Cinderella: Platinum Edition
DVD Reviews | Oct 2nd, 2005
Starring Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Rhoda Williams, James MacDonald, Luis Van Rooten, Betty Lou Gerson
Written By: Ken Anderson , Homer Brightman
Directed By: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson
Studio: Disney/ Buena Vista
Buy on Amazon.com link
One of Disney’s greatest masterpieces is now available in an excellent Platinum Edition DVD for hardcore fans to enjoy. It’s been a long, long time since I saw Cinderella so I was curious to see how the movie held up as me being a so-called adult. I like the movie, but I think I like the other Disney classics more.
Cinderella is based off of one of the most famous fairy tale stories about a poor girl being adopted by some old upper-class lady, who has two evil witches for daughters. Well not literally witches, but they certainly act like it, and the step-mother isn’t the most caring either. In fact, she’s even more evil than the ugly ass step daughters. Cinderella gets picked on by her family, and usually just sings to herself and talks to a bunch of mice while cleaning the floors. Yeah that girl needs to get out! Cinderella gets an invitation to Prince Charming’s ball but she doesn’t get the chance to go because she’s stuck doing chores for her stupid family. But the fairy Godmother shows up at the right moment to make sure Cinderella meets the Prince and she ends up going, but she only has to midnight to look all rich-like with her pumpkin carriage, and mice turned human entourage. After that, she turns back to her usual poor servant self, but thankfully the Prince wants to kick it to Cinderella anyway, even though she’s not rich like him. They live happily ever after, the end.
So yeah, I watched the movie and remember certain parts of the movie but I haven’t seen Cinderella from start to finish in a long time. I always liked the Fairy Godmother and the little mice the most. For some reason, I liked the cat when I was younger but after watching it now, I wanted the thing dead. It was so mean and glad it fell out of the castle at the end. Stupid mean cat! Plus I wished the ugly stepsisters and the mother got burned at the stake, they were just so freakin’ evil! But Cinderella wins in the end and gets her man, and moves out of that hellhole. Even though I don’t like the singing in most movies, it’s tolerable here. I think I can tolerate the older films that have singing in it but for new films, I can’t stand it. Maybe it’s part of my childhood that I remember some of these songs and like them more. The ones I like are the “Work Song” from the mice, or “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” from the Fairy Godmother. The story is so well known and people still like to watch the movie, even though they know the outcome. I guess people like that idea of a poor person finding the right person in the end and becoming rich. Hey, I wish I can marry a celebrity and not have to work ever again. Just become Mr. Mom and battle vicious vacuum cleaners. But anyway, this animated movie was so well done and now that it’s on DVD, it looks INCREDIBLE! It has been cleaned up tremendously, I couldn’t believe how good it looked on my TV set. Plus the audio sounds real good too. Definitely glad Disney took the time to restore the movie to today’s standards.
Like with other Disney Platinum Edition DVDs, there’s a fair share of extras to watch. I checked out the deleted scenes, which were okay. There’s a good introduction to that, given by the producer of some Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast. The scenes were blended together with rough sketches and paintings, mixed in with rough mixes of the dialogue and songs. The Making of Fun featurette was nice to see as well. There’s lots of sub featurettes to main featurettes, but you can watch them in sections. There’s other featurette sections devoted to the music of the movie, or some games and activities to partake in. I liked watching all the behind the scenes, and retrospective look back at the movie with various Disney people. There’s a lot to watch and I couldn’t get to it all. Which is a good thing because there’s a lot to watch.
Cinderella is a great, classic animated Disney movie, which sadly, Disney doesn’t seem to make films as good as Cinderella anymore. I’m sure there are lots of stories to develop and make, that Disney hasn’t done yet, surely there’s more fairy tale stories to tell. But the animation is outstanding in Cinderella, and looks beautiful on DVD. This is a DVD to own if you love Walt Disney movies.
Features:
All-New Music Videos
Deleted Scenes
House of Royalty
Travel Across the country and learn how to look, live and act like a real-life royal.
The Royal Life DVD-ROM
Design your very own royal outfit, and build a spectacular palace!
Cinderella stories from ESPN Classic
Inspiring true-life “Cinderella” moments in sports history!
The Making of Cinderella
Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Mono CC
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Stereo
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Stereo
Video:
Standard 1.33:1 Color
Subtitles:
Favorite Scenes: The mice making Cinderella’s dress, The transformation of Cinderella
Rating: G
Running Time: 76 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: