Cinderella (1950) review

Since Kenneth Branagh’s live-action Cinderella is out and pays homage to the classic cartoon of the same name, it is a great opportunity to remind ourselves of the beautiful Disney film we all grew up with. Disney studios decided to adapt the classic fairy-tale of Cinderella for the screen after the financially unfortunate decade of 1940, which had left the company indebted and nearly bankrupt. Luckily, the 1950 animated film Cinderella turned out to be the studios’ greatest commercial success since pioneering Snow White (1937) and Walt Disney’s company managed to recover decidedly.

It’s not hard to realise that, in a sense, Cinderella tries to imitate Snow White in terms of both characters and structure. Almost every character of the former has his or her match in the latter, from the “fallen princess” to the evil stepmother and from the handsome prince to the amusing friends of the heroine (mice in Cinderella, dwarves in Snow White). However, thirteen years have passed and more than ten films have intervened between Snow White and Cinderella and the improvement in both animation and narrative is more apparent than ever before. And the fact that Cinderella brings in mind Walt Disney’s cinematic debut cannot but emphasize this development. Some strong signs of improvement are the way the characters move, which feels more natural than before, and the characters’ faces, which look more carefully designed, especially the stepmother's. That way, their amusing expressions can make the characters interesting even if they lack any actual depth. It therefore feels like Walt Disney studios, after years of experience and quite a few commercial disappointments, return nostalgically to their first steps, while at the same time making one more forward. Cinderella seems more self-assured than its predecessors and bridges the small gap between the pure innocence of the studios’ “Golden Age” (30s - 40s) with the more commercially oriented, as well as mature “Silver” one (50s), while shaping the style of the studios’ upcoming triumphs.

In a way, the plot might seem simply like the realisation of a girl’s wet dream (the handsome prince falls madly in love with the humble heroine, asks her to marry him and takes her away in his princely carriage), yet it feels like this archetypal story is seen here in its purest form. Cinderella might be one of the most girly Disney films, establishing on screen the children’s love for princesses, however it does not exclude the rest of the viewers from its target group -note that there are no longer elements that feel too childish for an adult.

After all, what the Disney studios achieved in Cinderella is to create arguably their most amusing film until then. Also, to make the audience (regardless of age) wish with all their heart for the prince to save Cinderella from her suffering, as well as that a fairy godmother would someday appear in front of them too, singing “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”…

 
(3½ out of 5 spinning tops)