Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Cinderella" is a 7-minute black-and-white film from 1922 and this is Walt Disney's silent film take on the famous story by French 17th century writer Charles Perrault. Maybe this tale badly needs sound and color as this one here (without these two) is very difficult to watch. It is extremely fast to fit in as much action as possible into this short runtime, but it feels also extremely bizarre, especially in the first half. I am pretty sure that if the story would not be that well-known to anybody, this one here would be perceived even worse than it actually is because nobody would have a clue what was going on here. I cannot say I enjoyed the watch at all and I was actually glad it was over so quickly. And yes, this one may be almost 100 years old, but even back then animation was already better than we see in here. Watch the Betty Boop take on the story instead (with color and sound).
Michael_Elliott
Cinderella (1922) *** (out of 4) Walt Disney directed this early cartoon from the Laugh-O-Gram. The story is pretty simple as Cinderella wants to go to the Prince's ball but of course her evil stepsisters won't allow that. Thankfully her Fairy Godmother shows up just in time. There's really nothing overly special about this film other than the fact that Disney worked on it. If you took away that interesting bit of history then it's doubtful too many people would be seeking this version out. However, it's impossible to get away from who directed it so if you happen to watch this version you'll see it's nothing too special but it remains mildly entertaining. The animation itself was good for its period but I think the highlight is just seeing how weird it actually is. The Prince is rather dorky to say the least and the entire story is just told in such a way that you can't help but find it weird but interesting.
MartinHafer
One of the Walt Disney Company's most famous full-length cartoons was "Cinderella" back in 1950. However, few fans today would know that Walt himself made another Cinderella story long before this--back in 1922. Back then, Walt had just created the Laugh-O-Gram studio. Unfortunately, his cartoons never really made much money and the studio shut down soon after--and Walt moved from Kansas City to California. When you watch "Cinderella" (1922), you need to keep a VERY open mind. Cartoons were all black & white, silent and quite short--and so compared to the average cartoon of the day, "Cinderella" is quite well done and cute. It's also very watchable today--something that can't be said of most of these older toons.The story is very different from the traditional Perrault story. Much time is spent on extraneous things meant to entertain as opposed to convey the story--such as showing the young Prince hunting and then writing invitations. It's also quite different because Disney apparently forgot to include an evil step-mother--or even any step-mother. Instead, she lives with her two homely sisters who won't let her go the the ball. And, interestingly, although the Prince later goes looking for Cinderella with the shoe, he never even tries it on her--as, when he sees her he instantly knows who she is (this actually makes A LOT more sense told this way).All in all, a cute little film that fans of the studio might enjoy seeing--just to compare it to the later film and to see how far Disney progressed over the years.
tavm
Nearly 28 years before making the classic feature-length animated version of Cinderella, Walt Disney made a short 7-minute version for the Laugh-O-Grams studio in Kansas City. In this one, the title character is doing dishes with her cat while her stepsisters are lying around reading the papers (there is no evil stepmother here). I better mention that this takes place in the '20s with flappers and cars. Meanwhile, the prince is out hunting for bears (in this sequence, the bears are dancing just before the prince ties them up in one rope!). After he sends his cat with the invitations, that cat gets a little injured but when someone asks if he's all right, he hits him with his stilt! After the stepsisters leave Cinderella and the cat alone in the house, the fairy godmother gets them a car with a flapper dress for the girl. If you know the story you can probably guess what happens at this point on. I will also mention that Cinderella and the prince look similar to the characters in the first cartoon Disney made, Little Red Riding Hood. The animation here is actually an improvement from his first two that I saw on YouTube. So on that note, I highly recommend this first version of the famous fairy tale made by the legendary Walt Disney.
AD
