Cinderella

Keep your VHS tapes, folks!
I looked forward to this DVD release for months and snagged a copy the first day it was available. My excitement turned to dismay, however, as I began to watch it. From the moment the birds open the curtains to reveal Cinderella in her bed, it became painfully obvious that Disney truly had "enhanced" the picture to within an inch of its life. Instead of restoring this beloved classic film, the images have been changed; this is NOT Cinderella as she was first seen in 1950. Just to make sure I wasn't mistaken, I did a comparison between my parents VHS tape (the original video release) and the DVD. True, the picture on the DVD was much sharper and the sound was crystal clear, but Cinderella's hair was NEVER that color of yellow, and lines that were part of the original animators drawings, faithfully inked and painted onto the original cells, are no longer visible. For instance, right at the beginning of the film, when Cinderella turns over in her bed to shut out the sun, there were...

Magical
In an effort to revive his sagging animation department, Walt Disney turned once again to a fairy tale. This time around, he chose one of the best known and oldest of them all, Cinderella.

The tale is familiar. A beautiful girl is abused by her stepmother and stepsisters and forced to work as their slave. When a ball is given for all the eligible maidens in the kingdom, Cinderella dreams of going too, only to have her hopes dashed at the last minute. With a gift of magic, she is able to go, but only until the stroke of midnight.

The story is so well known, if fact, that any story about an underdog coming from behind and winning is called a Cinderella story. Disney's job here was to make the story entertaining for 75 minutes. The solution here was creating the animals. Mice Jaq and Gus and their constant struggle against the evil cat Lucifer is funny and tying this sub-plot to the ultimate outcome is brilliant. The other standout character is the...

Cinderella sparkles like never before
Stunning new 2-disc `Platinum Edition' of Disney's 1950 fairytale confection CINDERELLA. The story is as old as the hills: Cinderella is mistreated horribly by her cruel Stepmother and stepsisters Anastasia and Drisella. Her only friends are some pet mice, the birds and her faithful dog and horse. When the Prince invites all the eligible maidens in the land to his grand ball, Cinderella is heartbroken when her Stepmother forbids her to go. Enter the magical Fairy Godmother, who, with a little "Bibiddi Bobiddi Boo" magic, enables Cinderella to live out her happily-ever-after dream.

From a historical perspective, the Disney studio was pinning it's future on the success of CINDERELLA. World War II had virtually wiped out the studio's international market and films like PINOCCHIO, BAMBI and FANTASIA had lost a lot of money on their initial releases.

Disney has performed a complete restoration on the film, including an extensive frame-by-frame cleanup of the...

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