Cinderella

Walking into Disneyworld’s Magic Kingdom you see a huge castle at the end of Main Street. This is Cinderella’s castle. The grey and blue adorned structure is iconic to Disney. It is the main focus of the Magic Kingdom and it is in the Disney logo. It is hard to see it without humming the tune to When You Wish Upon a Star.

Released on February 15, 1950 Cinderella marked the Disney Animated Studio’s return to full length feature film fairy tales. And this one is chalked full of Disney magic. If Snow White led the way for animated films, Cinderella paved the way for Disney Magic. It also was Disney’s return to Academy award nominations, something that would come about a bit more often from here on out.

When it comes to animation, music, and story, this movie is pure Disney magic. The animation and characters have a great feel to them. Each one feels different than the next. The mother, sisters, and cat are all despicable while Cinderella, the mice, and the fairy godmother are all endearing.

There is not a ton of story in Cinderella and Disney did a good job of creating interesting actions in the daily life of the protagonist to shave off some time before the short story is presented. The movie does a good job of having highs and lows, and making you feel for Cinderella.

This is a good movie for the most part. A couple of gripes though. The end feels rushed, there is no epilogue, the rising action hits climax and bam movie over. I also had issue with the evil stepmother. She is the first Disney villain that did not feel like she had realistic motive. In Snow White it was all jealousy, in Pinocchio it was about making money, in Dumbo it was peer pressure and group think… This film feels much less believable and just evil for the sake of evil.

It is close, but I feel Dumbo is slightly better mostly for the idea that the villain feels fake.

Run Time – 74 Minutes

23rd Academy Awards – 3 Nominations – 0 Wins

Best Scoring of a Musical Picture – Nominated

Best Original Song – “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” – Nominated

Best Sound Recording - Nominated

Disney Animated Canon so far in order of Quality

1. Dumbo 10-23-1941

2. Cinderella 2-15-1950

3. Pinocchio 2-7-1940

4. The Adventure of Ichabod and Mr. Toad 10-5-1949

5. Make Mine Music 4-20-1946

6. Fun and Fancy Free 9-27-1947

7. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 12-21-1937

8. Saludos Amigos 8-24-1942

9. Melody Time 5-27-1948

10. Bambi 8-13-1942

11. Fantasia 11-13-1940

12. The Three Caballeros 12-21-1944