EnStarz
Reviews: Steps to Get Favorable Notices
By Graham Calder
November 9, 2026.
Netflix Animation Studios premiered its first entirely in-house feature on Sunday. Additionally, the cast of “Steps” attended The Plaza in New York after roughly six years in production.
The first reviews landed the same day. Mostly favorable, with the sharpest dissent coming from The Hollywood Reporter.
The film goes straight to streaming on Nov. 20.
Amanda Seyfried, Ali Wong, Stephanie Hsu, Bette Midler, Daniel Radcliffe, Young Mazino, and Damian Priest attended.
Directors Alyce Tzue and John Ripa joined.
Additionally, the film retells Cinderella from her stepsister Lilith (Wong), who steals the Fairy Godmother’s wand and crashes the ball.
Steps indicate that five of the seven reviews published so far are positive. Additionally, Mashable, ScreenRant, What’s on Netflix, JoBlo, and Mama’s Geeky recommended the film. The statement reflects early reception across multiple outlets, signaling a favorable trend. This suggests growing interest ahead of release.
However, The Hollywood Reporter and The A.V. Club did not review the film. Additionally, several major outlets, including Variety, have not yet posted reviews. Moreover, more are expected before release. This mix reflects staggered coverage ahead of the public debut. Overall, critics appear divided by the time of preliminary publication.
So far, no aggregate critics’ score has been published. Consequently, no overall rating is available yet. This lack of a single consensus measure leaves audiences without a clear benchmark.
The split is narrower than it looks. The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney panned the film, writing that the voice cast is given little to make the characters “endearing, let alone enchanting” — then closed by allowing that children, and young girls in particular, should be fine with it. ScreenRant’s Alex Harrison arrived at nearly the same place as praise, calling it a potentially meaningful watch for family audiences and the girls it speaks to directly.
The soundtrack is already out in part. However, Blackpink’s Jennie released “Someone to Hold,” her first song written for an animated film, on Friday.
Where critics agree, they split.
Reviewers on both sides fault the same thing: the animation.
Moreover, The A.V. Club’s Jacob Oller wrote that the stiff character designs flatten the voice work.
They fail to carry across Wong’s ‘grounded goofiness’ or Seyfried’s prim naivety.
Additionally, Harrison, recommending the film, still wanted more ambition in the animation.
Rendy Jones of What’s on Netflix said the blocky character designs put him off at first.
Nevertheless, the art direction won him over.
Two reviewers independently trace the film’s tonal unevenness to its development. Additionally, Oller reports it began as a sharper parody. Moreover, it included songs by the comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates, and it lost that edge over a long production. Meanwhile, it landed somewhere between the register of ‘Shrek’ and that of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’. Similarly, Jones notes the project was retooled repeatedly. Ultimately, it shifted from a musical to an action comedy.
The disagreement is narrower: whether the central relationship pays off.
Jones wrote that the resolution lands with real precision and an emotional payoff.
Moreover, in a story of fractured sisterhood, it surpasses ‘Frozen’.
However, Rooney found the answers obvious and the journey to them a slog.
Additionally, Harrison landed with Jones, arguing the film’s title refers not to the two stepsisters but to Lilith and Cinderella.
Their strained bond carries it.
Goth glamour, biker trolls, and a talking frog set the film’s bold tone. The film places Lilith’s goth streak against the pastel rococo of the kingdom. Additionally, these visuals mix dark and light to signal whimsy.
She crashes the ball in a skull-shaped black carriage, Rooney likened it to Tim Burton. Cinderella, in this telling, is not condemned to drudgery. She scrubs the house for her own enjoyment, with forest animals helping.
Margot spends a stretch of the film as a talking frog. Moreover, Netflix’s own synopsis promises biker trolls, evil henchmen and a forest called the Screaming Woods. Steps reveal how the film blends goth contrasts with whimsy.
Hsu voices Margot, and Seyfried voices Cinderella. Additionally, Midler plays the Fairy Godmother and Nikki Glaser voices Priscilla, the film’s real antagonist.
Radcliffe voices the Prince.
Peter Dinklage plays the sinister butler Roderick.
Additionally, Mazino, of ‘Beef’ and ‘The Last of Us,’ voices a troll named Gef.
Priest, the WWE star, voices Gef’s brother Cracktor.
Moreover, some listings credit him under his legal name, Luis Martinez.
How ‘Steps’ got here, and why it isn’t in theaters. The film has been in the works since March 2021. Additionally, Netflix announced it from a concept by Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci, the comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates. Amy Poehler’s Paper Kite Productions attached. Paper Kite brought the script to Netflix. The work was spread across teams in Burbank, Sydney and Vancouver.
It was made without the partner or vendor studios the streamer has used on its previous animated features. Tzue, who directed the animated short \”Soar,\” is making her feature debut. Additionally, Ripa co-directed Disney’s \”Raya and the Last Dragon\”. Five writers share the screenplay. Netflix showed work in progress at the Annecy animation festival in June. Moreover, it announced the voice cast in stages across the past year. Wong and Hsu were attached in December, Seyfried in April, Midler in May, and Glaser in June.
There is no theatrical run.
Asked at Annecy whether the film would open in cinemas, the team said it would go straight to streaming.
Furthermore, Ripa told the festival he was excited for his first straight-to-streaming picture.
“Steps” lands in a crowded year-end animation slate for Netflix. Additionally, it includes Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn and follows last year’s KPop Demon Hunters. It is rated PG and runs 1 hour 41 minutes.
