Walt Disney first adapted Charles Perrault's fairy tale Cinderella as part of his series of cartoon shorts for the Laugh-O-Gram Studio in 1922.[14] He was interested in producing a second version in December 1933 as a Silly Symphony short; Burt Gillett was attached as the director while Frank Churchill was assigned as the composer. A story outline included "white mice and birds" as Cinderella's playmates. To expand the story, storyboard artists suggested visual gags, some of which ended up in the final film.[15] However, by early 1938, the story proved to be too complicated to be condensed into a short so it was suggested as a potential animated feature film, starting with a fourteen-page outline written by Al Perkins.[16][17] Two years later, a second treatment was written by Dana Cofy and Bianca Majolie, in which Cinderella's stepmother was named Florimel de la Pochel; her stepsisters as Wanda and Javotte; her pet mouse Dusty and pet turtle Clarissa; the stepsisters' cat Bon Bob; the Prince's aide Spink, and the stepsisters' dancing instructor Monsieur Carnewal. This version stuck closely to the original fairy tale until Cinderella arrives home late from the second ball. Her stepfamily then imprisons Cinderella in a dungeon cellar. When Spink and his troops arrive at the la Pochel residence, Dusty takes the slipper and leads them to free Cinderella.[18]
Swing Shift Cinderella is a 1945 MGM animated cartoon short subject directed by Tex Avery.[3] The plot involves the Big Bad Wolf and Cinderella. Frank Graham voiced the wolf, and Sara Berner voiced both Cinderella and The Fairy Grandmother, with Imogene Lynn providing the former's singing voice.[4]
At the beginning of the cartoon, the Big Bad Wolf is chasing Little Red Riding Hood. But then Little Red Riding Hood stops and points out that the two of them are in the wrong cartoon. (Reprising a similar gag from another Avery short released earlier the same year, The Screwy Truant.) The Wolf shoos her away and decides to go and meet Cinderella (played by Red from Red Hot Riding Hood; with a voice sounding like Bette Davis). He takes a taxi to her house and immediately falls in love with her upon seeing her, but she sternly rebuffs him. Eventually, Cinderella calls her Fairy Godmother (whose voice is reminiscent of Barbara Jo Allen's) to get rid of him and set her up for that night's ball. The second the Fairy Godmother hears that there is a Wolf, she rushes right over. The Fairy Godmother traps the Wolf, then gives Cinderella a red evening gown and transforms a pumpkin into a Woodie for her to go the ball, but tells Cinderella that she has to get home by midnight (just like in the classic fairy tale).
The artists felt that the audience had to believe that Cinderella and her Stepmother were real people, or the story would simply fall apart. The live-action footage enabled the animators to create convincingly realistic movements for the two characters, which contrast with the more cartoonish antics of the ugly Stepsisters and the various birds and animals.
Cinderella (Ella/Cinder/Cinderella) knows how to pull a scam. It's the only reason her stepmother's kept her around after her father's death. With the upcoming ball, cinderella has to pull the biggest scam of her career: steal the prince's crown... but maybe... along the way... she'll steal his heart?
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