STEPS Turns Cinderella Into a Sister Story, and the Voice Cast Is Ridiculous

Photo: Preetam Chakraborty, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Netflix's big animated swing for the holidays is STEPS, which lands on November 20 and takes the Cinderella story from the point of view of the stepsisters. Ali Wong voices Lilith, who accidentally turns her sister Margot, voiced by Stephanie Hsu, into a frog, and has to team up with Cinderella herself to put things right. Amanda Seyfried is Cinderella, Nikki Glaser is the other stepsister, and Bette Midler plays the Fairy Godmother, which is casting that writes its own review.

The later additions are the ones that made me sit up. Daniel Radcliffe, Peter Dinklage and Young Mazino joined this autumn, and the teaser from September suggests the film is funnier and stranger than the pitch sounds. Alyce Tzue and John Ripa direct, and the animation has that slightly storybook texture Netflix has been pushing in its recent features rather than the glossy Pixar look.

Photo: Toglenn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I am always a little wary of fairy tale remixes, because the joke of the villain being misunderstood has been done to death since Wicked, and the stepsisters are a thin place to start. What gives me hope is Wong and Hsu together. They are both sharp enough to make a sibling argument feel real even when one of them is a frog.

Photo: Greg Harries, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It is a Friday release right before the Thanksgiving week in the US, which is the slot Netflix uses when it thinks it has a family hit. If you have kids who have watched Encanto a hundred times, this is probably the next one. Will you be watching, or does the Cinderella well feel dry?