Cinderella (Platinum Edition) 1950 Buena Vista Home Entertainment Official Website Buy It Now

Jut about every girl dreams of having some kind of fairy tale dream come true when she's little. She wants to be a princess, have some prince come riding in on a white horse to take her away, and any number of things. Reality seldom presents the chance for the fiction to become fact, but for decades Disney has been creating animated works that at least let the dreams continue on, even for little girls who have grown into adulthood. Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are among many of Disney's popular characters that little girls adore worldwide, but without a doubt the most enduring, and perhaps one the best known, is Cinderella and now all of her fairy tale dreams are back and available for the first time on DVD.

This is a story that everyone knows as it has been told time and time again with many different takes on the story. Walt Disney's Cinderella, as well as all other versions of the story, is based on the tale of the same name written in the 17th century by Charles Perrault. Cinderella is the daughter of a wealthy father, but sadly her mother passed on at a young age. Feeling the need to marry again, he wed a woman who had to daughters herself; Drizzela and Anastasia. However, Cinderella's father wasn't long for the world and soon passed away himself. It was soon after that Cinderella saw the true nature of her step-mother; she was an evil and wicked woman who quickly spent the family fortune, was only out to make life better for her own daughters, and soon forced Cinderella to become a servant of the family.

Cinderella however does what she can, trying to make her step-mother and step-sisters as happy as she can; doing the mending, the laundry, cooking meals, cleaning, and anything else that they can think of. To keep her company, she has a number of animal friends including mice (who talk of course) birds, and her faithful dog Bruno. The king has decided to throw a ball in honor of his sons return, and hopefully to find him a bride, and every eligible maiden in the kingdom has been invited. However, Cinderella's wicked step-mother and step-sisters have plans to keep her from going, but with the help of her kindly fairy Godmother, Cinderella will be the belle of the ball and win the Prince's heart.

Cinderella is a timeless classic, though in researching the story and the film itself, I ran across a rather amusing quote in a review by someone who will remain nameless. Essentially he summed the tale up as being a stereotypical view of women. Let's remember a couple of things before trying to call the movie sexist. First, the story was written in the 17th century, and things were quite a bit different back then, as they were went Walk Disney was hard at work on the movie. Cinderella was a film that was six years in the making, technically more if you count in the other attempts that Walt had made at getting the film released, and as it was released in 1950, the attitudes towards women were again different than they are today. Cinderella shouldn't be a movie that is seen as "stereotypical," but instead a movie or story that is showing a past belief system that, for the most part at least, has been overcome in today's society, but this is only a minor part of the story.

I vaguely remember seeing Cinderella when I was quite a few years young, and while this really does end up being a tale that is geared more towards women, there are some things that I don't think I ever really noticed before. The animation is truly remarkable, and I spent a good deal of time while watching the movie thinking about the other movies that Walt Disney himself was involved in, and that it really does feel that since his passing, the quality of Disney's animated films has declined a little. One very important thing about the animation is that Disney actually filmed a good deal of live action sequences prior to animated the film, and much of what you see in Cinderella is based from this. This gives the film a very lifelike quality, but more importantly, I noticed a number of things that you just don't see too often. There are many little nuances, hand gestures and very slight but noticeable things in the animation that normally are completely overlooked by animators. If you've seen any of the films from Studio Ghibli, especially those that Miyazaki has worked on, you'll notice many of these same traits and characteristics, and it's honestly one thing that animators these days tend to forget about. There is a great amount of intricate detail in the animation from beginning to end and memorable scenes, such as Cinderella magically getting her gown from her Fairy Godmother and a number of other things that really sit well in ones mind. In particular, the sequence featuring Cinderella cleaning and her image being reflected in soap bubbles really has to be one of the best pieces of animations that I've ever seen.

Much like Snow White, Cinderella is the star of the movie, and her handsome Prince barely gets any screen time at all. This is another thing that makes me question why someone would even consider this to be a film that is sexist. It's due to unfortunate circumstances that Cinderella is in the position that she's in, and the tale ultimately has a happy ending when her love finally comes to save her from her miserable life. If anything, I would object to the idea of people finding love in but an evening and getting married, though it does happen.

The other major attraction though has to be the mice; everyone loves them. They will do anything for "Cinderelly," not a surprise since she's saved them, clothed them, gives them food, and even helps them out when Lucifer the cat is after them. In return they even try and make her gown for the ball, which ultimately is destroyed by her jealous stepsisters. The mice however are played off not just as helpers, but also a form of comedy to lighten the mood at times. They have their own song as well, another thing that is always important in Disney's animated features. You've got to have a number of songs, and while I'm not necessarily a fan of it, I would have to say that these songs are composed really well and stick in my mind much better than some of the newer Disney music does.

50 years can find a movie taking on a great deal of deterioration in terms of picture, and as the case has been with many of the re-issues of older films, Disney has put together a team to restore Cinderella to its original glory. Just take a look at the trailers that were originally released for the movie (which are included in the extras) and you can see a drastic different in the quality.

Disney has established a trend with most of their DVD's, especially those that are their animated features, where you're not going to be getting on disc, but two, and the second is always packed with bonus material. Cinderella isn't any different, and you'll find plenty of additional features. There are two songs that didn't make it into the movie, and as such, there isn't any animation, but there are animatics. There is plenty of music here besides this however including demos for songs that were never used, a couple of different music videos, and even a musical number featuring Ilene Woods from the Perry Como Show. You'll get plenty of behind-the-scene material including archive interview segments with some of those involved in the movie, though these are from just a decade ago, not back in the 40's or 50's, a look at the original version of Cinderella that Walt created before Disney came into being, and a great deal more than will give you a whole new appreciation for the film.

I may not have had dreams of being a princess when I was younger, for obvious reasons, but I do see why so many people have been enamored with Cinderella for so many years. There's a reason why one of the first things that you see when you walk into Disneyland is Cinderella's castle sitting proudly in the center of the Magic Kingdom. This is a film that transcends time, can forgo gender, and is enjoyable simply because it takes a very simple concept and sticks with it from start to finish; if you simply believe, your dreams will come true, and it is a timeless piece of wisdom that is showcased perfectly in this animated classic.

-mike-