Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson & Hamilton
Luske, 1950)
When Cinderella's cruel stepmother prevents her
from attending the Royal Ball, she gets some unexpected help from the lovable
mice Gus and Jaq, and from her Fairy Godmother.
When the Disney Studios re-release one of their
classic movies you must decide if you want it or not because they get them out
of the vault for a limited time only. It might be considered a very greedy approach
but also it brings a sense of urgency to get it before it’s no longer
available. The collectors out there, like the writer of those lines, are
interpellated by this mercantile aspect of DVD/Blu-Ray rarity. Back in 2008, I
went on a vacation to Disney World and I brought as a souvenir and because it’s
my childhood favorite The Jungle Book.
Well, this year the ultimate fairy tale has been released in a slick Blu-Ray. Cinderella
being my wife’s favorite, I surprised her the day it came out I gave her the
film. Personally, I saw the main scenes: the transformation, the dancing and
some other scenes but I never sat through the entire thing because it was a girl
movie when I was young.
However, with time and a fair interest in Disney
Classics, it was about time that this critic discovers Cinderella. Like aforementioned, this is every girl’s fairy tale. A
charming prince is looking to marry the perfect maiden. Cinderella is an
eligible young woman but living with her stepmother has been a real pain in the
back. She is the slave of her stepsisters and stepmother. However, she always
gets up happy, singing with the birds and playing with mice. Some of the greatest
moments of the animated feature are the upgrade of the dress, and the
appearance and performance of the Fairy Godmother. Every element in Cinderella is very charming and the plot
is elevated with the comic relief of the animals that have equalled if not more
important parts in the movie than humans.
This is one of the most beautiful films that Disney
has made and even if some elements and values may be perceived as conventional,
well it was released in 1950 by a very American studio and in Far Away. What do
you expect? It sets the standard with Snow
White as the classic fairy tale. I must conclude with the fact that I think
that the early Disney classics are masterpieces and that their craft are great
works of Art. Even if Walt Disney himself once said that the worst thing that
could happen to him was that his films were only shown in Art Houses I think
that they can be appreciated in any theatre and by a vast public. Labelling Cinderella as Art doesn’t input it to be
reserved to a restricted public neither does it under evaluate it. It’s a
question of giving its nobility to the film. Highly recommended.
