Cinderella was the first movie I ever saw. While I watched it over and over again, my brother was in a neighboring theatre watching The Sands of Iwo Jima just as many times. After leaving the theatre, the best I could do to keep the dream alive was sing those movie songs at home.
Of course when my own daughter came along, seeing Cinderella together was a crucial rite of passage.
Fifty years after I first saw the movie, I recently ordered Cinderella on DVD for a little girl I’m fond of, but before handing it over I had to check out all the special features, including interviews with the animation team who put the story together and the stories behind the songs.
Did you know that’s Mike Douglas singing the role of the Prince? And Perry Como debuted songs from the movie on his television show even before it opened?
Finally we sat down to watch, my daughter, my three year old granddaughter and me.
Those birds and mice still put together a heckuva ball gown. The cat is still sneaky and the stepmother is still the epitome of mean.
But oh that music! The fairy tale soprano singing A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes, the chirpy animals singing about “Cinderelly” while trying to help her get to the ball, Sing Sweet Nightingale at the music lesson, and the Prince and Cinderella dancing to So This Is Love.
For our youngest family member, it’s the “Godmudder” who takes her fancy with the song, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.
The little girl I’m spending time with today doesn’t really want to watch for more than a few minutes at a time. She wants to be Cinderella. Cinderella is more than a movie. It’s her own personal script. It’s that way too with Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and Ariel and Belle from Beauty & The Beast. Their likenesses exist on every item of merchandise a little girl wears, sleeps with, eats from and carries off to preschool.
She has her own DVD players for the car and home. Her own CD collection for the road zips inside a holder that looks like a ladybug and unfolds to reveal all of the traditional nursery rhymes set to music – and now the Disney soundtracks.
Her friends have Princess Parties. And the Magic Kingdom has elaborate parties of their own. I know one little girl who traveled from Manhattan to Disneyland with her family to attend.
In my granddaughter’s interactive world, the two words we hear most often are: Pause it. If we’re lucky, it’s three, Pause it please.
Pause it please. Let me get my princess skirt. Pause it please. Let me get my tiara. Pause it. Magic wand. Pause it. Watch me dance. Pause it please. I want to sing that song.
When I was a girl, I could watch the princesses only on a Saturday down at the Alex Theatre. Today every girl becomes a princess. Smart move, Disney.
Ó Anita Garner 2008