Cinderella (1950 film) Totally Explained

Everything about Cinderella 1950 Film totally explained

Cinderella is a 1950 animated feature produced by Walt Disney, and released to theaters on February 15, 1950 by RKO Radio Pictures. The twelfth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jackson, based the fairy tale "Cinderella" by Charles Perrault. Songs were written by Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman. Songs in the film include "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes", "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo", "So This Is Love", "Sing Sweet Nightingale", "The Work Song", and "Cinderella."
The film received three Academy Award nominations for Best Sound, Original Music Score and Best Song for "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo".

Plot

Cinderella is the much-loved only child of a widowed aristocrat. After deciding that his beloved daughter needed a mother's care, Cinderella's father remarried. A proud and haughty woman named Lady Tremaine. She too had been married before, and had two daughters by her first marriage, just Cinderella's age. Their names where Anastasia and Drizella. Being both plain and socially awkward, the two stepsisters were bitterly envious of Cinderella, who was both beautiful and charming.
   The family live in happiness for several years, until the untimely death of Cinderella's father. After that, Lady Tremaine's true nature was revealed, and she and her spiteful daughters took over the estate, and began to abuse and maltreat Cinderella, envious of her beauty. She was forced into housekeeping responsibilities and made to wait upon her jealous stepsisters like a maid. As Cinderella blossoms into a beautiful young woman who is kind despite her hardships, she befriends the animals living in the barn, including Bruno the Bloodhound, Major the horse, and many of the mice and birds who live in and around the chateau. Cinderella finds a mouse inside a trap, releases him, and names him Octavius, "Gus" for short. She is also friends with a mouse named Jaq, the leader of a mouse-pack.
   At the royal palace, the King is angry that his son doesn't intend to marry. The King is determined to see grandchildren, so he and the Duke organize a ball for the Prince in an effort to cause his son to fall in love and marry, with every eligible maiden in the kingdom ordered to attend.
   When the invitation to the ball arrives, Cinderella asks her stepmother if she can attend. Her stepmother tells her she may go to the ball, if she finishes her work and can find a suitable gown. To consume her time, her stepmother sets Cinderella with a mountain of chores. Her mouse friends Jaq and Gus use Cinderella's stepsister's discarded sash and beads to fix an old gown that belonged to Cinderella's mother. When Cinderella wears her dress before the ball, Lady Tremaine points out her daughters' beads and sash, and the sisters tear the gown to shreds, leaving Cinderella to run to the back of the garden in tears while her stepfamily attends the royal ball.
   Cinderella's Fairy Godmother appears to her in the garden, and transforms her appearance for the ball. She transforms the mice into horses, Bruno the dog into a footman, Major the horse into a coachman, a pumpkin into the carriage, and transforms her torn dress into a beautiful blue dress with glass slippers. Cinderella departs for the ball after the godmother warns her that the spell will expire at the stroke of midnight.
   At the ball, the Prince rejects every girl, until he sees Cinderella, with whom he's immediately smitten. The two dance throughout the castle grounds until the clock starts to chime midnight. Cinderella flees to her coach and away from the castle, accidentally dropping one of her glass slippers. After the Duke tells the King of the disaster, they plan to find Cinderella with the slipper they found during her escape.
   The next morning, a royal proclamation is issued, stating the Grand Duke will visit every house in the kingdom to find the girl who fits the glass slipper, so that she can be married to the Prince. When this news reaches Cinderella's household, her stepmother and stepsisters begin hurriedly preparing for the Grand Duke's arrival. Cinderella, overhearing, begins dreamily humming the song from the palace ball the previous night. Realizing Cinderella was the girl who danced with the Prince, her stepmother follows Cinderella up to her attic bedroom and locks her inside. When the Grand Duke arrives, the mice steal the key to Cinderella's room from Lady Tremaine's pocket and laboriously drag the key up the stairs to her room, only barely managing to free her after another fight with Lucifer, in which Bruno comes to their rescue and scares the evil cat out of the house. Meanwhile, Anastasia tries on the slipper, but her foot is too big. Drizella tries on the slipper, and finds her foot is also too large. As the Duke prepares to leave, Cinderella appears at the top of the stairs, asking to try on the slipper. Knowing that the slipper will fit and that Cinderella will marry the Prince, her stepmother insists she's just a servant girl. The Grand Duke sharply reminds her that every maid is to try on the slipper. As the footman bring the slipper to Cinderella, her stepmother trips him, causing the slipper to drop and shatter on the floor. Cinderella then reveals she's the other glass slipper. Delighted at this indisputable proof of the maiden's identity, the Duke slides the slipper onto her foot, which fits perfectly.
   At the wedding, Cinderella and the Prince descend the church's staircase, surrounded by confetti tossed by the King and the Grand Duke. Cinderella loses a slipper and retrieves it with the aid of the King. As the film ends on a scene of the two newly-weds kissing, the narrator concludes "...and they lived happily ever after".

History

Production

Made on the cusp between the classic "golden age" Disney animations of the 1930s and 1940s and the less critically acclaimed productions of the 1950s, Cinderella is representative of both eras. Cinderella was the first full-bodied feature produced by the studio since Bambi in 1942; World War II and low box office returns had forced Walt Disney to produce a series of inexpensive package films such as Make Mine Music and Fun and Fancy Free for the 1940s. Rotoscoping was used extensively to keep animation costs down. According to Laryn Dowel, one of the directing animators of the film, roughly 90% of the movie was done in live action model before animation, using basic sets as references for actors and animators alike. Both Helene Stanley (Cinderella's live action model) and Ilene Woods (Selected from 400 other candidates) heavily influenced Cinderellas' styling and mannerisms. Mike Douglas was the Prince's singing voice while William Phipps acted the part. Actress Helene Stanley was the live-action model for the title role and would be so again for Sleeping Beauty and Anita Radcliff in One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
   For the first time, Walt turned to Tin Pan Alley song writers to write the songs. The music of Tin Pan Alley would later become a recurring theme in Disney animation. Cinderella was the first Disney film to have its songs published and copyrighted by the newly created Walt Disney Music Company. Before movie soundtracks became marketable, movie songs had little residual value to the film studio that owned them and were often sold off to established music companies for sheet music publication.
   "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" became a hit single four times, with notable versions by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters. Ilene Woods beat exactly 309 girls for the part of Cinderella, after some demo recordings of her singing a few of the film's songs were presented to Walt Disney. However, she'd no idea she was auditioning for the part until Disney contacted her; she initially made the recordings for a few friends who sent them to Disney without her knowledge.
   Interestingly, almost 30 years before "Cinderella" was made into a feature-length animated film, Walt Disney already made a short film of it as the last of the Laugh-O-Gram series, as a Roaring 20's version. This short is included as an extra on the "Cinderella" Platinum Edition DVD.

Release

The profits from the film's release, with the additional profits from record sales, music publishing, publications and other merchandise gave Disney the cash flow to finance a slate of productions (animated and live action), establish his own distribution company, enter television production and begin building Disneyland during the decade.
Walt Disney hadn't had a huge hit since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The production of this film was regarded as a major gamble on his part. At a cost of nearly $3,000,000, Disney insiders claimed that if this movie had failed at the box office, then Disney studio would have closed (given that the studio was already heavily in debt)(External Link

). The film was successful and allowed Disney to carry on producing films throughout the 1950s.

Re-release schedule and home video

Cinderella has been re-released theatrically in 1957, 1965, 1973, 1981, and 1987. It was released on VHS video and laserdisc in 1988 ("The Classics" video issue, becoming the first video to feature the "Sorcerer Mickey" Classics logo before the film) and 1995 (Masterpiece Collection video issue) with a 1950s Buena Vista logo added. The original 1988 Classics release also had a promotion with a free lithograph reproduction for those who pre-ordered the video before its release date. Disney then restored and remastered the movie for its October 4, 2005 release as the sixth installment of Disney's Platinum Edition series. According to the Studio Briefing, Disney sold 3.2 million copies in its first week and earned over $64 million in sales.(External Link

) The Platinum Edition DVD went on moratorium on January 31, 2008.

Cinderella theatrical release history

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Worldwide release dates

Brazil: May 26, 1950

Argentina: July 5, 1950

U.K.: July 26, 1950

Australia: October 13, 1950

Denmark: November 18, 1950

France: December 1, 1950

Netherlands: December 7, 1950

Belgium: December 7, 1950

Italy: December 8, 1950

Egypt: December 10, 1950

Finland: December 15, 1950

Sweden: December 18, 1950

Norway: December 26, 1950

Mexico: January 17, 1951

Philippines: June 21, 1951

Hong Kong: October 4, 1951

West Germany: December 21, 1951

Japan: March 7, 1952

Austria: December 5, 1952

Spain: December 19, 1952

South Korea: July 26, 1962

Kuwait: December 24, 1990 |}

Directing animators

Eric Larson (Cinderella)

Milt Kahl (Fairy Godmother, The King, The Grand Duke, The Prince)

Frank Thomas (Lady Tremaine)

John Lounsbery

Wolfgang Reitherman (The Mice getting the key sequence)

Ward Kimball (Lucifer, Bruno, Jaq, Gus)

Ollie Johnston (Drizella and Anastasia)

Marc Davis (Cinderella)

Les Clark

Norm Ferguson

Voice cast

Ilene Woods - Cinderella

Eleanor Audley - Lady Tremaine

Luis Van Rooten - Grand Duke/King

Jimmy MacDonald - Jaq/Gus

Marion Darlington - Bird whistles

Betty Lou Gerson - Narrator

William Phipps - Prince Charming

Rhoda Williams - Drizella

Verna Felton - Fairy Godmother

Larry Grey - Footman

Earl Keen - Bruno

June Foray - Lucifer

Thurl Ravenscroft - Mouse

Mike Douglas - Prince Charming (singing)

Songs

Songs in Film

"Cinderella" - The Jud Conlon Chorus

"A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" - Cinderella

"Oh, Sing Sweet Nightingale" - Drizella, Cinderella

"The Work Song" - The Mice

"Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" - The Fairy Godmother

"So This Is Love" - Cinderella and Prince Charming

"A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes (reprise)" - The Jud Conlon Chorus On, this includes The Work Song and A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes on the, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo and So This Is Love on the, and Oh, Sing Sweet Nightingale on the . And on Disney's Greatest Hits, this also includes Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo on another blue disc and A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes on the green disc. Song Written for Film but Not Used

"Sing A Little, Dream A Little" - Cinderella (Replaced by "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes")

"The Dress My Mother Wore" - Cinderella

"I'm in the Middle of a Muddle" - Cinderella

"The Work Song" - Cinderella (Replaced by the mouse version)

"Dancing on A Cloud" - Cinderella and Prince Charming (Replaced by "So This Is Love")

"I Lost My Heart at the Ball" - Cinderella

"The Face That I See in the Night" - Prince Charming

Sequels

A direct-to-video sequel was released on February 26, 2002.

A second direct-to-video sequel was released on February 6, 2007.

Cinderella will be featured in an upcoming installment of the "Disney Princess Enchanted Tales" DVD series, with a brand-new story and animation. Not much is known about this release, but it's said to be set for an early 2008 release.Further Information

Get more info on 'Cinderella 1950 Film'.

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