Classic Shorts Showcase: Cinderella (1922)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we are looking at Cinderella.

No, it's much older than that.

It's actually even older than that.

Here, we go.  This is more like it.  This was one of the Laugh-O-Gram shorts that Walt made before he ever opened up Disney and if you pick up the Cinderella Blu Ray, this is included as a Bonus Feature and after watching it,  I have to say that while this version wasn't bad. I'll stick with the 1950 movie as I preferred Cinderella. I normally don't do this but I think you should watch the short before I get into the review.  Here ya go.



The Plot


Now, it's important to keep in mind that this short like a lot of the films from this time were silent shorts and for the most part, it was faithful to the story. Though, there were some omissions such as the stepmother.  And you may have noticed that this story was transplanted from a Once Upon A Time to down the street as this short is actually set in the '20s.   One of the big things that is funny in hindsight about this adaption of Cinderella is that her only friend is a cat.

One of the big things that one has to keep in mind with a short like this is that unlike that we would come to know many years later, this short is more built for gags then story.  It has plenty of good gags such as an overly long sequence where our prince character is introduced after we are informed that he's a good fellow of him hunting a bear.

I saw a comment on YouTube that said the bear looked like a proto Mickey Mouse and y'know I can totally see that.  Honestly, if you look at it hard enough, you can see what was to become Mickey in that bear. Going back to how this short reflects the time,  instead of a pumpkin coach,  Cinderella's Fairy Godmother here gives her a car. Is she old enough to own that? It's probably a rental.

And I do like that her cat friend is  her chauffeur.  And even her dress ties into the '20s look.   The ball sequence was okay but I did notice that they repeated the animation of Cinderella running a lot there but it did lead to a funny gag of the prince following what he thought were Cinderella's tracks only to find out that a duck had left those tracks.   And in the end, Cinderella and her prince get to be together. Aw!

This short for what it was, was enjoyable but...  I like the movie better. I'm sorry but this is my Cinderella.

The 1950  movie is one of my favorite Disney movies and  while I should try to take this short on it's own merits,  it's hard to because  of how much I love the animated movie.  That is the same reason, I'm both excited and nervous about the live action movie.   This short wasn't bad but it didn't feel like the Cinderella I know and that's more a fault of the reviewer and not the material being reviewed.



Characters


The characters here were really only used to service what the short needed such as when they were needed for a gag and that's fine.



My Final Thoughts



I don't hate this short, it's fun to look back in time to see some of Walt's early work but again as I said up top because of how much I love the classic,  I can't accept this as Cinderella.  My  image of Cinderella  has always been who she was in 1950, in that beautiful ballgown. And yes, I know  there are other takes on her such as Brandy played Cinderella for The Wonderful World of Disney and just last year, Anna Kendrick played Cinderella in Disney's adaption of Into The Woods

I guess what I'm getting at is I'm able to look at those as different Cinderellas and perhaps  I need to do the same here because this is such a drastically different Cinderella then the one we know but there's just something about knowing that Walt worked on this that makes that a bit hard. Still, if I had to choose my preferred Disney Cinderella, it would be this lady

Perhaps,  if you can unlike me take her out of your mind while watching this, you could enjoy this short   Again, it's not bad but I just don't think it's for me. Peace!