Movie Review: Cinderella (1950)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: The animals make a fun addition to the familiar tale.

Cons: None

The Bottom Line: 

Classic fairy tale

In classic Disney upgrade

For the kid in all

Magic that Doesn't End at Midnight

In an effort to revive his sagging animation department, Walt Disney turned once again to a fairy tale. This time around, he chose one of the best known and oldest of them all, Cinderella.

The tale is familiar. A beautiful girl is abused by her stepmother and stepsisters and forced to work as their slave. When a ball is given for all the eligible maidens in the kingdom, Cinderella dreams of going too, only to have her hopes dashed at the last minute. With a gift of magic, she is able to go, but only until the stroke of midnight.

The story is so well known, if fact, that any story about an underdog coming from behind and winning is called a Cinderella story. Disney's job here was to make the story entertaining for 75 minutes. The solution here was creating the animals. Mice Jaq and Gus and their constant struggle against the evil cat Lucifer is funny and tying this sub-plot to the ultimate outcome is brilliant. The other standout character is the stepmother who is frighteningly evil with no super powers.

As with any Disney movie, this one also has great songs. Arguably the best known is "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo." Right behind it is "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes." My favorite, however, is the often overlooked love song "So This is Love."

Audiences at the time responded to the return to fairy tales, and it saved Disney studio.  But you know what?  It's still entertaining today.  There's comedy, romance, suspense at the end, even if you do know how it will turn out.  And the stepmother makes a much better villain than she's given credit for being.  You love to root against her.

Last October, it was the release in Disney's Diamond Edition of Blu-Ray/DVD sets.  I'll admit that one these old animated films, it is hard to see a huge difference in picture quality, at least for me.  But it does look great.  Ironically, it is in a full frame aspect ration, but that was the original ration of the movie.  There is a viewing option called DisneyView which features bars on the sides of the picture that act as changing frames if you don't want black bars on the sides.  There are several audio choices, including 7.1 surround and original mono, so you can hear it as it originally was or enjoy your home theater system of today.

The best extras from the Platinum Edition are here.  These include some deleted/alternative scenes, a thirty-eight minute documentary on the making of the film, a tribute to the famous Nine Old Men who shepherded much of Disney animation during this period, the Disney "Laugh-O-Gram" version of the story from 1922, and the theatrical trailers from all the releases of the film. 

But wait, there are new extras for the Diamond Edition.  Granted, one of them is basically an ad for the new Fantasyland at Disney World.  They've also got a tribute to Mary Alice, who helped inspire the Fairy Godmother.  There are more deleted scenes and songs.  But the one I really liked was the "Tangled Ever After" short.  If you loved that movie, you'll love this short.  I sure did.

Since Disney has the habit of putting their films back into the vault, I absolutely recommend picking up this gem now while you still can.  Kids will still love Cinderella, and you'll find the magic again yourself.