šGrand Duke: But Sire, this slipper may fit any number of girls.
š The King: That's [the prince's] problem! He's given his word, we'll hold him to it.
š¼ Me: Whoa. Vicious.
Initial thoughts before viewing: Who hasn't seen Cinderella, or some version of it? For some reason around the late 1990s/early 2000s, there was a boom in Cinderella movies that shaped my childhood and resulted in a sort of Cinderella-fatigue. Don't get me wrong, these are all good (if not GREAT) movies in their own right, but the Cinderella trope has been around forever, and it's been done so many times.
As far as as Disney's 1950's animated version, I had seen it several times growing up, but never had a specific love or hate for it. Cinderella as a Disney princess has always been sort of meh for me too.
Cinderella is the first film in what is considered Disney's Silver Age of animation (1950 -1967). These are the last batch of movies that Walt Disney personally oversaw during his lifetime.
If you've never seen Disney's Cinderella or need a refresher, here is a link to the movie's Disney Wiki page where you can read the plot summary.
Highlights:
-This single piece of animation.
This iconic sequence is widely known to have been Walt Disney's favorite piece of animation to come out of his studio. We've all probably seen it a bagillion times so it doesn't seem that impressive, but REALLY watch it -- it's breathtaking. š¤©
-The castle. Disney has done a lot of castles throughout their rich animated history, but this is the first time I realized how beautiful and elegant the castle in Cinderella is. LOOK AT IT. š
-Emotional therapy mice. They speak adorable gibberish but really are Cinderella's best friends and saviors. Fun fact: If you turn the closed captioning feature on on Disney+, you can actually see what they are saying (and it's even more endearing). Cinderella was in a crap situation, and her love and relationships with the animals of the house are probably the only thing that really helped keep her hope alive. Who doesn't love Gus Gus, Cinderella's version of Neville Longbottom who saves the day at the end?! š
-Lucifer's dick move. Lucifer may be a butthead, but this made me laugh because it's def a real cat moment. Case in point: This week one of my cats trailed her poop-laced paw prints all across my apartment. I had my own Cinderella inspired clean up moment. šø
Disliked:
-Prince Charming is a yawn. Out of all the Disney animated fairytales that feature prominent prince figures, Prince Charming is the dullest, most boring prince of them all. When the audience first meets Prince Charming he is stifling yawns at a grand, magnificent ball that Cinderella has been dying to attend. Prince Charmingās only main scene is a lovely little waltz/duet with Cinderella where they declare their love at first sight for one another.
In earlier drafts of the screenplay, Prince Charming originally played a larger role and had more character development than what he ultimately received in the final version of the film. Similar to the nameless prince in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Prince Charming was to be featured in an abandoned opening scene deer hunting and an alternate ending showing his reaction upon discovering that Cinderella was a lowly servant girl (he would marry her anyway, of course).
Unfortunately, these scenes never made it to the final film and Prince Charming is left with a staggering 3 and a half minutes of screen time.
While Cinderella is a likeable, empathetic heroine, the lack of character development and screen time for her nameless prince makes me wonder what exactly is so special about him besides his title? Cinderella would have probably married almost anyone to get out of her life of servitude.
-The King is a hot headed bully. The scenes with the King are by far my least favorite in Cinderella. He's overbearing and obsessed with his legacy and future grandchildren, yet the King has ten times more personality and more than triple his sonās screen time. It bothers me that we never actually get to see the Prince and the King in a scene together to get a sense of what their relationship is actually like. š”
-Need more Fairy Godmother, please! She's a fan favorite character with far too little screen time. It would have been great to see her make an appearance at the end to make Cinderella's wedding truly magical. āØ
-We don't get to see Cinderella's sweet sweet revenge. This is my biggest gripe with this version of Cinderella: the story ends SO quickly after that glass slipper goes on. We never get to see the reactions of the step-sisters or what becomes of Cinderella's human "family." We DO get to see that all of Cinderella's animal friends make the move with her to the big castle, which I appreciate! If you want to see revenge done right, 1998's Ever After starring Drew Barrymore does a fabulous job of closing the Cinderella story with a particularly satisfying ending for the evil step-mother and one irredeemable step sister. š
Random thoughts I had while Watching:
-Cinderella's dress is actually silver? Disney clearly made the decision to change it to the light blue shade we all recognize on costumes and on Cinderella swag. But why? I really like the original silver/white color better!
Closing Thoughts:
-Cinderella saved Disney. The postwar years were a difficult time for Disney. It's widely known that had Cinderella failed, Disney would have had to shut down its studio entirely. Luckily for us all, the film was a huge critical success and was Disney's biggest win at the box office since Snow White. The revenue from Cinderella allowed Walt Disney to keep the studio afloat and continue making films. I appreciate this movie even more knowing that Walt Disney gambled his entire future on this one feature. And it paid off.
-I liked it more than I remembered. I think we all need a big dose of Cinderella's optimism and resilience right now. Rewatching this movie made me appreciate Cinderella's personal endurance in the face of adversity. The mice made me laugh and smile, the songs are touching and memorable. All in all, this is a special movie. I can't explain it - it made me happy. Isn't that the magic of Disney, after all?
My Rating: 7.5/10
Next up, Alice in Wonderland!
My Rating Scale/System:
10 - Masterpiece / Award Worthy š¤©
9 - Almost perfect / Exceptional š„°
8 - Great / Well-crafted š
7 - Good / Noteworthy š
6 - Above average / Memorable š
5 - Solidly average š
4 - Mixed feelings / Mediocre š
3 - Uninteresting / Struggle bus š„±
2 - Barely watchable š”
1 - Failure / Why is this a thing? š©
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