Strictly Ballroom Film Analysis

The main message behind the Cinderella fairytale is that you should always stand up for what you believe in and never stop fulfilling your dream because the main title role Cinderella never gave up even after being enslaved by her stepmother for many years. These same characteristics are also shown in Strictly Ballroom because Scott continues to follow his dream which is to dance his own steps at the all-important Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship. Even though he was told numbers of times by his family and friends that he has to stick to strictly ballroom dance steps. However, both films have a character that guide them in the right path to accomplish there fantasy. For Cinderella, her fairy godmother comes into the film when Cinderella

is at her lowest point but her godmother makes all of her wishes come true by using the three magic words “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo,” Even though Frans grandmother doesn’t have powers she does build up both Fran and Scott’s confidence by making them dance the Paso Doble the right way. The evil step-mother is like Shirley in Strictly Ballroom. The step-mother makes Cinderella a sort of “slave” and tells her she cannot go to the Ball and Shirley makes Fran wash up around the dance studio and tells her she cannot dance at the Pan Pacific's. Both stories are a classic example of a stereotypical love story, which makes Strictly Ballroom more believable because it happens in most fairytale-type films. The meaning behind their romance becomes more clear from the implicit allusion to Cinderella because the viewers apply their pre-conceived ideas of the unlikely romance of people from two different social classes, to Fran and Scott's relationship. Fran breaks free of the thoughts of people and the labels they gave her, just like Cinderella does. Fran is told that she cannot dance with Scott and is portrayed as ugly and an amateur, but in the end, she defies all those things and becomes who she truly is. Cinderella breaks free of her label as a “slave” and “unworthy” when she goes to the Ball and marries the Prince, even when she was told that she couldn’t. Meaning Created: This reinforces what we associate with dance. In the two movies, dance brings the two couples together, but it is also what brings the families of the couples and the crowd together.