In 1946, three classics had been in development for several years: Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella. Walt Disney did not feel comfortable with either Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland, finding the characters too cold. Cinderella, on the other hand, possessed the qualities of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is why he chose to go ahead with this project.
Lucifer, the spoiled housecat, presented a problem to animators. None of the character renderings pleased Walt Disney. Then one day, as he was visiting Kimball's steam train at his San Gabriel home, he saw the Kimball's housecat, a round, furry calico, and he exclaimed "Hey -there's your model for Lucifer!".
Cinderella tries on the glass shoe In Charles Perrault's 300-year-old French fable Cinderella was adapted from, the heroine lost a fur slipper, not a glass one!
This animated feature was shot entirely in live action before the animation began!
Several storyboard sequences did not make the final cut, including "The Music Lesson", the complete "Cinderella Work Song" and "Dancing on a Cloud".
An impressive number of songs were written but not used in the final version of Cinderella, including "Cinderella", "I'm In The middle of a Muddle", "I Lost My Heart at the Ball", "The Mouse Song", "Sing a Little, Dream a Little", "Dancing on a Cloud", "The Dress My Mother Wore", and "The Face That I See In The Night".
Storyman Bill Peet recalled in the late '90s that "another crisis was Cinderella. We were down to the point where we needed another Snow White, another success. Walt loved to tell me this story. Walt and Roy had been arguing for weeks. Roy told him that they couldn't afford to gamble everything they had on one film. If they would sell out now, they could live comfortably for the rest of their lives. Roy wanted to pick up the marbles and go home. Walt insisted they do just one more, and he chose Cinderella. Without that there would have been no Disneyland, no Epcot Center and no Disney Studio today."
WOW! I sure wouldn't mind seeing those storyboard sequences, kinda like they did for Snow White, and Demos of those abandoned songs would be GREAT! I would think they'd atleast show us the lyrics, but what good are they if we don't knoe the tune or anything. They should ask Alan Menken to perform the Demos, as he does such a great job! Well, hopefully this Platinum Edition, whenever it comes out will be fully loaded! This is another one tht has a lot of stuff like Aladdin. I can't wait to have ALL the Platinums !
Yeah this should definitely be a great Platinum release, and it would be nice to get some of that background information in some fom of documentary on the 2nd disc.
As for the live action filming, I know they used to do that on some of the earlier films...but I wasn't aware that they filmed entire movies I was under the impression that it was just a few, select scenes so the animators could get a sense of movements and such.
Last edited by indianajdp on Fri Jul 11, 2003 8:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
indianajdp wrote:As for the live action filming, I know they used to do that on some of teh earlier films...but I wasn't aware that they filmed entire movies I was under the impression that it was just a few, select scenes so the animators could get a sense of movements and such.
The commentary on the Special Edition Peter Pan clearly states that the whole film was filmed in live action before the animation began (Katheryn Beaumont says this... twice I think)
I don't know about any other Disney films. Only some of the live action reference survives for Sleeping Beauty, but from watching the disc I get the impression only selected scenes were filmed in the first place.
Snow White, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Sleeping Beauty are the only films I know of that were shot completely in live action. The Snow White DVD has some clips from the live action version as well as some stills in the photo gallery as do Alice in Wonderland (in its promotional featurette) and Sleeping Beauty. Peter Pan only has stills from its live action version, and of course we don't have Cinderella on DVD, yet, but I don't think any live action footage appeared on the Collector's Laserdisc. I think 101 Dalmatians might've had some live action parts because if you watch the "Disney Yearbook" featurette for either Pollyanna or Swiss Family Robinson, when they get to 101 Dalmatians you see a still of someone (who looks A LOT like Mary Wickes) posing with a cigarette as Cruella against the same stage used for the other films.
If you would like to see what will be most likely included on the Cinderella Platinum Edition DVD go to www.disneyvideo.fr.st and go into the Cinderella section. You can click on the Laserdisc cover and everything that appeared on the collectors laserdisc will most likely be on the DVD.
Supplements:
Documentary "The making of Cinderella"; 1922 Laugh-o-Gram version of Cinderella (complete motion footage); 1933 Silly Symphony version (unrealized) artwork; 1940 Story Concepts; Sequence Breakdown and Storyboards for Introduction scene; Abandoned storyboard sequence for "The Music Lesson"; Abandoned storyboard sequence for "Cinderella Work Song";
Abandoned storyboard sequence for "Dancing on a Cloud"; Character designs for Cinderella, Stepmother, Stepsisters, Fairy Godmother, Prince, King, Duke, Lucifer, Mice, Bruno, Major, and Miscellaneous animals; Character design for Music Teacher (deleted character);
Preliminary Design Concepts; Layouts and Backgrounds; Live-Action Test Footage (actually, *stills only* from the live action sessions. The motion footage is missing.); Clip from "The Mickey Mouse Club" with Helene Stanley (model for Cinderella, full motion
clip from the show); Production Photo Gallery; Trailers; Publicity materials: Posters, Lobby Cards, and 1950 pressbook; Merchandising; 1950 Sunday Color Comic Strip. Audio Supplements: "Cinderella"
(demo), "I'm In The middle of a Muddle" (demo), "I Lost My Heart at the Ball" (demo for unused song), "The Mouse Song" (demo for unused song), "Sing a Little, Dream a Little" (demo for unused song), "Dancing on a Cloud" (demo for unused song), "The Dress My Mother Wore" (demo for unused song),
"The Face That I See In The Night" (demo for unused song), "Village Store" (excerpt of radio broadcast announcing Ilene Woods' casting as the voice of Cinderella. She sings "When You Wish Upon A Star"), "Gulf Oil Presents" (excerpt of radio broadcast in which Ilene Woods is interviewed. She sings "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes", "Scouting the Stars" (radio interview), 1950 Radio Commercials (5 50-second spots), 1950 Radio Commercials (5 11-second spots), 1957 Radio Commercials (2 15-second spots), 1957 Radio Commercials (3 55-second spots). Physical Supplements: A multi-image lithograph showing 4 stages in the character development process for Cinderella; a cute storybook telling the story of Cinderella in pictures and words,with a second section telling the story of the film's production.
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I was under the impression that it was just a few, select scenes so the animators could get a sense of movements and such.
