Extra Credit: Early Films

Cinderella -- Watching Disney Films as an adult

Released in the year 1950, Cinderella, starring Ilene Wood as Cinderella, grew into the poster Disney films everyone knew about. This was the era after World War II, where gender roles were being strongly reaffirmed and conformity was rising in popularity once again. Women were expected to take care of the house, even though some started working, while men were expected to be the breadwinner. The film did pretty well, receiving 10 million dollars for the film and it was nominated for many awards for the music. The film was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, and Wilfred Jackson. Ken Anderson, Perce Pearce, Homer Brightman and many others helped write the film. Reading the review by Megan and Kevin titled "REVIEW: CINDERELLA (DMC #12)" they mainly criticized the romantic storyline as it was unrealistic that a man would fall in love with a women solely on her looks and marry her without knowing her name. They commented on the unrealistic beauty standards set by Cinderella as she woke up perfectly put together after a night's rest and the comedic moments, like when the girls sang “Sing Sweet Nightingale”, "both beautifully done in the way Cinderella sings it and the comical version done by the step-sisters" (Megan & Kevin, 2020).

As Cinderella became seen by many, it taught the public about the expectations of women through characteristics exemplified by Cinderella's actions and words. The film portrayed Cinderella as a mature, beautiful, gracious, passive girl, while contrasting them with her foil, her stepsisters, who represented everything women should not be. As her sisters went through their singing lesson, it was clear how poorly they were singing as this scene serves to bring laugher to the film (26:24). This is a direct contrast to the following scene of Cinderella effortlessly singing their song, while she does her chores (26:44). By showing the protagonist and antagonist side by side with opposite characteristics, it emphasizes the message that women should be delicate as implied by Cinderella's enchanting voice. Additionally at the beginning of the film, Cinderella angerly yells at the town bell, complaining, "even he orders me around. Well there's one thing, they can't order me to stop dreaming", then she goes on sing and hop around (6:07). This scene pushes the idea that women may live in horrible conditions, but they can only hope that one day these conditions will change. Through Cinderella's actions of blissfully dancing after her realization that all she can do is wish for her conditions to change, it teaches girls to force happiness and submit to the horrible conditions society may place them in. The portrayal of a delicate and submissive female lead is slowly changing as seen in the later Disney films. Through films like Frozen, Disney is showing more realistic female leads that can fight against the antagonist and isn't all delicate and elegant.