This musical remake follows an orphaned boy in Queens as he falls head over sneaker heels for the daughter of a Manhattan footwear magnate.
A Queens hypebeast falls for a Manhattan rich girl in “Sneakerella,” the latest rehashed fairy tale to be foisted upon audiences. It seemed inevitable that Disney would swap glass slippers for pumped-up kicks eventually; Cinderella is too shoe-centric a story and Hollywood too besotted with remakes — lest viewers forget, Camila Cabello played the maiden mere months ago — for nobody to dream up a sneakerhead crossover.
If this spin on the tale is not quite diverting enough to justify its existence, the movie, directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum, is at least not a soulless exercise. Peppered with an array of original songs, “Sneakerella” is a hip-hop opera whose music is never mere emotional embroidery. Scenes are often sung-through, with rap and lyrics serving as dialogue. The actors could have used some more lip-syncing practice, but the effect is fun. Lin-Manuel Miranda might be tickled to see how the trickle-down of his stylings can elevate even the most dubious of re-trodden I.P.
The story is also gender-swapped. Our orphaned hero is El (Chosen Jacobs), a sneaker fanatic and stock boy in an Astoria shoe store who’s overworked by his stepfather and razzed by his stepbrothers. In line for new kicks, he meets Kira (Lexi Underwood), the daughter of a sneaker tycoon and the heiress to its empire. First comes love, then comes drama: El wants to design footwear for Kira’s family business, and fibs about a wealth of experience to score the gig. It’s a complication as contrived as they come, but then again, so is a prince shoving a kingdom’s worth of feet into a stiletto.
Sneakerella
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes. Watch on Disney+.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
