Cinderella – Cinderella (1950)

Directed by: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske | 72 minutes | comedy, animation, family, romance, fantasy | English voice cast: Ilene Woods, Lucille Bliss, Rhoda Williams, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, William Phipps, Luis Van Rooten | Dutch voice cast: Joke de Kruyf, Ryan van den Akker, Carry Tefsen, Annet Nieuwenhuyzen, Henni Orri, Edward Reekers, Lex Goudsmit, Paul van Gorcum

‘Cinderella’, ‘Cinderella’ in English, is a fairy tale that has already captivated many people. The story of the poor oppressed girl who finds her prince by losing her glass slipper has been read for centuries and has inspired dozens of film adaptations. One of the most famous is of course that of Walt Disney.

Released in 1950, ‘Cinderella’ was the first full-length cartoon since 1942. Both financially and creatively, ‘Cinderella’ was a huge success for Disney. The film stays true to Charles Perrault’s fairy tale, but Disney has added elements that only enhance the story. For example, the mice in the film have been given a much more prominent role, which results in an increase of the humor in the film. James MacDonald records the voices of all the important mice, and does so in an amusing way. He gives the mice a separate dialect. The ugly and mean stepsisters are caricatured, which fits well with the normal, simple character of Cinderella herself. Hangover Lucifer is arguably the movie’s biggest villain, even more so than the evil stepmother!

The decors are simple but effective. Due to the simplicity of the environment, the viewer is less distracted and all attention can be focused on the story. The scene where Cinderella’s dress changes into a beautiful white ball gown is Disney’s favorite animation, and rightly so, because it’s done magically. That whole scene is very cleverly done, young children will look at it with their mouths open and their eyes wide! The scenes in the castle, when Cinderella meets her prince and dances with him, are, how could it be otherwise, fairytale and romantic. Funny detail is that the name of the prince is never revealed, for the sake of convenience he is called Prince Charming. Ilene Woods, who provided the voice of Cinderella in the original version, has beaten a whopping 309 girls, but she didn’t even know she was auditioning for the role of Cinderella.

The songs in the movie are very nice, “Cinderella”; “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes”; “Sing Sweet Nightingale”; “The Work Song”; “So This Is Love”; culminating in “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.” (the film received an Oscar nomination for this). Cinderella is a classic but timeless story and the Disney film adaptation deserves a large audience.