Cinderella

Have you seen it yet? What, you ask? Why Cinderella of course! The film was every girl’s dream.  So many gorgeous flowers, costumes, and of course a prince.  What more could you ask for?  It truly was a feel good film with tons of eye candy.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it.  So, for fun, I thought I’d give you some trivia from both the 1950 and 2015 Disney versions of the films.  Enjoy!

Cinderella 2015

–While approaching the project with a deep understanding of the fairy tale’s history, Kenneth Branagh said: “It is impossible to think of Cinderella without thinking of Disney, and the timeless images we’ve all grown up watching. And those classic moments are irresistible to a filmmaker.”

–The lead role was offered to Emma Watson but she declined. She was later cast as Belle in Beauty and the Beast (2016), Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast (1991).

–Lily James, who plays Cinderella, and Sophie McShera, who plays Drizella, both star alongside each other in Downton Abbey (2010), however their roles are reversed: in Downton, McShera plays Daisy, the servant role, while James plays Lady Rose, the aristocrat.

–Lily James who plays Cindrella is girlfriend of Matt Smith in real life. And Richard Madden who plays Prince Charming is boyfriend of Jenna Coleman who was Matt Smith’s co-star in BBC’s huge hit show Doctor Who.

–Director Kenneth Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Ella’s Fairy Godmother, had an affair and dated in the 1990s.

–This film marks Kenneth Branagh’s first collaboration with Walt Disney Pictures. Branagh also directed Thor (2011), which was distributed by Paramount Pictures, but subsequently re-branded as a Disney film.

–The short film sequel to Frozen (2013), entitled Frozen Fever (2015), will be shown before the film. It will contain a new original song written by the creators of the smash hit animated film.

–Lily James’ favorite part about playing Cinderella was wearing the big blue ballgown.

–Imogen Poots, Bella Heathcote, Margot Robbie, and Lily James tested for the lead role. The role went to James.

–Lily James is only seven years younger than her on-screen mother, Hayley Atwell, though Atwell appears as mother to the young Ella – played by Eloise Webb – therefore she and James share no scenes together.

Cinderella 1950

–The transformation of Cinderella’s torn dress to that of the white ball gown was considered to be Walt Disney’s favorite piece of animation.

–Excluding the initial prologue explaining how the stepmother came into Cinderella’s life and the closing wedding scene, the main story of the film takes place over approximately a 24-hour period. Cinderella starts her day with her chores, the prince’s ball is that evening and she successfully tries on the lost slipper the following morning.

–Cinderella actually loses a shoe 3 times in the film: first, when she delivers the breakfast trays (causing Lucifer to look under the wrong cup), second, when she is running from the ball, and third, walking down the steps with her new husband.

–Ilene Woods beat exactly 309 girls for the part of Cinderella, after some demo recordings of her singing a few of the film’s songs were presented to Walt Disney. However, she had no idea she was auditioning for the part until Disney contacted her; she initially made the recordings for a few friends who sent them to Disney without telling her.

–Walt Disney had not had a huge hit since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The production of this film was regarded as a major gamble on his part. At a cost of nearly $3,000,000, Disney insiders claimed that if this movie had failed at the box office, it would have been the end of the Disney studio. The film was a big hit. The profits from its release, with the additional profits from record sales, music publishing, publications and other merchandise gave Disney the cash flow to finance a slate of productions (animated and live action), establish his own distribution company, enter television production and begin building Disneyland during the decade.

–Not only is the name of the Prince never revealed, he is nowhere in the film mentioned as “Prince Charming”.

–While it could be just a coincidence, it may not be, three of the lady mice in the dress making scene (around when Jac says “Poor Cinderelly”) are in green, pink, and blue dresses- not quite the exact same colors as the Three Good Fairies in Sleeping Beauty (1959), which would be released 9 years later. Also, Verna Felton voices Fairy Godmothers for both films. In Sleeping Beauty, she is Flora, the red member of the team.

–The carriage that Cinderella and the Prince take after the wedding has an emblem of a sword and two hidden Mickey Mouse heads around it.

–According to Marc Davis, one of the directing animators of Cinderella (1950), at least 90% of the movie was done in live action model before animation. Dancer Ward Ellis was the live action model for Prince Charming. Cinderella’s carriage is actually a live-action model painted white with black lines; this was the first time this technique had actually been used.

–When Walt Disney had the resources to return to full-length animation in the late 1940s after the war, he was indecisive over whether they should release Cinderella (1950) or Alice in Wonderland (1951) first and finally decided to have two animation crews working on each film compete with each other to see not only which would finish first but also which did the best job. As it turned out, “Cinderella” came first, being released in 1950, while “Alice” was not released until the following year.

–Was the first Disney film to have its songs published and copyrighted by the newly created Walt Disney Music Company. Before movie soundtracks became merchandisable, movie songs had little residual value to the film studio that owned them and were often sold off to established music companies for sheet music publication.

–The royal proclamation on the castle gate wall reads: “All loyal subjects of his Imperial Majesty are hereby notified by royal proclamation that in regard to a certain glass slipper, it is upon this day decreed that a quest be instituted throughout the length and breadth of our domain. The sole and express purpose of said quest is as follows to wit: that every single maiden in our beloved Kingdom shall try upon her foot this aforementioned slipper of glass, and should one be found whose foot shall properly fit said slipper, such maiden will be acclaimed the subject of this search and the one and only true love of his Royal Highness, our noble Prince. And said Royal Highness will humbly request the hand of said maiden in marriage to rule with him over all the land as Royal Princess and future Queen.”

–In the movie, Cinderella’s dress is white, but in promotional material, it’s blue.

All trivia courtesy of IMDB