Friday, January 15, 2016

Dancing on a Cloud (Disney's Cinderella, 1950)

Cinderella is the beloved child of a widowed aristocrat. Anxious for his daughter to have a mother's love, he remarries to a widowed woman named Lady Tremaine, with two daughters: Drizella and Anastasia. After her father dies unexpectedly, Lady Tremaine is revealed to be a cruel and selfish woman, and Cinderella is abused and mistreated by her stepfamily, who take over the estate and ultimately reduce her to being a scullery maid in her own home. Despite this, Cinderella grows into a kind and gentle young woman, befriending the animals in the barn and the mice and birds who live around the chateau.   ~Wikipedia

 Story

Cinderella was the second Disney princess film after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.   Though the films Disney made between that time were very good (such as Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi), none had quite the same appeal as the princess movies.   Cinderella was a very popular story among children.   I grew up with this movie (during the good ol' days of VHS).   The story is a moral tale, but fortunately it is as entertaining as it is educational.

Visuals

The above gif is Walt Disney's very favorite piece of animation.   (You know it's good then because Disney was one hard to please guy.)   The characters are well animated and lifelike (besides some of the animals which are meant to be more like cartoons).   Everything is very detailed, from backgrounds to costumes to hair!   The way things move makes the movie almost lifelike.

Music

The music in this film was (gasp!) much better than Snow White's.   (Oh no, I just insulted my favorite movie!   *pets shelf of Snow White merchandise to make up for it*)   The lyrics and the actual soundtrack dramatically improved.   I think that the music is better than Sleeping Beauty's as well.   (The song "Hail to the Princess Aurora" gets on my nerves so bad.   That's probably why I think that.)

Final Rating

     This movie is a classic, not only to the world of Disney but to the world of film.   It was revolutionary in its time and still exceeds the standards set by most animated films made today.   The classic story was brought to life so perfectly by Disney.   It created a new bar for Disney's films to reach for.

Bonus Gif:

0 comments:

Post a Comment