Cinderella (1950)

When Cinderella's cruel stepmother prevents her from attending the Royal Ball, she gets some unexpected help from the lovable mice Gus and Jaq, and from her Fairy Godmother.

Directors:

Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson,

Writers:

Bill Peet (story), Erdman Penner (story),

Stars:

Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Ilene Woods	...	Cinderella (voice)
Eleanor Audley	...	Lady Tremaine (voice)
Verna Felton	...	Fairy Godmother (voice)
Rhoda Williams	...	Drizella (voice)
James MacDonald	...	Bruno / Gus / Jaques (voice) (as James Macdonald)
Luis Van Rooten	...	King / Grand Duke (voice)
Don Barclay	...	Doorman (voice)

Storyline

In a far away, long ago kingdom, Cinderella is living happily with her mother and father until her mother dies. Cinderella's father remarries a cold, cruel woman who has two daughters, Drizella and Anastasia. When the father dies, Cinderella's wicked stepmother turns her into a virtual servant in her own house. Meanwhile, across town in the castle, the King determines that his son the Prince should find a suitable bride and provide him with a required number of grandchildren. So the King invites every eligible maiden in the kingdom to a fancy dress ball, where his son will be able to choose his bride. Cinderella has no suitable party dress for a ball, but her friends the mice, led by Jaques and Gus, and the birds lend a hand in making her one, a dress the evil stepsisters immediately tear apart on the evening of the ball. At this point, enter the Fairy Godmother, the pumpkin carriage, the royal ball, the stroke of midnight, the glass slipper, and the rest, as they say, is fairy tale ...

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Plot Keywords:

ball | cinderella | fairy godmother | fairy tale | prince | 

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Taglines:

For All the World to Love!

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Genres:

Animation | Family | Fantasy | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 March 1950 (USA)

Also Known As:

La cenicienta

Box Office

Budget:

$2,900,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$34,100,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

74 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

All the animal characters in Cinderella were written to speak. Major had a song entitled "Horse-Sense" which he sang with Bruno after being scolded for growling at Lucifer.

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Goofs

When the mice and birds are trying to get Lucifer to let the teacup go, so Gus can get the key to Cinderella, the birds drop some dishes on Lucifer in attempt to let Gus go. The next time we see the floor there are no broken dishes on the floor.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: Once upon a time in a faraway land, there was a tiny kingdom, peaceful, prosperous, and rich in romance and tradition. Here in a stately chateau, there lived a widowed gentleman and his little daughter, Cinderella. Although he was a kind and devoted father, and gave his beloved child every luxury and comfort, still he felt she needed a mother's care. And so he married again, choosing for his second wife a woman of good family with two daughters just Cinderella's age, by name, ...

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Crazy Credits

In lieu of a cast list, the opening credits specify "with the talents of" followed by 9 names: Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Claire Du Brey, Rhoda Williams, James MacDonald, Helene Stanley, Luis Van Rooten and Don Barclay. However, only 7 of these persons provided voices for the animated characters (according to studio records) and are listed in the cast. Both Stanley and Du Brey were live action models to help the artists animate the humans. They were placed in the miscellaneous section.

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Connections

Referenced in Saturday Night Live: Salma Hayek/Christina Aguilera (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Sing, Sweet Nightingale"
(1949) (uncredited)
Music and Lyrics by Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman
Performed by Ilene Woods

User Reviews

I know I'm going to take heat for this...

but "Cinderella" gets my vote, not only for the worst of Disney's princess movies, but for the worst movie the company made during Walt's lifetime. The music is genuinely pretty, and the story deserves to be called "classic." What fails in this movie are the characters, particularly the title character, who could only be called "the heroine" in the loosest sense of the term.

After a brief prologue, the audience is introduced to Cinderella. She is waking up in the morning and singing "A Dream is A wish Your Heart Makes." This establishes her as an idealist (and thus deserving of our sympathy). Unfortunately, the script gives us no clue as to what she is dreaming about. Freedom from her servant role? The respect of her step-family? Someone to talk to besides mice and birds? In one song (cut from the movie but presented in the special features section of the latest DVD) Cinderella relates her wish that there could be many of her so she could do her work more efficiently. You go girlfriend! In short, Cinderella is a very bland character. She passively accepts her step-family's abuse, escaping into her unspoken dreams for relief. She only asserts herself once by reminding her stepmother that she is still a member of the family. For this, she is given permission to go the ball if she completes her housework and finds something to wear, a token gesture that is clearly absurd to everyone except, of course, Cinderella. Can anyone see Belle or Jasmine being such a doormat? If Cinderella is dull, her male counterpart is nothing short of lifeless. The Prince in Cinderella gets no dialog and almost no screen time. We are given no indication if he is a good man, if he respects Cinderella or anything. All we know is 1) he is a prince and 2) he dances well. Heck, even the prince from "Snow White" got to sing a romantic song at least. Not only does this lack of development make the romance less interesting, it makes Cinderella look like either a social climber or an idiot, weakening her already tenuous appeal.

Perhaps realizing how dull the main characters were, the animators chose to give excessive screen time to the movie's comic relief, Cinderella's friends, the mice. Granted, these characters are amusing. Even so, when the comic relief steals the show from the principals, well, let's just say your story has some problems.

Dinsey loves to proclaim all its animated features as "masterpieces." While many of them are, there are some that do not deserve this appellate in any way. Cinderella is a prime example of this fact.