BACKGROUND
The story of Cinderella is incredibly well-known and has become one of the most adapted stories of all time, with new versions popping up every few years.
Disney has created three popular versions of the tale of Cinderella alone, with their 1950 animated version still being watched decades after its release. We also have the 1997 version starring Brandy, based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, along with the 2015 live-action remake, with Lily James in the title role.
Outside of that, there are various other studios who have adapted the story of Cinderella in both modern and traditional ways, such as Ever After (1998), Amazon Studios’ Cinderella (2021), Hilary Duff’s A Cinderella Story (2004), which spanned a film series of five other movies, and even Maid in Manhattan (2002) starring Jennifer Lopez.
Versions of Cinderella have to have some sort of twist now to keep the viewer interested because it’s been done so many times before. In the case of Sneakerella, Disney once again looked at adapting Cinderella, but this time, they were going to do something different: a gender swap. You’ve got it; Cinderella became a boy named El – not Sneakerella, that would be too random a name for audiences to get on board with – who is an aspiring sneaker designer and stock boy at his mother’s shoe store, and Prince Charming turned into Kira King, the daughter of a basketball legend with his own business empire.
There haven’t been many versions of a gender-swapped Cinderella movie before, with one being Cinderfella from 1960, starring Jerry Lewis in the lead role. You could also technically look at the story of Aladdin, at least Disney’s version of it anyway, as being a take on Cinderella with the gender roles reversed.
Sneakerella promised to do things differently though, by being a modern version of the story. There are no royals here, not in the literal sense, nor do we have talking animals and pumpkin carriages. All those iconic moments of Cinderella are instead grounded in reality, to make Sneakerella feel real. And I think it worked. Although I don’t know much at all about “sneaker culture” – people who have a deep love of sneakers – outside of watching Air (2023), the movie all about the original Air Jordans and how they came to be, I liked the gender swap in Sneakerella and I felt that it was an appropriate retelling of the story for young people of today.
As an adult though, with little to no interest in shoes, especially sneakers, or trainers as I call them, Sneakerella was just ok for me. I like the story of Cinderella, having watching numerous versions of the story on screen, and I was pleasantly surprised to find Sneakerella was a musical. My biggest issue was just how long Sneakerella was. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to watching it, and if I have to watch a movie I’m not sure about, I want it to be 90 minutes or less. Sneakerella was closer to two hours, which made the story drag, especially in the last half an hour or so, sadly.
PLOT
Sneakerella begins in the Queens borough of New York City, where El, now living with his stepfather and two stepbrothers after his mother died, works as a stock boy in his mother’s old shoe store, Laces. El’s stepfather, Trey, has taken over the running of the business, but finds it very stressful balancing that along with regular family life. Trey prioritises the needs of his children, Zelly and Stacy, over El, making El work extra shifts should those two not feel like working that day or have other plans, even if El may have plans of his own.
On a day just like that, El does have plans, to go to a sneaker launch with his friend Sami, but he is told to work in the store, making sure it is clean and tidy, ready for Trey to have a meeting there at 7pm that night. El pretends to start work, but as soon as Trey, Zelly, and Stacy have left to go about their days, El simply switches the sign on the shop door to say “Closed” and catches the train into Manhattan with Sami, almost missing it as El couldn’t not help neighbour Gustavo carry soil to the community garden.
On the train, El and Sami discuss their excitement at buying this exclusive pair of sneakers, with the two seemingly planning to share them as they are pricey. Sami then talks about the sneakers she’s wearing, which have a fingerprint stain on them. El starts to customise her sneakers on the train. El wants to be a sneaker designer, even drawing designs in his spare time. Sami is overjoyed with her new shoes, and the two head to the sneaker launch. There, the two see a huge line to get into the store to purchase the shoes, and are accused of cutting in line when they mistakenly believe they are at the end of the line and in fact are not. The girl stood by them lets them in the queue next to her, pretending that El is her cousin. The girl introduces herself as Kira and the three talk about their love of sneakers, with Sami mentioning that El has a “superpower”: he can know details about people just from looking at their shoes. Kira demands to see the “sneaker psychic” in action and El manages to correctly deduce information about two people. Kira is impressed.
However, the group soon find that these limited-edition sneakers are all sold out, and to make things worse, El and Sami are rumbled by people further back in the queue, as they notice that Kira and El are not cousins so they did cut in the queue. The three split up, with Sami heading away from the group of chasing guys on her skateboard, and El taking Kira to the nearest train. They all manage to get away safely. El then decides to show Kira around Queens, taking her to restaurants and to meet his neighbours. They end up at a huge spray-painted mural which has been added to over the years. El encourages Kira to paint something on there. Kira sprays a simple white frame and takes a photo of the two of them inside it, so she can remember this day. As the two talk about El losing his mum and their connection through a shared love of shoes, Kira asks El to do a “reading” of her from her shoes. El says, to be honest, her shoes are quite basic and don’t say much about her at all. Although most people would probably be offended by being called “basic”, Kira laughs it off. As El and Kira lean in for a kiss, Kira’s phone starts ringing, and El realises it’s 7:25pm – he’s late and never cleaned up the shop! El rushes away to get home.
At the store, Trey is naturally furious with El for shirking his responsibilities, and for ignoring the fact Trey had an important person coming for a meeting there. He is given all next week’s shifts and is grounded as punishment, much to the delight of Zelly and Stacy. The stepbrothers then show El that they’ve left the store room in complete disarray for him to clean up too! As El tidies up, he remembers all the memories with his mother in the store, from the positives of his mother teaching him all about shoes, to the negatives of his mother’s illness and eventual death… El really misses his mum right now.
Kira returns home late as well, having missed dinner and a meeting about “gala prep”. Kira is the daughter of former basketball player, now sneaker entrepreneur Darius King. Kira’s sister, Liv, starts discussing how they need to get their sales figures up and believes the way to do that is by releasing a whole new design at Sneaker Con. Liv believes sleeks, a thinner, cleaner design of sneaker, are the way to do this, having done copious amounts of research on the market. Kira, however, thinks they need to find a new designer, someone who will push boundaries, to design their new shoe. Darius isn’t so sure, but tells Kira if she can find an experienced designer by the night of the gala, they will go with that.
The next day, El and Sami realise that the girl from yesterday was in fact Kira King, after seeing a photo of the King family on the front of the newspaper. El is horrified at learning he dissed the shoes of someone so famous! Sami tells him not to worry and starts planning a way for them to get into the King gala so the two can meet up again. Sami says they can sneak in through the service entrance, disguised as waiters, since she knows two people who will be working there that night. Before El can get excited about this plan, he realises something is going on with Trey. Trey says he’s tried everything to make the store a success, bringing in new styles, but it hasn’t worked so he’s planning on selling the store, potentially to Foot Locker. El is devastated, as this is his mother’s store and wants to keep it open, but Trey tells El this is the real world, and hard decisions have to be made sometimes.
Later that night, El discovers old tools in the store, along with his old sneaker designs. He begins to design and make his own pair of sneakers, planning to wear them at the gala. On the night of the gala, El inadvertently makes his stepbrothers suspicious by making dinner for them and generally being overly nice. They spot El trying to leave the store and lock him in the store room. El tries to leave through the back shutters, but his brothers lock those too; El is trapped. El knows he’s running out of time to get to the gala but doesn’t know what to do. As he sits up against a drawer, and whacks his head against it in frustration, lines from his designs magically fall off the piece of paper and float across the street. Suddenly, Gustavo appears and opens the shutters to let him out. He knows El has somewhere important to be, and tells him to put on his new sneakers. Sami then arrives to tell El they’ve missed their lift to the gala. Gustavo offers them the use of his orange classic car and tells them to go to the gala, but to return by midnight. El and Sami head off.
At the gala, El and Sami are asked for tickets and magically El realises he has two in his jacket. They are allowed inside. El says he has to find Kira, leaving Sami to enjoy all the hors d’oeuvres that waiters bring by her! Sami is then approached by two guests, who ask about El and his fancy sneakers. Sami lies and says El is a very famous designer but can’t possibly give them any more details about his career, which leads to the guests asking everyone else at the gala if they know anything about this designer. Word gets around quickly. El eventually finds Kira, who is happy to see him again. Kira takes El to the King “Sneaker Hall of Fame”, and El geeks out over all the exclusive sneakers. El then shows Kira his sneakers and she realises he must be the designer everyone is talking about at the party. El pretends to be a famous designer like they all say. Thinking El can be the King brand’s new designer with all his experience, Kira wants to introduce El to her father, but he notices it is already midnight, meaning him and Sami have to leave. Confused, Kira tries to run after him, but after a chaotic escape, all El leaves behind is one of his shoes, which became stuck on an escalator. Kira shows the sneaker to her father, who wants to chat with this designer. Kira tells her sister that she doesn’t have his number. Liv decides to help her find him, via a huge social media campaign, dubbed #wheresmyprince.
Outside the gala, El and Sami see their car being towed away; they were too late leaving. El then gets angry at Sami for feeding those rumours about him being a famous designer. Sami simply says it’ll all work out and personally, she thinks he could be a famous designer anyway. The next day, Sami chastises El for not responding to Kira’s social media campaign. He says he’s scared about his lies getting out and hurting her. Sami says he shouldn’t be scared, and the two take a photo of El’s other sneaker at the mural where Kira painted that frame all those days ago. They send it to Kira, who calls them, asking if El will have a meeting with Kira’s father. El agrees to it.
What El doesn’t realise is that his stepbrothers have heard El and Sami talking about how El is going to be the next big designer for Darius King out on the street. They can’t let that happen, and search El’s room for the shoe. They can’t find it, but soon discover it in the secret closet with all the old tools. The two steal it and take it to Darius King, telling him that El isn’t a designer at all, but just a stock boy at his mother’s shoe store.
On the morning of El’s meeting with Darius, he oversleeps and finds his sneaker has gone. Sami tells him to go without the shoe and to bring his new designs instead. However, as El arrives at the King office building, he sees Zelly and Stacy leaving; he knows something’s wrong. When El gets to the meeting room, he sees that Kira is upset, knowing that El lied to her about his design experience. Darius King talks to him and says he is simply a scammer, trying to use Kira and the family brand for fame. El is warned to stay away from all of them. El then learns back home that the store has sold and they will be moving away, back to New Jersey where Trey and his family previously lived. As El throws out all his designs, the design that he had created for a potential Sneaker Con shoe blows out of a bin and makes its way over to Gustavo.
On the day of Sneaker Con, El wakes up to see his design is now an actual pair of sneakers. How did that happen?! El sees his stepbrothers loading up the removal van as they are moving that day. El sees Sami on the street and asks her to stall his brothers so he can get out of the house without being seen. Sami happily obliges, giving El a head start to the King Sneaker Con launch, but it’s not long before Kelly and Stacy realise that El has left the house and know where he must’ve gone. They commandeer the moving van, telling their father not to worry. Trey is confused and annoyed at his sons for doing this. Sami tells Trey that he needs to see El as the talented kid he really is and tells him where they’ve gone.
El arrives at the King sneaker launch just as Darius is doing a musical performance. El shows Kira his newly designed shoes and apologises to her for what happened. Kira apologises for putting pressure on El to lie about his design experience. Kira then convinces her father to let El tell his story to the crowd. As El starts to talk about what happened, Zelly and Stacy arrive, once again reiterating that El is nothing but a fraud, however, they are stopped by Trey. Trey apologises to El for being so hard on him since his mother’s death and for not understanding how much the store and designing meant to him. He asks for a second chance at being a father to El. El accepts. Darius King then announces that El will be the new designer for the King sneaker brand.
The movie ends one year later, where we see that El and Kira are now a couple and El has been able to keep his mother’s shoe store, renaming it “El-evate”. He sees that he is now inspiring others with his shoe designs and is happy that he finally fulfilled his dream, as well as continued his mother’s legacy.
CHARACTERS & CAST
El is struggling with his family life, now that his mother has died and he’s been left to fend for himself, with a stepfather and two stepbrothers who don’t seem to care at all about him. El is forced to work exceedingly long hours at his mother’s shoe store, but in actual fact, he doesn’t want to be selling shoes; he wants to be making them. Although he has had some experience in customising his own sneakers, and Sami’s, El has no real design experience and doesn’t seem to have ever made his own pair of sneakers. It’s not until he meets Kira King that he wants to show off his talent, whether to impress her or to make some use of her father’s connections – or a bit of both – I’m not sure. But El does design a pair of sneakers that gets people talking and he starts to think this might be the making of him. Sadly, his stepbrothers come in to ruin his opportunity, and El starts to lose faith in his ability. Thanks to friend Sami and neighbour Gustavo, who push him to take advantage of his talent, El plucks up the courage to apologise to Kira and Darius King, revealing that he is a good person with genuine talent and belief, allowing El to get his dream of being a real sneaker designer.
Chosen Jacobs was cast as El. Jacobs had previously appeared as Will Grover in a few episodes of Hawaii Five-0 (2010-20) before landing the role of Mike Hanlon in horror movie It (2017), reprising his role in It Chapter Two (2019). After Sneakerella, Jacobs went on to be cast as Frankie in the Netflix film Purple Hearts (2022) and Alex in the Hulu original film Darby and the Dead (2022).
Helping El overcome a lack of confidence is his best friend Sami. Sami is a very loyal friend who is always there for El and has his best interests at heart, even if that means pushing him to do something difficult or uncomfortable, such as planning to attend the King gala and making El respond to Kira’s social media campaign, despite El’s worries about how his lies may backfire on him. Those lies did in fact backfire on El, but Sami was there to tell him how much she believed in him and his talent, making him think that he could go to the King Sneaker Con launch to make things right, even providing the diversion to get him there.
Sami was played by Devyn Nekoda, who had previously been cast as Mackenzie in the DCOM The Swap (2016). Outside of Disney, Nekoda was cast as Anika in Scream VI (2023) and as Sage 5 in sci-fi series Utopia Falls (2020). She also appeared as Riley in Season 1 of Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia (2021-present).
Also there to help El, in some quite magical ways, is Gustavo, El’s neighbour. Gustavo is El’s “fairy godfather”. It’s not specifically shown that Gustavo has magic, as in he doesn’t cast spells or anything, but he always shows up at just the right moment, like when El is trapped in the store on the night of the gala. Apparently, some drawings leapt off their page and flew across the street, alerting Gustavo to the fact El was stuck and needed help. Gustavo also happens to have a car to give to El and Sami, tells El to put on his fancy shoes for the gala, and then seems to make El’s Sneaker Con design a reality at the end of the film. Having seen El’s mother succumb to illness, Gustavo clearly has some sort of feeling of responsibility to look after El and keep him safe and happy in his difficult family situation, however, he doesn’t make this too obvious and it’s not entirely clear whether El is aware of Gustavo’s “influence” or whether he thinks everything is purely coincidental!
Juan Chioran was cast as Gustavo. Although Chioran has primarily acted on stage and not on screen, with roles in many productions over the years at the Stratford Festival, held in Stratford, Ontario in Canada, winning a Gemini Award for his 2000 performance as Count Dracula in Dracula: A Chamber Musical, Chioran may be familiar to Disney Channel fans from playing the role of Francobollo Garibaldi, Galleria’s father, in The Cheetah Girls (2003). He also has experience in voice acting, recently voicing the recurring role of Señor Tapir in the PBS Kids series Elinor Wonders Why (2020-present).
Then we have El’s love interest, Kira King. Kira doesn’t seem to fit in well with her superstar family, as we see when Kira is stood in line like an ordinary person to try and buy sneakers from her own father’s brand. She doesn’t want handouts and she’d rather not have people know she is the daughter of Darius King in case it changes someone’s opinion of her. This is why she doesn’t reveal this to El when they first meet. Kira wants her father’s sneaker brand to be more about sneakers that tell a story instead of just being plain ones that can make a lot of money, whereas her sister, Liz, is focused on finding a style that will sell. Kira is ecstatic when she “discovers” that El is an experienced sneaker design, because not only does she like him, but he’s just the type of person she promised her father she could find before Sneaker Con, to give them a better design than Liv’s boring sleeks. Kira is devastated to learn that El lied about his sneaker experience, but she soon realises that the pressure she felt to find a great designer for the company led to her putting pressure on El to lie about who he was. Kira takes some responsibility for what happened between her and El, so when they make up, she convinces her father to listen to El’s apology and his story.
Kira was played by Lexi Underwood. Prior to Sneakerella, Underwood was cast as Pearl Warren in the Hulu series Little Fires Everywhere (2020), which starred Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. She went on to portray Malia Obama in the series The First Lady (2020). More recently, Underwood starred as Isabella LaRue in Season 2 of the series Cruel Summer (2021-23). Kira’s sister, Liv, was played by Robyn Alomar, who had previously been cast as Aliyah 5 in Utopia Falls (2020).
Kira’s father is Darius King. Darius was a former basketball player and has now started a sneaker “empire”, creating a huge brand which is popular with many sneaker fans, with El and Sami being two of these fans. Darius isn’t shown to be a money-crazed entrepreneur, and instead, encourages his business to be run as a family enterprise, with everyone having equal say, which is why he allows Kira the opportunity to find a designer to come and work with the brand, to give their sneakers some much-needed expression. After being informed that El, Kira’s chosen designer, lied about his experience, due to Darius’ protective nature, he tells El to stay away from his family, not wanting them to be duped by a “scammer” and a fraud. Darius is, quite rightly, sceptical of El’s motives for getting close to his daughter, believing that El wants fame, but by the end of the film, Darius learns that is not the case and sees El for the talented designer he is.
Darius King was played by former professional basketball player John Salley, whose career ran from 1986, when he was drafted by the Detroit Pistons, and ended in 2000, retiring after a spell with the Los Angeles Lakers. During his basketball career, Salley became a four-time NBA champion, being the first player in NBA history to win championships with three different teams. After basketball, Salley turned to the screen, as other basketball players have also done, being cast as Fletcher in the movie Bad Boys (1995), reprising the role in 2024 for Bad Boys: Ride or Die. He also came in third place in the US version of the reality series I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! back in 2009.
For El’s stepfamily, we have Trey, the stepfather, and Zelly and Stacy, the stepbrothers. Trey doesn’t mean to be cruel to El with his work in the shoe store; he is simply stressed and overworked trying to keep the store afloat now that he is running it single-handedly without El’s mother. He tells El that his sneaker designing dreams are just a folly and that El needs to start living in the real world. Things between the two of them really hit rock bottom when Trey says he is selling the store and moving all of them back to New Jersey, much to the delight of Zelly and Stacy who apparently hate living in Queens. Zelly and Stacy don’t initially seem to be “wicked” stepbrothers, however, their villainy progresses beyond just messing up the store room for El to clean up and generally seeming to ignore El and his needs. Instead, they go out of their way to ruin El’s chance of being a designer for King just to make him miserable. Stacy seems to be the mastermind behind these schemes, being the brother with the brain, whereas Zelly is the “less smart” one who goes along with whatever Stacy says. In the end though, Trey learns of El’s talent and stops his sons from ruining El’s opportunity. It’s not clear whether the four of them become “one big, happy family” because we don’t see it, but I’m sure Trey now keeps his sons in line.
Trey was played by Bryan Terrell Clark, who has been cast in the recurring roles of Pastor Logan in Season 2 of Snowpiercer (2020-24) and as Dr. Dermatologist in Hulu’s Saint X (2023). He also appears as Mr. Tea in the series Diarra from Detroit (2024-present). Hayward Leach was cast as Stacy. Leach played Freddie in Season 2 of Love Life (2020-21) and went on to appear as Roy in Elsbeth (2024-present). Kolton Steward was cast as Zelly. He had previously played Jarvis in the Canadian sitcom Some Assembly Required (2014-16), and appeared as Owen in the DCOM The Swap (2016), going on to play the role of Tyson in the Disney sequel Disenchanted (2022). Steward currently voices Rory in the animated Netflix series Unicorn Academy (2023-present).
PRODUCTION
The start of production on Sneakerella was announced in October 2020, where the three main actors, of Chosen Jacobs as El, Lexi Underwood as Kira, and John Salley as Darius King, were announced. A brief plot of the film was also described, and an expected premiere date was set to be sometime in 2021[1].
Because filming began at the end of 2020, although clearly the film industry was back at work by then, the cast and crew would’ve been required to comply with certain restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This included crew members wearing masks and face coverings, and cast having to do so when not on camera. Social distancing and ways of restricting contact with those outside of production were likely enforced too. It was also the case that cast and crew could not explore the surrounding areas properly either. Devyn Nekoda is from Ontario and she stated that she was disappointed that she was unable to show her American castmates the area properly whilst they were filming there, meaning they spent their downtime mostly hanging out in their apartments together[2].
Specific filming locations in Canada used for Sneakerella include the Hamilton International Village District, with its shops and city blocks being repurposed to look like the Astoria neighbour in Queens, New York City, where El and his stepfamily live. King Street East in Hamilton, Ontario was reportedly used as the location of the big street art mural that El takes Kira to on their afternoon in Queens together[3]. The Bay Adelaide Centre in Toronto appears to have been used as the location of Darius King’s business headquarters[4]. Due to the fact that Sneakerella’s production took place in Canada, but the story is set in New York City, some CGI enhancement was likely used to represent certain areas of the famous city. To be honest, when watching Sneakerella, I quite easily believed it was filmed in New York, although admittedly I have never been to either New York City or any part of Canada. I’m sure anyone familiar with either place would’ve easily known the truth of its filming locations.
Sneakerella was directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum, who had previously directed the movie Ramona and Beezus (2010), which starred former Disney Channel actress Selena Gomez, and some episodes of Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists (2019), which featured Descendants star Sofia Carson. Rosenbaum and Carson worked together again for Netflix’s 2022 movie Purple Hearts.
The writers of Sneakerella came from a variety of places. Two of these were from the world of the DCOM, these being David Light and Joseph Raso who worked on the first three ZOMBIES films. Another screenwriter was Tamara Chestna, who had previously co-written the screenplay for After (2019), the first in a series of movies based on the novels by Anna Todd. Chestna is also set to be a writer for the upcoming fifth instalment of Disney Channel’s Descendants franchise. The other writers on Sneakerella were Mindy Stern, and George Gore II, who is perhaps best known for his role as Michael Kyle Jr., or just Junior, in the sitcom My Wife and Kids (2001-05).
Continuing in the pattern of having crew that have history with either Disney Channel or teen dramas, Jane Startz, who produced the film Ella Enchanted (2004), itself a take on the traditional Cinderella tale, was a producer on Sneakerella, as was Rachel Watanabe-Batton, a producer on the Mr. T series I Pity the Fool (2006). From the world of musicals, Christopher Scott was another credited producer, who was a choreographer on In the Heights (2021) and even Wicked (2024). Scott was also a choreographer on ZOMBIES (2018) for Disney Channel. The choreographers on Sneakerella were Emilio Dosal and Ebony Williams, who both worked on In the Heights, the film adaptation of the stage show.
Although Disney and musicals were a key part of Sneakerella’s production, another important feature of the movie is, of course, “sneaker culture”. I had very little prior knowledge of sneaker culture before watching Sneakerella, other than the fact I knew exclusive, limited-edition sneakers were bought and sold, and that Nike fought to have Michael Jordan sign with them to create the famous Air Jordans. I had to do some research.
The origin of the sneaker goes back to the 1860s where in England, they were used for the sports of tennis and croquet. Their use was entirely functional and had nothing to do with fashion. Sneaker culture likely began with the rise of athlete-endorsed shoes in the 1970s and 1980s, with the most popular designs on the basketball courts being Puma, Adidas, and Converse around this time. In 1985, the public release of Nike and Michael Jordan’s sneaker collaboration, the Air Jordans, was the biggest thing to transform sneakers. Despite only being a rookie on the basketball scene at this time, Nike and Adidas fought for Jordan to sign with them. Eventually, Nike won and Jordan signed a five-year, $2.5 million endorsement deal with them. Nike were incredibly radical with their design because NBA guidelines stated that sneakers had to be 51% white to be used on the court for games. The Air Jordans were actually “illegal” shoes, with mostly red and black colouring. Nike chose to pay the $5,000 fine that was set for any players that came on to court with shoes that went against the guidelines rather than change their design. Luckily, it paid off for everyone involved, because Michael Jordan became one of the best and most famous basketball players in the world, with his sneakers following suit.
It wasn’t only basketball and sports stars that contributed to this culture either. Hip-hop was a contributor as well. Hip-hop group Run-D.M.C. released the single “My Adidas” in 1986, which led to them having an endorsement deal with the brand. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana later made Converse a symbol of youth and rebellion. Other celebrity and luxury brand sneaker collaborators led to further hype with their limited-edition releases. By the mid-2010s, sneakers had become a status symbol. Singer Drake even commissioned a one-of-a-kind pair of Air Jordans in 2016 that were wrapped in 24-carat solid gold[5].
Sneakers aren’t only about collections now; they are supposed to tell a story about yourself, this being something that El is a clear believer in, as is his friend Sami. El even likes to guess people’s personalities from their shoes. Sneaker culture has also built a community for some sneaker lovers, and I learnt that Sneaker Con is a real thing, not something that was made up for Sneakerella. Sneaker Con was founded in August 2008, by Alan and Barris Vinogradov and Yu-Ming Wu. Its inaugural event took place in Times Square Arts Center in New York City, hosting over 3,000 people in March 2009. Sneaker Con now goes all over the world, having had events in cities outside the US, like London and Sydney[6].
Even with all that talk of sneakers, Sneakerella doesn’t forget to honour its fairy-tale source material. During the opening song of Sneakerella, “Kicks”, bubbles appear during the sequence. This a nod to the song “Sing Sweet Nightingale” from Disney Animation’s Cinderella (1950) where Cinderella sings whilst cleaning, and bubbles form around her, showing her image inside of them. The orange convertible that El and Sami are given by Gustavo to get to the gala has this license plate: PMPKN XPRS, as in “pumpkin express”, which is a clear reference to Cinderella’s famous pumpkin carriage. There is also a brief glimpse of graffiti art versions of two of the bluebirds from Cinderella as El is making his “glass” sneakers for the gala. Speaking of these sneakers, with their plastic soles meant to resemble the original glass slippers, they were designed by Eske Schiralli, a designer who founded his own footwear and garment design house, Mad M.F.G. in 2017 and has collaborated with Adidas and Nike, as well as Disney now[7]. The famous clip from Cinderella of the glass slipper being placed on Cinderella’s foot in the animated movie can also be seen during Kira’s social media campaign to find her prince. Finally, some of the character names reference the 1950 movie, such as Trey being a shortening of Tremaine, like Lady Tremaine, Cinderella’s stepmother; and Zelly and Stacy being shortened versions of Drizella and Anastasia, Cinderella’s stepsisters[8].
MUSIC
Much like other versions of the Cinderella story on screen, Sneakerella was a musical, although due to its modern setting, its music is heavily based in R&B, hip-hop, and rap, unlike the majority of other Cinderella movie musicals. Many of these songs go alongside big dance numbers, featuring dance styles like hip-hop and breakdancing, which is quite different to most other Cinderella adaptations too.
The opening song of Sneakerella is “Kicks”, which introduces us to the character of El, as well as his neighbourhood, and the collective love of sneakers within the community. I liked “Kicks” in terms of it being a good opener for the audience. A brief snippet of “Kicks” is also used in the End Credits. I did find that it sounded kind of similar to the music in Disney Channel’s ZOMBIES and Descendants movies. This was a thought I kept returning to throughout Sneakerella. “Kicks” was performed by Chosen Jacobs as El, and was written by Antonina Armato, Tim James Price, Thomas Armato Sturges, and Adam Schmalholz.
Following on from that, we have “Best Ever”, which is performed by Jacobs as El and Lexi Underwood as Kira. “Best Ever” is the song used when El takes Kira to Queens and shows her around his neighbourhood, before ending their day at the street art mural. This is the first hint that Kira and El are falling for each other. There is a reprise of this song just a bit later, as they sit by the mural. “Best Ever” and its reprise were written by Clyde Lawrence, Gracie Lawrence and Jordan Cohen.
After that great day with Kira, El comes back to find that his stepfather is angry at him for not cleaning up the shoe store. At this point, El sings the song “In Your Shoes” as he thinks about all the memories he had in this store with his mother, going from happy moments to the saddest, most painful ones as his mother succumbs to illness. This song was quite moving, in part for the music itself, as well as for the flashbacks that are shown on screen of El’s life with his mother. “In Your Shoes” was written by William Behlendorf, Jason Mater, and Brandon C. Rogers.
A more positive song, “Work Up”, also performed by Jacobs as El, follows this a few scenes later, as El makes his own pair of sneakers for the King gala. This was an upbeat, hip-hop-style piece, showing that El finally has some confidence in himself and he’s going to achieve his dream of being a sneaker designer. A brief snippet of “Work Up” is used in the End Credits. “Work Up” was written by Anthony Ferrari, Sean Turk, and Dewain Whitmore.
One of the most well-known songs from Disney Animation’s Cinderella is “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”, where Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother gets her ready for the ball. Sneakerella has its own version of this, “Life Is What You Make It”, where Gustavo, El’s “Fairy Godfather”, helps him and Sami get ready for the gala, giving them new clothes and even a car to get them there. To be honest, I didn’t like this song much, feeling that it went on a bit long and took away from some of the urgency about getting to the gala. It was performed by Juan Chioran as Gustavo, Devyn Nekoda as Sami, and Jacobs as El. “Life Is What You Make It” was reprised at the very end of Sneakerella as we see how everything ended up for El, as well as being used for the beginning of the End Credits. It’s another big dance number here too. This song was written by Tora Litvin and Doug Rockwell.
There was actually a song from Disney’s 1950 Cinderella that was adjusted to fit into Sneakerella. This is “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes”, which was originally written by Al Hoffman, Jerry Livingston, and Mack David. It is used for the scene where El and Kira see each other at the gala, and there is even a contemporary dance that the two do together, although this is seemingly shown to be a daydream. Personally, I prefer the original version of “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes”, but it was an interesting, modern update to it. This song was also remixed, although this does not feature in the movie, only on the soundtrack.
After the gala, where El left Kira without an explanation or talking to her father about his sneakers, Kira and her sister have a plan to launch a social media campaign to “find” El and get him to meet her to discuss his sneaker designs. The song used for this scene is “Perfect Fit”. Again, this wasn’t the best song from the movie for me. It was performed by Lexi Underwood as Kira, and Robyn Alomar as her sister, and it was written by Greg Bonnick and Hayden Chapman.
Following on from that, El’s stepbrothers Zelly and Stacy learn that El is close to becoming a famous sneaker designer, and out of jealously and a desperate need to get their father to move them back to New Jersey, the brothers launch a plan to ruin El’s life by stealing his “glass” sneaker and telling Darius King that El is a fraud, and not a designer at all. The song Hayward Leach and Kolton Stewart perform here as Stacy and Kelly is “Shut It Down”. I actually quite liked this song, probably because it was the “villains’ song”. “Shut It Down” was written by Farrah King.
The final song to appear in Sneakerella is a rap battle simply titled “Finale”. This shows El trying to convince Darius King about his potential to be a great designer for his business. There is a bit of back-and-forth between the two, before Kelly and Stacy burst in to call him a fraud, with Trey, El’s stepfather, telling them to back off as he apologises for not paying enough attention to El’s life and wanting to be a better father figure to him. I probably would’ve preferred this whole tie-up of the storyline to have taken place through dialogue and not a rap battle, but that’s just me. The rap battle suits the musical styling of the movie. “Finale” was written by Theron “Neff-U” Feemster, Jordan Power, and Frankie “Rank” Wood.
Theron “Neff-U” Feemster also wrote another song for the Sneakerella soundtrack, and performed it alongside Julia Pratt. This song is “Fly Higher”, which was not used in the film.
The score was composed by Elvin Ross, who has collaborated with Tyler Perry on the music for some of Perry’s projects, including the sitcoms Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (2006-25) and Meet the Browns (2009-11).
Sneakerella did win an award for its music: a Children’s and Family Emmy award for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Live-Action program. Two of the movie’s songs were also nominated at the same ceremony for Outstanding Original Song. These were “In Your Shoes” and “Kicks”.
RECEPTION
Although production on Sneakerella took place during the last few months of 2020, with many news outlets listing a 2021 Disney+ premiere for the movie, for some reason or another, the release of Sneakerella was delayed a few times.
The first trailer for Sneakerella dropped on 12th November 2021, with a release date listed as 18th February 2022[9]. However, February 2022 came and went; there was no Sneakerella on Disney+. It seems that a new trailer was then released on 8th April 2022, with a release date of 13th May 2022. This time, the trailer was correct and Sneakerella did come to Disney+ on this date. It’s been said these delays were due to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite filming already being completed by 2021. Perhaps Disney were just trying to find the best time in their schedule to release Sneakerella, so that it wasn’t overshadowed by some other Disney+ release coming in the days or weeks around it.
Sneakerella received mostly positive reviews from critics after its release, although the audience reaction was more mixed.
On the positive side, Sneakerella was seen as a modern take on Cinderella which was appreciated for its fun spin on the story and its diversity. Others liked the musical soundtrack, likening it to other Disney Channel hits like ZOMBIES and Descendants. The leads of Chosen Jacobs and Lexi Underwood, as El and Kira, were generally well-received, as was Devyn Nekoda as Sami. It was also considered better than the average Disney Channel movie by some.
On the other hand, a further adaptation of Cinderella, so soon after Amazon Prime’s 2021 version with Camila Cabello in the title role, was considered unnecessary. Some criticised certain story aspects, such as Kira’s social media campaign to “find” El. In the original story, Prince Charming doesn’t really know what Cinderella looks like and certainly doesn’t know where she lives, making his journey to find her seem realistic, whereas in Sneakerella, Kira already knows what El looks like and knows that he lives in Queens, since he took her there on the day that met. It was queried why Kira didn’t just go to Queens and ask around for him. I thought this too when I watched it, but obviously, in the movies, everything needs a level of tension and drama or there is no point to it. Some also picked up on the fact that a gender-swapped Cinderella is really just a version of Aladdin, which made Sneakerella less unique than originally advertised. Another comment was simply that Sneakerella was just too long and dragged in places. I agree with this, as I was relatively focused on the movie up until they got to the gala and then I found myself getting bored and wondering why the ending was being dragged out so much. Sneakerella was about twenty minutes longer than the average DCOM so that’s probably why it bothered me. I am capable of watching movies longer than 90 minutes, I swear.
As Disney don’t release viewing figures for every Disney+ release, unless it has done exceptionally well, like the premieres of their new animated movies or those of Pixar, it is unclear how many people watched Sneakerella on its release.
Although Sneakerella feels like a typical Disney Channel Original Movie, being produced by Disney Channel and being a musical reminiscent of the ZOMBIES or High School Musical franchise, it wasn’t labelled as a DCOM.
That is because Sneakerella did not premiere on Disney Channel; it premiered on Disney+. This has started to become the norm and I believe the simple reason for this is because many of the international Disney Channels have since shut down. Nowadays, it seems that most “Disney Channel movies” premiere on Disney+ and the US Disney Channel within a few days of each other, making the label Disney Channel Original Movie inaccurate. Sneakerella was in a similar situation to Secret Society of Second-Born Royals (2020) which premiered on Disney+ in 2020 but did not come to Disney Channel until 2023. Sneakerella apparently premiered on Disney Channel on 13th August 2022, three months after its Disney+ date. Viewing figures for its Disney Channel premiere were also unavailable.
Despite not having viewing data to judge the popularity of Sneakerella, the movie itself did win numerous awards at the 1st Children’s and Family Emmy Awards, held on 10th and 11th December 2022, proving that it was appreciation by industry professionals. The awards won were in the categories of: Outstanding Fiction Special; Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Live-Action Program; Outstanding Editing for a Single Camera Program; and Outstanding Choreography.
Sneakerella was also nominated for other awards here, including Outstanding Art Direction; Outstanding Cinematography for a Single Camera Program; and Outstanding Directing for a Single Camera Program. In total, Sneakerella won four awards, and was nominated for eleven in total. These eleven nominations meant that Sneakerella tied with The Mysterious Benedict Society (2021-22), a Disney+ series, for most total nominations at this event. Production designer Elisa Sauvé won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Production Design for a Television Movie at the Directors Guild of Canada Awards.
LEGACY
Although Disney Animation’s Cinderella was followed by two direct-to-video sequels with varying levels of success, there was no sequel for Sneakerella. This isn’t a surprise since Sneakerella tied up its story neatly just like any other adaptation of Cinderella. “Sneakerella” met his “princess” and started his dream career as a sneaker designer. Everything worked out for him and we are led to believe that El and Kira lived “happily ever after”.
Instead, Sneakerella continued the legacy of the Disney musical, more specifically the Disney Channel musical. The first Disney Channel musical was The Cheetah Girls, released in 2003, two decades prior to Sneakerella. After Sneakerella, the DCOM musicals that followed it were ZOMBIES 3 (2022) and Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024), with further movies from these franchises coming over the next few months and years.
Sneakerella did also become another movie in a long list of screen adaptations of the classic fairy tale of Cinderella. But with so many of these over the years, potentially Sneakerella did not do enough to be remembered in the years and decades to come.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I can’t say I disliked Sneakerella. It had its moments where it was quite clever and it did feel new and fresh, not a scene-by-scene repeat of Disney’s 1950 animated film.
I think I am, however, too old and “uncool” to fully appreciate Sneakerella. For one thing, I don’t have a love of sneakers. If El looked at my shoes, I don’t think he’d have much to say about them, which would basically mean he thought I was “boring”. Probably fair. I’m also not a fan of hip-hop or rap so the soundtrack wasn’t something I found overly memorable or enjoyable.
But I appreciated the attempt by Disney Channel to do a gender-swap of Cinderella for the young people of today. Many parents claim that they won’t let their children watch some of Disney Animation’s older movies, including Cinderella, due to their “outdated” views on society, including the role of women.
Sneakerella tries to represent the culture of young people today, giving them more of an accurate view of their lives compared to some of the more traditional Cinderella stories we see on screen. I think putting Sneakerella on Disney+, a platform with so much more variety than that of Disney Channel, meant it may’ve struggled to find its audience. But it only came out a couple of years ago; maybe it can be found again.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: Denise Petski, ‘‘Sneakerella’: Chosen Jacobs, Lexi Underwood & John Salley To Star In Disney+ Movie’, Deadline.com, 21st October 2020.
[2] Credit: Elisabetta Bianchini, ‘Canadian cast of Disney+ ‘Sneakerella’ welcomed Americans ‘with open arms’ during COVID-19’, News.Yahoo.com, 13th May 2022.
[3] Credit: Michael Kras, ‘This new movie musical on Disney Plus was filmed all over Hamilton’, Cekan.ca, 27th May 2022.
[4] Credit: Cormac O’Brien, ‘The First ‘Sneakerella’ Trailer Just Dropped & The Ontario Is Fully Showing Throughout’, Narcity.com, 13th November 2021.
[5] Credit: Starlight Williams, ‘How sneaker culture took over the world’, NationalGeographic.com, 27th April 2023.
[6] Credit: ‘About’, Sneakercon.com.
[7] Credit: Noel Ransome, ‘Eske Schiralli on Building the Sneaker for Disney’s ‘Sneakerella’ and Drake Rocking His Clothes’, Complex.com, 13th May 2022.
[8] Credit: Sarah Sterling, ‘5 Dreamy Animated Cinderella References in Sneakerella’, D23.com, 13th May 2022.
[9] Credit: Cormac O’Brien, ‘The First ‘Sneakerella’ Trailer Just Dropped & The Ontario Is Fully Showing Throughout’, Narcity.com, 13th November 2021.
The Disney Purist 