CINDERELLA
Walt Disney's cartoon film from Perrault's tale
Identification Sheet:
1950, USA
Running time: 74 minutes
Direction: Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske and Clyde Geronimi
Production : Walt Disney
Main characters:
Cinderella (with Ilene Woods' voice), Charming Prince (doubled by William Phipps) and domestic animals like the dog and mice who live in the house, are the good ones in the film.
The step-mother (who looks like Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent), her two ugly daughters and Lucifer the cat are the four characters who play the role of cruelty, stupidity and vanity.
Perrault's fairy and Vienna splendour:
In all, this film adaptation is quite accurate to Perrault's French tale. Unlike Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, who make a fairy-bird appear at the end of the tale, Perrault uses a Fairy Godmother like Disney. In parallel to the story of the poor pretty girl who becomes Princess, Disney factory suggests another minor plot in which mice fight against Lucifer. These escenes ar not present in the original tale yet they were a success. And it also happens with the necklace and the wonderful sewing scene (Cinderell's dress is made by her friendly animals).
On the other hand, Disney's represnetation of the splendour of the king's Court is not related to Versailles Palace, as Perrault did. Yet it is like the German palaces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that the easthetics of Disney's setting are shot. The Priince Charming (no longer called Azur as in Perrault's tale) is dressed in a white suit, like the king in Schonbrunn Palace. And the building is directly inspired by Neuschwanstein palace, the castle where Louis II of Baviere used to live. And it is this neo-gothic arquitechture that has been reproduced in Walt Disney's amusement parks.
Naturalism and caricature:
Criticism about Disney's productions insist in the success of this film after Bambi (1942). Unpretentiously, the film mixes naturalist drawings with caricatures. Whereas Cinderella, Prince Charming and the Fairy Godmother are realistic drawings, the two ugly step-sisters, the Prince's porter and the Step-mother are very caricature-like, even grotesque.