Cinderella in the Movies
The Original Fairy Tale Inspires Modern Stories
Everyone dreams of overcoming adversity and living happily ever after.
The Walt Disney animated feature Cinderella (directed by Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi) dates back to 1950, and the Grimm fairy tale on which it is based goes back much further. But the downtrodden character suffering cruelty at the hands of a wicked stepmother and eventually going from rags to riches is a popular story retold over again in the cinema.
The popular 1998 Drew Barrymore film Ever After: A Cinderella Story provides an enhanced version of the story, including a visit from Leonardo da Vinci and an ending in which the guilty are punished for their crimes. Among other versions, in 2004 Hilary Duff starred in A Cinderella Story and Russell Crowe was a Cinderella Man in 2005. Most recently, Enchanted blends elements from several Walt Disney classic films, including the stereotypical wicked stepmother.
The Wicked Stepmother
In the original animated Cinderella film, jealously motivates the wicked stepmother. She has already lost two husbands and with her evil disposition and gruesome appearance, she is unlikely to find another husband. Similarly, her two ill-mannered and big-footed daughters will have difficulty finding spouses (which is the only real aspiration for women of that time and place). Therefore, the stepmother hides Cinderella’s outer beauty beneath ragged clothing, and tries to destroy her inner beauty through constant belittlement, isolation, injustice, deprivation, and hard labor. The stepmother is directly responsible for Cinderella’s taxing workload, exclusion from the ball, destruction of her gown, and the locked door/broken glass slipper incident.
Cinderella’s situation is certainly dire. She must feed and care for her two unappreciative stepsisters and stepmother, and is denied even basic rights and privileges such as attending a ball for all maidens in the area. Her reaction to this abuse is to give up hope until the fairy godmother intervenes. Through this supernatural aid, Cinderella sneaks out to the ball and later emerges from her locked room in time to try on the slipper and win her rightful place as the Prince’s bride.
Comic Relief
Although Cinderella’s sweet passivity, self-pity, and utter helplessness make her rather uninteresting, she surrounds herself with fun characters. The mice counteract her lack of spunk with their enthusiasm. The personal props of the fairy godmother (magic wand) and the King’s assistant (monocle) add some much-needed comic relief to the somber tale. The fairy godmother seems incompetent because she cannot find her wand. When the wand finally appears, we can breathe a sigh a relief. The King’s assistant playing with his monocle like a yo-yo during the ball also is an effective attempt at levity.
The original Grimm Brothers text offers little in the way of light-hearted humor. Instead, the story places a huge significance on Cinderella’s late mother, i.e., her death, her graveside, and Cinderella’s attentive care for the grave. Because she visits the grave three times a day to weep and pray, she is deemed righteous by the birds that help her. These birds pick the lentils from the fire for her, provide a beautiful dress for the ball, and peck out the eyes of her evil stepsisters. The magic birds, the lentils, and the prayers are absent from the Walt Disney film.
The ending of the 1950 animated film also leaves unanswered questions. What happens to the evil stepmother and her daughters? The recent live-action versions of the classic fairy tale Cinderella provide more satisfying endings for modern audiences with clearly defined punishments and rewards for all involved.
For more information about fairy tales, read The Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, Snow White in the Movies, and Snow White's Evil Queen.
