Steps Reimagines Cinderella Through Her Stepsister’s Eyes

Netflix’s Steps turns the familiar Cinderella story around, placing her misunderstood stepsister Lilith at the centre of a colourful new animated adventure about identity, inclusion and sisterhood.

The film comes from co-directors Alyce Tzue and John Ripa, who worked together to explore the parts of the fairy tale that traditional versions often leave unexplored. Tzue, who grew up as the only Asian child in a largely homogeneous New Jersey community, says she often wondered why Cinderella’s stepsisters were never given their own opportunity for magic.

Rather than treating Cinderella as a single, fixed story, Steps draws on the tale’s varied traditions. The Chinese version introduced the stepmother, while an Italian telling added the stepsisters. The new film combines those influences with a contemporary perspective and revisits familiar moments from several characters’ viewpoints.

A new point of view on a familiar fairy tale

Steps follows Lilith, voiced by Ali Wong, as she watches the Fairy Godmother, played by Bette Midler, give Cinderella, played by Amanda Seyfried, a magical dress, carriage and glass slippers. Wanting a transformation of her own, Lilith attempts to claim some magic but accidentally turns her sister Margot, voiced by Stephanie Hsu, into a frog.

The mishap throws the kingdom into chaos and forces Cinderella and Lilith to work together. Their goal is to reverse the spell while stopping Priscilla, a scheming mean girl voiced by Nikki Glaser, from seizing control of the kingdom.

Lilith’s rebellious manner is more than a comic departure from the usual villainous stepsister. Tzue sees her as someone who arrives in a world built around hope and ambitious dreams, only to experience rejection. Her sharp exterior becomes a defence mechanism, reflecting Tzue’s own experience of retreating into books and art when she felt out of place.

Lilith is braver than Tzue felt she was when she was younger, making the character an aspirational version of the kind of person she wished she could have been.

Priscilla represents another response to the kingdom’s narrow idea of perfection. She wants to resemble Cinderella, but that insecurity turns destructive. In a society that celebrates only one model of beauty and success, Lilith becomes an outcast while Priscilla tries to force her way into the role of the ideal princess.

Rococo style meets a broader idea of beauty

The film’s visual design takes inspiration from French Rococo art and the French Cinderella story Cendrillon. Pastel colours dominate the kingdom, reinforcing its controlled and conformist atmosphere. As Cinderella and Lilith move beyond its boundaries, they encounter stronger, more natural colours.

The filmmakers also avoid defining Cinderella’s stepsisters through conventional ideas of ugliness. Female characters have varied faces and body shapes, with their designs intended to reflect differences in personality rather than a single standard of beauty.

A story built around sisterhood

John Ripa previously worked as a story artist on Frozen, another animated fairy tale that placed the bond between sisters ahead of a conventional romance. That shared interest in female relationships made him and Tzue a natural creative partnership for Steps.

Tzue says Frozen was an important film for her, but she does not see it as a direct template. Her hope is that audiences will continue to receive many different stories about female friendship and sisterhood.

A modern soundtrack for a classic setting

The film also aims for a contemporary tone through a soundtrack combining licensed songs with original music. That approach gives the fairy-tale setting a more current feel while keeping the story focused on empathy, belonging and the need to stand up for people who feel different.

The creative team says the film was developed independently rather than as an attempt to reproduce the success of Netflix’s 2025 animated hit Kpop Demon Hunters. Tzue describes the filmmakers as supporters of that project and says Netflix allowed the Steps team to make the story it wanted to tell.

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Steps premieres on Netflix on 20 November. Its central message is straightforward: a kingdom should make room for more than one version of perfection, and even the person cast as the villain may have a story worth hearing.