Cinderella (1950)

As I was watching Cinderella (1950) for the first time in at least a decade, it occurred to me that Cinderella has to be the most mild-mannered heroine imaginable, a fact that bugged me throughout the movie. Without a rebellious bone in her body, her only "strength" seems to be her incredible patience. Those who mock Disney movies for singing animals and superficial role models must be thinking mainly of this film, but I suppose my main beef is with the fairy tale source which teaches that external beauty wins handsome princes.

Another thing that bugged me considerably was the devolution of the artwork. All of the animals up to this point have been pretty realistic, but in Cinderella we get the evil Lucifer who is shaped more like a pig than a cat and Bruno the dog and Major the horse who are misshapen, old bags of bones. The mice are cute, but why are they wearing clothes? Oh, that's right, because our heroine is so bored (and boring) that she spends her spare time sewing tiny outfits for mice and birds, her only friends.  As if that's not bad enough, for the first time we have animals who can speak to humans, and vice-versa. Are they really speaking, or is Cinderella just cray-cray? It almost drove me insane trying to understand their speech, but I suppose the only words you really need to hear are "Cinderelly," "Gus-Gus," and "Lucify." Which makes me think, if the mice can talk, why not Lucifer or Bruno? The only explanation is that the girl is loony. What about the talking crows in Dumbo (1941) or Jiminy Cricket and Honest John, the talking fox, in Pinocchio (1940), you ask? While the crows do wear clothing, so do the rest of the circus animals, so that seems to fit. Besides, there is still no communication between animal and human. The same goes for the Pinocchio group, who only ever talk to the wooden boy and the Blue Fairy (already fantasy elements), whereas I get the feeling that the only magic in the Cinderella world occurs at the hands of the Fairy Godmother.

Another thing that bugs me is that we get misshapen human characters in Cinderella: the king, the step-sisters, the grand duke, the little town crier dude... they're much more cartoon-y than the humans in the previous works. Just to be inconsistent, though, Prince Charming, Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother, and the Lady Tremaine look perfectly real.

Basically, I feel that while it is regarded as one of the most iconic Disney films, Cinderella is far from my favorite in terms of story and character design. Cinderella is completely reliant on mice and her fairy godmother, who help her because she cries. Not the most inspirational tale, and she's not even witty. Ok, I'm done with my Cinderella bashing.