Special Features
- All-new digital restoration with enhanced picture and sound
- From Rags to Riches: The Making of Cinderella
- The Cinderella That Almost Was: documentary including newly discovered deleted scenes
- 1922 Cinderella Laugh-o-gram
- Reconstructed deleted songs: The Cinderella Work Song, Dancing on a Cloud
- From Walt's Table: A Tribute to Disney's Nine Old Men
- The Art of Mary Blair
- Storyboard to film comparison: The Opening Sequence
- Still frame and slideshow galleries
- Excerpt from The Mickey Mouse Club with Helene Stanley (1/24/56)
- Original release and reissue trailers
- Cinderella and Perry Como
- Cinderella title song (audio only)
- Seven unused songs (audio only)
- Three radio programs
- House of Royalty: Sally learns how to be a princess
- The Royal Life: DVD-ROM design studio
- Princess Pajama Jam
- Sneak peek of the all-new movie Cinderella III
- ESPN Classic's Cinderella Stories
- All-new
music videos: Disney's Circle of Stars "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart
Makes," "Every Girl Can Be a Princess" featuring Disney's animated
princesses
Editorial Reviews
Worry not, Disney fans--this special edition DVD of the beloved Cinderella
won't turn into a pumpkin at the strike of midnight. One of the most
enduring animated films of all time, the Disney-fied adaptation of the
gory Brothers Grimm fairy tale became a classic in its own right, thanks
to some memorable tunes (including "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart
Makes," "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo," and the title song) and some endearingly
cute comic relief. 
The famous slipper |
We all know the story--the wicked stepmother and stepsisters simply
won't have it, this uppity Cinderella thinking she's going to a ball
designed to find the handsome prince an appropriate sweetheart, but
perseverance, animal buddies, and a well-timed entrance by a fairy
godmother make sure things turn out all right. There are a few striking
sequences of pure animation--for example, Cinderella is reflected in
bubbles drifting through the air--and the design is rich and evocative
throughout. It's a simple story padded here agreeably with comic
business, particularly Cinderella's rodent pals (dressed up
conspicuously like the dwarf sidekicks of another famous Disney heroine)
and their misadventures with a wretched cat named Lucifer. There's also
much harrumphing and exposition spouting by the King and the Grand
Duke. It's a much simpler and more graceful work than the more
frenetically paced animated films of today, which makes it
simultaneously quaint and highly gratifying. --David Kronke DVD Features
For another of its classic films, Disney delivers another dazzling DVD
with a gorgeous, razor-sharp picture and 5.1 sound. (Note: the 1949
film is properly presented in full-screen format, 1.33 aspect ratio,
because widescreen films weren't made until the '50s.) The best part of
the supplemental features is the archival material, the absolute
highlight of which is two unused songs, "Cinderella's Work Song" (in
which Cinderella imagines multiplying herself à la the Sorcerer's
Apprentice) and "Dancing on a Cloud." 
Bippity-boppity-boo! |
Because these numbers were never animated, they're accompanied by
stylish illustrations from the Disney artists, and they're simply
marvelous to look at. The artist of much of that material, Mary Blair,
gets her due in a 15-minute featurette, while the better known "Nine Old
Men" are the subject of a round-table discussion among some of today's
top animators. In addition, a 38-minute documentary covers their
contributions to specific characters of Cinderella as well as the film in general and the vocal cast. Also on the historical side is "The Cinderella
That Almost Was," tracking the development of the project through
decades of original Disney concepts, characters, and songs, including
the 1922 silent "Laugh-o-Gram," which is also included in its entirety. 
The pumpkin transformed |
Additional musical material includes three radio programs and a short
promo of the movie by Perry Como, in which he summarizes the plot amid
some songs by the Fontaine Sisters, star Ilene Woods, and the host
himself. Seven other unused songs (17 minutes total) are available in
audio-only. The material for kids is on the sparse side, consisting of
two music videos, Disney Channel personality Sally (from "Mike's Super
Short Show") learning how to become a princess with the help of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
crew and others, a minor dancing-princess feature, and a DVD-ROM design
studio. Oddest extra: ESPN's "top Cinderella stories," including the
1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team and Joe Namath's New York Jets, although
stories on Mia Hamm and tennis's Williams sisters should appeal to the
film's primary target audience of young girls. --David Horiuchi
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