To Own on DVD: Disney's Cinderella

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Movie Selection: Cinderella (1950)

In Disney's overarching history, Cinderella helped the Walt Disney Company get out of a touchy financial situation following a string of failed animated films.

Now a cornerstone of the Disney brand, Cinderella inspired the lineage of Disney princesses as they all replicate her tropes of talking animal friends and magical companions while singing and dancing gracefully.

Currently, critics discuss Cinderella's ideas of gender through the lens of feminism as they critique her adherence to heteronormativity and gender roles.

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The movie exposits Cinderella's backstory of her mother dying, her father remarrying, then her father dying, which leaves her in the care of the villain Lady Tremaine and her daughters Drizella and Anastasia.

In the aftermath, Lady Tremaine forces Cinderella to live in the isolated tower of the manor and do all the chores around the grounds. Throughout the first half of the movie, Cinderella gets breakfast ready, feeds the chickens and horses, does the laundry, cleans the floors, among other chores.

Despite her situation, Cinderella stays kind to the mice and birds of her manor by clothing them and keeping them safe from the cat Lucifer and the step-sisters. On occasion, Cinderella even diplomatizes with her step-family by rationalizing with them.

In the castle, the Kind and Archduke of the kingdom both plan a ball for the Prince to find a wife. All unmarried women of the kingdom are invited, which leads to Lady Tremaine planning for her two daughters to attend.

Cinderella shares her wish attend the ball, which Lady Tremaine stipulates that she will allow it under the condition she can find something to wear and complete her chores. To prevent her from attending, Cinderella's step-family command her to do a never-ending list of chores.

Luckily, the mice and birds repay Cinderella's kindness by sewing a ball-ready dress for Cinderella to wear, which is recycled from the step-sister's discarded accessories.

Lady Tremaine notices the reused accessories and bait Drizella and Anastasia into ripping Cinderella's dress into shreds right as they leave for the ball.

Feeling humiliated and disappointed, Cinderella runs to the garden to cry under a willow tree. Suddenly, Cinderella's tears manifest the Fairy Godmother.

The Fairy Godmother then transforms ordinary objects into the carriage and horses that Cinderella needs to attend the ball, including her iconic glass slippers. Before disappearing into magic dust, the Fairy Godmother tells Cinderella to have fun and to return home before the magic runs out at midnight

Having arrived at the ball, Cinderella catches the eye of the Prince as they dance the night away. Eventually, midnight approaches, and Cinderella runs from the Prince who only knows her by their dance and her glass slipper left behind on the castle's stairs.

Determined to find her mystery girl, the Prince sends the Archduke to test the glass slipper with every woman in the kingdom.

Realizing Cinderella is the mystery girl, Lady Tremaine locks Cinderella her bedroom so the step-sisters to swindle the Archduke into thinking either of them can be the mystery girl.

Repaying her kindness again, the mice, birds, and dog Bruno all work together to thwart Lady Tremaine's plan by freeing Cinderella.

Her last act to stop Cinderella, Lady Tremaine makes the glass slipper shatter. Luckily, Cinderella cements her identity as the mystery girl by revealing she has the other glass slipper.

Reunited, Cinderella and the Prince get married as they live happily ever after.

Special Features

The strongest part of the movie is the vindictive and self-serving Lady Tremaine. Lady Tremaine's irrationality reflects real life abusive parents whose hate for their child derives from devaluing a child's humanity and own experiences.

When making a list of chores for Cinderella, she does not care how irrational it is to expect one young woman to complete them all by herself: she only likes the control she feels and the time she gains back for her biological daughters.

For the target audience of children, this is important representation to comprehend from an early age to identify their own abuse, however, this is only represented through Cinderella's mixed family. Consequently, a child watching Cinderella might be more anxious of labelling non-biologically related family as family members.

Between the dramatic scenes of Cinderella and Lady Tremaine, slapstick antics occur between Cinderella's mice and Lady Tremaine's cat Lucifer. Their animal companions both represent their cat-and-mouse abusive relationship as the mice sneak around Lucifer to meet Cinderella's wants.

While important to cushion the more harsh scenes, the slapstick is a relic of their time. The comedy has been worn down by Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry in more creative ways. So, the mice slapstick ends up interrupting the movie three times to a modern audience's chagrin.

Any American audience can easily appreciate Cinderella's appreciation for the American Dream. Cinderella herself is a hardworking and kind woman under the care of aristocratic and vain company, but through perseverance, she can achieve her fairy tale dreams.

However, the movie doesn't explain how Cinderella's reward derives from her diligence: marrying the Prince has nothing to do with Cinderella's own good traits but instead her dancing and beauty, which dulls the story's theme of perseverance.

The greatest criticism of Cinderella is its attention to Lady Tremaine and the mice rather than Cinderella and her relationship to the Prince and the Fairy Godmother. Both these relationships are catalysts for Cinderella's happily ever after but do not explore the theme of perseverance.

Ending Credits

Cinderella is a beautifully animated movie that is visually striking. Cinderella can easily have been another blonde woman in a dress, but Disney animators knew how to design and animate characters in a way that has impacted culture to this day.

The major complaint is the story's unexplored themes, which is luckily inspiring more and more interpretations of Cinderella across time. Brandy's Cinderella is a campy musical, A Cinderella Story is a teen drama-comedy, and Ella Enchanted is a fantasy-comedy. All of which add and elaborate more on the story elements of the original story.

Imagining a world without Disney's Cinderella is near to impossible. The movie cements itself as a classic as audiences celebrate Cinderella as she's rewarded for her daily efforts cements: a dream that any audience can have faith in.

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