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Cinderella (1950 film)

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Cinderella
Directed byClyde Geronimi
Hamilton Luske
Wilfred Jackson
Written byCharles Perrault (novel)
Ken Anderson
Perce Pearce
Homer Brightman
Winston Hibler
Bill Peet
Erdman Penner
Harry Reeves
Joe Rinaldi
Ted Sears
Produced byWalt Disney
StarringIlene Woods
James MacDonald
Eleanor Audley
Luis Van Rooten
Lucille Bliss
Rhoda Williams
June Foray
Verna Felton
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release dates
February 14, 1950
Running time
72 min.
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2,900,000

Cinderella is a 1950 animated feature produced by Walt Disney, and released to theaters on February 15, 1950 by RKO Radio Pictures. The twelfth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jackson, adapted from the fairy tale "Cinderella", drawing primarily from the version by Charles Perrault. Songs were written by Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman. 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 "Cinderella."

Plot summary

Cinderella lives with her kind-hearted father and his second wife Lady Tremaine, until Cinderella's father dies and her stepmother and her stepsisters, Drizella and Anastasia, reveal their true nature: cold, cruel and selfish. Lady Tremaine makes Cinderella into the houseservant, and spends most of the inherited fortune. As Cinderella blossoms into a beautiful young woman who is kind-hearted despite her hard upbringing, she befriends the animals living in the barn, including Bruno the Bloodhound, Major the horse, and many of the mice and birds who live in and around the chateau. Cinderella finds a mouse inside a trap, releases him, and names him Gus. She is also friends with a mouse named Jaq, the leader of a mouse-pack.

At the royal palace, the King goes into a tantrum about his son not marrying. Since the King is determined to see grandchildren, he and the Duke organize a ball for the Prince in a last ditch effort for his son to fall in love and marry.

Cinderella performs her daily duties; feeding the chickens, attending to the needs of her stepmother's cat Lucifer, and preparing breakfast for Lady Tremaine and her daughters ("A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes"). When the invitation to the ball arrives, Cinderella asks if she can attend. Although the stepsisters ridicule her, Cinderella firmly states that every eligible maid is to attend. Lady Tremaine says that Cinderella can go to the ball... if she gets her work done and if she finds a suitable gown. To stop Cinderella from attending, the stepfamily sets her with a mountain of chores. Determined to help their friend, Jaq and Gus acquire Anastasia and Drizella's discarded sash and beads and use them to fix an old gown belonging to Cinderella's late mother ("Cinderella Work Song"). When Cinderella warmly thanks her friends and prepares to go to the ball, Lady Tremaine points out her daughters' beads and sash, and the sisters tear the gown apart, leaving Cinderella to run to the back of the garden and cry while Lady Tremaine and the stepsisters go to the ball.

Suddenly, Cinderella's Fairy Godmother appears, and equips the girl with everything she needs for the ball. She transforms the mice into horses, Bruno into a footman, Major the horse into a coachman, a pumpkin into the carriage, and transforms her torn dress into a beautiful blue dress with glass slippers ("Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo"). Cinderella departs for the ball after the godmother warns her that the spell expires at the stroke of midnight.

At the ball, the Prince rejects every girl - until his eyes fall on Cinderella. He is immediately smitten, and they dance around the castle grounds ("So This Love") until the clock starts to chime midnight. Cinderella flees in her pumpkin coach before the final strike, accidentally leaving behind one of her glass slippers. Back at the palace, the Duke tells the King of the disaster, and of his plan to find "The Prince's Bride" with the slipper they found during Cinderella's escape.

The next morning, a royal proclamation is issued: the Grand Duke will visit every house in the kingdom to find the girl who fits the glass slipper, so that she can be married to the Prince. When this news reaches Lady Tremaine, she alerts her daughters, who jump out of bed to prepare for the Grand Duke's arrival. Cinderella, overhearing, dreamily hums the love song that she and the Prince sang together the night before while they danced. Realizing that Cinderella was the girl who danced with the Prince, Lady Tremaine follows Cinderella up to her attic bedroom and locks her in.

When the Grand Duke arrives, the mice steal the key to Cinderella's room from Lady Tremaine's pocket and laboriously drag the key up the stairs to her room, only barely managing to free her after another fight with Lucifer, in which Bruno comes to their rescue and scares the evil cat out of the house. Meanwhile, Anastasia tries on the slipper, but her foot is too big. When Drizella tries on the slipper, her foot is also much too large, but she crams it in anyway - until the slipper twangs off her foot. Just as the Duke prepares to leave, Cinderella appears at the top of the stairs, asking to try on the slipper. Knowing that the slipper will fit and that Cinderella will subsequently marry the Prince, Lady Tremaine insists she's just a servant girl, but the Grand Duke sharply reminds her that every maid is to try on the slipper. Lady Tremaine trips the footman carrying the slipper, which shatters on the floor. The Duke worries how the king will react until Cinderella reveals she has the other glass slipper. Delighted at this indisputable proof of the maiden's identity, the Duke slides the slipper onto her foot, which fits perfectly.

At the wedding, Cinderella and the Prince descend the church's staircase, surrounded by confetti tossed by the King and the Grand Duke. Cinderella loses a slipper and retrieves it with the aid of the King. As the film ends on a scene of the two newly-weds kissing, the narrator concludes "...and they lived happily ever after".

History

Production

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 representative of both eras.

Cinderella 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 duration of the 1940s.

Unlike most Disney films where more ideas are removed than added, more ideas were added than removed in Cinderella. Just as the role of Jiminy Cricket was intensified during the production of Pinocchio, so were the roles of the mice in Cinderella. They became some of Cinderella's closest friends during the film and also helped her with the making of the dress. Additionally, according to Laryn Dowel, one of the directing animators of the film, roughly 90% of the movie was done in live action model before animation, using basic sets as references for actors and animators alike. Even Lucifer the cat was modeled after animator Ward Kimball's cat. Animators were having trouble coming up with a good design for the cat, but once Walt Disney saw Kimball's furry calico, he declared, "There's your Lucifer." Both Helene Stanley (Cinderella's live action model) and Ilene Woods (Cinderella's voice, selected from 400 other candidates) heavily influenced Cinderellas' styling and mannerisms. Mike Douglas was the Prince's singing voice while William Phipps acted the part. In order to keep the animation costs down, extensive use was made of the rotoscope, so that live action could be studied and traced, frame-by-frame, from filmed scenes of real actors.

In music, Walt tried again to call on Larry Morey and Charles Wolcott to create the songs, but Disney believed the songs were not any good. So, for the first time, Walt turned to Tin Pan Alley song writers to write the songs. The music of Tin Pan Alley would later become a recurring theme in Disney animation.

Release

Walt Disney had not had a huge hit since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The production of this film was regarded as a major gamble on his part. At a cost of nearly $3,000,000, Disney insiders claimed that if this movie had failed at the box office, then Disney studio would have closed (given that the studio was already heavily in debt). Luckily, the film was a big hit and allowed Disney to carry on producing films throughout the 1950s (both animation and live-action alike) while other studios were cutting back in terms of output and quality.

Re-release schedule and home video

Cinderella has been re-released theatrically in 1957, 1965, 1973, 1981, and 1987. It was released on VHS video and laserdisc in 1988 ("The Classics" video issue, becoming the first video to feature the "Sorcerer Mickey" Classics logo before the film) and 1995 (Masterpiece Collection video issue). The original 1988 Classics release also had a promotion with a free lithograph reproduction for those who pre-ordered the video before its release date. Disney then restored and remastered the movie for its October 4, 2005 release as the sixth installment of Disney's Platinum Edition series. According to the Studio Briefing, Disney sold 3.2 million copies in its first week and earned over $64 million in sales. [1] The Platinum Edition dvd will go on moratorium on the 31st of january 2008 along with Cinderella 3 a twist in time the official Cinderella website already has it's countdown of how many days left before it returns to the disney vault. [1]

Cinderella theatrical release history

Worldwide release dates

Voice cast

Actor Role(s)
Ilene Woods Cinderella
Jimmy MacDonald Gus and Jaq/Bruno
Eleanor Audley Lady Tremaine
Luis Van Rooten The King
The Grand Duke
Lucille Bliss Anastasia Tremaine
Rhoda Williams Drizella Tremaine
June Foray Lucifer
Verna Felton Fairy Godmother
William Phipps Prince Charming
Mike Douglas Prince Charming's singing voice
Don Barclay Doorman
Betty Lou Gerson Narrator

Directing animators

Songs

Songs in Film

Song Written for Film but Not Used

  • "Sing A Little, Dream A Little" - Cinderella (Replaced by "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes")
  • "The Dress My Mother Wore" - Cinderella
  • "I'm in the Middle of a Muddle" - Cinderella
  • "The Work Song" - Cinderella (Replaced by the mouse version)
  • "Dancing on A Cloud" - Cinderella and Prince Charming (Replaced by "So This Is Love")
  • "I Lost My Heart at the Ball" - Cinderella
  • "The Face That I See in the Night" - Prince Charming

Opening to Cinderella VHS

The Rescuers Down Under 101 Dalmatians

Closing to Cinderella VHS

Lady and The Tramp Beauty and The Beast

Sequels

Trivia

  • The voice actress of Lady Tremaine, Eleanor Audley, also voiced the evil Maleficent nine years later in Sleeping Beauty (although she recorded her part for Sleeping Beauty in 1952). She also is the voice of Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
  • When the King and Grand Duke fall from a chandelier, the infamous Goofy holler ("Yah-ho-ho-ho-hooeeey!!!") is heard.
  • "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" became a hit single four times, with notable versions by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters.
  • Actress Helene Stanley was the live-action model for the title role and would be so again for Sleeping Beauty and Anita Radcliff in One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
  • Ilene 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 telling her.
  • Hidden Mickey:When Cinderella is singing "Sing Sweet Nightingale", three bubbles form the head and ears of Mickey Mouse.
  • 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 be 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 said maiden in marriage to rule with him over all the Land as Royal Princess and future Queen." The duke later reads this proclamation upon arriving at the Tremain household with some minor variations (such as "...our noble prince. The noble prince will..." instead of "...our noble Prince. And said Royal Highness will...")
  • 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 merchandisable, 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.
  • The transformation of Cinderella's torn dress to that of the white ball gown was considered to be Walt Disney's favorite piece of animation.
  • 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 digitally remastered DVD shows Cinderella as a blonde, when her hair was originally supposed to be titian (light reddish-brown)
  • Curiously enough, Cinderella is commonly pictured wearing a blue ballgown in merchandise, as well as other mediums, when in fact the actual ballgown she wears in the film is silver and white. However, when the film was remastered in the 2005 DVD release, it was tinted more to a shade of blue.
  • Cinderella names Gus-Gus "Octavius, or Augustus for short." This is a reference to the Roman Emperor Gaius Octavius Thurinus, who was given the name Augustus by the Roman Senate in 27BC.
  • The king in the movie is referred to as "His Imperial Majesty." This title is not accurate, as he is not an emperor.
  • For his service to the king in successfully getting the Prince to fall in love with Cinderella (despite her untimely departure), the king offers the Grand Duke a knighthood. This would not be possible, as the Grand Duke far surpasses any knights of the kingdom.
  • The game Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, show scenes of a battle being taken place on the castle steps of Cinderella's world, hinting this world will be featured.

See also

Template:Americanfilms1950s

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