Wonderlicious wrote:The dwarfs being brought to the forefront of the story is essentially a complete invention of Disney. Indeed, I believe it was the first version of the fairy tale to emphasise the role of the dwarfs in as much as to let them share the title with the heroine.
Yes, but that change was mostly driven by the technical limitations of the time. It was much easier to animate dwarfs instead of human characters. The Prince's screen time was cut to the bare essential and whole sequences and story ideas involving the Prince were scrapped. So, naturally they had to expand the dwarfs' role and involvement.
ProfessorRatigan wrote:I just watched Cinderella, and I noticed something... When Lady Tremaine 'figures out' that Cinderella was the girl at the ball and starts off toward the tower to lock Cinderella inside, Gus and Jaq follow her, taking a short cut through a mouse hole at the bottom of the stairs. They beat Tremaine to the top and try to warn Cinderella to 'look out behind' her when Tremaine locks the door. I bring this up because, well, when Jaq and Gus in the very next scene try to bring the key to Cinderella, they ignore this hole at the bottom of the stairs, and, instead, we get the suspenseful sequence of them trying to get the key ALL the way up the stairs. But why DIDN'T they use the short cut? The key was no wider than Gus, and he could fit through it.
When Jaq and Gus go down a hole to get the sash and beads for Cinderella's dress, we see that the hole is very tight and they wouldn't be able to get a key through it like they are able to carry the key up stairs. Also, the hole may not have been a short cut, but more a way of the mice not getting seen by Lady Tremaine, and of course they beat her because they were scurrying fast while she was slowly stalking Cinderella staying at a distance behind her.
