Another childhood classic from Disney

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2013)

Along with 'Peter Pan' and 'The Little Mermaid,' 'Cinderella' was one of my favourite Disney films as a child. This film was engaging for the most part, but I feel that the announcement of the ball took longer than it should have done due to a somewhat overlong segment of Cinderella doing her duties and a couple of the scenes involving the king and the duke were slightly irrelevant to the film's main plot. The mice were hard to understand when I heard them speak for the first time in this film for several years but they were cute, funny and active supporting characters nonetheless. Also the film's location setting (probably a toss-up between France and the Netherlands) and time period are hard to determine. The ending was rushed yet memorable with some twists and turns leading up to it.
The best aspects of this film were the prologue that consists of a moving back-story of Cinderella and her step-family; beautiful illustrations; very young versions of Cinderella and her stepsisters and simple animation, which got better as the film progressed; the memorable songs (In particular the opening song, 'A Dream is a Wish,' 'Sing Sweet Nightingale,' the brief song sung by the mice before they made Cinderella's dress, 'Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo' and the song that plays when Cinderella dances with the prince); the bubble sequence during 'Sing Sweet Nightingale;' the dressmaking scene and the Fairy Godmother scene.
In conclusion, this film isn't quite as enjoyable as 'Peter Pan' and 'The Little Mermaid,' but it was worth another look after several years. 8/10.