Cinderella was a real “Cinderella story” for Walt Disney and his Studio. The 1940s was a turbulent decade that brought an animators strike and World War II. Walt and his artists produced “package films,” like Fun and Fancy-Free (1947) and Melody Time (1948), which were short subjects strung together by a common theme for a feature-length. However, these weren’t traditional full-length feature films with one consistent story, characters, and songs.
Cinderella would be the return to that form—the first of this kind of animated feature since Bambi in 1942. The film was also a return to fairy tales and would prove to be Disney’s biggest success at the box office since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of Cinderella, which has rightly earned its place as one of the Disney Studio’s cherished animated classics.
Perhaps one of the most famous fairy tales of all time, Walt first adapted the story of Cinderella as a silent cartoon short for his Laugh-O-Gram Studio in 1922. It surfaced as a project again as a possible Silly Symphony in the early 1930’s, which didn’t pan out.
It’s first potential as a feature at Disney was in the late 30s, when story artists Bianca Majolie and Dana Cofy worked on adapting Cinderella, and then again, early in the 1940s, when Dick Huemer and Joe Grant began work on the film as story supervisors.
As the 1940s closed out, there would be a turning point at the Disney Studio. As noted by Walt’s brother in author Bob Thomas’ biography, Walt Disney: An American Original: “’ After the war was over, we were like a bear coming out of hibernation,’ Roy Disney once remarked, ‘We were skinny and gaunt and had no fat on our bones. Those were lost years for us.’”
As part of the “wake-up call” to this “hibernation” was a return to the Studio’s traditional animated features, with Cinderella the first out of the gate.
Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske, Disney’s Cinderella wisely takes the straightforward tale and expands it brilliantly for the big screen. The familiar elements are all there – the title character, whose Wicked Stepmother stops her from attending the Prince’s Ball, until a Fairy Godmother, a pumpkin, glass slippers, and a whole lot of magic make for a happy ending. However, in Disney’s version, there’s a cast of supporting characters, such as mice Jaq and Gus and the villainous sidekick cat Lucifer, that allows the story to be rounded out in an extremely entertaining way.
Cinderella was also a tour-de-force for Disney’s star animators, The Nine Old Men. Among them was Marc Davis, who crafted such a genuine performance with Cinderella herself that it was easy for audiences to connect with the main character. Davis is also responsible for what Walt deemed his favorite piece of animation: when the Fairy Godmother transforms Cinderella’s raggedy clothes into a beautiful ball gown.
Ward Kimball based Lucifer on his own cat and brought an element of feline realism, blended with a comedically calculating film villain, determined to get his paws on the mice.
And when it comes to villains, Frank Thomas’ work on Lady Tremaine, the Wicked Stepmother, is a Master Class in how minimal animation – the tilt of a head, the squint of an eye – can be even more chilling.
Adding to this performance is the voice of actress Eleanor Audley, who would continue to create iconic villains for Disney, later voicing Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Madame Leota in The Haunted Mansion theme park attractions.
She is one of a number of Disney vocal stalwarts in the cast, along with Verna Felton as the Fairy Godmother. She was also the voice of The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Aunt Sarah in Lady and the Tramp (1955), Flora in Sleeping Beauty (1959), and elephants in both Dumbo (1941) and The Jungle Book (1967).
Brilliant sound-effects wizard Jimmy McDonald provided the “sped up” voices of Jaq and Gus.
There were also a number of voice acting legends in the cast, including Rhoda Williams and Lucille Bliss as stepsisters Drizella and Anastasia, respectively, as well as many who were uncredited, such as June Foray as Lucifer, Mike Douglas (later the host of a popular weekday talk show) as the singing voice of the Prince and Betty Lou Gerson (who would go on to voice Cruella de Vil in 1961’s 101 Dalmatians) as the opening narrator.
Headlining the cast as the lovely voice of Cinderella was Ilene Woods, who would perfectly perform most of the film’s now legendary songs by Oliver Wallace and Paul Smith, including “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo,” “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” and “So This is Love.” Like the songs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940), many of the songs in the film have become anthems for Disney.
Opening on February 15, 1950, in Boston, Massachusetts, and then on March 4, 1950, throughout the United States, Cinderella was a hit with critics and audiences, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 1950. It also ushered in a new era of Disney animated features that would include Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953).
In the seventy-five years since its release, the film has also become a part of pop culture, film history, and “Disney DNA,” with Cinderella Castle an icon at Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland and in the opening logo for the Studio’s films.
And like so many great films, Cinderella has also been passed down from generation to generation.
It’s a happy ending to a real Cinderella story.
