Cinderella (1950) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

It can be hard to find happiness when you feel like you can’t but if Walt Disney’s Cinderella taught us anything, the length of the wait can be all worth it.


PLOT


Based on Charles Gerrault’s fairy tale, the 1950 adaptation follows the titular young lady who grew up in a harsh environment as her only family are her jealous stepmother Lady Tremaine and spoiled stepsisters Anastasia & Drizella. She has spent a long time being overburdened with chores as their scullion. The only friends she has are a pair of mice, Jaq & Gus, who constantly evade Tremaine’s pet cat Lucifer. With the local King (Luis Van Rooten) growing tired of waiting for his son Prince Charming to marry a princess, he decides to host a royal ball where every maiden is eligible to win his heart. Tremaine keeps Cinderella deliberately busy to prevent her from going. She gets help from Jaq & Gus as well as other animals to prepare her dress by the time she finishes her chores, but that doesn’t stop Anastasia & Drizella from tearing her dress apart to prevent her from going. Distraught of the abuse, a fairy godmother helps her prepare to go as she wants. She bestows Cinderella a shining ball gown with glass slippers, as well as gets a pumpkin turned into a fancy carriage. Her animal friends get upgrades of their own to accompany her: Jaq & Gus and two other mice become horses for the carriage, the house’s old horse Major becomes a coachman and her pet bloodhound Bruno becomes a footman, but all of this is temporary as Cinderella has only until midnight to make the best of it. When she arrives, her family doesn’t recognize her but Tremaine feels sure something is familiar about her. As her presence leaves the prince smitten, the king and the Grand Duke (also voiced by Van Rooten) prevent anyone from interfering as the two dance and wander out the palace grounds. Sadly, nothing can go further between them as Cinderella must return home by the time the clock tolls midnight. But on the way, before all reverts to normal by the time she makes it back with her friends, she accidentally left behind her glass slipper. As the prince vows to only marry the girl that fits the slipper, the king and the grand duke arrange for every girl in the kingdom to try it on until there’s a match. Once this news reaches the chateau, Cinderella would be in shock as she didn’t know she spent time with the prince. But as Tremaine deduces it was her that done so off of her humming the same waltz at the ball, she decides to lock her in her attic bedroom. As Anastasia & Drizella fail to put it on in front of the grand duke, Jaq & Gus retrieve the key to Cinderella’s room and with the help of Bruno, they keep Lucifer at bay long enough to reach her. Cinderella is able to get the grand duke’s attention and despite Tremaine making an effort to break the slipper by tripping the page, she one-ups her by having the other one on her. With the slipper proven to fit her and identify her as the one, the film ends in a happily ever after where Cinderella and the prince quickly marrying and setting off to a honeymoon.


THOUGHTS


You know considering that Snow White set the standards in Hollywood’s fairy tale narratives, it’s a surprise that it took more than a decade for Disney to pursue another princess story. It’s safe to say it was worth it because the overall results turned out very well. The animation done here is just splendid because you just feel the magic surrounding the environment. I mean it’d be crazy not to because the transformation sequence during ‘Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo’ just gets to me everytime due to the desire on how fast a complex scenario can be solved. Thats basically why we all love the Fairy Godmother because despite having only one scene, actress Verna Felton made her a highlight for the warmth that can be missing in not just Cinderella’s life, but ours as well when we’re feel defeated by constant negativity. This leads to the point that Ilene Woods brings the movie full circle as the titular protagonist because it is she who teaches us kindness & perseverance can overthrow adversity as long as you’re consistent about it. Despite growing up unloved by her step-family, she refused to give in in front of them and from there, all it took to overcome them was luck at her side. The Fairy Godmother definitely got the grounds going for her, but then the mice put the icing on the cake. Jaq & Gus are good friends because despite being the smallest of creatures, they proved to have the biggest of hearts as they fearlessly evaded the cunning Lucifer to free her from what was straight up her personal hell. Sadly, she felt that way from people who chose superiority over equality. Eleanor Audley was incredibly diabolical as Tremaine which makes it easy to hate this character. She’s the ideal nightmare people worry about with actual step-parents and if the relationship is healthy, they’re not lucky they’re not her. She is the worst of parents for just being cold because she can. She casually believes Cinderella would be a threat just for having a heart and that bringing someone down would change that. Add this with Rhoda Williams & Lucille Bliss making the most greedy and envious of Anastasia & Drizella, it almost seemed like it would always work. The fact she didn’t stop the loophole by not taking the other slipper or even looking for it proved all that abuse was for nothing. Considering that Prince Charming was hardly seen, it seems to me she hit it off with him so fast because he lived up to the name and was rebellious in his own way since he seemed to wait for the right partner that was genuinely interested in him. When you hear the songs ‘A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes’ and ‘So This is Love’, they represent the hope to achieve what you yearn for which is exactly what came to be. With him being her long awaited path to peace, there’s no doubt the rest of her life will end with happiness. I give this movie more credit than it deserves, but having seen it so many times, there are a few things that haven’t made much sense to me story wise. For example, how exactly is there only one way out of the castle for the mice if they’ve made constant doorways inside? If they can do that, they can make multiple exits. It’s also dumb for the king to set up a royal ball at the last minute. If he knew exactly when his son was coming back, he should’ve not taken so long. I know animation bends reality a lot, but it feels like a continuity error on the amount of beads Gus picks up to repair the necklace. If the other mice took the rest, I wish that was clarified. Cinderella even messes up singing ‘So This is Love’ when she was near her stepmom. Just because you had a spell to make you unrecognizable doesn’t mean they wouldn’t remember what you sang. And how long exactly did it take for Jaq & Gus to reach the attic while the slipper fitting was going on with Anastasia & Drizella? If it took 10-30 minutes, I wish that was clear as well. If you can ignore these issues though, you’ll still enjoy what is given. In short, 1950’s Cinderella is one of the superior films from Disney’s catalog for being the most uplifting of its kind. If you’re missing that feeling, this film will fix that for you.