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Cinderella (1950)
In Disney's superbly-animated, mid-century, musical
fantasy masterpiece (based on the 1697 fairy tale classic by Charles
Perrault) - the first of Disney's feature animations to be turned
into a live-action cinematic effort (in 2015):
- the "Once upon a time, in a far-away land" phrase
in the hard-bound storybook opening was brought to life by the
Narrator (Betty Lou Gerson)
- the kind-hearted, hard-working Cinderella (voice of
Ilene Woods) was introduced with her cruel, widowed stepmother Lady
Tremaine (voice of Eleanor Audley) and two nasty, selfish, vain and
ugly step-sisters, the older Drizella (voice of Rhoda Williams) and
younger Anastasia (voice of Lucille Bliss), who treated her like
a scullery maid and ordered her to do laundry and clean the house;
her only friends were farm animals (benevolent
mice and chirping birds)
- in his castle, the King (voice of Luis Van Rooten),
interested in grandchildren via the marriage of his son The Prince
(voice of William Phipps), ordered the Grand Duke (voice of Luis
Van Rooten) to invite every eligible maiden in the kingdom to a Royal
Ball
- after the Royal Ball was announced, Cinderella - with
the help of her animal friends,
including Jaq and mouse Gus (voice of James MacDonald) (who were
often chased by Lucifer, Lady Tremaine's cat) and
flying bluebirds, created a pink ball gown from scraps of discarded
fabric - but then after it was destroyed by her stepsisters and was
left in tattered rags, the Fairy Godmother (voice of Verna Felton)
appeared and magically transformed the dress into a beautiful, sparkling
white ball gown ("Why, it's like a dream!"), accompanied by two glass slippers; the
Fairy Godmother also cautioned Cinderella to return by midnight before
the spell would end
Fairy Godmother's Transformations: Pink Ball Gown
to White Ball Gown
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Mice: Gus and Jaq
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The Pink Gown
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Cinderella's Transformed White Ball-Gown
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- the magical wand of the
fairy Godmother also performed other transformations: a pumpkin
into a carriage, four mice into horses, the bloodhound dog Bruno
into a footman and old horse Major into a coach-man driver, accompanied
by the the Fairy Godmother's singing of the Oscar-nominated song, "Bibbidy-Bobbidi-Boo"
(aka The Magic Song) with nonsensical lyrics
- during the Royal Ball, Cinderella waltz-danced with
the smitten Prince Charming (singing voice of Mike Douglas) and
they sang: "So This Is Love"; as midnight approached, Cinderella
ran off, leaving one of her slippers behind on the staircase; she
barely escaped before the coach turned back into a pumpkin
- the Prince was determined
to find the rightful owner of the slipper, and visited each home
to try on the slipper; Cinderella's
chances of trying it on were sabotaged when her stepmother locked
her in the attic of the stone tower
- in
a comical scene when the Grand Duke visited Cinderella's chateau,
the obnoxious step-sisters vainly attempted to squeeze their oversized
feet into the glass slipper; once Cinderella had been freed
by her animal friends who cleverly stole the key
and transported it upstairs to unlock the attic door, Lady Tremaine
tripped the Page to deliberately smash the slipper; however, Cinderella
outwitted them when she produced the second slipper (that she had
worn to the ball) that fit perfectly on her foot
- in the "they lived happily
ever after" ending after wedding the Prince - Cinderella rode off in a gold carriage
with her new husband
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Storybook Opening
Cinderella's Cruel Step-Sisters
"Bibbidy-Bobbidi-Boo"
The Glass Slipper Fits
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