--- title: "Cinderella" year: 1950 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/cinderella-1950" fi1m_score: 72 critics_score: 69 critics_reviews: 6 published: "2026-09-17T05:57:49.998734+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T05:58:41.040171+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Cinderella (1950) Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske · 1h 14m · MPA G · Family, Fantasy, Animation, Romance **Fi1m score: 72** · Critics 69 from 6 reviews *In a sentence:* A superb cat, a chilling stepmother, and a prince we could not describe under oath > Disney’s telling of the Perrault story is short, tidy and often lovely, and its villain is one of the studio’s best. Its heroine and her prince are the thinnest things in it, and the mice have to carry the middle third. ## Synopsis Cinderella (Ilene Woods) lives in her late father’s château as the unpaid servant of her stepmother, Lady Tremaine (Eleanor Audley), and her stepsisters Anastasia (Lucille Bliss) and Drizella (Rhoda Williams). She rises before dawn, feeds the chickens, scrubs the floors and dresses the household’s mice, among them Jaq and the newly rescued Gus (both Jimmy MacDonald), while keeping them out of reach of the cat Lucifer. At the palace, the King (Luis van Rooten) wants grandchildren and orders a ball to which every eligible maiden in the kingdom is summoned. When the invitation reaches the château, Lady Tremaine agrees that Cinderella may go, provided her chores are finished and she has something suitable to wear. ## Review Walt Disney’s *Cinderella* takes the Charles Perrault story and does almost nothing clever with it. The girl is good, the stepmother is bad, the shoe fits. What the three directors, Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jackson, add is a small cast of animals, a cat with real menace, and a running time of 74 minutes in which not a great deal is wasted. It is a good film, and it is good mostly at the edges, where the people are not. The centre is the trouble, and it was the trouble in 1950 too. Cinderella, voiced by Ilene Woods, is patient, tidy and pleasant, sings beautifully, and wants almost nothing except a night off. Woods gives her a low, sensible warmth that is more likeable than the drawing, which is a doll with good posture. The Prince barely speaks. Mike Douglas supplies his singing voice for one duet, and that is the whole of his personality. When the film asks us to care whether these two find each other, we found we were checking on the mice instead. The mice, happily, are excellent. Jaq is thin and quick and in charge; Gus is round, new, and cannot carry more than two grains of corn without dropping one. Jimmy MacDonald voices both in a speeded-up chatter you have to lean into, and the animators give them a whole physical comedy of climbing, hauling and hiding. Their enemy is Lucifer the cat, who is drawn with a face that can smile, and who is the first Disney animal we can remember who plans. Every scene with the cat and the mice has a shape: a goal, an obstacle, a near miss. It is the tightest storytelling in the film. Then there is Lady Tremaine. Eleanor Audley plays her with a voice that never rises, and the design gives her a long grey face and eyes that catch the light like a cat’s. She never lays a hand on Cinderella. She simply finds one more task, or turns a small permission into a small trap, and Audley makes every “of course” sound like a door closing. The stepsisters, Drizella (Rhoda Williams) and Anastasia (Lucille Bliss), are drawn as grotesques and voiced to match, all elbows and shrieking, and their music lesson is the funniest scene in the film that does not involve a mouse. We should own one reaction. There is a scene, roughly halfway, involving a dress and the stepsisters, which we will not describe, and which upset us far more than we expected a film with a U certificate to manage. It works because the film has spent its first half showing how long and how many small hands it took to make the thing, so that when it is undone in seconds we felt the cost. That is the storytellers’ patience paying off, and the story is credited to eight of them, among them Bill Peet, Ken Anderson and Ted Sears. Verna Felton’s Fairy Godmother arrives late, bustling and forgetful, with a wand she cannot find, and the transformation she sets off is the loveliest stretch of animation here. The dress builds itself out of light. Earlier, Cinderella sings to her reflection in a row of soap bubbles, each carrying a slightly different copy of her, and it is the kind of small visual idea the film could have used more of. The score by Oliver Wallace and Paul Smith is handsome and stays out of the way; the songs are simple and stick, “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” most of all. Donald Halliday cuts it tight, and scenes end when they have finished. Against the studio’s own standard it sits below [*Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*](https://film.one/film/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs) (1937) and [*Pinocchio*](https://film.one/film/pinocchio) (1940), which had grander frights and stranger imaginations. It is also steadier than either at the level of the individual scene, and it never sags. The colour is bright and occasionally too sweet. The King and the Grand Duke, both voiced by Luis van Rooten, are a good double act of bluster and nerves. Show it to a child and watch the child watch the cat. Watch it yourself for Audley, whose stepmother has not dated a day, and admit that you cannot remember the Prince’s face by the time the credits end. Nobody can. *Fi1m score 72, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Cinderella, and they like it for the same reason: the animals. The mice, the cat and the Fairy Godmother draw the warmest notices across six decades of reviews, along with the songs and the score. Several also single out small pieces of design, from the colour scheme and soap-bubble reflections to the stepmother’s look, and the midnight flight is picked out as the film’s most dramatic sequence. The reservation is just as consistent. Nearly every review finds Cinderella and the Prince bland, doll-like figures beside the livelier supporting cast, and the spread is narrow, running from lukewarm to warm with no outright dismissal. Sight and Sound is the coolest, placing it below Snow White and Pinocchio and objecting to the colours and songs others enjoy. Slant Magazine takes a different line, finding the animation effective but the romantic ideal unhealthy. Eye for Film stands alone in defending Cinderella herself as a sensible, modern heroine. ### Reviews we read (6) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (80/100, inferred): The animation and lively animal characters keep the film engaging and exciting even on re-viewing decades later. Some central human characters feel bland and typical of the postwar 1950s era, but the story and details still work well. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/cinderella-1987) - **Empire** (70/100, inferred): The critic notes that the film has lost some lustre due to bland lead characters compared to later Disney works, but praises the supporting comic elements like the Fairy Godmother, mice, score, and villainous cat for providing charm and maintaining its popularity. Overall, it is seen as beautiful, classic, and enjoyable family entertainment despite the flaws. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/cinderella-review/) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): The film succeeds more with its clever animal characters than with the bland, doll-like central figures of Cinderella and the Prince. Inventive supporting characters, solid musical numbers and strong songs stand out. [Read](https://variety.com/1949/film/reviews/cinderella-3-1200416691/) - **Slant Magazine**, Eric Henderson (60/100, inferred): The critic finds the direction sensible and the animation effective in its simplicity, especially the mice sequences and the stepmother's design, but argues the film promotes harmful unrealistic romantic ideals. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/cinderella/) - **Sight and Sound** (55/100, inferred): The critic views it as a return to earlier Disney style and more successful than recent films, though it falls short of Snow White and Pinocchio due to factory methods. Praise goes to the animals, the King and Chancellor, the Fairy Godmother, and dramatic scenes like the midnight flight; complaints target the cutie doll figures, grotesque sisters, vulgar colors, and slushy songs. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/features/ultimatefilm/chart/details.php?ranking=98) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (80/100, inferred): The critic finds Disney's traditional retelling of the Perrault tale enjoyable largely due to its subsidiary animal characters and slapstick, along with artistic touches like color design and soap-bubble reflections. Cinderella herself is seen as a pleasant, smart, and modern heroine whose story still teaches worthwhile lessons about kindness and dreams. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/cinderella-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) ## Details - **Director:** Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske - **Director:** Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske - **Story:** Joe Rinaldi, Ken Anderson, Ted Sears, Bill Peet, Homer Brightman, Erdman Penner, Winston Hibler, Harry Reeves - **Novel:** Charles Perrault - **Editor:** Donald Halliday - **Music:** Paul Smith, Oliver Wallace - **Producer:** Walt Disney - **Cast:** Ilene Woods as Cinderella (voice); Eleanor Audley as Lady Tremaine (voice); Verna Felton as Fairy Godmother (voice); Claire Du Brey as (credit only) (voice); Rhoda Williams as Drizella (voice); Jimmy MacDonald as Gus / Jaq (voice); Helene Stanley as (credit only); Luis van Rooten as King / Grand Duke (voice) - **Runtime:** 1h 14m - **Certificate (MPA):** G - **Release (the US):** 4 March 1950 - **Genres:** Family, Fantasy, Animation, Romance - **Budget:** $3 million - **Box office:** $264 million ## Where to watch in the US - Disney+: streaming, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1951: Best Original Musical Score (nominated); Best Sound (nominated) - Berlin International Film Festival 1951: Golden Bear (won) ## If you liked this - *Sleeping Beauty* (1959), Fi1m 78: Eleanor Audley again, as Maleficent, in Disney’s most elegantly drawn fairy tale. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/sleeping-beauty.md) - *La Belle et la Bête* (1946): Cocteau’s live-action fairy tale, all candlelit corridors and arms holding the lamps. - *Three Wishes for Cinderella* (1973): The Czech version, with a heroine who rides, shoots and answers back. - *The Slipper and the Rose* (1976): A British musical Cinderella, long and lavish, with Richard Chamberlain’s prince given a personality. - *Ever After* (1998): Drew Barrymore’s Cinderella with no magic at all and a stepmother worth fearing. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. 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