CINDERELLA [1950] review

I didn’t watch CINDERELLA like a usual movie. It was for a job checking the subtitles for accuracy. At first I jumped around checking the parts of the subtitles that I was told were most troublesome. I immediately found the voices of the mice very annoying, perhaps because it was so hard to understand them, and it was my job to accurately write down what they were saying.

…However, when I began checking the subtitles from the beginning of the movie this afternoon, I quickly fell for Cinderella, basically from the first second she appeared on screen. I was impressed by how she treated animals and how they all loved her. I also liked how she was still able to sing and dream while enduring such harsh treatment by her stepmother and stepsisters. I don’t really understand why she did all that work, why not just refuse?

…The actress who was Cinderella’s singing voice, Helene Stanley, enchanted me with her soothing way of singing. It made me feel at ease.

…The animation looks much better than any CG animation done today (or ever). There is a warmth and a glow to all that surrounds Cinderella. I wish people would realize that just because there is a new technology available, doesn’t meant it should replace what was used previously. There was life in Cinderella’s hand drawn eyes, and malice in the eyes of her stepmother. The use of shadow and light (always something I look for in a movie) was very effective. It seems the stepmother always was cut away from as her face withdrew into shadow, or a shadow fell across it.

…The pure fantasy of the magical pumpkin carriage careening through the town on its approach to the castle piqued my sense of wonder and shows me what I want movies to show me, something I can’t see in real life.

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