One of Disney’s classics, ‘Cinderella’ could have had a small screen version long before the feature film that hit theaters in 1950
Known as the favorite princess of Walt DisneyCinderella was released in 1950 as an adaptation of the version of the story written by the French authorCharles Perraultin the work “Tales of Mamãe Gansa”, which began to appear on shelves in 1697.
In the plot, Cinderella is a young orphan who, after the death of her father, is forced to serve her two half-sisters and her stepmother. Even though the routine is difficult, she never gives up believing in better days and, after going to the ball with the help of her fairy godmother, she wins the heart of the prince who becomes responsible for transforming her reality.
The animated narrative has become one of the classics of Disney, reaching fans to this day. Still, what some may not imagine is that, almost two decades before the beloved feature film version, the princess almost got a short film version produced by the studio founded by Roy It is Walt Disneyeven though this was discarded before being animated.
The version of ‘Cinderella’ discarded by Disney
It turns out that when Disney only produced shorts, Walt planned to release a version of the story in the ‘Silly Symphonies’ cartoon series, which between 1929 and 1939 released just over fifty titles that had an average length of 9 minutes.
The idea was communicated by the studio in December 1933, as revealed by the blog The Walt Disney Family Museum, and the concern was to transmit the romance and delicacy of the plot to the screen, while also maintaining the comedy elements that were so popular at the time.
For this, it was defined that Burt Gillettwho directed the great success ‘Three Little Pigs’ from ‘Silly Symphonies’, would be the filmmaker responsible, just as it was stated that the songs would be composed by Frank Churchill, a famous name in the studio, as he was behind songs like “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” of the same production signed by Gillet.
It was during the script development phase of this short that iconic scenes, which were adapted for the feature film, were created, such as the ball sequence, where Cinderella dances with the Prince and the background of the palace disappears, placing them in a kind of of parallel reality where only they exist.
However, even though the animation seemed promising, the idea ended up being shelved. The reason? Nobody knows! But, as revealed by The Walt Disney Family Museum blog, all the ideas for this project are preserved in the studio’s Archives.
Source: Recreio
