A STORY WITH HEART AND SOLE
Sneakerella represents cornerstones of the vaunted Disney corporation
Sneakerella
Disney+
In the frequently picked-over corpse of author Charles Perrault's classic story Cinderella, centred on a servant girl who rises from obscurity after falling in love with a prince, lies such themes as perseverance, hope and the value of being a dreamer. These are the cornerstone principles of the Disney corporation, founded by a fellow dreamer who, similar to the plucky protagonist in the fairy tale, made a wish and saw it come true. Though the studio has plundered these riches before with the likes of the popular 1997 TV movie musical and 2015's lavish live-action feature, Disney+ original Sneakerella amounts to a modernized, more tween-oriented telling. Director Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum's re-sole of the story, which sees a talented teen fantasizing about designing sneakers for sports royalty, delivers a poignant take on the 1950s animated film it partly cannibalizes.
This fantastical tale, narrated sparingly by fairy godfather Gustavo (Juan Chioran), begins in the diverse borough of Queens. Kind-hearted, creative teen El (Chosen Jacobs) loves sneakers almost as much as he loves his community. The perfect pair of kicks haunts his dreams and guides his life. He believes that the right shoes can make him fly, a concept illustrated in a dreamy amalgam of colourful mixed media and live-action, vividly drawn through sketch and song.
Best friend Sami (Devyn Nekoda) encourages El's artistic passion, and gets him to ditch his oppressive job as a stock boy for his oblivious stepfather Trey (Bryan Terrell Clark) and obnoxious stepbrothers Stacy (Hayward Leach) and Zelly (Kolton Stewart) in favour of basketball superstar Darius King's (John Salley) coveted sneaker re-release. However, El's world changes in a New York minute.
He may have come up empty-handed for the new shoes, but he manages to win the heart of Kira (Lexi Underwood), a fellow sneakerhead. They bond, dancing and dueting, as he exposes her to the vibrant melting pot he calls home. Yet they part without exchanging contacts. Little does he know the girl of his dreams is King 's daughter.
Kira has been busy establishing her own identity, taking an active role in her father's commercial ventures, seeking out the next big design for his sneaker line. At a charity networking gala, for which El sports an eye-catching ensemble and one-of-a-kind kicks, the lovelorn souls reunite and draw the attention of their fellow partygoers. But as the hour grows late, details concerning El's true identity are called into question, leaving him flustered and his confidence shaken.
Most of this narrative is ingeniously refashioned by screenwriters David Light, Joseph Raso, Tamara Chestna, Mindy Stern and George Gore II (story credit goes to Stern, Gore, Light and Raso), who meld all-too-familiar plot points with clever contemporary twists and homages. However, late in the second act, it gets tripped up in its own laces, much like its protagonist falling down an escalator as he flees the ball.
The movie's shine is dulled by maddening contrivances (like the stepbrothers' repetitive threats to El, and the campaign to find him) and baffling time-wasting segments that feel shoehorned into the plot. In addition, though Nekoda elevates her role as El's peppy sidekick, the character exists solely to service the male arc and is achingly underdeveloped.