Is considered one of Disney’s best movies during the Golden Era. Does it show? Is it as great now as it was back in the 50s? Am I just a clueless 2000’s kid that really doesn't know a lot about old Disney movies? The answer to all those questions is no…For the most part. Even as far as standard Disney fair goes this movie did not hold up as well as I originally thought it did. It’s not a bad movie and there were some admirable things, but it doesn’t stand up as a solid film compared to films Disney makes today.
In a faraway fairytale kingdom, Cinderella's (Ilene Woods) happiness is short-lived when her parents both tragically passed away leaving her to live with her Evil Stepmother (Eleanor Audley) and her two daughters Drizella (Rhoda Willams) and Anastaisa (Lucille Bliss). The stepmother and stepsisters treat Cinderella like dirt as she does all the chores and attends to the family’s needs on a regular basis. When Cinderella hears that a royal ball is gonna take place for the king's son to marry, she and her animal friends along with some help from Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother (Verna Felton) work in secret to create a dress so she can attend the ball.
Now the main story on its own has all the necessary tools to make a great fantasy fairytale. The problem is that even though cinderella’s story arc would suggest being at the forefront of everything else, the movie decides to waste time to make room for side characters and their wacky shenanigans. For example, there is a subplot where the mice have to avoid the stepmother's cat Lucifer in a sort of Tom and Jerry routine but it’s not really funny and it just wastes time when most of it could be spent on Cinderella and her dilemmas. there‘s also a plot featuring the father of the prince talking about his woes that gets dragged out too long and is trying way too hard to be over the top and funny Side characters are not bad, but when they get more attention than the main character that’s a sign that you may need to rewrite the story to keep a general balance.
Some characters are great while others could use a little tune-up. Cinderella herself is actually not that bad and her patience and persistence while not shown all the time is definitely admirable and unique when compared to Snow White. The evil stepmother is a very good villain as she doesn’t resort to using many actions but mostly visual cues and words to convey her character. The fairy godmother is the best character of the entire movie as she brings a delightful amount of comfort and comedy to make her character stand out from all the others. The mice charcters are honestly hit or miss. I understand they are trying to make the mice cute but they are rather annoying most of the time, especially in their voices. In fact the rest of the characters when I think about in are mainly throwaways like the over-the-top king and the prince doesn’t have that much personality aside from being there when the plot demands it. They aren’t bad characters, but they do pale in comparison to characters that were done better in other Disney films like Snow White.
If there is one thing you can count on this movie delivering on all fronts it would be the animation. The character designs are good and I especially love the look of the evil stepmother as the way she is drawn still is as threatening now as it was before. There are some uses of visual storytelling such as the Sweet sing nightingale sequence uses a lot of colors and bubbles to make for an interesting visual splendor. The backgrounds are very reminiscent of films like Snow White that try to capture the beautiful fantasy look that looks wonderful especially when we get to the castle. Plus, even though it's done better in snow white, it's still charming to see animated animals tidying up places and creating a dress for cinderella. It may be old, but the animation after all these years later still enchants even when the story doesn’t.
The Music for the film was done by Oliver Wallace and Paul J Smith who do an honest attempt to try and make music that would be up in the same ranks as Snow White even if they don’t quite reach that mark. There are some interesting songs like “Sweet SIng Nightingale” and “Bibity Bobity Boo” but most of the music is pretty forgettable and even a little bland sometimes.
I wanted to enjoy cinderella as everyone else does. While this movie does have a lot of remarkable aspects like some of the characters and beautiful animation, unfortunately, some of the underlining issues like too much time focused on side characters really brought this whole movie down to a fault. I’m overall glad I've seen this movie a few times, but it's not a Disney movie I find myself coming back to unlike many others from the ever giant animation studio.
(Final Grade: C+)