Disney Princess Review: Cinderella

"A dream is a wish your heart makes"

Cinderella is much more popular overall than Snow White I think and it's understandable. In addition to being better animated, it was also the film that helped save the company at its low point. The music is better, it plays with a similar yet different kind of intensity, and it shows the same kind of strength with Cinderella that Snow White showed in a different way. I think it has a lovely message and furthers the Disney motif of their princesses because you honestly would be hard-pressed to find a stronger person considering her situation. There is a bit of a problem with Cinderella and the film as a whole which will be something we won't see fixed until we reach the Disney Renaissance and it's that unless you focus on her, Cinderella is rather easy to forget. The characters of Jaq and Gus have much more impact on the story than she does but like Snow White, this seems to be a trait of these films, it is the supporting cast that actually makes the film. We could argue that the early Disney Princess films were about other people's experiences with this interesting character.

Compartmentalized Life

"If you tell a wish, it won't come true."

The first scene we get with Cinderella I think shows a lot about how she lives. Her room is vastly different from that of her step-family, it is very dull and small but it is the place where it seems no one can get her. It is her own little part of the world where she truly dreams and smiles and laughs. Her friends are there to greet her in the morning and she tells them about how great her dreams are without telling them. When she leaves that room however she seems very much on autopilot and you kind of get the idea that in that room she is more herself, with just her friends and her dreams and outside she doesn't give anyone any reason to say anything more to her than need be. This is of course not always true and we could say that this act only exists for her stepfamily as with the other animals she is very cheerful and happy. When she talks to Bruno she tells him that even in his dreams it's bad if he finally catches Lucifer, a cat she herself doesn't like and it is because if he did they would kick him out of the house and I think that may also be a fear Cinderella has herself. She keeps her tongue so she can still have a room over her head. I think that's a very real thing for people, we all have things we don't say to our family, our teachers, our employer, and even our friends because of what it may cost us in one form or another and it is in the privacy of our room or in the privacy of our best friends is when we open up the most.

The Low Point and the High Point

"There's nothing left to believe in.... nothing"

"If you'd lost all your faith, I couldn't be here."

The low point is something that Disney Princess films kind of play around with but here we have legitimate one in the destruction of Cinderella's dress and what it means and it sets up the high point. Cinderella wants to go to the ball held for the prince and if she can get her own dress ready and finish her chores she can go. She never gets to finish her dress but luckily her animal friends have made her a dress only for Lady Tremaine to manipulate Drisella and Anastasia to rip the dress off of her. The dress, being a symbol of Cinderella's hopes and dreams, crafted by friendship in the design of her late mother is destroyed by the family who berates her. Now unable to go to the ball and get her moment, she runs off crying.

As she sobs in the courtyard and talks about giving up her dreams, her Fairy Godmother appears and rewards her for her faith. She gives her an amazing dress, carriage, and turns her animal friends into chauffers and Cinderella dances with the prince at the ball until the late hours of the night. At her lowest point, she is rewarded in what is honestly her hour of need. The whole movie lets us know that Cinderella is honestly fine in how she lives her life, while it isn't perfect. What she wanted was that one night for herself and it was denied to her. She felt punished for daring to dream and here she is rewarded as she takes part in one of the greatest moments of animation in Disney.

The Prince and Real Dream

There has always been a bit of a question as to exactly what Cinderella's dream is and how it relates to this films prince, Henry. It's hard to tell if you don't really look and listen to it the question we have to ask ourselves is "what does Cinderella want?" and looking at the film and her life we could say that it wasn't the prince as the two of them not only don't meet until the ball but she never talks about him until the letter comes. She does look out her window towards to the castle and she talks about her dreams in both of those moments and she seems very happy at the idea of marrying the prince. I honestly think that what she wanted was one night where no one knew her and she could just be herself with no one to bother her. When she enters the ball and goes to the prince, neither her stepsisters nor her stepmother recognizes her and she and Henry walk off alone and we don't know what they said or didn't say to each other other than her name. I think what Cinderella wanted in her life was that one moment where she could live her life with no interruptions and she just happened to fall in love with Henry that night so it all works out. 

As a character, Cinderella may be the most real out of the first wave of Disney Princesses. While it doesn't look like it she is very much like a lot of us, people with responsibilities and duties that make us unable to really do what we want to do with our time. At times I think we've all wanted to just go away for a day or two, to just not be needed or have moments where before we tackle the labors of the day we just want to remember the dreams we've had the previous night that guides us. Cinderella is a decent person in a bad situation and like Snow White, the people in her life are so drawn to her that it makes them want to help and root for her.

The Other Dreamer?

"I'll follow my dreams until they come true."

Tanya Mouskewitz is a bit of a reach, even for me but in an American Tail Fievel Goes West we sort of see that Tanya has dreams that she herself kind of wants for herself but doesn't have any real way of achieving them. The movie makes a note early on of how hard the family has to work (Papa Mouskewitz even saying they will have no money for Fievel's birthday). The scene of course where Tanya sings while painting the letters on her father's violin scene is not only reminiscent of Cinderella singing as she herself cleans the floors but it also sets a tone. Tanya only has one moment on stage and she is, of course, nervous until she actually begins to sing and while she is a hit, at the end of the film she removes all the glamour and goes back to just being Tanya. It is that one moment in the sun that I think Tanya wants, to experience her dream even if nothing comes from it. Another alternative would be Brandy's take on Cinderella, particularly the sequence In My Own Little Corner.

Next time we'll be heading to a princess who has next to nothing to do and sums up everything right and yet everything wrong with First Wave Disney Princess.