Steps review : Netflix's sister Cinderella story

Steps arrives on Netflix globally on November 20, 2026, after its New York premiere on November 8. The timing feels right : animated fairytale retellings have been making a quiet comeback, and this one has something genuinely different to say. Rather than following Cinderella herself, Netflix Animation flips the script entirely and hands the story to her stepsister. The result is sharper, funnier, and more emotionally honest than you'd expect.

A Cinderella retelling told from the wrong side of the story

The premise is simple but bold. Lilith (voiced by Ali Wong) and Margot (Stephanie Hsu) grow up in the shadow of their stepsister Cinderella (Amanda Seyfried), who is beloved by everyone around her, including every animal in a five-mile radius. Lilith responds by developing a punk-goth identity and a razor-sharp defense mechanism of sardonic humor. She is, in short, the most interesting person in the room.

When a royal ball goes sideways, Lilith stumbles onto Cinderella's fairy godmother (Bette Midler) and discovers that her stepsister's perfect life has been carefully engineered. She accidentally seizes the magic wand, Margot gets turned into a frog, and the wand ends up in the hands of Priscilla (Nikki Glaser), a mean-girl bully with kingdom-sized ambitions. From that point on, the three sisters race against midnight to get the clueless Prince (Daniel Radcliffe) to try on the glass slipper before Priscilla seizes control of everything.

What makes the setup work is how much time the film spends on Lilith's inner life before the chaos begins. Her struggle to assimilate into a predominantly white community reads as a genuine immigrant experience narrative, handled with uncommon honesty. Co-director Alyce Tzue, who shares Chinese heritage with her protagonist, brings an authenticity to Lilith's childhood trauma that no amount of script polish could fake. The film draws the best from what Shrek (2001) did so well : dissecting a protagonist's loneliness and their simultaneous longing for the acceptance they openly reject.

Voice cast, visual style and what actually lands

Ali Wong is virtually unrecognizable in this role, which is a compliment. She brings a live-wire energy to Lilith that keeps every scene grounded even when the plot goes full cartoon-chaos. Amanda Seyfried, meanwhile, gets the more difficult job : making Cinderella sympathetic while forcing her to reckon with her own privilege. The film never lets her off the hook, and Seyfried plays the discomfort with genuine nuance.

The supporting cast deserves mention. Peter Dinklage as Roderick, Priscilla's henchman who desperately wants to be a "bodydad" rather than a mere bodyguard, generates some of the film's biggest laughs. Daniel Radcliffe's Prince is a running joke that somehow keeps paying off. And Young Mazino brings an easy charm to Gef, a hot troll inventor who becomes a love interest for Lilith, though the character arrives a little abruptly mid-second act.

Visually, Steps takes a minute to win you over. The blocky, geometric character designs initially feel overly simplified, but the art direction reveals its personality quickly : sharp edges, punk-inflected curves, and occasional steampunk detailing when the story moves into orc territory. Think Psychonauts crossed with the Barbie direct-to-VHS films of the early 2000s. The animation team extracts genuinely funny expressions from these designs, which pairs well with a screenplay that earns its laughs rather than chasing them.

The film's weakest stretch is its second act. Once the action kicks in, the pacing rushes from set piece to set piece without breathing room. The biker troll chase sequence transitions too abruptly into Gef's introduction, and the fourth-wall narration device established at the opening never resurfaces to close the loop. With five credited writers, some structural unevenness was probably inevitable.

Why Steps earns its ending, and who should watch it

The third act is where Steps justifies everything. The resolution lands with precision and genuine emotional weight, taking a swing that most contemporary studio animations would not risk. The film's handling of racial accountability in its final act is specific, brave, and aimed squarely at children who rarely see their experience centered in a fairytale. That is not a small thing. It is, honestly, the whole point.

Compared to Frozen (2013), which built a cultural phenomenon around sisterhood while leaving its characters slightly underwritten, Steps feels richer at the character level. Lilith and Cinderella's relationship earns its emotional resolution in a way that Anna and Elsa's never quite did. Much like how Call My Agent's Netflix movie proved the platform could deliver character-driven storytelling beyond its usual comfort zone, Steps confirms Netflix Animation is capable of genuine ambition.

If you're trying to decide whether to add this to your watchlist, consider what you've enjoyed before :

• Nimona (2023) for the punk-outsider energy
• Hoodwinked ! (2005) for the fairytale-remix structure
• Shrek and Shrek 2 (2001, 2004) for the irreverent tone
• Turning Red (2022) for the immigrant family dynamics
• Frozen (2013) if you want a direct comparison point

Steps premieres on Netflix on November 20, 2026. For families, for sisters, and for anyone who ever identified more with the outcast than the princess, this one is worth your evening.