It’s no secret that both Wicked movies were huge box-office successes. But beyond being hits, the movies kicked off a huge cultural moment, proving something most fans have known for a while: the average film lover is totally down with story reimaginations that aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. In fact, the grittier and more morally messy they are, the more people are willing to buy tickets.
This development is exactly why it’s the perfect moment to bust out Gregory Maguire’s Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister from the “what could have been” prison it’s been languishing in. It helps that Maguire wrote both Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister books, so it’s almost a given that it will fare just as well. Now, you might be thinking, “But we already have a TV movie adaptation.” You’re not wrong. But after everything we saw with this Wicked movie adaptation, it’s fair to say that the 2002 TV movie adaptation of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister played it too safe. And frankly, today’s audiences are way past that.
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Ask most fans why Wicked stuck with them and you’ll hear variations of the same answer: the creators never tried to cushion the story’s uglier truths. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) was simply green, and the film never softened the cruelty that followed; the stares she got because of the way she looked, the unkind whispers, and the casual cruelty she experienced at the hands of pretty much everyone at Shiz University. But unlike several other fairy tale retellings that made it to the big screen, the movie wasn’t in a hurry to smooth things out for viewers. It just allowed all that awkwardness and real hurt to hang in the air, trusting viewers to deal with it without becoming shrinking violets.
That same gutsy approach is what fans need to see from anyone brave enough to take up the responsibility of bringing Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister to the big screen. While the book isn’t about witches and wizards like Wicked, it’s got pretty much the same ingredients. Just like Elphaba, Iris, the main protagonist, is reduced to the sum total of how she looks. Her plain appearance is in stark contrast to that of her exceptionally beautiful stepsister, Clara. As a result, every glance that skips her for her more beautiful stepsister, every conversation that dies when she walks in… feels like death by a thousand cuts. Maguire gets that beauty is currency in that world’s economy, and Iris is broke.
Wicked worked because it didn’t treat audiences like kids who needed everything explained or watered down. It painted a brutal picture of how unfairness works in real life. A new Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister movie could do that, too. No need to modernize the story or add any fancy special effects. The cruelty’s already there. It just needs room to breathe on screen.
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Disney’s TV Version of ‘Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister’ Couldn’t Be Truly Ugly
While we tentatively look forward to a big-screen adaptation of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, it’s only fair to talk about the 2002 TV movie adaptation by Disney. Directed by Gavin Millar, this version, told from Iris’ POV, had the right plot points and characters, including Azura Skye as Iris, Stockard Channing as the wicked stepmother Margarethe, Emma Poole as Ruth, and Jenna Harrison as Clara. But it had one fatal flaw. It wanted to be liked! And to do that, it watered down all the rough experiences until everything was just… nice.
The clearest proof of this is the famous shoe-fitting scene. The TV movie makes it feel like Iris is just having a bad day at a shoe store. Slightly awkward, but nothing sensational. Read the 1999 fantasy novel and see the difference. Your stomach drops, and you literally feel the panic and the crushing weight of not measuring up that Iris experienced. They even changed the nature of Iris’s sister Ruth. In the book, she’s a silent, unpredictable mystery who burns Master’s painting of Clara because she’s jealous. But watching the more… helpful Ruth in the TV movie gives you the impression that the bigwigs at Disney were scared of complications. So what do they do? They turn Ruth into someone “manageable.”
And the ending… oh the ending. The book doesn’t give you the classic fairy-tale “happy ending.” Iris finds a kind of quiet, complicated peace, and Clara’s story ends badly. Bottom line, nothing’s perfect for anyone. The TV movie? That ending gave everyone the equivalent of a hug and a smile before bed. That was the problem. It felt like a warm hug when it should’ve felt like a punch to the gut. It’s also fair to say that, back then, Disney probably couldn’t go there. Audiences were not ready for true ugliness. But now? After Wicked? The possibilities are endless.
If you own a copy of the book, it’s time to dust it off and read it again. When you’re done, maybe you can join us in making some online noise for a big-screen adaptation. We’ll need a director who isn’t afraid of the awkward and messy. Until then, you can watch Wicked on Apple TV.
