‘Steps’ Review: A Disposable Fairy Tale Reminds Us That Cinderella Is Someone’s Hated Stepsister Too

Reimagining fairy tales from other characters' perspectives no longer wins you points for originality, but Netflix's latest animation effort might entertain children who aren't old enough to be bored by the formula.

The so-called villains of our childhood stories aren’t so bad when you look at things from their points of view. It’s a lesson that 21st century pop culture has taught us on a constant loop ever since “Wicked” kicked off an Oppenheimer-esque chain of tragedy that has seen everyone from Maleficent to Cruella de Vil humanized with their own origin story. It was inevitable that Cinderella’s allegedly wicked stepsisters would get their own mainstream version of the formula at some point (the Norwegian body horror movie exists in a separate, more ambitious category). If Hollywood can try to make us emphasize with someone who lives to kill puppies, anyone could have guessed that someone would slap a generational trauma label on literal children who grew up under the same evil matriarch as Cinderella.

We’re long past the point where reimagining the classics from other characters’ perspectives earns you any credit for originality. If anything, those of us who have lived through the past two decades of pop culture might feel like stories where fairy tale side characters get to reclaim their agency are more omnipresent than actual fairy tales. But those original stories have endured in part because there’s always a new generation arriving to be wowed by them, and there’s no reason that the same principle can’t apply to the reimaginings, too.

Nobody whose age contains multiple digits needs to seek out “Steps” for any reason other than potentially entertaining their own children. But those young enough to be unfamiliar with the tropes it employs might be entertained or even moved by the material. “Cinderella” was an appropriate story to use for the purpose, as the beloved story of wish fulfillment doesn’t contain nearly as much emotional depth as better fairy tales like “Beauty and the Beast” or “The Little Mermaid.” Maybe it’s all part of a healthy cycle in which young kids can watch “Cinderella” and slightly older ones can watch “Steps” before graduating to stories and re-imaginings that have more to say. But on its own terms, the animated film comes across as little more than disposable corporate entertainment.

Directed by Alyce Tzue & John Ripa from a script by six credited writers (Ava Tramer, James Madejski, Jen Chuck, Dana Schwartz, and Felicia Ho wrote the screenplay and Kate Micucci also has a story credit), “Steps” is a well-meaning entry into the subgenre that follows the blueprint competently enough to avoid being offensive or memorable. It literally opens on an old storybook with a stereotypical voiceover narrator reading the text about Cinderella being mistreated by her wicked stepsisters — before Lilith (Ali Wong) slides into the frame yelling “Whoa whoa whoa” and declares that the fairy tale is “character assassination.” From there, it’s only a matter of time before the contemporary pop needle drops start.

“Steps” has no choice but to expand the thin mythology of “Cinderella” before it has a chance to tell the other side of the story. In this version, the stepmother isn’t wicked at all — she’s just an Asian dressmaker who constantly moves her two daughters Lilith and Margot (Stephanie Tsu) wherever the work takes her. When her marriage takes them to the kingdom of Alouette, all three of them see it as a chance for some much-needed stability. More than anything, the girls are excited to hang out with their new stepsister, Cinderella (Amanda Seyfried).

Yes, they started out as friends! (Where have you heard that one before?) The initial villain in “Steps” isn’t Cinderella, but the all-Caucasian kingdom where she lives. The newly blended family has fun sharing their cultural traditions, but Lilith and Margot quickly learn that everyone else sees them as outsiders. And when mean girls at school like Nikki Glazer’s Priscilla start freezing them out, Cinderella doesn’t do enough to stand up for them. Thus a sibling rivalry is born — turns out that Cinderella is also the mean stepsister that somebody else hates.

Lilith decides that if she’s not going to be accepted, she might as well rebel. Like a lot of pre-teens, she’s torn between an impulse to reject the social hierarchy around her and the unavoidable fact that she still defines herself by it. She’s more interested in destroying what she hates than figuring out what she likes, so she steals a magic wand from the Fairy Godmother (Bette Midler) and sabotages the royal ball, significantly complicating things for the Prince (Daniel Radcliffe) and sending the kingdom into free-fall. It isn’t long before she and her loathed step-sister have to take a journey through the forest to set things right.

From its unpleasantly slick animation to its picture-perfect storytelling — Cinderella thinks Lilith is mean and Lilith thinks Cinderella is dumb and ditzy, but they both learn there’s more to the other than meets the eye — “Steps” is an example of how you can do everything “correctly” and be left with a film that’s too smooth around the edges to resonate. There’s enough for kids to enjoy, but this won’t be one that parents find themselves unexpectedly invested in.

For all its modern cliches, “Steps” still contains a few moments of genuine pathos that tug at the heartstrings. We can all relate to being bullied as kids and the cosmic importance that our young brains assign to being left out, and the film handles those early scenes admirably well. But nothing in the movie is strong enough to transcend the fact that it’s packaged in a tired formula that has lost any subversiveness it once had. These villain-led reimagnings were introduced as a way to counteract the two-dimensional nature of fairy tales, but it’s starting to feel like we replaced those Happily Ever After endings with something equally superficial.

Grade: C

“Steps” streams on Netflix beginning on Friday, November 20.