The Animals are the Best and Worst Parts

We’re now really deep into the original era of Disney animation, the films made during the time Walt Disney was still alive and still had creative influence on the company. These films feel different, and not just because animation has moved on in the years since Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Storytelling has moved on as well, for the better, and it leaves these films feeling old and out of step with the current generation of movie goers. Going back and watching Sleeping Beauty, I thought, “it’s weird how this film specifically doesn’t care if its heroine has any agency.” But now, having watched Cinderella as well, I realize that wasn’t a fluke; this is the norm. These early films in the Disney PrincessesReleased in 1937, Disney's Snow White was a gamble for the company: the first fully-animated, feature-length film ever created. It's success lead to the eventual creation of the Disney Princess franchise, which has spawned 13 main-line films and multiple spin-off movies and shows. run (before that was even officially a thing) I think we have to concede: Disney didn’t really care about its princesses in its princess movies.

Case in point: what does Cindy actually do in her movie? I’m sure we’ve all seen this film (especially if you’re of a certain age and this was an easy film for teachers to pop on during an off-day of class) but let’s go over the basics of it. Cindy (Ilene Woods) is the daughter of a baron and when that baron dies, his new wife, Cindy’s evil stepmother, Lady Tremaine (Eleanor Audley), takes over the estate. She puts her own daughters, Drizella (Rhoda Williams) and Anastasia (Lucille Bliss), into the rich bedrooms of the house while demoting Cindy down to little more than a servant. Cindy spends her days cooking, cleaning, and tending to the house with the other women laying about, wasting all of the estate’s money.

But then the King (Luis van Rooten) announces that he will have a ball in celebration of the Prince (voiced by William Edward Phipps, with singing provided by Mike Douglas). All of the eligible women in the kingdom are invited, no matter their rank or wealth. Cindy wants to go, so her stepmother agrees to let her go so long as she can get all her work down (including extra work all three step-family pile on her that day) and can find something to wear. She somehow manages, with the help of her animal friends, and is ready to go, but then the step-monsters destroy her dress and leave her behind. Only thanks to the intervention of her fairy god-mother (Verna Felton) is Cindy able to attend the ball, and then win the heart of the Prince. Happily ever after comes along soon after (despite the machinations of the stepmonsters).

The one thing missing from all of this is Cindy actually doing anything. Make no mistake, Cindy stays busy in this film (far more than Aurora did in her movie), but she really doesn’t have any agency in her life. Everything that happens here happens to her and not because of her. The baron dies and leaves her stepmother in charge, and her stepmother, for seemingly no reason other than because she’s a petty bitch, demotes Cindy and turns her into a servant. Why? Well, that’s never established. A different version of this film would outline why Lady Tremaine hates Cindy so, but because the film doesn’t explore that it robs Cindy of needed development.

When Cindy is working around the house, she just accepts that it’s her role in life. The film moves from the Baron’s death to her being a servant with no middle ground, and that also removed needed development. It also robs Cindy of agency here, as well. Instead of her fighting back, or showing she has backbone, she takes it as fact that she’s a servant and there’s nothing to be done about it. The film doesn’t even establish that she works as a servant to, maybe, try and keep the estate going in some form despite her step-family spending all the money and letting the place rot to ruin. If Cindy were shown to have some control, in her own way, over the estate, that would make her a more active character in her story.

Hell, even when it comes time for the ball, Cindy doesn’t do anything here, either. Her animal friends, all on their own, decide to make her dress and prepare everything for her night out. The stepmonsters then ruin it. A godmother then shows up to fix it. The one character without any active stake in these events is Cindy. She gives up when the chores become too much and she doesn’t have time to prepare. She then gives up again after the stepsisters tear apart her dress. Giving up is her one move, and it’s only by the grace of others that she even goes to the ball.

At the ball, all Cindy has to do is show up and be pretty. She dances with the Prince after he’s already smitten, and then runs off, and that’s it. That’s her active role. I suppose you could say she’s playing hard to get, except she’s just following a rule the fairy godmother set for her (be out of the ball by midnight) so it’s not even Cindy doing something for herself. Again and again the film actively keeps her from having agency over her own life, making her a passive participant in her own movie.

Even at the end, when her stepmother has locked her away in the tower to keep her from the Prince (again, for no reason other than she’s a petty bitch), it’s not Cindy herself that rescues her. Her animal friends come to the rescue and all Cindy has to do is show up. The film actively seems to want to keep Cindy at a reserve, have the events happen to her instead of letting her have any control over her own life. It’s as if the creators feel like she needs to be a passive object for the story to move around, that no one wants her to be an active agent in her own story.

Which is weird because so many versions of this story exist, across multiple cultures and in various media (even before the Disney version came out). But the Disney version seems to care so little about Cinderella in comparison to all the other versions. It cares more about its fun songs, its animated animals, and the Tom and Jerry style antics for all its side characters. But when it comes time to actually devote story to Cindy, the film doesn’t really care about her at all. It disregards her to focus on anyone else, anyone more interesting than the main character of the film. She’s the least interesting person in this film.

Well, okay, that’s not true. The Prince is even less interesting. He barely gets any lines, has one song, and then becomes a background object for the rest of the film. I suppose, in a way, that makes him the perfect match for Cindy since neither of them have any agency over their lives and they’re both barely characters at all. It’s really kind of sad when you go back and watch it again because for a film all about Cinderella, Cindy (her life, her love, her need to escape) is the least consequential element of the whole film.

Needless to say I did not like my time rewatching this film. I was annoyed by the movie, with how much time it spends on Cindy’s annoying animal friends, how all the songs barely connect to the story, and so much more. This felt like a massive waste of time, especially now with so many better princess stories out there. I get that this was a massive undertaking for Disney, and became one of the company’s big films, but that was 76 years ago and a lot has changed. What might have been a cultural milestone back then has not aged well at all. The years have been unkind to Cinderella, and her story, told the way Disney tells it, just doesn’t work anymore.