Starring:
Ilene Woods as Cinderella (voice)
Eleanor Audley as Lady Tremaine (voice)
Verna Felton as Fairy Godmother (voice)
Claire Du Brey
Rhoda Williams as Drizella (voice)
James MacDonald as Gus/Jacques/Bruno (voice)
Luis Van Rooten as King/Grand Duke (voice)
Don Barclay as Doorman (voice)
Lucille Bliss as Anastasia (voice)
June Foray as Lucifer (voice)
Betty Lou Gerson as Narrator (voice)
Clint McCauley as Mice (voice)
William Phipps as Prince Charming (voice)
Special Features:
All-New Digital Restoration With Enhanced Picture And Sound
All-New 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix
Restored Original Theatrical Soundtrack
The Cinderella That Almost Was — Newly Discovered Secrets From The Disney Vault Reveal Different Versions Of Walt’s Unforgettable Masterpiece.
Deleted Scenes – The Cinderella Work Song, Dancing on a Cloud
Rags To Riches: The Making Of Cinderella — Cinderella’s Transformation From A Simple Fairy Tale Into A Beloved Animated Classic.
From Walt’s Table: A Tribute To Disney’s Nine Old Men — Join Today’s Top Animators As They Take A Look Back At The Early Days Of Animation.
Cinderella Stories From ESPN Classic — Inspiring, True-Life “Cinderella” Moments In Sports History — From Football To Hockey To Ice Skating.
Sneak Peek At The All-New Movie Cinderella III
All-New Music Videos: “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes,” Performed By Disney Channel Circle Of Stars; The Making Of “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” — Go On The Set And Into The Recording Studio Of This Hip New Music Video; “Every Girl Can Be A Princess” Featuring All Your Favorite Disney Princess Characters.
House Of Royalty — Travel Around The Country With Celebrity Consultants And Learn How To Look, Live, And Act Like A Real-Life Royal
The Royal Life DVD-ROM Design Studio: Princess Gown Designer — Design Your Very Own Dream Gown, Scan In A Photo Of Yourself And Soon You’ll Be Off To The Ball; Dream Room Designer; Create And Decorate Your Own Princess Bedroom; Palace Designer — Design Your Very Own Palace!
Princess Pajama Jam — Dance With Your Favorite Disney Princess
1922 Cinderella Laugh-o-gram
The Art of Mary Blair
Storyboard to film comparison: The Opening Sequence
Still frame and slideshow galleries
Excerpt from The Mickey Mouse Club with Helene Stanley (1/24/56)
Original release and reissue trailers
Cinderella and Perry Como
Cinderella title song (audio only)
Seven unused songs (audio only)
Three radio programs
Other Info:
Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
French and Spanish Language
Running Time: 76 Minutes
Synopsis:
This film was originally released in 1950. The following is the description from the DVD cover:
“Walt Disney’s Cinderella, based on the world’s greatest fairy tale, has captivated audiences for generations with its spellbinding story, memorable music, spectacular animation, and unforgettable characters. Now, with an all-new digital restoration, Cinderella sparkles like never before. With a wave of her wand and some “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo,” Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother transforms an ordinary pumpkin into a magnificent coach and Cinderella’s rags into a gorgeous gown, then sends her off to the Royal Ball. But Cinderella’s enchanted evening must end when the spell is broken at midnight. It will take the help of her daring animal friends Jaq and Gus and a perfect fit into a glass slipper to create the ultimate fairy tale ending. Experience the magic in this special edition of Cinderella and you, too, will believe that dreams really do come true.”
Cinderella is rated G.
The Movie:
Unless you’ve lived a sad, sheltered, pathetic childhood, you’ve probably seen Cinderella in the 55 years since it was first released. You also probably already know if you want to buy the DVD or not. It’s undeniably a classic. The animation is beautiful, the imagery is memorable, and the songs are fantastic. However, I have to admit that it has never been my favorite Disney animated film. I’ve always found it to be a bit too slow for my tastes. I even found that my kids wandered out of the room repeatedly while it played even though my young daughter is a Disney Princess fanatic. Despite this, it’s a worthy addition to any Disney DVD collection simply for the music and animation. Songs like “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” and “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” are still toe-tappers to this day. The scene where Cinderella is transformed is also a landmark piece of animation from Disney. In short, it’s worth buying if you’re an animation fans and it’s worth showing to your kids if they’ve never seen it before. You wouldn’t want them to have a sad, sheltered, pathetic childhood would you?
The Extras:
Like all the other Platinum Edition DVDs, this one comes with a large number of bonus features. Here are the highlights:
The Cinderella That Almost Was – This feature contains early storyboard art and transcripts from story planning meetings with Walt Disney for Cinderella. Using an actor to recreate Disney’s voice, you learn how they developed her character, envisioned alternate openings featuring more of the Prince, and more. It’s a fantastic look into the creative process.
Deleted Scenes There are two deleted songs included on the DVD. The first is The Cinderella Work Song in which Cinderella wishes that there were more of her to do house chores. As she sings, she multiplies into 9 copies. It’s Attack of the Clones Cinderella style. The other song was for an alternate ending of the movie and it is entitled Dancing on a Cloud. In it, Prince Charming and Cinderella have a full dance routine while you guessed it they dance on clouds.
Rags To Riches: The Making Of Cinderella This is a full “making of” video discussing how the fairy tale was developed over the years, how it was animated, how the songs were written, and how it ultimately saved the Disney Studios. There are interviews with everyone from director Gary Marshall to Disney animators. You also see live action references used to animate the characters. It’s a really interesting look at the making of the movie.
From Walt’s Table: A Tribute To Disney’s Nine Old Men Movie Critic Joel Siegel hosts this conversation between some of Disney’s top current talent as they reminisce about their experiences with Disney’s Nine Old Men. They discuss their trademark animation styles, their personal meetings with them, and more. The discussion group even includes Incredibles director Brad Bird.
Cinderella Stories From ESPN Classic I don’t know whose idea it was to include this video on this DVD, but it was a really stupid idea. I can only imagine it was a weak attempt to lure males into buying Cinderella or some sort of deal between Disney and ESPN. Anyway, this video about sports underdogs like Pele, Lance Armstrong, and Mia Hamm has nothing to do with Cinderella other than the title.
All-New Music Videos A couple of music videos are included on the DVD including a pop version of “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” performed by the Disney Channel’s lineup of young stars. It’s a bad remake and it’s almost unbearable to watch these kids lip sync to the video. To top it off, there’s a making of video included that’s longer than the music video itself. The second video, which will probably entertain little girls more, is “Every Girl Can Be A Princess” featuring Cinderella singing while clips from the Princess films play.
House Of Royalty In this series of features, a young girl travels around and quizzes consultants on how to dress, act, and live like royalty. It’s cute, but it turns a little creepy when the young girl asks a flaming male fashion designer how to dress like a princess.
Princess Pajama Jam This is kind of like a hoe down as a singer tells little girls what dance moves to do while music and Princess cartoons play.
1922 Cinderella Laugh-o-gram This is a vintage, silent film era cartoon telling the story of Cinderella. It’s definitely a different take as we see the Prince killing a dozen bears, Cinderella transformed into a Flapper, and more.
The Art of Mary Blair This is a feature highlighting the art of Mary Blair, one of the unsung heroes of Disney animation. It turns out that a significant portion of the animated Disney films were designed based on her artwork. Her blocky style of painting influenced Alice in Wonderland, the It’s A Small World ride, The Three Caballeros, Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Cinderella. This is a very interesting story and one well worth checking out.
Excerpt from The Mickey Mouse Club with Helene Stanley (1/24/56) This clip from the old Mickey Mouse club features some of the kids and Helene Stanley, the live action reference for Cinderella. In this clip she sings some songs for them while they pretend to be the mice from the film (get it???).
Cinderella and Perry Como – Ilene Woods, the singing voice of Cinderella, makes a guest appearance on the Perry Como Show as she and some other singers debut songs from the upcoming film. Como even joins in and there’s a surprise cameo by Donald Duck.
The Bottom Line:
While it’s a bit slow at times, Cinderella is an animation classic that every kid should see at least once in their lives. The animation is still beautiful and the songs are memorable. The large number of bonus features will also entertain little girls, adult fans, and animation enthusiasts.
