← Back to Reviews
in
CINDERELLA (1950)
The Disney studios had one of their biggest hits with Cinderella, the colorful and entertaining animated retelling of the classic fairytale that features a lot of the staples that we expect from a Disney film, some still working to enormous effect and some not so much, but it's still a pleasurable animated diversion that even motivated this old man to smile and chuckle throughout.
For those who have lived under a rock for the past century, a long time ago in a kingdom far away, Cinderella is the daughter of a wealthy widower who remarries to provide his daughter with a mother figure, but when her father dies, the stepmother (who has two daughters of her own) shows her true colors (black and evil), takes over the house turning Cinderella into a servant in her own house. Meanwhile, the King has decided to throw a ball to welcome his son, the Prince, home and intends for his son to find a bride at said event and sends invitations commanding that all available maidens attend the ball. The Stepmother sees this as a path to Easy Street for her and her daughters and does whatever she can to keep Cinderella from attending.
Now this is story enough for a movie, but this is Disney we're talking about so embellishing the classic good vs evil story is comic relief, in the form of animals, who either speak or understand English and do what they can to help or hinder our heroine. In Cinderella's corner are a group of mice, led by Jaq and Gus, who when they learn about the ball, immediately do a rehab on the dress Cinderella plans to wear, right before her ugly stepsisters destroy it. Getting in Cinderella's way throughout the story is an arrogant and obnoxious cat named Lucifer, who has attitude for days and adores the evil stepmother until she suggests that Lucifer needs a bath.
And as far as good and evil is concerned, the lines are clearly and beautifully drawn in the central characters...Cinderella (beautifully voiced by Ilene Woods) is pure and kind and everything you want from a heroine and the evil Stepmother (brilliantly voiced by Eleanor Audley) just drips evil...I love the first confrontation between these two characters where Cinderella enters Stepmother's room and the camera sweeps to her bed and we first see nothing, then Lucifer's bright green eyes, and then Stepmother, with a bone-chilling smile on her face.
The film features a handful of nice songs too, including "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes". "Sing Sweet Nightingale", "So This is Love", and "Bippity Boppity Boo", which received an Oscar nomination for Best Song.
In this computer generated age of filmmaking, it was so refreshing that I could find genuine entertainment from an animated film that is over 60 years old, but that's exactly what I found and I still think that, even in this day and age, 5-10 year old girls will still be enchanted by this.
The Disney studios had one of their biggest hits with Cinderella, the colorful and entertaining animated retelling of the classic fairytale that features a lot of the staples that we expect from a Disney film, some still working to enormous effect and some not so much, but it's still a pleasurable animated diversion that even motivated this old man to smile and chuckle throughout.
For those who have lived under a rock for the past century, a long time ago in a kingdom far away, Cinderella is the daughter of a wealthy widower who remarries to provide his daughter with a mother figure, but when her father dies, the stepmother (who has two daughters of her own) shows her true colors (black and evil), takes over the house turning Cinderella into a servant in her own house. Meanwhile, the King has decided to throw a ball to welcome his son, the Prince, home and intends for his son to find a bride at said event and sends invitations commanding that all available maidens attend the ball. The Stepmother sees this as a path to Easy Street for her and her daughters and does whatever she can to keep Cinderella from attending.
Now this is story enough for a movie, but this is Disney we're talking about so embellishing the classic good vs evil story is comic relief, in the form of animals, who either speak or understand English and do what they can to help or hinder our heroine. In Cinderella's corner are a group of mice, led by Jaq and Gus, who when they learn about the ball, immediately do a rehab on the dress Cinderella plans to wear, right before her ugly stepsisters destroy it. Getting in Cinderella's way throughout the story is an arrogant and obnoxious cat named Lucifer, who has attitude for days and adores the evil stepmother until she suggests that Lucifer needs a bath.
And as far as good and evil is concerned, the lines are clearly and beautifully drawn in the central characters...Cinderella (beautifully voiced by Ilene Woods) is pure and kind and everything you want from a heroine and the evil Stepmother (brilliantly voiced by Eleanor Audley) just drips evil...I love the first confrontation between these two characters where Cinderella enters Stepmother's room and the camera sweeps to her bed and we first see nothing, then Lucifer's bright green eyes, and then Stepmother, with a bone-chilling smile on her face.
The film features a handful of nice songs too, including "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes". "Sing Sweet Nightingale", "So This is Love", and "Bippity Boppity Boo", which received an Oscar nomination for Best Song.
In this computer generated age of filmmaking, it was so refreshing that I could find genuine entertainment from an animated film that is over 60 years old, but that's exactly what I found and I still think that, even in this day and age, 5-10 year old girls will still be enchanted by this.