Movie review - "Cinderella" (1950) **1/2

Opinion is split on this cartoon: some see it as part of the classic cannon, and its true that the film came along at a time when Disney badly needed it, helping save the studio (until Disneyland came along, Disney was always on the verge of going under). Others see it as greatly inferior to Disney's earlier work, and overly commercial. Why I do not consider myself part of the Disney-never-made-another-decent-cartoon-after-1942 brigade, I would attach myself to the latter camp. Why the animation isn't as good, it's good enough, that's not what bothers me - it's the calculation of the story. The fairy tale of Cinderella is a terrific one (why it's never gone out of popularity), with a beautiful underdog, expert combination of egalitarianism (Cinderella is a commoner and she earns her happiness) and royalty (the handsome prince), with iconic memorably fairy tale bits: turning into a pumpkin, the glass slipper. But the filmmakers here don't seem to have confidence in that, and seem determined to turn the story into a remake of Snow white with a bunch of mice instead of the seven dwarves: it starts like Snow White with Cinderella singing a song while birds watch, the step mother is a double for the evil queen (though not a deadly rival), and the mice are basically co-protagonists, whether building a dress or finding a key for Cinderella. Indeed, half the film seems to be taken up with the mice and the cat - far too much, especially that sequence at the beginning of the film before Cinderella is established. The handsome prince is even less a character than Prince Charming (at least he sang a song and went out looking for Snow White whereas this guy is forced to have the ball and sends the Duke out to look for who can fit the glass slipped - do it yourself, mate). On the positive side some of the jokes involving the cat pursuing mice are funny, and the romantic stuff works well, especially the long shots at the ball, and Prince and Cinderella dancing. Cinderella takes a shower and shows her bare back - a bit risque!