Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.
Cinderella: Start of the Silver age
After the golden age, many of the animators (along with a sizeable chunk of the country) were drafted because of World War 2. Because of this, Disney couldn’t make the lavishly animated features he had made earlier and instead made several features that were made of shorts, kind of in the spirit of Fantasia. After the war ended, Disney went back to making feature films and started the silver age in 1950, back to where Disney excelled: Fantasy. Walt decided instead of using the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, that he would use a different one instead, by Charles Perrault.
Plot: Cinderella used to live in a loving household with a noble parentage…until her mother died. Her father was heartbroken until he found another wife named, Lady Tremaine, who had two daughters of her own that he thought would get along fine with Cinderella…at least until he died too. After that, Tremaine and her two daughters showed their true colors as petty and abusive. They reduced Cinderella to a servant in her own house while Lady Tremaine spoiled her two daughters rotten. Through this, though, Cinderella kept a relatively sunny attitude with her animal friends (need I remind you, this is still a Disney princess movie. gotta have those).
Meanwhile, the king of the land decides he wants to have a royal ball for his son, Prince Charming. The king isn’t getting any younger, and he wants his son to be wedded and happy like he was…and he really wants to have grandkids.
The news of this ball reaches everyone in the land that every eligible lady should attend. It reaches Lady Tremaine and her daughters…and the news reaches Cinderella as well. Lady Tremaine allows her to go…provided she actually has something to wear. As luck would have it, Cinderella does have something…it’s just not finished yet. One of her mother’s dresses was left to her and she has been restoring it. That said, Lady Tremaine and her daughters saddle her with so much work that she has no real way of finishing it in time…a feat her animal friends decide to take on their own.
With a dress fitting the Ball, Cinderella makes her way there…only for her step sisters to ruin her work and tear the dress to shreds, ensuring she has nothing to go to the ball with. Feeling rightfully defeated, Cinderella weeps in the garden until her Fairy Godmother comes along and decides to help her out. Her dress gets a makeover, her animal friends become chauffeurs and a resident pumpkin gets turned into a carriage fit for a princess. This comes with a warning: She can dance to her heart’s content until midnight, when the spell wears off. With this, Cinderella makes her way to the ball.
We cut to the prince who is unmoved by any of the candidates (especially Anastasia and Drizella Tremaine)…until he meets our heroine and is instantly smitten, asking her for a dance. Tremaine and her daughters suspect something is up, but can’t put their finger on things…and as luck would have it, they can’t. The midnight bell rings and Cinderella makes a mad dash to get home, with the Prince trying to find out her name. In her haste, she leaves a slipper behind and just barely makes it home in time for the spell to wear off.
The king is comically angry that the Duke let Prince Charming’s date get away and decides to make the Duke search the entire kingdom for the woman who fits the glass slipper that was left behind. Again, news of this spreads through the kingdom until it reaches Lady Tremaine’s ears…and she decides to take a more proactive role in keeping Cinderella away from the Duke…by locking her in her room.
Cinderella’s animal friends help unlock the door just in time for her to catch the Duke’s eye after the hilarious failures of the Tremaine sisters’ attempts to fit the slipper on their feet. Lady Tremaine, through subtle manipulation (Subtle being “making the man with the slipper trip) ensures the slipper is destroyed and there is no way to test it against Cinderella…until Cinderella reveals she has the other one. Thus, Cinderella and the Prince end up together, happily ever after.
This is the first film in which all of Disney’s Nine Old Men, the men who started Disney’s animation department with Snow White, worked together as animation directors…and it really shows. It was the biggest success since Snow White and it was the picture that reversed Disney Studios’ fortunes after its’ string of flops during the Golden Age. It netted them such a great profit, that the proceeds went to help Disney’s Florida project, which eventually became Walt Disney World.
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