for most of the reading, barely engaging with the participants until the end of the table read when she finally declared her approval of the script and eventually sent the actors flowers to apologize for her tardiness. Houston believed strongly in the story's positive moral "that nothing is impossible and dreams do come true," encouraging the filmmakers to imbue their version of Cinderella "with a 90s sensibility but to remain faithful to the spirit of the original." Freedman identified Houston's eventual re-casting as the Fairy Godmother as a moment that instigated "the next round of rewriting", adapting her version of the character into a "worldly-wise older sister" to Cinderella, as opposed to the "regal maternal figure" that had been depicted prior. Houston described her character as "sassy, honest and very direct ... all the things that you'd like a godmother to be." Houston found the most impressive part of the remake to be "the lessons youngsters can learn about dreams and self-image". According to Ray Richmond of Variety, Freedman's teleplay is faster in pace and contains more dialogue than previous versions, although A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical author Stacy Ellen Wolf believes that the teleplay borrows more from the 1957 version than Joseph Schrank's 1965 version due to sharing much of its humor, dialogue and gender politics with Hammerstein's book. Despite being more similar to the original musical than the 1965 remake in style and structure, the script's "values and tone" have been updated. The New York Daily News journalist Denene Millner observed that although the remake is "not all that different from the original", its version of Cinderella is more outspoken, the prince is more interested in finding someone he can talk to as opposed to simply "another pretty face", as well as "a hip fairy godmother who preaches self-empowerment" as a result of its "'90s flair". The remake reflected a changing society, containing themes discussing self-reliance and love. According to George Rodosthenous, author of The Disney Musical on Stage and Screen: Critical Approaches from 'Snow White' to 'Frozen''', "traces of sexism" were removed from the script in favor of creating "a prince for a new era" while maintaining its "fundamental storyline"; this version of the story emphasizes that the prince has fallen in love with Cinderella because she is funny and intelligent, in addition to being beautiful. Freedman granted the prince "a