'Steps' Review: Amanda Seyfried, Ali Wong in Animated Alt-'Cinderella'

The animated feature film Steps offers an alternative take on the classic Cinderella story by focusing on the so-called evil stepsisters. Yahoo reported that the project was initially supposed to go full-bore into Disney parody with songs by comedy band Garfunkel And Oates, whose members Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome came up with the original script. Over the course of its production at Netflix, the film was sanded down into something stuck between the snark of Shrek and the feel-good pop chaos of KPop Demon Hunters. Yahoo noted that the screenplay features five credited writers, and all five alongside Micucci and Lindhome received story credits, bringing the total to seven.

In this retelling, the stepsisters are not evil but Asian, as Lilith, voiced by Ali Wong, and Margot, voiced by Stephanie Hsu, arrive in the kingdom of Alouette wearing the wrong clothes. They look nothing like their Disney-ready new stepsibling, Cinderella, who is voiced by Amanda Seyfried. Yahoo explained that the assimilationist plight of their dressmaker mother is briefly alluded to, along with the idea that Cinderella and the magic pushing her toward a happily ever after act as a stand-in for white privilege. However, Yahoo pointed out that any insight is muddled by the surrounding movie, where the real problem is that Cinderella does not stick up for her new siblings when they are bullied by Priscilla, a fairy-tale Mean Girl led by Nikki Glaser. This incident pushes Lilith to become a rebellious goth who resents Cinderella, while Margot is turned into a talking frog for the majority of the runtime after Bette Midler's Fairy Godmother loses her wand.

Additional characters include the Prince, voiced by Daniel Radcliffe, who turns to shoe-based identification because he is face-blind, and a snarling henchman butler voiced by Peter Dinklage. Young Mazino also stars with an understated monotone as a hunky emo troll, alongside a village of trolls who ride mountain goats like motorbikes. Yahoo reported that the film was directed by debut director Alyce Tzue and co-director John Ripa, with a screenplay written by Ava Tramer, James Madejski, Jen Chuck, Dana Schwartz, and Felicia Ho. The movie is scheduled for release on November 20, 2026, on Netflix.