August 10, 2022 • 31 mins
Sara and Chrissy are deep in some classic Disney nostalgia with the 1950 Walt Disney animated feature film, Cinderella. It's the classic riches to rags and back to riches story of a girl whose widowed father marries an absolute monster. When he up and dies, the girl must serve her wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Cinderella's fairy godmother poofs in to save the day and sends her in a pumpkin to a royal ball, where she finds true love but loses a poorly designed shoe.
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Episode Transcript
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Sara (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Mouse Ears and a Movie, a Disney
animation conversation.
I'm Sara Farrell Baker joined bymy cohost, Chrissy Woj.
Chrissy (00:16):
We are two grown women avoiding responsibility and
watching cartoons.
Every episode, we will bewatching a Disney or Pixar
animated feature chosen atrandom from
Sara (00:25):
The bucket.
Chrissy (00:27):
Then we will reconvene here to share our thoughts, some
behind the scenes knowledge, andprobably make some weird noises.
Sara (00:33):
This week we watched the 1950 Walt Disney animated
feature film, Cinderella.
It's the classic riches to ragsand back to riches story of a
girl whose widowed fathermarries an absolute monster.
When he up and dies, the girlmust serve her wicked stepmother
and stepsisters, and even theirSatan cat.
When a fairy godmother sends herin a pumpkin to a royal ball,
(00:53):
she finds true love, but loses apoorly designed shoe.
To refresh our memories, here'sChrissy with the Cinderella Olaf
recap treatment.
Chrissy (01:00):
It began with an orphan girl living with two stepsisters
and an evil stepmother.
Her parents are dead.
Her dreams of escape, infinite.
A dream is a wish your heartmakes.
They can't order me to stopdreaming.
New mouse in the house! Zuk Zuk.
Cinderelly.
Gus Gus.
Lucifee not funny.
(01:20):
Lucifee mean.
Breakfast! Cinderella! Get onwith your duties.
We'll have a ball to welcome theprince home.
Every eligible maiden is toattend the ball.
Why that's us! And I'm soeligible.
We can do it, we can do it, wecan help our Cinderelly! This
sash and these beads! Trash!What's a royal ball anyways?
(01:43):
Happy birthday! Wait for me! Mybeads! Give them here! And my
sash! Girls, girls.
I don't want you upsettingyourselves.
Good night.
There, there.
I'm your fairy godmother.
Bibbidi bobbidi boo! You haveuntil midnight.
A pretty plot for fairytales.
Take a look at that, you pompouswind bag! So this is love.
(02:08):
Bing! Bing! Goodbye! Goodbye!The pumpkin is dead! Cinderelly,
the slipper! Whoever the shoefits will be the prince's bride.
Block tower for one! Block towerfor one! found the key! Silencio
Bruno! Wait.
We don't talk about-- Nope.
Wrong movie.
Get Bruno! Your grace! Theorders were every maiden.
(02:28):
If it would help, I have theother slipper.
And they lived happily everafter.
The end.
Sara (02:32):
Beautiful.
I love that you did We don'ttalk about and silencio Bruno.
Cause it just says Bruno in mynotes.
I wonder if this is our firstDisney Bruno.
Chrissy (02:41):
This is our first Disney Bruno.
There are three Brunos and twoof them were in the last year
and two of them were bad.
This one's good.
Sara (02:47):
So this is the 12th Disney animated film.
It is nominated for threeAcademy Awards.
Cinderella is one of like ourmost iconic.
I feel like we throw around theword iconic a lot here, but this
time it's deserved.
Chrissy (03:00):
There's a lot of iconic Disney because Disney in and of
itself is iconic.
Sara (03:05):
Very good point.
Cinderella is a huge movie forDisney in so many ways.
Not only is it.
Just aesthetically,thematically, and princess-
wise, an iconic movie.
But it really saved the studio.
It saved not just the studio,but Disney itself, the Disney
company.
The state of the studio prior toCinderella was some crap.
(03:27):
They were on the verge ofbankruptcy because of the war,
and if Cinderella did poorly,the studio would have been
ruined.
Chrissy (03:33):
Well, and say it was because of the war and the
history says it's because of thewar, but it's also in part
because of Disney.
Like this was not the first timehe was on the verge of
bankruptcy by any stretch of theimagination.
And it was not the firstprincess to save his studio.
Sara (03:48):
Do you want to tell us about that?
Chrissy (03:49):
So Disney was the dreamer.
He was the Imagineer, theoriginal Imagineer.
He was the thoughts and ideasand creative mind.
But if it weren't for hisbrother Roy, Disney would not be
what it is.
Roy was the money and the brainsand the business.
And he made sure that Disney'sideas got created, but he also
made sure that didn't go intofinancial ruin every single time
(04:12):
they would have.
Sara (04:12):
Kept the lights on.
Chrissy (04:13):
And Snow White saved the studio, too.
They put everything into SnowWhite.
If Snow White had failed,buh-bye.
Sara (04:19):
This is really interesting to think about kind of
throughout the history of thestudio, how princesses have
saved this company.
Or revived it in various waysjust throughout its history.
Chrissy (04:30):
Yeah, Little Mermaid, man.
We talked about her in thebeginning.
Sara (04:33):
Brought us right out of the dark ages.
Chrissy (04:35):
The first dark ages.
Sara (04:36):
Oh dear God.
Chrissy (04:37):
And didn't Tiana bring us out of the second?
Sara (04:39):
That brought them into the revival.
It is interesting also how theykind of go through like phases
of princess stuff.
You've got princess, princess,princess.
No princess is for awhile.
Princess princess princess.
None for a while.
And it seems like during thebrighter parts of Disney film
era's, you've got a plethora ofprincesses.
Chrissy (04:58):
It's true.
Sara (04:59):
I'm wondering if we have any princess movies in like any
of the dark ages or justcrappier times.
Chrissy (05:05):
Yes we do.
Isn't Black Cauldron a princessmovie?
Sara (05:09):
Girl, I know nothing about Black Cauldron, but it might be.
Chrissy (05:11):
I know there's a princess in it.
Sara (05:13):
Got it.
We got to wait to find out aboutthat one.
Okay, so the movie itself costsabout$3 million to make, but it
would go on to bring in$85million.
It paid Disney's debts.
It financed a distributioncompany.
It paid for live action movies,animated movies, Disney's foray
into TV with Wonderful World ofColor and it also provided the
(05:34):
seed money for Disneyland.
Chrissy (05:36):
That's a lot of money.
Sara (05:37):
Yes without Cinderella.
We don't get anything that comesafter 1950, which is a whole
lot.
Disney before Cinderella is ananimation company.
The end.
Afterwards, they go on to
Chrissy (05:49):
Become a media giant.
Sara (05:50):
It is the beginning of the all- encompassing empire that we
see today.
Chrissy (05:54):
It was nominated for three Academy Awards.
Sara (05:58):
I think it was best sound, best song and best score.
Chrissy (06:02):
Which song was the best song?
Sara (06:04):
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo.
Chrissy (06:05):
Ah, of course.
Sara (06:06):
The other really neat thing here is some of these
voice actors in the movie.
First of all, you have EileenWoods.
She does have a real Cinderellastory with how she got this
role.
She never auditioned.
She was the demo singer for thesongs.
She was just who recorded thesongs to say,"Hey, these are the
ones that we would like to dofor this movie." And Walt hired
her because of those recordings.
Chrissy (06:26):
That's awesome.
My favorite voice in this isLady Tremaine, who is Eleanor
Audley, and she is more famouslyknown as the voice of
Maleficent.
Also the voice of Madame Leotain the crystal ball.
She is not the voice at the end,just the crystal ball.
And that is not her face.
Sara (06:46):
I didn't know that, that that the face and the voice were
different people.
Chrissy (06:50):
Yeah.
So the face is Leota Toombs andshe had such a sickeningly sweet
voice that they didn't want touse it in the crystal ball.
And so they brought in the voiceof Maleficent because they were
like,"This is the voice we want,but we love your face." Leota
Toombs was very well-respectedImagineer and Disney Legend.
But she just didn't have thevoice that they wanted for
(07:11):
Madame Leota.
And so they brought in EleanorAudley.
But at the end of the HauntedMansion, the full body image,
it's Leota Toombs and her voice.
Sara (07:20):
Oh, weird.
Chrissy (07:21):
Yeah.
So when you hear hurry back,hurry back," that's Leota
Toombs' voice.
Sara (07:28):
Okay.
I get it now, because that issuch a different voice from
Eleanor Audley, who has thisreally fantastic, 1950s-- not
haunting, but very scary lady inmy life-- kind of voice.
Chrissy (07:39):
Touch the spindle, Touch it, I say.
Sara (07:42):
Oh my God.
Shivas.
We've got the Fairy Godmother,who was one of my favorite
characters of all time.
As much as Eleanor Audley'svoice is the voice of a scary
lady that you don't want tocross, Verna Felton's voice is
the most comforting grandmabaked me an apple cake kind of
thing.
Chrissy (08:01):
Or a really tall, tiered cake?
Pink and blue?
Sara (08:05):
Ooh, look at you.
Verna Felton is also the voiceof Flora, one of the fairies in
Sleeping Beauty.
And also the queen in SleepingBeauty.
On top of that, she is the voiceof Mama Jumbo in Dumbo.
She is the voice of Aunt Sarahin Lady and the Tramp.
The Queen of Hearts in Alice inWonderland, which I love that
that's her because that's takingsuch a sweet voice, but she puts
(08:27):
like a growl behind it.
Chrissy (08:28):
And, for Aunt Sarah.
Sara (08:29):
Verna Felton's got range.
She's got depth.
She's got layers.
Chrissy (08:33):
And she died the same day as Disney.
Sara (08:36):
Verna Felton and Walt Disney both died December 15th,
1966.
So then we have a few otherfamiliar Disney voices.
This movie is narrated by BettyLou Gerson, who would go on to
play Cruella Deville.
Chrissy (08:51):
Lucifer has a ton of roles.
He was played by June Foray, whowas Grandmother Fa in Mulan.
Granny in the Looney Tunes.
Rocky in Rocky and Bullwinkleand Cindy Lou Who in How the
Grinch Stole Christmas.
Sara (09:04):
If you look at her IMDB, she's in everything.
It's so funny because then onceyou know that the connection is
there, then you hear things.
You start to hear little bitsbetween these different
characters.
Chrissy (09:15):
So this is one of the older movies where the credits
roll before the movie.
And you've got all of thisgorgeous art and, you know, I'm,
I'm looking at em like, that isso Mary Blair."
Sara (09:26):
Mary Blair is all over this movie and I love it.
It makes me so happy.
She.
is probably my favorite DisneyLegend.
Mary Blair is an artist whoinitially came to work for
Disney as an animator, alongwith her husband who she met in
art school.
She really felt kind of stifledat the company.
She didn't like having toanimate in someone else's style.
(09:46):
She didn't feel like she had alot of creative freedom and she
ends up leaving the company.
However, Disney becomes a reallybig fan of her work.
In World War 2, the UnitedStates government asks Walt
Disney to go on a Goodwill tourof South America.
He hand picks Mary Blair and herhusband Lee to go down to South
America, tour differentcountries and get inspiration
(10:07):
for some of the movies that theygo on to make like Saludos
Amigos.
This is where Mary Blair kind ofcomes into her signature style.
These really bright colors, morebold lines and contrast in
colors and not really blendingthings together.
She eventually comes back towork for Disney and is put to
work in movies like Cinderella,Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan.
(10:30):
You can see her touchesthroughout these movies.
Chrissy (10:33):
Of course, back to the theme parks.
She is the main artisticinspiration for It's a Small
world.
Sara (10:40):
And she does the mural for inside of the Contemporary
Resort at Walt Disney World.
That ends up being her lastproject for Disney.
She died a few years after WaltDisney world opened.
So you see her throughout theopening credits.
Chrissy (10:53):
We open and we've got the birds chirping and we see
Cinderella waking up with hermenagerie of wild animals that
just adore her.
She's clearly sweet andwonderful and kind because all
of the animals are doing herbidding.
Sara (11:12):
I'll tell you what-- I'd be so pissed if some birds were
all up in my face tweeting whenI'm trying to get up in the
morning.
Chrissy (11:17):
I think she enjoys it.
Sara (11:19):
This is the most unpleasant way I can think of
waking up.
Chrissy (11:21):
So she wakes up from a dream and she's telling her
animal friends but withouttelling them what happened in
the dream, because it won't cometrue.
The clock chimes and it's timeto start getting ready.
She takes a shower with the helpof birds---
Sara (11:34):
After they shoe all of the boy mice and birds out of the
room.
Chrissy (11:38):
And then they get her dressed and then Jaq comes
running in and there's a newmouse in the house.
And it's my favorite littledude.
Sara (11:45):
We get to meet Octavius.
I wanna how the hell Gus isshort for Octavius, please.
Chrissy (11:51):
We'll call you Gus for short.
Gus Gus.
Sara (11:53):
Gus in his trap and they give him a hat and a shirt and
shoes, and he's all ready to go.
Chrissy (11:59):
And then it's time for breakfast and Cinderella goes
down to feed Luc-- well, she hasto go get Lucifer, which is a
process.
Sara (12:06):
Who the hell names their cat Lucifer?
Chrissy (12:08):
An evil stepmother.
Not quite as wicked witchy asSnow White's stepmother, but
close.
Sara (12:14):
She's up there.
Chrissy (12:15):
So she's got to go feed Lucifer and Bruno the dog.
We don't talk about Bruno.
Sara (12:23):
So Cinderella is going about her chores.
She's feeding the chickens,she's feeding the cat, she's
getting everybody theirbreakfast.
It's weird to me that like, themice and the birds help her so
much, and she doesn't think togive them breakfast?
They have to send Jaq on asuicide mission so that they can
steal corn from the chickens?
Chrissy (12:41):
They spend an exorbitant amount of time on Jaq
and Gus, particularly going onthese little adventures.
It's like The Jaq and Gus Show.
Everything is trying to get pastLucifee-- who his name is
Lucifer, but of the movie wehear him as Lucifee because the
only people who talk about himare the mice.
Sara (12:59):
That's their nemesis.
Chrissy (13:00):
And then Cinderella's getting called and jingled and
rang and she has to bringeverybody their tea and pick up
all of their laundry.
Sara (13:07):
I did laugh at the Downton Abbey bells that they're all
ringing.
Chrissy (13:10):
I'm coming, I'm coming.
So she's got to do the ironingand the laundry and the mending,
which is all laundry by the way.
And then she has to get on withall of her other duties.
But because Jaq was hiding in ateacup, she now has to redo a
bunch of her chores because shehas time for wicked pranks.
And then we jump to the King andhis who when you look at them
(13:32):
visually, change their facialhair a little bit-- and you've
got the two kings in SleepingBeauty.
One of the things I loved aboutthis scene is in the very
beginning of the scene, I wastrying to like pick out little
details because I've seen thismovie so many times and I've
seen so many iterations of it.
But had never noticed in thevery beginning of the scene, the
first thing that happens is theking throws his crown through
(13:52):
the glass and there's thisperfectly glass shaped crown cut
out.
And it was just fun to look atit.
I want art, an art print ofthat.
Sara (14:01):
So the King is throwing a fit because he wants the Prince
to marry so he can havegrandchildren.
I don't think the prince issuper old.
That's not the impression that Iget.
But the King appears to bepretty old.
So it's like, well, you waited along ass time to have a child.
He is on the Grand Duke aboutlike, We are gonna throw a ball.
I want you to throw it tonight.
I want every girl in thekingdom, and the Prince has got
(14:22):
to like one of them.
If we put everybody there, he'llfind one he likes and then
they're going to get married andI'll get some grandkids."
Chrissy (14:28):
And then we go back to Cindy and she's cleaning the
floor and listening to herstep-sisters music practice.
Sara (14:36):
Music in quotes.
This is one of my favoritescenes though.
I want an art print of just thebubbles, the Cinderella bubbles.
The technique for Sing SweetNightingale-- this overdubbing
technique when Cinderella issinging and it's her voice
harmonizing-- Walt heard EileenWoods singing and he said that
he saw a bubble coming up and aharmonizing voice.
And then another bubble withanother voice.
(14:57):
But this is not a thing that wasdone.
This was one of the firstexamples of overdubbing that we
see in music and in movies.
And it gets pioneered because ofSing Sweet Nightingale.
Chrissy (15:08):
That's awesome.
Sara (15:09):
And it's so perfect.
It wouldn't work as well if itwas other people harmonizing
with Eileen Woods.
It works so well to just haveCinderella's reflection in all
of these bubbles.
Chrissy (15:17):
So then after Sing Sweet Nightingale, the urgent
message from his ImperialMajesty comes, and it is a
letter saying, We're going tohave a ball.
Every eligible lady is requiredto attend."
Sara (15:31):
And it's tonight.
Chrissy (15:32):
We need to get this done.
Prince has got to get married,lickety split.
Even Cinderella is allowed to goas long as she gets all of her
chores done and has somethingappropriate to wear.
I said," if."
Sara (15:44):
The scene, it just really highlights how dumb the
stepsisters are.
And I know that they're bad, butI love them so much.
Chrissy (15:52):
I'm so
Sara (15:54):
She says it like an I'm so eligible.
Remember, like as a child, beinglike you can't say eligible.
And just loving.
the delivery of that line.
Chrissy (16:03):
So Cinderella goes, back up to her room and she
pulls out mama's dress from like25 years ago.
And it's little old fashioned.
Sara (16:11):
This is the base of a good dress.
She's thinking of how she can doit.
Chrissy (16:15):
She's going to do it on her lunch break, just like me.
And then the sisters are likecalling her left and right.
Calling her, we need your helpto get ourselves ready for the
ball and fuck everything youhave to do.
Sara (16:25):
Because the word is if, and they don't want her to go
there anyways.
Chrissy (16:28):
And then the mice come in and they're like, wait a
minute, guys, we got this.
We will make Cinderella's dressbecause mice are really
Sara (16:37):
accomplished seamstresses.
Chrissy (16:39):
Skilled artisans.
We can do it, we can do it.
We can help our Cinderelly.
I can't tell you how often Ising that in my life.
I don't know why, but it comesup a lot.
Whenever I'm like, we got this,we can do this.
Sara (16:52):
They are ready to help their girl, even though she will
not just set aside some friggingcorn so they can safely eat
breakfast in the mornings.
They're going to help her out.
Chrissy (16:59):
All right, so they're singing the song and Jaq's like,
"we got this, we can do somesewing." And the girl mouse,
whose name I do not know islike, leave the to the women."
In my house, do you know whodoes the sewing?
It, it ain't me.
Sara (17:13):
In my house, it is also not me.
But it is also not my husband.
We just don't sew.
Chrissy (17:17):
When he needs something sewn, does it himself.
I bring it to my mommy.
Sara (17:21):
Yeah.
They're essentially saying,"hey,we're going to do this part.
Please go find some odds andends.
And again, suicide mission witha cat go find some things for
this dress.
Chrissy (17:33):
And so then we spend an exorbitant amount of the hour
and 18 minute movie hiding awayfrom a cat and trying to get
around the cat.
And I'm like, this is like aPeter Jackson movie, but shrunk
down for mouse size.
Like where you do the same sceneover and over again big monster.
Sara (17:49):
If you don't beef it up with this B plot, you have an
shorter-- you have a TV show.
A 20 minute after schoolspecial.
So Drizella and Anastasia havediscarded a sash and some beads
that are trash.
Jaq and Gus go to try to findthem, but Lucifer sees like"Oh,
they want this?" I'm a reallybig fan of all of the little
(18:10):
details throughout the film ofthe way that the mice get around
the house.
All the little doors in molding.
Chrissy (18:16):
I kind of want that, but don't because then that
would mean I'd have mice in myhouse and I really don't want
that.
Sara (18:21):
But then the mice in your house would need to know how to
install hinges, which I don'tsee happening because mice today
are not the artisans ofyesteryear.
Chrissy (18:29):
So then the tiniest carriage in the world shows up.
That's like the carriage inBeauty and the Beast that picked
up Maurice and threw him in it
Sara (18:39):
The step sisters and stepmother are ready to roll.
Chrissy (18:42):
Just about.
They're still topless.
The stepmother is like, well,you're not ready Cinderella."
And none of them are ready.
They're all in their bras.
And she's like,"well, I'm notgoing." Okay.
So she goes up to her tower theyapparently put their shirts on.
Sara (18:55):
She had no time to get herself ready.
She got her chores done.
But no time to get anythingsuitable to wear.
Chrissy (19:02):
And then looks the closet opens-- happy birth day!
Sara (19:08):
The mice and the birds show her their handiwork.
This gorgeous pink dress.
Chrissy (19:13):
She throws it on, runs down the million steps of her
tower.
She's like,"wait for me! I'mready!" The sisters are like,
what the fuck?
Evil Mama's all like, don'tworry, girls.
I got this.
Oh, Cinderella, your dress is sopretty.
What a lovely use of sashes andbeads." And then the girls
figure out that that's theirstuff and they're like, I love
(19:34):
that, why would you take that?"And then they tear her dress to
shreds.
Sara (19:38):
That is such a traumatic, violent scene.
It's so just upsetting.
Chrissy (19:43):
They would never be able to tell that that was their
sash.
The beads, maybe.
Sure, rip off the beads.
But rip the dress to shreds?
Sara (19:50):
They don't want her to go.
Chrissy (19:51):
Girls, girls, I don't want you upsetting yourselves."
So she pulls them off ofCinderella after she's just in
rags.
Sara (19:59):
That Lady Tremain's a real Lady Dickhead.
Chrissy (20:01):
She's a bitch.
So Cinderella runs through thisgigantic manor.
All of a sudden it's like itgets bigger.
Oh, okay.
So visually the house just getsbigger and Cinderella gets
smaller and smaller.
It's a good visual perspectiveof how she's feeling.
Then she runs into the gardenand everybody's watching her.
And when I say everybody, Imean, all the animals.
Sara (20:23):
She was, five minutes before that, elated.
And now she's crushed.
And then she does the classicDisney move.
Girl will run away crying andshe will collapse onto some kind
of or seat to cry face down.
Chrissy (20:35):
Then all of a sudden, a Fairy Godmother starts appearing
underneath her and she's cryinginto her Fairy Godmother's lap
and no longer a stone bench.
Sara (20:42):
The Fairy Godmother pulls a wand out of thin air, and
everyone looks amazed that shepulled a wand out of thin air.
You just watched her appear outof thin air.
Chrissy (20:52):
And then she can't pull all of the other stuff out of
thin air.
She has to turn things into thenecessities for the ball.
So she turns a pumpkin into acarriage.
Turns mice into a horse.
And then turns the horse intothe coachman.
Bruno into a footman.
Sara (21:10):
As the mice turned into horses, they still have mouse
teeth.
And then as the horse turns intothe Coachman, he still has horse
teeth.
Chrissy (21:17):
And she's doing all of this while singing.
Wait.
No.
Most of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boosong is about the pumpkin.
90% of the song is just thepumpkin.
And then she's like,"oh, Hey, weneed all these animals to turn
into things And then there'sjust like little bibbidi bobbidi
boo pfft bibbidi bobbidi boopfft bibbidi bobbidi boo pfft.
Sara (21:35):
Then once everything comes together and the Fairy Godmother
is like,"great, you're ready togo," Cinderella's like"uh, but
my, my dress?"
Chrissy (21:42):
Oh, yes, it's lovely.
It's lovely.
It's lovely.
Oh, no, that won't do it all!
Sara (21:46):
This leads us into what ends up being one of Walt's
favorite pieces of animation,ever, and that's the tattered
dress transforming into TheDress.
And it's so cool, I was watchinga, I think it was Vanity Fair
video.
A animation effects person camethrough and like explain this
transformation He was talkingabout how this moment you have
(22:09):
to have the character animatorand the effects animator working
together.
There's not like one personanimating the whole thing.
You've got the person animatingCinderella doing how the dress
is transforming.
One of the really cool detailsis the sleeve that is torn off
of her shoulder-- cause she's inlike a one shoulder dress by the
end of having everything tornoff of her-- that sleeve flows
back up and makes one of thesleeves for her new dress.
(22:31):
All the elements of the olddress transform into elements of
the new dress.
And while this is happening, youhave the effects person coming
in and animating all of thispixie dust.
And in the industry, it's justknown as pixie dust.
This is, an effect that is used,throughout animation after this,
where you've got these littledots, that then animate into
(22:52):
these little cross stars, thatthen animate into these little
bursts, and how they kind offlow up with everything.
And by the time the magic isdone, they all fall really
nicely, just kind of fall to theground.
This is how you animate magic.
This is how you convey thatmagic is happening.
So she's got her hair up, she'sgot her gorgeous dress which
still has some of the littlesparkles to it so that we know
(23:13):
that it's magic.
And glass slippers.
Chrissy (23:16):
Size four and a half.
Sara (23:18):
I don't know how Cinderella stands up.
Chrissy (23:20):
My mom has really tiny feet, but ain't no four and a
half.
She's got like some Barbie sizefeet.
Sara (23:25):
My six-year-old daughter wears a size four.
Chrissy (23:27):
So Fairy Godmother tells her she has until midnight
and then all of the magic willend.
Sara (23:32):
Which is a bummer, cause this ball didn't start until
seven o'clock, I think?
Eight o'clock?
Chrissy (23:38):
And she was already real late.
Sara (23:39):
Hey, you got 20 minutes to go hang out at this ball.
Chrissy (23:42):
And Cinderella is like, "it's more than I ever hoped
for, so I'm in.
Send me to the ball.
Let's go."
Sara (23:47):
And then as she's going to the ball, you see a lot more of
Mary Blair in the backgroundpieces.
Chrissy (23:53):
So much Mary Blair.
Sara (23:54):
And so we're back at the ball.
We see like every woman beingintroduced to the Prince
individually and he's yawningand the King is pissed that the
Prince has not picked someoneyet.
Chrissy (24:04):
The Grand Duke is narrating in this fairy tale
story.
Like, this is what you want tohappen but it's not gonna
happen.
Simultaneously.
It's happening.
Sara (24:14):
We see Cinderella coming in,
Chrissy (24:16):
Doe-eyed and where am I?
What's going on?
I don't know anything." Everyoneelse is in order and being
called in by name and she's justlike,"huh?
What?
Me?"
Sara (24:27):
Prince Charming just sees her and is like,"ooh, a babe."
They dance The King is yellingat the orchestra to"do the
waltz, do the waltz!" And thenonce he sees the Prince dancing,
he is like great, cool.
This is done.
I'm going to bed.
They're getting married.
Chrissy (24:42):
Wake me up when there's a proposal.
Sara (24:44):
And hey, no pressure, Grand Duke.
But if anything goes wrong, I'llkill ya.
The.
King is downright giddy that hisson might get laid.
It is real weird.
Chrissy (24:53):
And then there's like 10 minutes left of the movie and
everything happens like, boomboom boom boom boom boom boom!
Sara (24:57):
Yes.
Everything.
The clock suddenly strikingmidnight and Cinderella being
like,"oh crap, I've got to go!Bye!" She runs off.
The Prince doesn't know hername, doesn't know anything
about her.
All this time they spent dancingand walking and like about to
kiss and they never exchange anykind of words.
She doesn't know he's thePrince.
She has no clue.
Chrissy (25:16):
She's just like this handsome guy was dancing with
me.
Sara (25:18):
She runs away.
Her shoe comes off.
The Grand Duke is running afterher and she's like,"oh, just
leave my shoe," and keepsrunning.
Cause he's screaming,"close thegates!" And he sends out these
evil ass murder horses to followher.
Girl, these are red flags.
Keep going.
Don't look back.
This seems like a very toxicfamily to marry into.
Chrissy (25:38):
Some Sleepy Hollow Ichabod Crane.
Sara (25:41):
Oh, my God.
So many headless horseman comingafter her.
And these like red-eyed horses.
It was so creepy.
As she's getting away, all themagic starts falling away.
So her dress starts de-magicingand the horses turned back into
mice and the Coachman turns backinto a horse, and the carriage
turns back into a pumpkin.
And just as it does, the evil,red-eye horses run over the
(26:02):
pumpkin crush it and all thelittle fairy dust is left
falling to the ground.
Chrissy (26:06):
But her shoes remained because one was left at the
Castle and one's in her pocket.
Sara (26:12):
Why didn't the shoes go anywhere?
Chrissy (26:13):
Well, you gotta have some kind of magic to bring back
the Prince.
So she goes home.
Next day, everybody's talking.
Sara (26:20):
King wakes up.
Chrissy (26:21):
Pissed.
Sara (26:22):
He wants to know, all right, cool.
So they're engaged?
They're engaged?" We lost her.
She got away and he is ready tomurder the Grand Duke.
He is going after him with asword.
This is a very upsetting workenvironment.
So because they have a shoeleft.
Chrissy (26:36):
And it's this teeny, tiny shoe.
They're like,"This isn't gonnafit just any girl,"
Sara (26:39):
Whoever it fits-- I don't care who it fits-- he's going to
marry.
The Grand Duke has to try theshoe on everyone and then make
the Prince marry whoever itfits.
When word of this gets out, LadyTremaine like burst into her
daughter's rooms and is like,wake up! You're going to try to
shoe."
Chrissy (26:54):
And Cinderella is just like
Sara (26:57):
She's twitterpated.
Chrissy (26:59):
And Lady Tremaine is like, well, that's dangerous
Lock!
Sara (27:03):
Cinderella puts on a dress and puts her hair up and
literally no one can recognizeher.
But as soon as she's likebubbly, happy, Lady Tremaine
just locks her away.
Chrissy (27:13):
So the Grand Duke shows up and the sisters are trying on
this shoe.
Cinderella's trying to get out.
The mice are trying to help her.
Sara (27:21):
They're trying to get the key.
Chrissy (27:22):
At least they don't try to cut their feet off like they
do in
Sara (27:26):
Grimm's
Chrissy (27:27):
fairytale.
Sara (27:28):
In the Grimm's fairy tale, the stepsisters cut their feet
to make them smaller.
Don't ever read Grimm'sfairytales, kids.
It is upsetting
Chrissy (27:36):
I mean, I also enjoy me some Grimms.
I have a whole book, all ofthem.
Then, the mice get the key, butLucifer captures Gus and is
like, no way, man.
You're not getting out.
And so they need a hero.
Sara (27:52):
We need a hero! And Bruno answers the call.
Chrissy (27:56):
As Bruno's are, wants to do.
Sara (27:58):
As Anastasia and Drizella are just like assaulting the
shoe guy, pissed off that it'snot fitting their feet,
Chrissy (28:04):
Cinderella runs down she's like,"wait, your grace.
I've got a foot.
Can I try it on?" And thestepmother is like, no, the hell
you will.
And Grand Duke's like, excuseme, ma'am.
I'm in charge here, so she'sgonna try on this shoe."
Sara (28:18):
And as he goes to bring it to her, Lady Tremaine puts out
her ominous, evil, villainstick, trips the Grand Duke,
sending the shoe flying and itshatters.
And like, if that shoe is soimportant and delicate, why
aren't they just looking at bigfeet and being like, Nope, first
of all.
And then being insanely carefulwith it.
Carrying around on the pillowlike a terrible idea.
(28:40):
a very precarious placing for aglass slipper.
Chrissy (28:42):
So then, she's like, "Hey guys, it's okay, I got a
solution," and the Grand Duke'slike," no, there's nothing we
can do.
So screw it.
I'm dead.""But I have the othershoe." And he's like,"oh, will,
you will marry the Prince." Andthen she marries the Prince and
then the story is over.
And that was like, boom, boom,boom, boom.
Sara (28:59):
We don't see her meet the Prince and the Prince being
like, oh, Hey, you are the girlthat I love." Or her being like,
"oh shit, you're a prince.
You never said you were aprince." And him being like,"we
never said anything.
We gave eachother literally noidentifying information." And
then Cinderella loses her shoeagain as she is leaving the
castle.
Chrissy (29:18):
You should just avoid stairs.
Sara (29:19):
But you know what?
This wedding carriage, it's gota whole bunch of like very Regal
horses.
But at the front of that, isCinderella's horse leading the
bunch.
He gets to lead it.
And they live happily everafter.
The end.
Chrissy (29:32):
The end, indeed.
Sara (29:35):
I generally am not very entertained by some of the
classic Disney movies, but Ilove this.
It is really well done.
The mouse parts are definitely alittle long.
Chrissy (29:45):
I would agree a thousand times.
Like this could have been a 50minute movie, and I would not
have been upset about that.
Although I also love the mice.
Sara (29:53):
It's got its good points and its bad points, but it
definitely has more good pointsand it is just a really fun,
entertaining movie.
So that's it for Cinderella,guys.
Shoot us an email atmouseearsandamovie@gmail.com
before the stroke of midnight toshare your thoughts or find us
on social media before we turnback into pumpkins.
Chrissy (30:12):
Normally this is the part where we get our next movie
out of the bucket, but we'regoing to change things up a
little bit and wrap up our firstseason with a special episode.
Sara and I are going to talkabout the Disney movies we
covered on the podcast thisseason, touch on some that we
haven't ahem Pixar ahem, and uhprobably still make some weird
noises.
Sara (30:32):
That's the end of our show, guys.
I'm Sara Farrell Baker, and youcan find me across social media
@SaraFarrellBaker.
Woj, where can we find you onthe internet?
Chrissy (30:41):
You can find me on Instagram@quirkychrissy and
Twitter@quirky_chrissy.
Follow along with us next week,when we'll be discussing all the
things! Until then, you can findus online at
mouseearsandamovie.com, onInstagram and TikTok
@mouseearsandamovie, and onTwitter@mouseearmovies.
Sara (30:56):
See you're real soon.
Hello, and welcome to Mouse Ears and a Movie, a Disney
animation conversation.
I'm Sara Farrell Baker joined bymy cohost, Chrissy Woj.
Chrissy (00:16):
We are two grown women avoiding responsibility and
watching cartoons.
Every episode, we will bewatching a Disney or Pixar
animated feature chosen atrandom from
Sara (00:25):
The bucket.
Chrissy (00:27):
Then we will reconvene here to share our thoughts, some
behind the scenes knowledge, andprobably make some weird noises.
Sara (00:33):
This week we watched the 1950 Walt Disney animated
feature film, Cinderella.
It's the classic riches to ragsand back to riches story of a
girl whose widowed fathermarries an absolute monster.
When he up and dies, the girlmust serve her wicked stepmother
and stepsisters, and even theirSatan cat.
When a fairy godmother sends herin a pumpkin to a royal ball,
(00:53):
she finds true love, but loses apoorly designed shoe.
To refresh our memories, here'sChrissy with the Cinderella Olaf
recap treatment.
Chrissy (01:00):
It began with an orphan girl living with two stepsisters
and an evil stepmother.
Her parents are dead.
Her dreams of escape, infinite.
A dream is a wish your heartmakes.
They can't order me to stopdreaming.
New mouse in the house! Zuk Zuk.
Cinderelly.
Gus Gus.
Lucifee not funny.
(01:20):
Lucifee mean.
Breakfast! Cinderella! Get onwith your duties.
We'll have a ball to welcome theprince home.
Every eligible maiden is toattend the ball.
Why that's us! And I'm soeligible.
We can do it, we can do it, wecan help our Cinderelly! This
sash and these beads! Trash!What's a royal ball anyways?
(01:43):
Happy birthday! Wait for me! Mybeads! Give them here! And my
sash! Girls, girls.
I don't want you upsettingyourselves.
Good night.
There, there.
I'm your fairy godmother.
Bibbidi bobbidi boo! You haveuntil midnight.
A pretty plot for fairytales.
Take a look at that, you pompouswind bag! So this is love.
(02:08):
Bing! Bing! Goodbye! Goodbye!The pumpkin is dead! Cinderelly,
the slipper! Whoever the shoefits will be the prince's bride.
Block tower for one! Block towerfor one! found the key! Silencio
Bruno! Wait.
We don't talk about-- Nope.
Wrong movie.
Get Bruno! Your grace! Theorders were every maiden.
(02:28):
If it would help, I have theother slipper.
And they lived happily everafter.
The end.
Sara (02:32):
Beautiful.
I love that you did We don'ttalk about and silencio Bruno.
Cause it just says Bruno in mynotes.
I wonder if this is our firstDisney Bruno.
Chrissy (02:41):
This is our first Disney Bruno.
There are three Brunos and twoof them were in the last year
and two of them were bad.
This one's good.
Sara (02:47):
So this is the 12th Disney animated film.
It is nominated for threeAcademy Awards.
Cinderella is one of like ourmost iconic.
I feel like we throw around theword iconic a lot here, but this
time it's deserved.
Chrissy (03:00):
There's a lot of iconic Disney because Disney in and of
itself is iconic.
Sara (03:05):
Very good point.
Cinderella is a huge movie forDisney in so many ways.
Not only is it.
Just aesthetically,thematically, and princess-
wise, an iconic movie.
But it really saved the studio.
It saved not just the studio,but Disney itself, the Disney
company.
The state of the studio prior toCinderella was some crap.
(03:27):
They were on the verge ofbankruptcy because of the war,
and if Cinderella did poorly,the studio would have been
ruined.
Chrissy (03:33):
Well, and say it was because of the war and the
history says it's because of thewar, but it's also in part
because of Disney.
Like this was not the first timehe was on the verge of
bankruptcy by any stretch of theimagination.
And it was not the firstprincess to save his studio.
Sara (03:48):
Do you want to tell us about that?
Chrissy (03:49):
So Disney was the dreamer.
He was the Imagineer, theoriginal Imagineer.
He was the thoughts and ideasand creative mind.
But if it weren't for hisbrother Roy, Disney would not be
what it is.
Roy was the money and the brainsand the business.
And he made sure that Disney'sideas got created, but he also
made sure that didn't go intofinancial ruin every single time
(04:12):
they would have.
Sara (04:12):
Kept the lights on.
Chrissy (04:13):
And Snow White saved the studio, too.
They put everything into SnowWhite.
If Snow White had failed,buh-bye.
Sara (04:19):
This is really interesting to think about kind of
throughout the history of thestudio, how princesses have
saved this company.
Or revived it in various waysjust throughout its history.
Chrissy (04:30):
Yeah, Little Mermaid, man.
We talked about her in thebeginning.
Sara (04:33):
Brought us right out of the dark ages.
Chrissy (04:35):
The first dark ages.
Sara (04:36):
Oh dear God.
Chrissy (04:37):
And didn't Tiana bring us out of the second?
Sara (04:39):
That brought them into the revival.
It is interesting also how theykind of go through like phases
of princess stuff.
You've got princess, princess,princess.
No princess is for awhile.
Princess princess princess.
None for a while.
And it seems like during thebrighter parts of Disney film
era's, you've got a plethora ofprincesses.
Chrissy (04:58):
It's true.
Sara (04:59):
I'm wondering if we have any princess movies in like any
of the dark ages or justcrappier times.
Chrissy (05:05):
Yes we do.
Isn't Black Cauldron a princessmovie?
Sara (05:09):
Girl, I know nothing about Black Cauldron, but it might be.
Chrissy (05:11):
I know there's a princess in it.
Sara (05:13):
Got it.
We got to wait to find out aboutthat one.
Okay, so the movie itself costsabout$3 million to make, but it
would go on to bring in$85million.
It paid Disney's debts.
It financed a distributioncompany.
It paid for live action movies,animated movies, Disney's foray
into TV with Wonderful World ofColor and it also provided the
(05:34):
seed money for Disneyland.
Chrissy (05:36):
That's a lot of money.
Sara (05:37):
Yes without Cinderella.
We don't get anything that comesafter 1950, which is a whole
lot.
Disney before Cinderella is ananimation company.
The end.
Afterwards, they go on to
Chrissy (05:49):
Become a media giant.
Sara (05:50):
It is the beginning of the all- encompassing empire that we
see today.
Chrissy (05:54):
It was nominated for three Academy Awards.
Sara (05:58):
I think it was best sound, best song and best score.
Chrissy (06:02):
Which song was the best song?
Sara (06:04):
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo.
Chrissy (06:05):
Ah, of course.
Sara (06:06):
The other really neat thing here is some of these
voice actors in the movie.
First of all, you have EileenWoods.
She does have a real Cinderellastory with how she got this
role.
She never auditioned.
She was the demo singer for thesongs.
She was just who recorded thesongs to say,"Hey, these are the
ones that we would like to dofor this movie." And Walt hired
her because of those recordings.
Chrissy (06:26):
That's awesome.
My favorite voice in this isLady Tremaine, who is Eleanor
Audley, and she is more famouslyknown as the voice of
Maleficent.
Also the voice of Madame Leotain the crystal ball.
She is not the voice at the end,just the crystal ball.
And that is not her face.
Sara (06:46):
I didn't know that, that that the face and the voice were
different people.
Chrissy (06:50):
Yeah.
So the face is Leota Toombs andshe had such a sickeningly sweet
voice that they didn't want touse it in the crystal ball.
And so they brought in the voiceof Maleficent because they were
like,"This is the voice we want,but we love your face." Leota
Toombs was very well-respectedImagineer and Disney Legend.
But she just didn't have thevoice that they wanted for
(07:11):
Madame Leota.
And so they brought in EleanorAudley.
But at the end of the HauntedMansion, the full body image,
it's Leota Toombs and her voice.
Sara (07:20):
Oh, weird.
Chrissy (07:21):
Yeah.
So when you hear hurry back,hurry back," that's Leota
Toombs' voice.
Sara (07:28):
Okay.
I get it now, because that issuch a different voice from
Eleanor Audley, who has thisreally fantastic, 1950s-- not
haunting, but very scary lady inmy life-- kind of voice.
Chrissy (07:39):
Touch the spindle, Touch it, I say.
Sara (07:42):
Oh my God.
Shivas.
We've got the Fairy Godmother,who was one of my favorite
characters of all time.
As much as Eleanor Audley'svoice is the voice of a scary
lady that you don't want tocross, Verna Felton's voice is
the most comforting grandmabaked me an apple cake kind of
thing.
Chrissy (08:01):
Or a really tall, tiered cake?
Pink and blue?
Sara (08:05):
Ooh, look at you.
Verna Felton is also the voiceof Flora, one of the fairies in
Sleeping Beauty.
And also the queen in SleepingBeauty.
On top of that, she is the voiceof Mama Jumbo in Dumbo.
She is the voice of Aunt Sarahin Lady and the Tramp.
The Queen of Hearts in Alice inWonderland, which I love that
that's her because that's takingsuch a sweet voice, but she puts
(08:27):
like a growl behind it.
Chrissy (08:28):
And, for Aunt Sarah.
Sara (08:29):
Verna Felton's got range.
She's got depth.
She's got layers.
Chrissy (08:33):
And she died the same day as Disney.
Sara (08:36):
Verna Felton and Walt Disney both died December 15th,
1966.
So then we have a few otherfamiliar Disney voices.
This movie is narrated by BettyLou Gerson, who would go on to
play Cruella Deville.
Chrissy (08:51):
Lucifer has a ton of roles.
He was played by June Foray, whowas Grandmother Fa in Mulan.
Granny in the Looney Tunes.
Rocky in Rocky and Bullwinkleand Cindy Lou Who in How the
Grinch Stole Christmas.
Sara (09:04):
If you look at her IMDB, she's in everything.
It's so funny because then onceyou know that the connection is
there, then you hear things.
You start to hear little bitsbetween these different
characters.
Chrissy (09:15):
So this is one of the older movies where the credits
roll before the movie.
And you've got all of thisgorgeous art and, you know, I'm,
I'm looking at em like, that isso Mary Blair."
Sara (09:26):
Mary Blair is all over this movie and I love it.
It makes me so happy.
She.
is probably my favorite DisneyLegend.
Mary Blair is an artist whoinitially came to work for
Disney as an animator, alongwith her husband who she met in
art school.
She really felt kind of stifledat the company.
She didn't like having toanimate in someone else's style.
(09:46):
She didn't feel like she had alot of creative freedom and she
ends up leaving the company.
However, Disney becomes a reallybig fan of her work.
In World War 2, the UnitedStates government asks Walt
Disney to go on a Goodwill tourof South America.
He hand picks Mary Blair and herhusband Lee to go down to South
America, tour differentcountries and get inspiration
(10:07):
for some of the movies that theygo on to make like Saludos
Amigos.
This is where Mary Blair kind ofcomes into her signature style.
These really bright colors, morebold lines and contrast in
colors and not really blendingthings together.
She eventually comes back towork for Disney and is put to
work in movies like Cinderella,Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan.
(10:30):
You can see her touchesthroughout these movies.
Chrissy (10:33):
Of course, back to the theme parks.
She is the main artisticinspiration for It's a Small
world.
Sara (10:40):
And she does the mural for inside of the Contemporary
Resort at Walt Disney World.
That ends up being her lastproject for Disney.
She died a few years after WaltDisney world opened.
So you see her throughout theopening credits.
Chrissy (10:53):
We open and we've got the birds chirping and we see
Cinderella waking up with hermenagerie of wild animals that
just adore her.
She's clearly sweet andwonderful and kind because all
of the animals are doing herbidding.
Sara (11:12):
I'll tell you what-- I'd be so pissed if some birds were
all up in my face tweeting whenI'm trying to get up in the
morning.
Chrissy (11:17):
I think she enjoys it.
Sara (11:19):
This is the most unpleasant way I can think of
waking up.
Chrissy (11:21):
So she wakes up from a dream and she's telling her
animal friends but withouttelling them what happened in
the dream, because it won't cometrue.
The clock chimes and it's timeto start getting ready.
She takes a shower with the helpof birds---
Sara (11:34):
After they shoe all of the boy mice and birds out of the
room.
Chrissy (11:38):
And then they get her dressed and then Jaq comes
running in and there's a newmouse in the house.
And it's my favorite littledude.
Sara (11:45):
We get to meet Octavius.
I wanna how the hell Gus isshort for Octavius, please.
Chrissy (11:51):
We'll call you Gus for short.
Gus Gus.
Sara (11:53):
Gus in his trap and they give him a hat and a shirt and
shoes, and he's all ready to go.
Chrissy (11:59):
And then it's time for breakfast and Cinderella goes
down to feed Luc-- well, she hasto go get Lucifer, which is a
process.
Sara (12:06):
Who the hell names their cat Lucifer?
Chrissy (12:08):
An evil stepmother.
Not quite as wicked witchy asSnow White's stepmother, but
close.
Sara (12:14):
She's up there.
Chrissy (12:15):
So she's got to go feed Lucifer and Bruno the dog.
We don't talk about Bruno.
Sara (12:23):
So Cinderella is going about her chores.
She's feeding the chickens,she's feeding the cat, she's
getting everybody theirbreakfast.
It's weird to me that like, themice and the birds help her so
much, and she doesn't think togive them breakfast?
They have to send Jaq on asuicide mission so that they can
steal corn from the chickens?
Chrissy (12:41):
They spend an exorbitant amount of time on Jaq
and Gus, particularly going onthese little adventures.
It's like The Jaq and Gus Show.
Everything is trying to get pastLucifee-- who his name is
Lucifer, but of the movie wehear him as Lucifee because the
only people who talk about himare the mice.
Sara (12:59):
That's their nemesis.
Chrissy (13:00):
And then Cinderella's getting called and jingled and
rang and she has to bringeverybody their tea and pick up
all of their laundry.
Sara (13:07):
I did laugh at the Downton Abbey bells that they're all
ringing.
Chrissy (13:10):
I'm coming, I'm coming.
So she's got to do the ironingand the laundry and the mending,
which is all laundry by the way.
And then she has to get on withall of her other duties.
But because Jaq was hiding in ateacup, she now has to redo a
bunch of her chores because shehas time for wicked pranks.
And then we jump to the King andhis who when you look at them
(13:32):
visually, change their facialhair a little bit-- and you've
got the two kings in SleepingBeauty.
One of the things I loved aboutthis scene is in the very
beginning of the scene, I wastrying to like pick out little
details because I've seen thismovie so many times and I've
seen so many iterations of it.
But had never noticed in thevery beginning of the scene, the
first thing that happens is theking throws his crown through
(13:52):
the glass and there's thisperfectly glass shaped crown cut
out.
And it was just fun to look atit.
I want art, an art print ofthat.
Sara (14:01):
So the King is throwing a fit because he wants the Prince
to marry so he can havegrandchildren.
I don't think the prince issuper old.
That's not the impression that Iget.
But the King appears to bepretty old.
So it's like, well, you waited along ass time to have a child.
He is on the Grand Duke aboutlike, We are gonna throw a ball.
I want you to throw it tonight.
I want every girl in thekingdom, and the Prince has got
(14:22):
to like one of them.
If we put everybody there, he'llfind one he likes and then
they're going to get married andI'll get some grandkids."
Chrissy (14:28):
And then we go back to Cindy and she's cleaning the
floor and listening to herstep-sisters music practice.
Sara (14:36):
Music in quotes.
This is one of my favoritescenes though.
I want an art print of just thebubbles, the Cinderella bubbles.
The technique for Sing SweetNightingale-- this overdubbing
technique when Cinderella issinging and it's her voice
harmonizing-- Walt heard EileenWoods singing and he said that
he saw a bubble coming up and aharmonizing voice.
And then another bubble withanother voice.
(14:57):
But this is not a thing that wasdone.
This was one of the firstexamples of overdubbing that we
see in music and in movies.
And it gets pioneered because ofSing Sweet Nightingale.
Chrissy (15:08):
That's awesome.
Sara (15:09):
And it's so perfect.
It wouldn't work as well if itwas other people harmonizing
with Eileen Woods.
It works so well to just haveCinderella's reflection in all
of these bubbles.
Chrissy (15:17):
So then after Sing Sweet Nightingale, the urgent
message from his ImperialMajesty comes, and it is a
letter saying, We're going tohave a ball.
Every eligible lady is requiredto attend."
Sara (15:31):
And it's tonight.
Chrissy (15:32):
We need to get this done.
Prince has got to get married,lickety split.
Even Cinderella is allowed to goas long as she gets all of her
chores done and has somethingappropriate to wear.
I said," if."
Sara (15:44):
The scene, it just really highlights how dumb the
stepsisters are.
And I know that they're bad, butI love them so much.
Chrissy (15:52):
I'm so
Sara (15:54):
She says it like an I'm so eligible.
Remember, like as a child, beinglike you can't say eligible.
And just loving.
the delivery of that line.
Chrissy (16:03):
So Cinderella goes, back up to her room and she
pulls out mama's dress from like25 years ago.
And it's little old fashioned.
Sara (16:11):
This is the base of a good dress.
She's thinking of how she can doit.
Chrissy (16:15):
She's going to do it on her lunch break, just like me.
And then the sisters are likecalling her left and right.
Calling her, we need your helpto get ourselves ready for the
ball and fuck everything youhave to do.
Sara (16:25):
Because the word is if, and they don't want her to go
there anyways.
Chrissy (16:28):
And then the mice come in and they're like, wait a
minute, guys, we got this.
We will make Cinderella's dressbecause mice are really
Sara (16:37):
accomplished seamstresses.
Chrissy (16:39):
Skilled artisans.
We can do it, we can do it.
We can help our Cinderelly.
I can't tell you how often Ising that in my life.
I don't know why, but it comesup a lot.
Whenever I'm like, we got this,we can do this.
Sara (16:52):
They are ready to help their girl, even though she will
not just set aside some friggingcorn so they can safely eat
breakfast in the mornings.
They're going to help her out.
Chrissy (16:59):
All right, so they're singing the song and Jaq's like,
"we got this, we can do somesewing." And the girl mouse,
whose name I do not know islike, leave the to the women."
In my house, do you know whodoes the sewing?
It, it ain't me.
Sara (17:13):
In my house, it is also not me.
But it is also not my husband.
We just don't sew.
Chrissy (17:17):
When he needs something sewn, does it himself.
I bring it to my mommy.
Sara (17:21):
Yeah.
They're essentially saying,"hey,we're going to do this part.
Please go find some odds andends.
And again, suicide mission witha cat go find some things for
this dress.
Chrissy (17:33):
And so then we spend an exorbitant amount of the hour
and 18 minute movie hiding awayfrom a cat and trying to get
around the cat.
And I'm like, this is like aPeter Jackson movie, but shrunk
down for mouse size.
Like where you do the same sceneover and over again big monster.
Sara (17:49):
If you don't beef it up with this B plot, you have an
shorter-- you have a TV show.
A 20 minute after schoolspecial.
So Drizella and Anastasia havediscarded a sash and some beads
that are trash.
Jaq and Gus go to try to findthem, but Lucifer sees like"Oh,
they want this?" I'm a reallybig fan of all of the little
(18:10):
details throughout the film ofthe way that the mice get around
the house.
All the little doors in molding.
Chrissy (18:16):
I kind of want that, but don't because then that
would mean I'd have mice in myhouse and I really don't want
that.
Sara (18:21):
But then the mice in your house would need to know how to
install hinges, which I don'tsee happening because mice today
are not the artisans ofyesteryear.
Chrissy (18:29):
So then the tiniest carriage in the world shows up.
That's like the carriage inBeauty and the Beast that picked
up Maurice and threw him in it
Sara (18:39):
The step sisters and stepmother are ready to roll.
Chrissy (18:42):
Just about.
They're still topless.
The stepmother is like, well,you're not ready Cinderella."
And none of them are ready.
They're all in their bras.
And she's like,"well, I'm notgoing." Okay.
So she goes up to her tower theyapparently put their shirts on.
Sara (18:55):
She had no time to get herself ready.
She got her chores done.
But no time to get anythingsuitable to wear.
Chrissy (19:02):
And then looks the closet opens-- happy birth day!
Sara (19:08):
The mice and the birds show her their handiwork.
This gorgeous pink dress.
Chrissy (19:13):
She throws it on, runs down the million steps of her
tower.
She's like,"wait for me! I'mready!" The sisters are like,
what the fuck?
Evil Mama's all like, don'tworry, girls.
I got this.
Oh, Cinderella, your dress is sopretty.
What a lovely use of sashes andbeads." And then the girls
figure out that that's theirstuff and they're like, I love
(19:34):
that, why would you take that?"And then they tear her dress to
shreds.
Sara (19:38):
That is such a traumatic, violent scene.
It's so just upsetting.
Chrissy (19:43):
They would never be able to tell that that was their
sash.
The beads, maybe.
Sure, rip off the beads.
But rip the dress to shreds?
Sara (19:50):
They don't want her to go.
Chrissy (19:51):
Girls, girls, I don't want you upsetting yourselves."
So she pulls them off ofCinderella after she's just in
rags.
Sara (19:59):
That Lady Tremain's a real Lady Dickhead.
Chrissy (20:01):
She's a bitch.
So Cinderella runs through thisgigantic manor.
All of a sudden it's like itgets bigger.
Oh, okay.
So visually the house just getsbigger and Cinderella gets
smaller and smaller.
It's a good visual perspectiveof how she's feeling.
Then she runs into the gardenand everybody's watching her.
And when I say everybody, Imean, all the animals.
Sara (20:23):
She was, five minutes before that, elated.
And now she's crushed.
And then she does the classicDisney move.
Girl will run away crying andshe will collapse onto some kind
of or seat to cry face down.
Chrissy (20:35):
Then all of a sudden, a Fairy Godmother starts appearing
underneath her and she's cryinginto her Fairy Godmother's lap
and no longer a stone bench.
Sara (20:42):
The Fairy Godmother pulls a wand out of thin air, and
everyone looks amazed that shepulled a wand out of thin air.
You just watched her appear outof thin air.
Chrissy (20:52):
And then she can't pull all of the other stuff out of
thin air.
She has to turn things into thenecessities for the ball.
So she turns a pumpkin into acarriage.
Turns mice into a horse.
And then turns the horse intothe coachman.
Bruno into a footman.
Sara (21:10):
As the mice turned into horses, they still have mouse
teeth.
And then as the horse turns intothe Coachman, he still has horse
teeth.
Chrissy (21:17):
And she's doing all of this while singing.
Wait.
No.
Most of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boosong is about the pumpkin.
90% of the song is just thepumpkin.
And then she's like,"oh, Hey, weneed all these animals to turn
into things And then there'sjust like little bibbidi bobbidi
boo pfft bibbidi bobbidi boopfft bibbidi bobbidi boo pfft.
Sara (21:35):
Then once everything comes together and the Fairy Godmother
is like,"great, you're ready togo," Cinderella's like"uh, but
my, my dress?"
Chrissy (21:42):
Oh, yes, it's lovely.
It's lovely.
It's lovely.
Oh, no, that won't do it all!
Sara (21:46):
This leads us into what ends up being one of Walt's
favorite pieces of animation,ever, and that's the tattered
dress transforming into TheDress.
And it's so cool, I was watchinga, I think it was Vanity Fair
video.
A animation effects person camethrough and like explain this
transformation He was talkingabout how this moment you have
(22:09):
to have the character animatorand the effects animator working
together.
There's not like one personanimating the whole thing.
You've got the person animatingCinderella doing how the dress
is transforming.
One of the really cool detailsis the sleeve that is torn off
of her shoulder-- cause she's inlike a one shoulder dress by the
end of having everything tornoff of her-- that sleeve flows
back up and makes one of thesleeves for her new dress.
(22:31):
All the elements of the olddress transform into elements of
the new dress.
And while this is happening, youhave the effects person coming
in and animating all of thispixie dust.
And in the industry, it's justknown as pixie dust.
This is, an effect that is used,throughout animation after this,
where you've got these littledots, that then animate into
(22:52):
these little cross stars, thatthen animate into these little
bursts, and how they kind offlow up with everything.
And by the time the magic isdone, they all fall really
nicely, just kind of fall to theground.
This is how you animate magic.
This is how you convey thatmagic is happening.
So she's got her hair up, she'sgot her gorgeous dress which
still has some of the littlesparkles to it so that we know
(23:13):
that it's magic.
And glass slippers.
Chrissy (23:16):
Size four and a half.
Sara (23:18):
I don't know how Cinderella stands up.
Chrissy (23:20):
My mom has really tiny feet, but ain't no four and a
half.
She's got like some Barbie sizefeet.
Sara (23:25):
My six-year-old daughter wears a size four.
Chrissy (23:27):
So Fairy Godmother tells her she has until midnight
and then all of the magic willend.
Sara (23:32):
Which is a bummer, cause this ball didn't start until
seven o'clock, I think?
Eight o'clock?
Chrissy (23:38):
And she was already real late.
Sara (23:39):
Hey, you got 20 minutes to go hang out at this ball.
Chrissy (23:42):
And Cinderella is like, "it's more than I ever hoped
for, so I'm in.
Send me to the ball.
Let's go."
Sara (23:47):
And then as she's going to the ball, you see a lot more of
Mary Blair in the backgroundpieces.
Chrissy (23:53):
So much Mary Blair.
Sara (23:54):
And so we're back at the ball.
We see like every woman beingintroduced to the Prince
individually and he's yawningand the King is pissed that the
Prince has not picked someoneyet.
Chrissy (24:04):
The Grand Duke is narrating in this fairy tale
story.
Like, this is what you want tohappen but it's not gonna
happen.
Simultaneously.
It's happening.
Sara (24:14):
We see Cinderella coming in,
Chrissy (24:16):
Doe-eyed and where am I?
What's going on?
I don't know anything." Everyoneelse is in order and being
called in by name and she's justlike,"huh?
What?
Me?"
Sara (24:27):
Prince Charming just sees her and is like,"ooh, a babe."
They dance The King is yellingat the orchestra to"do the
waltz, do the waltz!" And thenonce he sees the Prince dancing,
he is like great, cool.
This is done.
I'm going to bed.
They're getting married.
Chrissy (24:42):
Wake me up when there's a proposal.
Sara (24:44):
And hey, no pressure, Grand Duke.
But if anything goes wrong, I'llkill ya.
The.
King is downright giddy that hisson might get laid.
It is real weird.
Chrissy (24:53):
And then there's like 10 minutes left of the movie and
everything happens like, boomboom boom boom boom boom boom!
Sara (24:57):
Yes.
Everything.
The clock suddenly strikingmidnight and Cinderella being
like,"oh crap, I've got to go!Bye!" She runs off.
The Prince doesn't know hername, doesn't know anything
about her.
All this time they spent dancingand walking and like about to
kiss and they never exchange anykind of words.
She doesn't know he's thePrince.
She has no clue.
Chrissy (25:16):
She's just like this handsome guy was dancing with
me.
Sara (25:18):
She runs away.
Her shoe comes off.
The Grand Duke is running afterher and she's like,"oh, just
leave my shoe," and keepsrunning.
Cause he's screaming,"close thegates!" And he sends out these
evil ass murder horses to followher.
Girl, these are red flags.
Keep going.
Don't look back.
This seems like a very toxicfamily to marry into.
Chrissy (25:38):
Some Sleepy Hollow Ichabod Crane.
Sara (25:41):
Oh, my God.
So many headless horseman comingafter her.
And these like red-eyed horses.
It was so creepy.
As she's getting away, all themagic starts falling away.
So her dress starts de-magicingand the horses turned back into
mice and the Coachman turns backinto a horse, and the carriage
turns back into a pumpkin.
And just as it does, the evil,red-eye horses run over the
(26:02):
pumpkin crush it and all thelittle fairy dust is left
falling to the ground.
Chrissy (26:06):
But her shoes remained because one was left at the
Castle and one's in her pocket.
Sara (26:12):
Why didn't the shoes go anywhere?
Chrissy (26:13):
Well, you gotta have some kind of magic to bring back
the Prince.
So she goes home.
Next day, everybody's talking.
Sara (26:20):
King wakes up.
Chrissy (26:21):
Pissed.
Sara (26:22):
He wants to know, all right, cool.
So they're engaged?
They're engaged?" We lost her.
She got away and he is ready tomurder the Grand Duke.
He is going after him with asword.
This is a very upsetting workenvironment.
So because they have a shoeleft.
Chrissy (26:36):
And it's this teeny, tiny shoe.
They're like,"This isn't gonnafit just any girl,"
Sara (26:39):
Whoever it fits-- I don't care who it fits-- he's going to
marry.
The Grand Duke has to try theshoe on everyone and then make
the Prince marry whoever itfits.
When word of this gets out, LadyTremaine like burst into her
daughter's rooms and is like,wake up! You're going to try to
shoe."
Chrissy (26:54):
And Cinderella is just like
Sara (26:57):
She's twitterpated.
Chrissy (26:59):
And Lady Tremaine is like, well, that's dangerous
Lock!
Sara (27:03):
Cinderella puts on a dress and puts her hair up and
literally no one can recognizeher.
But as soon as she's likebubbly, happy, Lady Tremaine
just locks her away.
Chrissy (27:13):
So the Grand Duke shows up and the sisters are trying on
this shoe.
Cinderella's trying to get out.
The mice are trying to help her.
Sara (27:21):
They're trying to get the key.
Chrissy (27:22):
At least they don't try to cut their feet off like they
do in
Sara (27:26):
Grimm's
Chrissy (27:27):
fairytale.
Sara (27:28):
In the Grimm's fairy tale, the stepsisters cut their feet
to make them smaller.
Don't ever read Grimm'sfairytales, kids.
It is upsetting
Chrissy (27:36):
I mean, I also enjoy me some Grimms.
I have a whole book, all ofthem.
Then, the mice get the key, butLucifer captures Gus and is
like, no way, man.
You're not getting out.
And so they need a hero.
Sara (27:52):
We need a hero! And Bruno answers the call.
Chrissy (27:56):
As Bruno's are, wants to do.
Sara (27:58):
As Anastasia and Drizella are just like assaulting the
shoe guy, pissed off that it'snot fitting their feet,
Chrissy (28:04):
Cinderella runs down she's like,"wait, your grace.
I've got a foot.
Can I try it on?" And thestepmother is like, no, the hell
you will.
And Grand Duke's like, excuseme, ma'am.
I'm in charge here, so she'sgonna try on this shoe."
Sara (28:18):
And as he goes to bring it to her, Lady Tremaine puts out
her ominous, evil, villainstick, trips the Grand Duke,
sending the shoe flying and itshatters.
And like, if that shoe is soimportant and delicate, why
aren't they just looking at bigfeet and being like, Nope, first
of all.
And then being insanely carefulwith it.
Carrying around on the pillowlike a terrible idea.
(28:40):
a very precarious placing for aglass slipper.
Chrissy (28:42):
So then, she's like, "Hey guys, it's okay, I got a
solution," and the Grand Duke'slike," no, there's nothing we
can do.
So screw it.
I'm dead.""But I have the othershoe." And he's like,"oh, will,
you will marry the Prince." Andthen she marries the Prince and
then the story is over.
And that was like, boom, boom,boom, boom.
Sara (28:59):
We don't see her meet the Prince and the Prince being
like, oh, Hey, you are the girlthat I love." Or her being like,
"oh shit, you're a prince.
You never said you were aprince." And him being like,"we
never said anything.
We gave eachother literally noidentifying information." And
then Cinderella loses her shoeagain as she is leaving the
castle.
Chrissy (29:18):
You should just avoid stairs.
Sara (29:19):
But you know what?
This wedding carriage, it's gota whole bunch of like very Regal
horses.
But at the front of that, isCinderella's horse leading the
bunch.
He gets to lead it.
And they live happily everafter.
The end.
Chrissy (29:32):
The end, indeed.
Sara (29:35):
I generally am not very entertained by some of the
classic Disney movies, but Ilove this.
It is really well done.
The mouse parts are definitely alittle long.
Chrissy (29:45):
I would agree a thousand times.
Like this could have been a 50minute movie, and I would not
have been upset about that.
Although I also love the mice.
Sara (29:53):
It's got its good points and its bad points, but it
definitely has more good pointsand it is just a really fun,
entertaining movie.
So that's it for Cinderella,guys.
Shoot us an email atmouseearsandamovie@gmail.com
before the stroke of midnight toshare your thoughts or find us
on social media before we turnback into pumpkins.
Chrissy (30:12):
Normally this is the part where we get our next movie
out of the bucket, but we'regoing to change things up a
little bit and wrap up our firstseason with a special episode.
Sara and I are going to talkabout the Disney movies we
covered on the podcast thisseason, touch on some that we
haven't ahem Pixar ahem, and uhprobably still make some weird
noises.
Sara (30:32):
That's the end of our show, guys.
I'm Sara Farrell Baker, and youcan find me across social media
@SaraFarrellBaker.
Woj, where can we find you onthe internet?
Chrissy (30:41):
You can find me on Instagram@quirkychrissy and
Twitter@quirky_chrissy.
Follow along with us next week,when we'll be discussing all the
things! Until then, you can findus online at
mouseearsandamovie.com, onInstagram and TikTok
@mouseearsandamovie, and onTwitter@mouseearmovies.
Sara (30:56):
See you're real soon.
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