Cinderella (thing)

Release Date: 15 February 1950

World War II had put a damper on The Walt Disney Company's animated features. After a critically (if not financially) successful initial run, pioneering the genre, they were forced to reduce costs by issuing compilation films. While entertaining, they barely (if at all) lived up to the term "feature."

This changed, more or less permanently, in 1950.

With the war now long over, Disney had more animators, and fewer of them devoted to creating pro-U.S. war-era cartoons. The time was ripe for a brand new full-length animated feature, based once again on a fairy tale (as was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). That film was Cinderella.

The original fairy tale was familiar to most people, although Disney added its own special touch to it. In brief, a beautiful young woman, practically enslaved by her evil stepmother, receives the assistance of a fairy godmother that allows her to attend a ball and meet Prince Charming. The Prince falls in love, but the magic spell runs out at midnight; Cinderella rushes out of the ball, leaving only a glass slipper behind. The Prince uses the slipper to find his true love, to the astonishment of her oppressors. Happily ever after, etc.

The special Disney touch I mentioned eariler involves the now-ubiquitous cute animal companions (mice in this case, particularly Gus and Jaq) and the presence of award-winning songs (this time by Mack David, Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman). Although often disparaged in Disney's more recent films, the presence of the animal sidekicks provided much-needed humor to what would normally be a tragic tale (at the beginning) or a rather dull romance (at the end).

The music includes a couple of songs now amongst Disney's most recognizable: "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo" and "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes."

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, ending a multi-year drought by Disney's animated features. It was nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture, Best Music, Song ("Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo"), and Best Sound, Recording.

Next on the company's plate: a Disney-fied version of an odd, almost psychedelic novel by Lewis Carroll. Hint: American McGee's Alice it ain't.

Information for the Disney Animated Features series of nodes comes from the IMDb (www.imdb.com), Frank's Disney Page (http://www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~fp/Disney/), and the dark recesses of my own memory.

On 26 February 2002, Cinderella became the earliest of Disney's animated features to have a direct-to-video sequel, taking that title from Lady and the Tramp. The sequel is Cinderella II: Dreams Come True and features three vignettes. One is about Cinderella adjusting to life as a princess; one is about Jaq, the mouse, making his own adjustments; the third is about Cinderella's efforts to help one of her stepsisters.