Cinderella
Disney’s Cinderella is based on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale and continues the trend of the “princess” genre. It saw limited release in 1950 thanks to RKO Pictures and carries some of Disney’s more beloved songs, but the whole film is fairly uneven and ultimately unsatisfying. The movie serves as a reminder both of how strong Disney was in the 1940s and how weak it was about to become in the 1950s.
It was the first return to the “full motion picture” for Walt Disney after the war, coming after 1942’s Bambi in that respect. Disney had been doing a series of package films, somewhat akin to sitcom clip shows, and Cinderella was to be a bold opportunity to spring back out into the world of animated film to prove what the Disney studios were capable of. Unfortunately, the movie fails as a complete picture and, while it isn’t as bland as Sleeping Beauty, it’s not one of Disney’s better pictures.
