Cinderella




Poor Cinderelly.

Interestingly enough, this movie's large budget could have killed off Disney if it had done poorly. But it went on to be a major hit, further fueling the establishment's success in the later half of the twentieth century.

Set in your typical fantasy kingdom, things are going great for Cinderella (Ilene Woods) until she gets stuck with her cruel in-laws. They force her to do all the work around the house and routinely humiliate her. She never gives up hope, however. Soon, with the help of her animal friends and a little bit of magic, she has the chance to go to the royal ball. I hope you know the rest.

Being Disney's return to cartoons, more or less, you have to cut Cinderella some slack. Disney's golden age of cartoons was over by this time. He returns with the interesting choice of doing Cinderella's tale. The pristine world is brought to life with appealing colors, but it isn't over done or too bright. In this genre memorable songs are a must, and Cinderella gladly obliges. Though they may not have the longest screen time, who can't recall the mice's working song or Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo?

The biggest draw back are the simple characters that are employed. They're your typical fantasy cut outs, and even Cinderella is one note. But even despite having uninteresting characters, it follows the memorable fable to a tee. There's little doubt that even those who haven't seen it know what happens.

Ilene Woods has a pretty singing voice, but she is given little else. It's the two mice, Jaq and Gus (James MacDonald) that steal the show. They're more than just sidekicks because they provide all the comic relief as they thwart the evil cat Lucifer. Voiced like chipmunks, they have much more personality than their human costars.

This is a fairy tale played out by the numbers. Though it has a classic storyline, it suffers from characters drawn out like stiff caricatures. But younger audiences won't notice this anyway, so it is remains a decent Disney flick.



-The Gnome