Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you
sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.
Beloved reader, we come to the last of the Fairy Tale Fridays.
This series on Cinderella has run since November 2018 and has finally run its
course. I will be withdrawing for a few weeks to do research and will resume in April.
Our last entry is about the one you probably know the
best—the Disney animated film from 1950. It was clearly based on the version by Charles
Perrault as it contains a fairy godmother, a pumpkin into a coach, a
midnight curfew and lost and found glass slipper.
If I am honest, I was never a fan of this even as a
child. Perhaps because I preferred my fairy tales with my blood and guts (no
stepsister tries to slice off her toes or heel to fit into the shoe in this
version), but perhaps because I felt that our protagonist was too passive for
my liking. Those would not have been the words I would have used as a child,
but it how I felt. At home she seemed so resigned to her situation. I was
worried that she had no fight in her. She took abuse and just lived in a
daydream. I wanted to see her say “I’m mad as heck and I’m not taking it
anymore!” I realise now that it was not very easy for a single woman at this
period in history (I mean the olden times when Perrault wrote it, but it could
also apply to the 1950s) to do something without a man to support her. As a
child I just really wanted her to have more spunk. In Variety’s review of the film, they describe Cinderella
as being on the “colorless, doll-faced side.” I would agree with that
description.
I was also really upset by the fact that she was willowy,
graceful and blonde and he fell in love with her at first sight just based on her appearance. He doesn’t even
talk to her (there is no time after the dancing and the chimes of midnight) he
just sees her and wants her. She’s the same. For her it is “Met a hot guy,
danced with him, let’s get married.” I wanted more adventure out of my life. However, I
think what really bothered me the most was the thought that I would never be a tall,
graceful or blonde. I am like an elf crossed with a hobbit and no prince was
going to fall in love in me at first sight without talking to me because my
personality is where I shine.
There are so many things I could say about this film,
but this Honest Trailers says it better than I could so I will let them do
the talking.
And just as a bonus, this clip from Saturday Night
Live. I loved the scenes of the mice sewing her a dress. I really wanted mice
to sew my clothes for me, but this sketch is how it actually would have happened.
That’s all for Cinderella. Thank you for joining me on
this journey. Stay tuned for April when we begin to explore other fairy tales.
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