This article is about the 1950 animated film. For other articles that share the same name, see Cinderella.
- “For All the World to LOVE!”
- ―Tagline
Cinderella is a 1950 American animated romantic fantasy musical film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The twelfth feature in the Disney Animated Canon, it is based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale of the same name. The film was directed by Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi under the supervision of Ben Sharpsteen. The story was adapted by Bill Peet, Erdman Penner, Ted Sears, Winston Hibler, Homer Brightman, Harry Reeves, Ken Anderson, and Joe Rinaldi. The film features the voices of Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Luis van Rooten, Verna Felton, Rhoda Williams, and Jimmy MacDonald.
The plot centers on Cinderella, the daughter of a widowed aristocrat, who is forced to become a maid in her own château due to abuse from her stepmother Lady Tremaine and stepsisters Anastasia and Drizella. With the help of her mouse friends and fairy godmother, Cinderella is enabled to attend the royal ball, which allows her to meet the prince and change her life for the better.
Made on the cusp between the classic "golden age" Disney animations of the 1930s and 1940s and the less critically acclaimed productions of the 1950s, Cinderella is a representative of both eras. It was the first full-bodied feature produced by the studio since Bambi in 1942; World War II and low box office returns had forced Walt Disney to produce a series of inexpensive package films, such as Make Mine Music and Fun and Fancy Free for the 1940s.
The film was a massive critical and commercial success upon release and reinvigorated the Disney company when they were nearing bankruptcy after a loss of over $4 million from the then-recent failures Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi. The film's "classic" status and success continue to this day.
It is considered one of the best American animated films ever made, as selected by the American Film Institute and was inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2018.[1] A live-action adaptation of the film was released in 2015.
Plot[]
Cinderella is the much-loved daughter of a widowed aristocrat, who decides to remarry, believing his beloved daughter needs a mother's care. Ultimately, Cinderella's father marries Lady Tremaine, a proud and confident woman with two daughters just Cinderella's age from a previous marriage named Drizella and Anastasia. The plain and socially uneasy stepsisters are bitterly jealous of Cinderella's beauty. After Cinderella's father passes away, Lady Tremaine reveals herself to be a cold and cruel boss who shares her daughters' jealousy of Cinderella's delight and loveliness. Lady Tremaine and her daughters take over the estate and start to harm and mistreat Cinderella, ultimately forcing her to become a scullery maid in her own home, while also squandering off the fortune until there is nearly nothing left. Despite this, Cinderella remains a kind and gentle girl, befriending the animals in the barn and the mice and birds who live around the château. For with each morning, she finds new hope that someday her dreams of joy will soon come true.
One morning, Cinderella and the mice found a new mouse in the house who was caught in a mousetrap. She gives him the name Octavius (or Gus for short) and some new clothes, and informs Jaq to warn Gus about Lucifer, Lady Tremaine's wicked cat. The two mice spy on Lucifer as Cinderella starts her chores. When Cinderella is giving breakfast to the animals, Lucifer chases Gus, and he hides under Anastasia's teacup. Cinderella delivers breakfast to her stepfamily. When Anastasia opens her teacup and finds Gus, she screams to her mother about it right after accusing Cinderella. Lady Tremaine punishes Cinderella with extra chores (along with telling her to give Lucifer a bath, much to his annoyance).
At the royal palace, the King and the Grand Duke organize a ball in an effort to find a suitable wife for Prince Charming, considering the fact that the King wants to see grandchildren before his death. Every eligible maiden in the kingdom is requested to attend. Cinderella asks her stepmother if she can attend since she is still part of the family. Lady Tremaine agrees, provided if Cinderella finishes her chores and finds a nice dress to wear. With Cinderella too distracted with extra chores, her animal friends, led by Mary, Jaq, and Gus, fix up a gown that belonged to Cinderella's late mother. Jaq and Gus go downstairs and scoop up Anastasia's old sash and Drizella's old beads after they throw them on the floor, escaping with them before Lucifer unsuccessfully catches both mice. The animals finish Cinderella's dress just as the carriage arrives. When Cinderella comes down wearing her new dress, Lady Tremaine recognizes the beads and sash. She compliments the gown, pointing out the beads to Drizella. Enraged by the "theft" of their discarded items by their stepsister, the stepsisters viciously rip the gown into rags before snootily leaving for the ball with Lady Tremaine, who bids Cinderella "goodnight". Heartbroken, Cinderella runs outside to the garden and breaks down into tears.
As Cinderella nears the point of giving up her dreams, her Fairy Godmother appears and transforms a pumpkin into a carriage, four of the mice into horses, Major the horse into a coachman, and Bruno the dog into a footman. She also bestows upon Cinderella a new silver ball gown with a pair of glass slippers. Cinderella leaves for the ball after her godmother alerts her that the spell will wear off at the stroke of midnight. At the ball, the Prince denies every girl that meet him until he sees Cinderella. The two fall strongly in love and dance alone throughout the castle grounds. Her stepfamily does not recognize her, but Lady Tremaine thinks there is something familiar about her. She is unable to make the connection when the Grand Duke closes the curtains to give the couple some privacy.
As the clock starts to chime midnight, Cinderella flees the ball and her carriage, losing one of her glass slippers in her rush. The Duke, realizing what has happened, orders the guards to go after her, but Cinderella and the animals manage to avoid them. Before being safely away, Cinderella's gown reverts to rags with everything else turning back to normal. Seeing she still has one glass slipper, she smiles gratefully, remembering the Fairy Godmother's magic. Back at the palace, the Duke tells the King of Cinderella's sudden exit and the lost slipper. He then reveals the Prince's declaration: he will marry only the lady whose foot fits the glass slipper, and the Duke is assigned by the King with finding her.
The following morning, the King announces that the Grand Duke will visit every house in the kingdom to find the girl whose foot fits the glass slipper so that she can be married to the Prince. When the news reaches Cinderella's household, her stepmother and stepsisters prepare for the Duke's arrival. Overhearing this, Cinderella dreamily hums the song played at the ball. Recognizing that Cinderella was the girl who danced with the Prince, Lady Tremaine follows Cinderella to her room and locks her stepdaughter in the attic in one last ditch to try to ruin her dreams.
When the Duke arrives, Jaq and Gus retrieve the key to Cinderella's room from her stepmother's pocket and bring it upstairs, but before they can deliver it to Cinderella, they are ambushed by Lucifer, who traps Gus under a bowl. The other mice and the birds fail to get Lucifer to release Gus until Bruno soon chases Lucifer out the tower window, allowing Jaq and Gus to give Cinderella the key to free herself. As the Duke prepares to leave after the stepsisters unsuccessfully try on the slipper, Cinderella appears and requests to try it on. Knowing the slipper will fit, Lady Tremaine trips the footman, causing him to drop and shatter the slipper. Tremaine's victory is short-lived as Cinderella then produces the other glass slipper, much to her stepmother's surprise and horror. Delighted at this complete, irrefutable proof of the maiden's identity, the Duke slides the slipper onto her foot and it fits perfectly.
Cinderella and Prince Charming celebrate their wedding and live happily ever after.
Cast[]
- Ilene Woods as Cinderella
- Eleanor Audley as Lady Tremaine
- Verna Felton as the Fairy Godmother
- Claire DuBrey as Additional Voices
- Rhoda Williams as Drizella
- James MacDonald as Jaq and Bruno
- Helene Stanley as Additional Voices
- Luis van Rooten as the King and the Grand Duke
- Don Barclay as Doorman (performance model)
Additional cast/Uncredited[]
- Lucille Bliss as Anastasia
- William Phipps as the Prince[2]
- Mike Douglas as the Prince's singing voice
- Marion Darlington as Birds[3]
- Clarence Nash as Birds, Lucifer (yowls), and Major
- Pinto Colvig as Bruno (barks) and the Grand Duke (screams)
- June Foray as Lucifer
- John Woodbury as Mouse #1[3]
- Lucille Williams as Mouse #2[3]
- Thurl Ravenscroft as Mouse #3[3]
- Clint McCauley as Mouse #4[3]
- June Sullivan as Mouse #5[3]
- Helen Seibert as Mouse #6[3]
- Betty Lou Gerson as Narrator
- Candy Candido as Gus[4]
- Larry Gray as the Lackey[3]
Production[]
Story development[]
Early ideas[]
Story artist Bianca Majolie created the earliest visual development sketches for the film.[5]
Walt Disney first adapted Charles Perrault's fairy tale Cinderella as the last of six short films for his animation studio Laugh-O-Gram in Kansas City in 1922.[6][7] By December 1933, he planned to produce a second version as one of the Silly Symphony series, with Burt Gillett and Frank Churchill attached as director and composer, respectively.[6][8] The story department circulated an outline throughout the studio, inviting the entire staff to contribute ideas for story and gags (some of which ended up in the final film).[8][9] The outline also indicated the cast of characters, which included "white mice and birds" as Cinderella's playmates.[10] However, the story proved to be too complicated to fit into a short, and the idea was soon discarded.[8][10] In 1937, anticipating the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney began exploring ideas for other feature productions and considered Cinderella among the main contenders.[6] By the spring of 1938, story artists Dorothy Ann Blank, Bianca Majolie, and Al Perkins were assigned to develop the script, with a fourteen-page outline completed by Perkins on April 20.[11][12] On January 30, 1940, Majolie and story artist Dana Cofy prepared another treatment, which closely followed the plot of Perrault's story right up to the climax, but included several new scenes and characters (such as Cinderella's pet mouse Dusty and pet turtle Clarissa; the stepsisters' cat Bon Bon; the Prince's valet Spink; and the stepsisters' dancing instructor Monsieur Carnewal).[13][14] A rough storyboard and a number of visual development sketches were created for the project, but it was also soon put on hold.[11][6] In this version, Cinderella's stepmother was named Florimel de la Poche, her stepsisters were Wanda and Javotte, and the Prince's name was Charles.[13][14] At the story's climax, after Cinderella loses the glass slipper at the second ball and returns home late, her stepfamily imprisons her in a dungeon cellar; when Spink and his troop arrive at the de la Poche residence, Dusty takes the slipper and leads them to free Cinderella.[14] The stepmother and stepsisters mock Cinderella's attempt to try on the slipper, but when it fits, the Fairy Godmother appears to declare her the princess-to-be, and Cinderella forgives her stepfamily for mistreating her.[13]
In September 1943, Disney returned to Cinderella, assigning Dick Huemer and Joe Grant as story supervisors and allocating a preliminary budget of $1 million for the film's production, but the work that followed did not progress past the preparation of storyboards.[15][16] One of the story ideas from that period included Cinderella encountering the Prince before the ball; in a story draft from September 1, 1944, Cinderella's stepmother sends her to a gypsy camp to sell her late mother's jewellery to pay for the stepsisters' upkeep, with Cinderella meeting the disguised Prince in the camp.[17] The draft also featured a new cast of Cinderella's mice friends, which included Actor Mouse, Court Mouse, Troubadour Mouse, Modiste Mouse, and "Mystery Mouse" (whose magic locket would summon the Fairy Godmother).[17] Another draft (dated September 30, 1944) suggested that the Prince would come to Cinderella's house incognito as a traveler.[17] An outline from June 20, 1944, introduced the character of Jabber, a gossiping crow and another of Cinderella's animal friends, which was present in the story drafts over the next few years.[9] By 1945, the story work was halted, but sputtered up the following year, with Disney holding at least three story meetings in March and April 1946.[18][19] After screenwriters Dalton S. Reymond and Maurice Rapf quarreled while writing Song of the South, Rapf was reassigned to work on Cinderella, and he suggested making Cinderella a less passive character.[20][21] Rapf said that his thinking was "you can't have somebody who comes in and changes everything for you. You can't be delivered on a platter. You've got to earn it. So in my version, the Fairy Godmother said, 'It's okay till midnight but from then on it's up to you.' I made [Cinderella] earn it, and what she had to do to achieve it was to rebel against her stepmother and stepsisters, to stop being a slave in her own home. So I had a scene where they're ordering her around and she throws the stuff back at them. She revolts, so they lock her up in the attic. I don't think anyone took [my idea] very seriously."[21]
Reworking[]
- “I had too many interpretations of what 'Alice' ought to be. Being a literary thing, it has an appeal to the intellect without anything to appeal to the emotions. Those things are a keg of dynamite. I don't want any more of 'em because I don't feel 'em myself either. I'm just corny enough I want to be bit right here in the heart. You pull for Cinderella. You feel for Cinderella.”
- ―Walt Disney[22]
In earlier drafts of the story, the Prince played a larger role, which was heavily reduced in the final film.[9]
On March 24, 1947, Walt Disney received a new story treatment on Cinderella from Ted Sears, Homer Brightman, and Harry Reeves, and ordered storyboards with the intention of having the film ready for a late 1949 release.[6][19][23] By May 1947, the first rough phase of storyboarding was in the process, and an inventory report that same month suggested that the story would be told "largely through the animals in the barnyard and their observations of Cinderella's day-to-day activities".[19] At this stage, the Prince was supposed to appear very early in the story (like the Prince in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and have a slightly larger role; one of the storyboards introduced the Prince as a hunter chasing a deer, but at the end of the sequence, it was to be revealed that they were actually friends and playing games.[9][19] Another treatment (dated August 7, 1947, and credited to Sears, Brightman, and Reeves) suggested a small European kingdom in the early 1800s as the setting for the film, and introduced a large cast of Cinderella's animal friends, including mice, birds, a dog, and a horse (all of which could talk, except for birds).[9][24] One of the scenes written for the treatment also had Cinderella communing with the spirit of her late father and preparing to run away from the château when the Fairy Godmother appears.[24] In an alternate ending, after the Duke discovered Cinderella's identity, she was shown being brought to the castle to be reintroduced to the Prince, who is surprised to learn that Cinderella was actually a modest servant girl instead of the princess he thought she was, but the Prince's feelings for her were too strong to be bothered by this, and he embraced her; the Fairy Godmother was to reappear and restore Cinderella's ball gown for the closing shot. Walt Disney himself reportedly cut the alternate ending because he felt it was overlong and did not give the audience its "pay off", but the scene would later be incorporated in the video game, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.
Animated by Marc Davis, the scene of Cinderella's rags turning into a ball gown was Walt Disney's favorite piece of animation ever to come out of the studio.
Other deleted material included an abandoned song tentatively titled the "Cinderella Work Song", which was part of a fantasy sequence that was set to take place after Lady Tremaine told Cinderella that she could only attend the ball if she finished her chores and found a suitable dress. In this abandoned sequence, Cinderella imagined herself multiplying into an army of maids in order to deal with her massive workload, all the while pondering what the ball itself would be like; the sequence was cut, but the title was applied to the song the mice sing when they work on Cinderella's dress. Additionally, there was a scene that took place after the ball in which Cinderella was seen returning to her home and eavesdropped on her stepfamily, who were ranting about the mystery girl at the ball, and Cinderella was shown to be amused by this because they were talking about her without realizing it. Walt Disney reportedly cut the scene because he thought it made Cinderella look "spiteful" and felt the audience would lose sympathy.
Casting[]
Marc Davis based some of Cinderella's mannerisms and facial expressions on those of Ilene Woods.[25]
Around 380 actresses and singers auditioned for the role of Cinderella before Ilene Woods was cast in March 1948, which she personally announced on national radio that same month.[26][27] Woods was unaware of the casting process and got involved with the project when its songwriters Mack David and Jerry Livingston (who had been friends with Woods since working with her on her eponymous radio show on ABC radio's Blue Network) asked her to make demonstration recordings of some of the songs they had written for the film, including "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes", "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo", and "So This Is Love".[28][29] After Walt Disney heard the demo recordings, he was impressed with Woods' vocals and clear delivery and telephoned her two days later, asking her to come to the studio for an interview.[25][28] Woods recalled in an interview with Deseret News that she and Disney "met and talked for a while, and he said, 'How would you like to be Cinderella?'", to which she agreed.[25] Woods was paid a total of $2,500 for her role.[30] Nearly 500 actors were auditioned for the role of Prince Charming.[31] Mike Douglas got into the audition after his agent made an appointment for him in the studio, and was selected as the character's singing voice.[28][31] Disney personally hired William Phipps as the Prince's speaking voice, with Phipps completing his recording in two hours on an afternoon in January 1949, receiving about $100.[2]
Verna Felton, who had voiced the Elephant Matriarch in Dumbo, was chosen for the role of the Fairy Godmother; she later became a regular voice actress for the Disney studio.[6] A radio actress Eleanor Audley was cast as Lady Tremaine.[32] In their book The Disney Villain, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston described the experience of animating to her voice as "a difficult assignment but a thrilling one, working to that voice track with so much innuendo mixed in with the fierce power."[33] Audley later voiced Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty.[34] For the role of Anastasia, Disney personally selected Lucille Bliss, whom he frequently told to ad-lib during the recording sessions.[35] A sound effects artist Jimmy MacDonald voiced Jaq and Gus, achieving a high-pitched sound of their voices by changing the speed of the recordings.[6] For the role of Lucifer, a studio representative approached June Foray, asking her if she could do the voice of a cat; Foray replied that she "could do anything", and got the part.[36] Other cast members included Rhoda Williams as Drizella and Luis van Rooten as both the King and the Grand Duke.[37][38]
Animation[]
Live-action reference[]
- “Walt insisted we plan 'Cinderella' more carefully than prior films. We shot it all in live-action first, so that we could evaluate it, because we couldn't afford to make changes in the animation. The animation had to be right the first time. The live-action was done without costumes or set. We'd work on a lonely soundstage to see whether the scenes were going to work. Would they be too long? Too short? Will it hold your interest?”
- ―Frank Thomas[39]
Cinderella was the first Disney animated feature to be completely shot and edited in live-action before being committed to cel and ink.[6]
Starting in the spring of 1948, before the animation process began, a live-action reference version of Cinderella was filmed on the soundstage with costumed actors mouthing to a playback of the dialogue soundtrack.[39][40] The footage was then edited and sent to the animators on large photostat sheets to duplicate.[41] The studio had used rotoscoping for earlier films, starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but in attempt to keep production costs down, Walt Disney insisted on using live-action footage much more extensively this time.[41][42] In Cinderella, it was used not only to guide the animators with the movements of the human characters, but also to pre-edit the story, eliminating scenes that did not work before the animators wasted time and money on footage that would not be used in the final film.[6][42] Animators (such as Frank Thomas) found this approach too restrictive, as they were not allowed to imagine anything that the actors did not present, since that kind of experimentation could necessitate changes and cost extra money.[40][41] Animators were also instructed to draw from a certain directorial perspective (head-on) to avoid difficult shots and angles, which Thomas compared to having "your feet nailed to the floor."[41]
Helene Stanley was hired to provide the live-action reference for both Cinderella and Anastasia.[6][43] She would later do the same kind of work for the characters of Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty and Anita Radcliffe in One Hundred and One Dalmatians.[44] Prince Charming was modeled by Jeffery Stone, who also provided some additional voices for the film. Eleanor Audley and Rhoda Williams, who voiced Lady Tremaine and Drizella, also enacted their respective characters in the live-action footage.[6][43] The Fairy Godmother was modeled by Claire Du Brey. Don Barclay served as the live-action reference for the lackey.[45]
Music[]
- Main article: Cinderella (soundtrack)
For the first time, Walt turned to Tin Pan Alley songwriters to write the songs. The music of Tin Pan Alley would later become a recurring theme in Disney animation. Cinderella was the first Disney film to have its songs published and copyrighted by the newly created Walt Disney Music Company. Before movie soundtracks became marketable, movie songs had little residual value to the film studio that owned them and were often sold off to established music companies for sheet music publication. Songs in the film include "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes", "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo", "So This is Love", "Sing, Sweet Nightingale", "The Work Song", and the opening credit song titled "Cinderella".
"Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" became a hit single four times, with notable versions by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters. Woods beat exactly 309 girls for the part of Cinderella after some demo recordings of her singing a few of the film's songs were presented to Walt Disney. However, she had no idea she was auditioning for the part until Disney contacted her; she initially made the recordings for a few friends, who sent them to Disney without her knowledge. Reportedly, Disney thought Woods had the right "fairy tale" tone to her voice.
During production, Walt Disney pioneered the use of double tracked vocals for the song "Sing Sweet Nightingale", before it had been used by artists in studio recordings, such as The Beatles. When Ilene Woods had completed the day's recording of "Sing Sweet Nightingale", Walt listened and asked her if she could sing harmony with herself. She was apprehensive about the idea as it was unheard of, though she ended up singing the double recording, including second and third part harmonies. Ilene Woods reveals the innovation in an interview.
Reception[]
Disney had not had as huge a hit since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (though Dumbo was also a huge success), so the production of this film was regarded as a major gamble on his part. At a cost of nearly $3 million, Disney insiders claimed that if Cinderella failed at the box office, then the Disney studio would have closed (given that the studio was already heavily in debt). The film was a huge box-office success and allowed Disney to carry on producing films throughout the 1950s. It was the 5th most popular movie at the British box office in 1951.
Cinderella currently has a score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. The overview of the film is, "The rich colors, sweet songs, adorable mice, and endearing (if suffering) heroine make Cinderella a nostalgically lovely charmer." The profits from the film's release, with the additional profits from record sales, music publishing, publications, and other merchandise, gave Disney the cash flow to finance a slate of productions (animated and live-action), establish his own distribution company, enter television production and begin building Disneyland during the decade.
The film received three Academy Award nominations for Best Sound (C.O. Slyfield) lost to All About Eve, Best Original Score (Oliver Wallace and Paul Smith) lost to Annie Get Your Gun and Best Original Song for "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" (Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman) lost to Captain Carey, U.S.A. At the 1st Berlin International Film Festival, it won the Golden Bear (Music Film) award and the Big Bronze Plate award.
In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "AFI's 10 Top 10"— the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Cinderella was acknowledged as the 9th greatest film in the animation genre.
Release[]
The film was originally released in theaters on February 15, 1950, followed by theatrical re-releases in 1957, 1965, 1973, 1981, and 1987. Cinderella also played a limited engagement in select Cinemark Theaters from February 16-18, 2013.
Home video releases[]
- Main article: Cinderella (video)
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- The film's copyright was renewed on December 3, 1976.[46]
- Cinderella's slippers have been made of many materials, but this version takes after the popular Charles Perrault version of the story, the first in which the slippers are made of glass. There is debate between scholars and translators whether this was a translation error, or Perrault's own poetic addition.[47]
- Strangely, unlike all the other human characters who are seen barefoot in this movie, Cinderella (whenever she's barefoot) has no visible toes. (She also seems to lack ears)
- Walt Disney said Cinderella was his favourite fairy tale because he saw himself in her shoes since he also worked hard and got rewarded for his work.
- Disney's interpretation is the first to take advantage of the fact that the slipper is still only made of glass, with Lady Tremaine shattering the lost slipper before Cinderella can put it on.
- Ironically, the Grand Duke warns the King that any number of girls might fit the slipper; however, Cinderella is the only one who can produce the slipper's match. This could be a metaphor for how there are many beautiful women in the world but only one true love.
- In the CBS television special AFI's 10 Top 10, the movie was named the 9th Best Animated Feature of all time.
- Not only is the name of the Prince never revealed in the original, but he is nowhere in the film mentioned as "Prince Charming".
- Ilene Woods revealed in an interview that Walt Disney was probably the first person to use double tracked vocals, where the singer records herself singing both the melody and the harmonies. The vocals were then mixed together, creating a seamless effect.
- In 2003, she was awarded a Disney Legends award for her voice work on the film Cinderella.
- The Prince is usually known as Prince Charming, though some supplementary material shows that his name is Henri, or Henry. However, he was never referred to by name anywhere in the film.
- The unnamed Prince, or Prince Charming, was given a name in the ABC fairy tale fantasy drama Once Upon a Time, as Prince Thomas, since the unnamed prince from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had been dubbed Prince Charming in the program.
- When Walt had the resources to return to full-length animation in the late 1940s after the war, he was indecisive over whether they should produce Cinderella or Alice in Wonderland first and finally decided to have two animation crews working on each film compete with each other to see not only which would finish first but also which did the best job.
- If you look closely at the carriage that Cinderella and the Prince take after, the wedding has an emblem of a sword and two hidden Mickey Mouse heads around it.
- A song called "Dancing on a Cloud" was cut from the film.
- For the German version, the original opening narration about Cinderella's past was read by Drizella's voice actress Erika Görner. On subsequent releases of the film beginning in 1998, this was replaced with a new narration read by Joachim Pukaß, to explain that this is a Disney film coming from the US and that "Aschenputtel" is called "Cinderella" over there. The rest of the film is left intact from its original 1950 dub, though the original German narration has never been made available since.
- Cinderella actually loses a shoe 3 times in the film: first, when she delivers the breakfast trays (causing Lucifer to look under the wrong cup), second, when she is running away from the ball, and third, walking down the steps with her new husband.
- The film was the first film to be worked on by all nine of the legendary "Nine Old Men" of the Walt Disney animation department.
- The royal proclamation on the castle gate wall reads: "All loyal subjects of his Imperial Majesty are hereby notified by royal proclamation that in regard to a certain glass slipper, it is upon this day decreed that a quest is instituted throughout the length and breadth of our domain. The sole and express purpose of said quest is as follows, to wit: that every single maiden in our beloved Kingdom shall try upon her foot this aforementioned slipper of glass, and should one be found whose foot shall properly fit said slipper, such maiden will be acclaimed the subject of this search and the one and only true love of his Royal Highness, our noble Prince. And said Royal Highness will humbly request the hand of the said maiden in marriage to rule with him over all the land as Royal Princess and future Queen."
- According to Marc Davis, one of the directing animators of the movie, at least 90% of the movie was done in live-action model before animation. Dancer Ward Ellis was the live-action model for Prince Charming. Cinderella's carriage is actually a live-action model painted white with black lines; this was the first time this technique had actually been used.
- Gus' full name is Octavius, presumably after the private name of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Gus can be short for either Gustavus or Augustus.
- All the animal characters in Cinderella were written to speak. Major had a song entitled "Horse-Sense" which she sang with Bruno after being scolded for growling at Lucifer. However, in the final film, it's only the mice who are the only animals that have been given the ability to speak, while other animals, such as Bruno, Major, Lucifer, and the birds do not speak except for their respective animal sounds.
- The story takes place roughly in June. In the movie, the sun rises slightly before 6:00 AM (in France), as it would within a few weeks of the summer solstice. Also, by this time, a pumpkin would have grown to 20–40 pounds.
- Ilene Woods suffered from Alzheimer's disease in the later years of her life. During this time, she did not even remember that she had played Cinderella, but nurses claimed that she was very much comforted by the song "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes".
- Although it is often assumed that Lucifer falls to his death from the tower, he is regularly shown as being alive some time later, in various (semi-)official novelizations, story-book spin-offs, and other promotional materials made to provide an epilogue to the characters after the movie ended, as well as the direct-to-video sequels. The logic of how he survived is never addressed directly.
- "Screen Director's Playhouse" broadcast a 30-minute radio adaptation of the movie on June 30, 1950, with Verna Felton reprising her film role.
- Lucifer was modeled after animator Ward Kimball's cat. Animators were having trouble coming up with a good design for that cat, but once Walt Disney saw Kimball's furry six-toed calico, he declared, "For gosh sakes, Kimball! There's your Lucifer right there!"
- While it could be just a coincidence, it may not be, three of the lady mice in the dress making scene (around when Jaq says "Poor Cinderelly") are in green, pink and blue dresses - not quite the exact same colors as the Three Good Fairies in Sleeping Beauty (1959), which would be released 9 years later. Also, Verna Felton voices Fairy Godmothers for both films; in Sleeping Beauty, she is Flora, the red member of the team.
- When auditioning for the role of Prince Charming, Mike Douglas was asked where he was from. When he replied, in his Illinois accent, that he was from Chicago. He was told that he was not going to do the speaking role, and so William Phipps was cast as Prince Charming while Douglas sang for the role.
- The movie was the first fully-developed, feature-length film the studio released after wartime cutbacks forced them to release several "package films" (Melody Time (1948), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), et al.). The success of the animation department depended greatly on its success.
- The Goofy holler is heard from The Grand Duke when he and the King fall from the chandelier after the Duke informs the former of Cinderella's departure from the ball. This marks the first time the Goofy holler is heard in a full-length feature film in the Disney Animated Canon (although the holler was previously heard in one of the segments of Make Mine Music and Fun and Fancy Free respectively back in the 1940s decade), which is occasionally used in future films, such as The Rescuers, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc. for intended comedic effect usually when Disney characters fall off high places or get thrown off to another place even though Goofy does not appear.
- It is vague whether the film is set in France or a Hispanic nation, since most of the names end in 'a' and some of the fashion (including the thing on Anastasia's head, which is a peineta, a Spanish type of headdress) and furniture is Spanish rather than French. Additionally, someone says "mademoiselle? señorita?" when Cinderella runs off.
- Jaq (as Sir Hugh) claims that "zug-zug" is "French" in the sequel. Since Cinderella's hometown and the surrounding countryside resembles the region of Occitania, which spans across southern France, northern Spain, and Italy, this is most likely where it is set. This would make the characters' native language Occitan, though the Cinderella films were not dubbed into the language, nor were any Disney films.
- This is the seventh Disney animated classic to have the 2006 Walt Disney Pictures logo with just Disney at the end of the movie, on current releases.
- Most of the female mice during "Work Song (Cinderelly, Cinderelly)" were voiced by men doing falsetto, as evident when one listens to them without the artificial pitch-shifting.
- This is the last Disney Princess film to be released by RKO Radio Pictures.
- This is the first Disney Princess film to have tobacco depictions.
- This is the first Disney Princess film to have the villains sing a song.
- This is the first Disney Princess film to have chickens.
- This is the first Disney Princess film to be released during the time of the Cold War, which was a geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, which started in 1947 and lasted to 1991.
- This is also the only Disney Princess film to be released during the papacy of Pius XII, whose reign began 11 years prior to the film's release.
Goofs[]
- The slipper Cinderella loses is a left-toed shoe, and so is the other one she pulls out after it gets shattered.
- The Disney Villains limited-edition DVD cover for the film shows Lady Tremaine holding a wand, which she does not do until A Twist in Time.
References[]
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External links[]
Cinderella (1950 film) on Wikipedia- Cinderella (1950 film) on IMDb
- Cinderella on Disney.com
- Cinderella (1950 film) at the Big Cartoon DataBase
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