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| “ | Well, I see no reason why you can't go...if you get all your work done and if you find something suitable to wear. | „ |
| ~ Lady Tremaine's sarcastic response at Cinderella's request of wanting to attend the ball. |
| “ | Cinderella will be put in her place. | „ |
| ~ Lady Tremaine in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. |
| “ | I call upon all the forces of the universe. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo! Reverse the moon and sun, turn back tide and time, unravel Cinderella's happily ever after TO THE MOMENT MY TROUBLES BEGAN!!! | „ |
| ~ Lady Tremaine reversing time to unravel Cinderella's happily ever after. |
Lady Madonna Tremaine, also known as the Wicked Stepmother and Stepmother or better known as Lady Tremaine, is the main antagonist of Disney's Cinderella franchise.
She is an abusive, harsh, and egotistical aristocrat who always insists within her family that being with a man of high social status is desirable, all the while ignoring the meaning of true love when enacting such idea. She is also Anastasia and Drizella's negligent mother, Cinderella's wicked stepmother and arch-nemesis, and Prince Charming's snobby stepmother-in-law. She is based on the character of the original fairytale.
In the original 1950 animated film, she was voiced by the late Eleanor Audley, who later voiced Maleficent in the 1959 Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty and Madame Leota in The Haunted Mansion attraction from Disney Park. In the direct-to-video sequels, she was voiced by Susanne Blakeslee, also voiced Maleficent, Queen Grimhilde from the 1937 Disney animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure. In the 2015 live-action remake, she was portrayed by Cate Blanchett, who also played Hela in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Irina Spalko in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Marissa Wiegler in Hanna, and Penelope in Family Guy.
Biography
Cinderella (1950)
Prior to the beginning of the story, Lady Tremaine married Cinderella's wealthy father, who wanted to give his daughter Cinderella a motherly figure and sisters in the person of Lady Tremaine's daughters Anastasia and Drizella. She also has a black cat named Lucifer.
After Cinderella's father suddenly died (though the cause of death was unknown), Tremaine revealed her true nature, glaring while Cinderella was mourning the death of her father, without even bothering to pretend to be sad. During the following years, she wasted the family's wealth to spoil her bratty and obnoxious daughters and reduced Cinderella to a lowly slave, abusing her out of jealousy for her beauty and kindness.
When the Tremaines are invited to a ball organized by the King as his son the Prince intends to find and marry a young girl, Cinderella asks to go with them, arguing that "each fair maiden in the kingdom is invited" as stated in the invitation. Lady Tremaine agrees under the conditions that she gets all of her chores done and that she finds something suitable to wear, but Cinderella doesn't realize that Lady Tremaine is only giving her hopes to better crush them.
While Cinderella works very hard to do the immensely quantitative amount of chores given by Anastasia and Drizella, her bird and mice friends make her an extremely gorgeous dress from the clothes discarded by the Tremaine sisters. When Cinderella shows up prettier than the Tremaines will ever be, Lady Tremaine pretends to let this be by reminding that it was part of the deal and recognizes the necklace that she wears as one of Drizella's old pieces of jewelry.
She subtly compliments this as the "right touch" for Cinderella before pointing it out to her daughters, who tear Cinderella's dress to shreds in a rage, accusing her of stealing their clothing. This cruelly finally crushes Cinderella's spirit as she dissolves into tears while Lady Tremaine mocks her by saying goodnight.
However, the Fairy Godmother arrives to Cinderella's rescue by fixing her dress with a marvellous attire, as she could not have appeared if Cinderella's optimism had been completely destroyed. This allows Cinderella to attend the ball, where she and the Prince meet and fall in love. Meanwhile, Lady Tremaine spies on the duo as the mysterious girl looks familiar to her and she hears them singing, but is unable to spy any further as the Grand Duke sternly orders her to give them privacy.
The next day, Lady Tremaine learns that the Grand Duke is looking for the maiden who fits the glass slipper that the mysterious girl lost in her hurry, so that the Prince could marry her. Overjoyed by this news, Cinderella starts singing carelessly to be prepared for the Grand Duke's arrival, and Lady Tremaine recognizes her song, instantly figuring who the mysterious girl really was. In one final attempt to shatter Cinderella's hopes, Lady Tremaine follows her upstairs and locks her in her room, keeping the key in her pocket.
The Duke arrives and tries the slipper on Drizella and Anastasia, but it does not fit their enormous feet. As the Duke prepares to leave, Cinderella arrives, having been freed by the mice who managed to steal back the key. Lady Tremaine lies and tries to discourage the Duke from letting Cinderella try the slipper on, but the Duke rebukes her by sternly stating that the King's orders were to have every maiden in the kingdom try it, including Cinderella.
Knowing that the slipper will fit Cinderella, Lady Tremaine resorts to a last underhanded and manipulative trick: tripping the lackey to shatter the slipper on the floor with her cane. She grins victoriously, revelling in the Duke's despair and confident Cinderella will never leave the house again, but Cinderella foils this by displaying the other slipper and putting it on easily to prove to the Duke that she was the one who danced with the Prince, thus saving the Duke from fearing the King's bad temper. This leaves Lady Tremaine and her daughters shocked, allowing Cinderella to move out and marry the Prince.
Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True
Lady Tremaine appears in the second film as the main antagonist of the third and final segment "An Uncommon Romance".
Several days following the Royal Banquet and the Spring Festival, Lady Tremaine tells both Drizella and Anastasia of an incoming ball that Cinderella is hosting for the kingdom and they're invited. She demands both girls to take the opportunity to find men of good wealth and nobility at the ball. She then leads the girls to buy new gowns at the marketplace, where she sees a blossoming romance between Anastasia (who's portrayed in a much more brighter light) and a young baker. Believing that the baker is of no importance due to being a commoner, Lady Tremaine forbids Anastasia to ever see or speak with him again, much to Anastasia's dismay.
The next day, Lady Tremaine spotted Anastasia in her new gown (given to her by Cinderella) riding off in a carriage to meet up with the baker. She and Drizella eventually catch up to them at a fountain, where Tremaine berated Anastasia for disobeying her. However, Anastasia decided that she's better off with the baker and cuts off ties with her mother, who storms off in a huff with a reluctant Drizella.
Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time
| “ | So this is how Cinderella did it. What delicious irony. Do you realize what this means, girls? (Drizella: Yes, no more laundry!) Uh. It means POWER, RICHES, REVENGE! | „ |
| ~ Lady Tremaine taking a wand from Fairy Godmother. |
Lady Tremaine appears in the third film as the main antagonist.
A year following Cinderella's wedding, the chateau has fallen into more disrepair, and Lady Tremaine forces both Anastasia and Drizella to do Cinderella's old chores. However, Anastasia witnesses a meeting between Cinderella, the Prince and the Fairy Godmother; and gets her hands on the magic wand, accidentally turning the Fairy Godmother into stone when she attempts to get it back, much to Anastasia's remorse. Upon witnessing this, Tremaine finally realizes that the Fairy Godmother used her magic to help Cinderella attend the ball which she calls a delicious irony. She then seizes the wand she believes it gives them “power, riches and revenge. But before her daughters fight over what they want, the Old lady uses wand to undo Cinderella's trickery and take what belongs to them by traveling into time, back when her daughters were trying the glass slipper, back when all the trouble started. She then creates her own horrific version of a "happily ever after", more akin to a nightmare than a fantasy.
She first bewitches the slipper to fit Anastasia's foot, verbally tormenting the bewildered Cinderella while making the second slipper "accidentally" fall in the staircase to destroy the evidence. When the Tremaines are welcomed in the royal castle, the Prince sternly remarks that Anastasia is not the girl who danced with him at the ball. However, Lady Tremaine magically alters his memories, all this being witnessed by Cinderella's bird and mice friends. In spite of this, the Prince still feels that he's not in love with Anastasia; even Anastasia starts to have second thoughts over this as she feels the same way.
When Cinderella learns that Lady Tremaine had stole the Fairy Godmother's wand, she sneaks into the castle and enters their quarters to get it back, while covering her face and passing as a palace servant. But Lady Tremaine recognizes her immediately before unmasking her, sending the royal guards to have her exiled forever from the kingdom on the next ship. However, the Prince was eventually told the truth by the mice and birds, who managed to repair and produce the broken glass slipper as proof, thus restoring his memories. With that in mind, the Prince rescues Cinderella from exile and exposes Lady Tremaine's actions to the King and the Grand Duke. With her plan and true nature exposed, Lady Tremaine is forced to teleport herself and her daughters from plain sight to avoid being bought into custody by the King.
It was at that point Anastasia realizes and points out that the Prince's feelings for Cinderella are too strong for the magic to get rid of, but Lady Tremaine refuses to concede defeat and instead resolves to shapeshift Anastasia into a doppelganger of Cinderella before the wedding. She teleports the real Cinderella and her mice friends inside a pumpkin transformed into a coach (in a gloomy retelling of the first movie) and turns Lucifer into a human coachman, instructing him to send Cinderella and her mice friends to their deaths on a cliff. Fortunately, Cinderella and the mice defeat Lucifer and escape back to the wedding, just as Lady Tremaine and Drizella hide behind a curtain watching Anastasia as she prepares to tie the knot with the Prince. However, a repentant Anastasia (who knows that the Prince will never love her for who she really is) refuses to marry him and instead reveals the arriving Cinderella to everyone.
Infuriated by Anastasia's sudden conscience, Lady Tremaine and Drizella emerge from the curtains and angrily confront Anastasia for giving away her dream, but Anastasia stands firm on her decision. Fed up with Lady Tremaine's cruel actions, the angry King orders his guards to arrest Lady Tremaine. Unfazed by this, Lady Tremaine still refuses to concede defeat and instead decides to seize the kingdom by force, using the wand to turn the guards into animals and threatening Anastasia and the other attendants (including the King) with the same fate if they try to stop her, only for Cinderella to defend Anastasia and the others, while warning Tremaine against using anymore magic to terrorize the kingdom. On the advice from Drizella, Lady Tremaine attempts to punish both Cinderella and Anastasia by turning them into toads, but the Prince steps in and uses his sword to reflect the spell back to Lady Tremaine and Drizella, turning them both into toads and sending them into the castle's cellar, much to their humiliation.
With Lady Tremaine and Drizella defeated and with the kingdom saved, Anastasia reverts herself back to normal and reconciles with Cinderella, who then uses the wand to free the Fairy Godmother. Cinderella and the Prince then continue on with the wedding as they tie the knot. During the end credits, Lady Tremaine and Drizella are turned back to normal, but are holding brooms and wearing scullery dresses identical to what Cinderella used to wear, implying that they'll be working as scullery maids in the castle as punishment for their cruel actions. Upon realizing this fate, both Lady Tremaine and Drizella shriek in fear that they'll be forced to do chores for the rest of their lives.
Cinderella (2015)
- Main article: Lady Tremaine (2015)
House of Mouse
Lady Tremaine is the minor guest of House of Mouse.
Mickey's House of Villains
Lady Tremaine was a minor guest cheering Mickey Mouse. After Mickey defeats Jafar, Lady Tremaine then flees out of the House with the all of the other villains.
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Lady Tremaine also makes an appearance in the video game Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, the prequel of Kingdom Hearts, as one of the minor antagonists, but not as a boss. In many ways, she remains the same as in the movies, but when Aqua plays a role in helping the Grand Duke find Cinderella and matching the slipper, Tremaine vengefully vows to end her stepdaughter's happiness. This surge of negative emotions creates an Unversed in the shape of a pumpkin carriage called the Cursed Coach. However, Tremaine's negative emotions prove to be her downfall as she cannot control the Unversed which proceeds to blow her and her daughters away with a fireball, presumably killing them.
Once Upon A Time
The Price of Gold
- Main article: Lady Tremaine (The Price of Gold)
Lady Tremaine is the minor antagonist in the TV show from season 5.
Hyperion Heights
- Main article: Rapunzel Tremaine
Lady Tremaine is in Season 7. She is portrayed by the starring cast member Gabrielle Anwar. She is also Rapunzel.
So This is Love: A Twisted Tale
- Main article: Lady Tremaine (So This is Love)
Personality
| “ | It was upon the untimely death of this good man, however, that the Stepmother's true nature was revealed. Cold, cruel, and bitterly jealous of Cinderella's charm and beauty, she was grimly determined to forward the interests of her own two awkward daughters. | „ |
| ~ The Opening narration describing Lady Tremaine. |
Lady Tremaine is very graceful, refined and collected, always in control even in agitation of anger. She displays perfect courtesy towards anyone, including Cinderella, while clearly showing her true contempt, and revels in her victims' torment. She is also intelligent and cunning, spotting and skilfully using small details, guessing right from few clues and associations, and checking for any possible mishap. She is also a very persuasive smooth-talker, knowing to always creates loopholes, to void her own promises while always staying true to her word. Furthermore, she needs nothing but her intimidating gaze and words to break people without effort.
Lady Tremaine is a monster of selfishness, spite, bitterness, jealousy, hatred and greed. She does everything to break Cinderella's spirit out of envy for her beauty and gentleness. She is also an elitist scorning anyone of lower rank, who covets fortune and social climbing. As such, she is outraged by her daughter's budding romance with a baker.
Under her poised façade, she is even more spoiled than her daughters, neglecting her duties and wasting her wealth in luxuries without ever doing a scratch of housework, which she regards as beneath her.
She does love her daughters, spoiling them in luxury and trying to secure their future, yet only in her own terms. The sequel reveals that she forces them to do all chores without a qualm after Cinderella's departure. Also, she cannot stand disobedience or independent thinking, rejecting it as "ungratefulness" to punish without any regard for their wishes.
Getting the Fairy Godmothers' wand made Lady Tremaine cross the line between stingy, selfish elitist to ruthless criminal. She is now power-hungry, vengeful, and obsessed with control, watching Cinderella's happy ending unravel with wicked satisfaction and sadistic glee. From her twisted point of view, she is the wronged party demanding compensation, even though she only lost her servant and not her fortune, which she squandered on her own. Worse, when foiled she openly threatened the king himself, possibly intending to seize power by force.
However, she retains her unshakable self-control to the very end, remaining fully collected even during the final battle, lashing out in cold, controlled fury. She also retained her false courtesy and vicious taunts disguised in pleasantries, as well as her intelligence, being able to think ahead or adapt her plan on the spot, following the new turn of events and avoiding repeating mistakes.
Quotes
| “ | Lady Tremaine: Time for vicious practical jokes. Perhaps we could put them into better use. Now, let me see... There's a large carpet in the main hall. CLEAN IT. And the windows upstairs and down. WASH THEM. Oh, yes, and the tapestries, and the draperies. Cinderella: But I just finished- Lady Tremaine: Do them again! And don't forget the garden, then scrub the terrace, sweep the halls and the stairs, clean the chimneys. And of course, there's the mending, and the sewing, and the laundry. Oh, yes, and one more thing. See that Lucifer gets his bath. |
„ |
| ~ Lady Tremaine ordering Cinderella other buisness to take care of. |
| “ | Lady Tremaine: You look confused, "Dear". Cinderella: How could slipper fits Anastasia? I danced with the prince, that was my slipper. Here, I have the other one. I am the one who is looking for. Lady Tremaine: You may have danced with him. You even may thought it was love, but the slipper fits Anastasia, and that's who is marrying. Whatever you think what happened last night was a dream. I don't care where you go or what you do. But you stay away from the palace. Stay away from the Prince. Oh, and, uh, clean up that broken glass. |
„ |
| ~ Lady Tremaine talking with Cinderella in Cinderella III. |
| “ | Lucifer, make absolute certain they don't come back, ALIVE. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo! | „ |
| ~ Lady Tremaine advising Lucifer to dispose of Cinderella, Jaq, and Gus. |
Trivia
- Lady Tremaine is ranked #9 in the Top 30 Disney Villains.
- Her voice and model movements was done by the late Eleanor Audley, who later went on to voice and model the evil fairy enchantress named Maleficent in Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Oddly enough, both villainesses also share the same current voice actress, Susanne Blakeslee. Indeed, her role as Lady Tremaine is likely the reason why she was assigned to voice Maleficent.
- Despite singing the first verse of "Sing Sweet Nightingale" during her daughters' music lesson, Lady Tremaine is one of the few "serious and non-comedic" female Disney Villains to not have a song of her own.
- Tremaine is the first major villain character in a "Disney Princess" film to not die (the second being Governor Ratcliffe and the third being Prince Hans).
- On a related note, during Walt Disney's lifetime, she was the only (major) villain in a "Disney Princess" film to not die (as Governor Ratcliffe and Prince Hans appeared after Walt Disney's death in 1966).
- In the sequels, Tremaine's dress color changes from her original red to purple. Evidently she has more than one dress in her wardrobe.
- During a brief moment where Tremaine locked up Cinderella, a brief error occurs: her eyes were golden-yellow. However, this could also be a sign of her evil nature.
- Lady Tremaine's true intention from the beginning may have been to seize control of the Kingdom as she made every attempt to marry one of her two daughters into the royal family, while also keeping Cinderella miserable, and eventually resorted to taking the Kingdom by force, which implies that her two daughters were merely tools in her bid for power.
- The remake version of Lady Tremaine is significantly more conniving, intelligent, obsessive and borderline psychopathic than her animated counterpart. She actually inflicts open hatred against Cinderella in the film, whilst the original character was far more subtle with her hatred.
- Given the scene in the original film where Lady Tremaine smirks at a young Cinderella moping over her father's death, it has been largely speculated that Lady Tremaine may have married Cinderella's father and then murdered him in order to gain complete control over his family's assets. However, this has yet to be proven as there is no further evidence to support this.
- Tremaine is pictured on one of the 10 USA non-denominated commemorative postage stamps celebrating "Disney Villains", issued as a pane of 20 stamps on July 15, 2017. The set was issued in a single sheet of 20 stamps. The price of each stamp on day of issue was 49 cents. The other villains depicted in this issue are the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Honest John from Pinocchio, the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Captain Hook from Peter Pan, Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmatians, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast and Scar from The Lion King.
External Links
- Lady Tremaine on the Disney Wiki
- Lady Tremaine on the Wikipedia
- Lady Tremaine on the Kingdom Hearts Wiki
 Villains
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