- “Have you ever seen such a lazy girl in your life?”
- ―Minerva[src]
Minerva is one of the secondary antagonists in the 1997 film Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. She is the younger daughter of the the Stepmother, the shorter, fleshier, younger sister of Calliope, and Cinderella's stepsister.
Role in the film[]
On a trip to the market, Minerva snatches an unusual purple hat topped with fluffy pink feathers before her sister, Calliope, can grab it. Bickering over whom it looks best on, they ask their mother to decide between them. She smoothly dodges the question, however, before she steps into the shop. Unsatisfied, they turn to their stepsister, Cinderella, and ask her opinion on the matter. She answers honestly, saying she doesn't think it looks good on either of them. Highly offended, Minerva nastily dismisses her answer before Calliope plucks the hat off her head and dashes off. An angry Minerva catches her and they resume fighting all the way into the hat shop.
When they emerge, Minerva is the hat's triumphant owner. Seeing Cinderella daydreaming out in the street, Minerva calls her lazy but Calliope mishears her and thinks she's the one being insulted. Minerva snaps that she is stupid, but she clearly meant Cinderella. Calliope is mollified for a moment before taking offense at being called stupid.
On another day spent shopping in the market, Minerva and Calliope are choosing lollipops from a candy shop when their mother bustles in, exclaiming that Prince Christopher is throwing a ball in order to find a bride. They hope he will propose to either of them before their mother puts their lollipops back and drags them off. When they get home, Minerva glares at Cinderella along with her mother and Calliope until she opens the door for them and takes their hats, bags, and gloves. The Stepmother wastes no time in training Calliope and Minerva to be graceful, respectable ladies, and places a book on each of their heads, instructing Minerva to "be a swan". Before they can even sit down their mother orders them all upstairs to take their tea.
On the day of the ball, the Stepmother ignores Minerva's cries of pain as she viciously laces her corset as tight as she can. She then asks her and Calliope how they plan on impressing Prince Christopher. Minerva initially thinks she'll start by batting her eyelashes, but changes her mind to copy Calliope, who chooses to curtsy first and then flutter her eyelashes. Minerva then nervously mentions that she'd like to recite a poem to Prince Christopher. To her mother's annoyance, she nervously scratches herself and can't seem to stop. Losing patience, her mother pins her arms to her sides, begging her not to scratch herself in front of Prince Christopher and reminding her and Calliope that they must hide their flaws until after the wedding. Cinderella, however, disagrees and vocalizes her thoughts of love to Calliope and Minerva, who find her ideas beautiful. Their incensed mother snaps that love doesn't matter. Marriage does. Calliope and Minerva soak in every warning about the follies of falling in love as they undergo facial masks, manicures, pedicures, and other methods of beautification before they saunter out the door with feathers in their hair and stars in their eyes.
Soon enough, Calliope and Minerva are waiting impatiently in line for their chance to dance with Prince Christopher. Minerva knocks Calliope aside in order to do so first and despite some nervous scratching, eagerly recites her poem to him. Seeing that he's not swept away by her artistic charm, she forcibly tries to make him appreciate her poetry, becoming so aggressive that he signals his loyal servant, Lionel, to take her away. Lionel, in turn, signals the guards, knowing he alone is no match for Minerva's strength. Even so, she does her very best to cling to Prince Christopher before the guards manage to force her off of him. Not long after, Cinderella arrives and sweeps him off his feet. Not recognizing her, a jealous Minerva fumes with Calliope from the sidelines as Prince Christopher and Cinderella dance around the ballroom. When they whirl right outside, Calliope and Minerva follow them all around the gardens, spying on them from behind bushes, trees, and statuary. They complain that just because the mysterious girl is beautiful, graceful, and unusual, that doesn't mean Prince Christopher has to fall for her rather than one of them. Hastily backing out of his line of sight, they topple over each other into a fountain.
Returning home after the ball ends, Calliope and Minerva tell Cinderella slightly-exaggerated stories of the ball, although they grudgingly admit that there was some other girl who captured his attention as well. Cinderella mentions her ideas of what it may have been like, enchanting them with dreams of charming princes and floating ballrooms before their disapproving mother sends them off to bed.
The next day, Prince Christopher has devised a way to find the mysterious girl by having every single eligible maiden try on the glass slipper she left behind until he finds the one whom it fits. His search eventually brings him to the Stepmother's house. After Calliope tries it on and fails, Minerva sticks her foot in Lionel's face. He tries to put the glass slipper on her, but it clearly doesn't fit her either. She puts Lionel into a headlock, yelling that it fit perfectly at the ball and that he must have shrunk it. Yanking himself free from her hold, he asks the Stepmother if there are any other eligible maidens in the house. She herself tries on the glass slipper and to everyone's amazement, it fits.
When the Stepmother starts shrieking that the glass slipper is cutting off her circulation, Calliope and Minerva hurriedly help Lionel yank it off. Prince Christopeher asks them if they are sure no other eligible maidens are in the house. Knowing that Cinderella is in the kitchen, they hastily and conspicuously attempts to block its locked doors. With renewed hope, Prince Christopher orders them opened. After a brief struggle, Lionel manages to secure the key and unlocks them before Prince Christopher walks inside. Everyone crowds around the doorway only to see that Cinderella is clearly not in there, much to her stepfamily's relief. Prince Christopher prepares to leave but is stopped by the Stepmother, who absolutely begs him to take Calliope or Minerva as his bride. She praises Minerva's strength and linguistic knowledge as she and Calliope toss the glass slipper back and forth to keep it out of Lionel's reach. Losing patience, Prince Christopher orders the chaos to stop and marches out the door, running right into Cinderella. He places the glass slipper on her foot and it fits perfectly, as her stepmother screams in despair and collapses into Calliope and Minerva's arms.
On the day of Prince Christopher and Cinderella's wedding, her stepfamily is shut outside the palace gates, although that doesn't stop them from unsuccessfully attempting to climb over them.
Trivia[]
- Minerva was named after the Roman version of Athena.
- It is said that the reason Minerva was chosen to have a dark skin tone was to avoid an allegory to slavery because in this production, her biological relatives were played by white actresses and Cinderella was played by a black one.
- Minerva is said to be as "strong as an ox".
- The Stepmother claims that Minerva has memorized " The Wreck of the Hesperus" in four languages, including Latin.
- Minerva favors full, flowy dresses in warm reds and oranges.
- While not directly based on them, Minerva and Calliope's ballgowns allude to Anastasia (Minerva wearing a pink one) and Drizella Tremaine (Calliope wearing a green one).
Gallery[]
Variants[]
- Anastasia Tremaine
- Drizella Tremaine
- Clorinda
- Florinda
- Lucinda
- Anastasia and Drisella Tremaine
- Ivy Belfrey
- Anastasia (Once Upon a Time)
- Zelly
- Stacy
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