HIGH DEF UNIVERSE

Reviewed by Sean Ferguson

In honor of its upcoming 70th anniversary, the timeless animated classic, Cinderella, waltzes into the highly celebrated Walt Disney Signature Collection and the hearts of a whole new generation. Poor Cinderella - everyone orders her around: her cruel stepmother, her awful stepsisters — even the big clock in the church tower tells her when to start another day of drudgery. But they can’t stop her from dreaming, and Cinderella has faith that someday her wishes will come true.

The rags to riches tale of Cinderella has been told many times in a variety of movies, but the version that I believe connects with audiences the most is this one. Walt Disney and his team of talented animators bring the story to life with flair and the choices that they made as far as character design and the beautiful backgrounds give the movie a timeless feel that ensures its continued popularity. This story of a young girl who had it all, only to become a virtual slave to her cruel step-mother and abusive step-sister after her father’s death, still strikes a chord with viewers. The dream that no matter what your current station in life could end with you becoming a princess is irresistible to a lot of women who dream of meeting their own prince charming.

Originally, Cinderella (Ilene Woods) lived with her well-to-do father who happened to be a widower until he met Lady Tremaine (Eleanor Audley) and her daughters. After a time he married Lady Tremaine but things took a turn for the worse after he passed away. With him no longer there to protect Cinderella from Lady Tremaine and her daughters, Cinderella was forced to become a servant in her own house. It’s at that point that I have a hard time with this movie because I don’t understand why she doesn’t just kick them out of the house. I’ve never understood why she left them bully her as much as they do or why she takes abuse from their cat Lucifer either. In any case, Cinderella happily does their laundry, cleans their drapes, fixes their meals, feeds the animals, etc. The only good aspect of her life is her friendship with the various animals dwelling with her that includes mice, a dog, birds, and a horse. They keep Cinderella company and help her with her chores as well as keep her spirits up.

Meanwhile at the Royal Palace, the King (Luis Van Rooten) is upset that his son is not married and that he has no grandchildren. In order to force the situation, he instructs his adviser the Duke to organize a ball and to invite every eligible female in the kingdom for the Prince to choose from. When the King’s invitation arrives, they are all excited but none as much as Cinderella who has dreamed of escaping her lot in life. Lady Tremaine tells Cinderella that she may attend the ball if her chores are done, but between her and her daughters, they do everything in their power to prevent that from happening. They heap chore after chore onto Cinderella until there’s no time for her to get ready. Luckily for her, her mice and birds are excellent seamstresses, and they made a beautiful dress made up from the cast offs from the sisters. When the sisters see how beautiful Cinderella looks in their hand me downs, they rip her outfit to shreds taking their items back and leaving Cinderella in tears. All is not lost however as Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother (Verna Felton) arrives to set things right and to give Cinderella a chance in a lifetime as long as she can make it back by midnight.

Cinderella is a cute film but it’s not one of my favorites because of a weak heroine and a paper thin plot. You could easily sum up the movie in one sentence which usually isn’t a good thing. The animation is superb, especially during the transformation sequence orchestrated by the Fairy Godmother. The voice acting is also excellent, especially by Eleanor Audley who provided the harsh dialogue for Lady Tremaine (as well as the voice of Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty). As usual for these early Disney movies, the Prince is just a cardboard cutout with no real personality at all. That tradition would continue until Sleeping Beauty’s Prince Phillip who was fully realized. The mice, Jaq and Gus (all played by Jimmy MacDonald) are very popular which has added to the film’s appeal. While I can certainly appreciate the movie’s merits, I would still recommend the aforementioned Sleeping Beauty over this one in every respect.

Extras (5 out of 5 stars) 

• Diane Disney Miller Introduction – The now customary introduction by Walt’s daughter Diane from the Walt Disney Museum.
• Classic Backstage Disney DVD Features –  These ported features add up to almost two hours of goodies but the bad news is that they are all in standard definition. These include: “From Rags to Riches: The Making of Cinderella“, an in-depth documentary on the making of the film; “The Cinderella that Almost Was”, which covers the various ways that the movie almost became; “From Walt’s Table: A Tribute to the Nine Old Men”, a great tribute to the legendary “Nine Old Men” who were Walt’s key animators; “The Art of Mary Blair”, another key person in the history of Disney who created backgrounds and provided inspiration for other projects like Saludos Amigos and the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland; a “Storyboard-to-Film Comparison,” which looks into the movie’s opening sequence; an animated “Laugh-O-Gram” of the original Cinderella short from 1922; an excerpt from “The Mickey Mouse Club” from 1956; and lastly six theatrical and re-issue trailers.
• Cinderella Alternate Opening Sequence – Another look at what could have been with a new song that would have opened the movie if it had been kept in.
• Backstage Disney: Diamond Edition – These three featurettes make up the new material created for this release and combined they last thirty minutes.  The first one, “The Real Fairy Godmother” is a look at the inspiration for the Fairly Godmother who turns out to be Mary Alice, a wife of one of the animators who was one of the greatest humanitarians pf Burbank who helped many people.  Then there’s  “Behind the Magic: A New Disney Princess Fantasyland”, which look into Walt Disney’s reworking and expansion of Fantasyland.  And lastly, there’s “The Magic of a Glass Slipper: A Cinderella Story” is a short film about shoe designer Christian Louboutin trying to create a his own version of the glass slipper.  I have no idea why Disney is making short films about guys that they hired to create merchandise but it’s kind of cute and there’s some animation in it too.
• DisneyView – Like the previous Diamond editions, this feature allows you to replace the traditional black bars on the either side of the film with custom created artwork that  that ties in with the themes of the movie.  In this case, the artwork was done by Disney background painter Cristy Maltese.