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Cinderella

The CastleFairy Godmother

When "Cinderella" came out in 1950, the studio had been doing little better than treading water. The films of the late 1940s -- including "Melody Time," "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad," and "So Dear to My Heart" -- produced disappointing results. So when Walt poured resources into "Cinderella," it was part of a strategy designed to return to his greatest successes in the past -- feature-length animated films. If "Cinderella" had failed, there was every chance that the studio would go with it. Nothing was left to chance. In fact, according to Christopher Finch, author of "The Art of Walt Disney" and a number of other books, "Disney insisted that all scenes involving human characters should be shot first in live-action to determine that they would work before the expensive business of animation was permitted to start. The animators did not like this way of working, feeling it detracted from their ability to create character." In fact, one of the animators later commented that the human beings in "Cinderella" "seemed to have muddy feet." Still, according to Finch, "they understood the necessity for this approach and in retrospect acknowledged that Disney had handled things with considerable subtlety."

The BallWalt during production

Walt saw in "Cinderella" a story to compare to "Snow White." With a substantial amount of massaging on the original story, he was able to present theater patrons with a sympathetic heroine, memorable animal characters, an altogether unforgettable Fairy Godmother, and a trio of villains who -- despite their human, nonmagical form -- rival the most horrifying in Disney films. As John Grant writes in his "Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters," Cinderella's wicked stepmother "is quite gratuitously malicious . . . a cunning villain, this one, rather than a mere brute, and that makes her all the more frightening." He didn't stint on talent, putting many of his best writers and animators on the job. And he was personally involved in every aspect of the production. He attended every story meeting, commenting on everything from the Fairy Godmother's character ("old enough to have wisdom") to the design of the carriage that metamorphoses from a pumpkin ("The wheels shouldn't be enough to hold the weight. We should feel that it's a fairy carriage."). The effort paid off. "Cinderella" received a couple of Oscar nominations, and during its initial release it was one of the highest grossing films of the year, at over $4 million.

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