I should have known the moment I saw the “Cinderella” trailers.

I should have known this Disney film was also a Kenneth Branagh film. Anyone familiar with this actor/director's work knows his brilliant and lavish 1996 production of “Hamlet.”

From the opulent costuming and sets and stellar actors to the amazing cinematography, like “Hamlet,”  this new “Cinderella,” had Branagh written all over it.

What I did know, while watching those trailers, was that the little girl inside of me had been awakened.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful little girl whose life was filled with love, happiness and kindness, “who saw things not as they were, but as they could be.”

Once upon a time that same beautiful little girl was asked by her dying mother to promise to have courage and to be kind. Kindness, said her mother, Marigold, had “power and magic in it.”

Power and magic indeed! There are some incredible scenes in this film that will delight the little girl in your life, or the one residing in you.

The scene with Cinderella's Fairy Godmother (Helena Bonham Carter, who also acts as narrator) is a treasure. A bit on the dotty side, she is great fun and doesn't hide her surprise when her magic works! Bippity, boppitty boo!

The transformation of the pumpkin into a coach of gold is not only fantastic because of the special effects, but also due to the miscalculation of Fairy Godmother and the location in which it happens — a greenhouse.

Once the coach is created, Cinderella says, “You really are my Fairy Godmother!'” to which her Fairy Godmother responds, “I don't go transforming pumpkins for just anybody!”

Watching Cinderella's beloved mice friends become horses, her lizards become footmen and a goose become the coachman is spellbinding. Equally spellbinding is the transformation reversing at the last stroke of midnight.

Let's not forget the romance in it all: the love at first sight scene and the dance between Cinderella and the Prince at the ball is romantic and, yes, exciting.

While watching this scene you'll have a smile on your lips and stars in your eyes. Truly.

For more romance, the Prince and Cinderella take a moonlit walk through the gardens where torches blaze brightly on each side of the path. And, there's even a — wait for it — secret garden! With a swing hanging from a tree limb surrounded by pink and white rose bushes.

The production of this classic tale is a blend of the 1950 Disney film and the original Charles Perrault story of the “Cinderwench.”

This “Cinderella” is a dream of a film bursting with visual imagery and special effects, and full of familiar characters played by stellar performers.

Branagh’s casting of Lily James, an actor who seems to have been born to play the iconic Cinderella, was spot on. James is absolute perfection as the genuinely kind, beautiful, sweet, loving, courageous and forgiving Cinderella.

Cate Blanchett is both formidable and glamorous as the stepmother. She has a laugh tinged with cruelty, her spirit hardened by the hand she has been dealt, and she is jealous. She is jealous of the genuine love that existed between her new husband and his daughter, and bitter because that kind of love had eluded her; and she is jealous of Cinderella's beauty, disposition and youth.

As Fairy Godmother tells us in one of her bits of narration of the stepmother, “She had known grief and wore it wonderfully well.”

Scotsman Richard Madden is as charming and warm as a prince should be. He and James have wonderful on-screen chemistry.

The cinematography is divine, thanks to talents of Haris Zamabarloukos, who worked with Branagh on the film “Thor.”

The camera angles and sweeping shots add to the magic of this film. One very lovely song in the film is  a 17th century English love song, “Lavender Blue,” sung by Cinderella. The song is just the sort of thing a Shakespearean actor/director like Branagh would add.

“Lavender's green, dilly, dilly, Lavender's blue, If you love me, dilly, dilly, I will love you.

“Let the birds sing, dilly, dilly, And the lambs play; We shall be safe, dilly, dilly, out of harm's way.

“Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, Lavender's green,  When you are king, dilly dilly, I shall be queen

“Who told you so, dilly dilly, Who told you so? 'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly, That told me so.”

This is a film that must be seen at least once on the big screen. Little girls will love it, as will all die-hard romantics, people who love fairy tales, and those who just crave the magic that is Disney.