelling narrative of accountability. Heck, it’s also something that adults also need, especially in an anti-DEI society.
Ultimately Steps is a ton of genuine fun that I am certain will be a hit with families, and sisters especially. It’s a rich and hilarious fairytale remix flick that hits in the same camp as Shrek, Hoodwinked, and Tangled. In terms of an effective story about a severed sisterhood rekindling, it surpasses Frozen. Anna and Elsa wish they had the depth Lilith and Cinderella got.
Watch Steps If You Like
- Nimona (2023).
- Hoodwinked! (2005)
- Shrek & Shrek 2 (2001, 2004)
- Turning Red (2022)
- Frozen (2013)
Steps premiered in New York on November 8th and arrives on Netflix globally on November 20th.