Quite good.

Rating: 7/10 (15 August 2010)

I don't have many deep thoughts on Disney's return to feature length narrative animation. To me, it doesn't rank with the best of their work, but it's a very entertaining and charming movie with some excellent animation, music, and characters. What is most fascinating to me is the atmosphere around its release.
After most of Disney's golden age masterpieces proved to be financial disasters, and after WWII had led to a focuses on cheaper productions and serving the war effort, Cinderella came about when the whole studio was in need of a hit, or else it would go under. Thankfully, it proved Disney's most resounding success since Snow White, another princess fairytale, and allowed Walt to break into television and, of course, his fascination with a certain theme park.
It's not hard to detect that the film was made in more more desperate times for the studio, with its overabundance of rotoscope (quite a bit of live-action footage was shot even before production began) and animation which, though lovely, isn't as lavish as Pinocchio's or Fantasia's. Though I had issues with the rotoscope in Snow White, it bugs me less here since it's not as literal, and the work on Lady Tremaine is legitimately imposing. Unfortunately, the design work on the humans is pretty bland overall.
Which is why we must be thankful for the myriad side characters who help Cinderella in her goal to become one of the godless, gluttonous aristocrats. Ward Kimball does a lot of funny stuff on the mice and birds, and Marc Davis has a few standouts too. However, it's Milt Kahl's work on the Fairy Godmother that steals the show. While Kahl usually detested work on human characters, he's clearly having a ball with this one, playing with her facial mannerisms and drapery to give a real sense of fun to the character. Bippity Boppity Boo may be an overexposed number, but her interaction with the effects and other characters in that scene is so enjoyable that I still love it.
The plot is pretty boring. She wants the guy, her evil family won't let her get with the guy, her friends help her work to get the guy, she gets the guy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But that doesn't matter when so many great scenes populate the film. Overall, I think the early fifties is a weaker period for Disney feature animation (though there were fabulous side projects like Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom) but this still shows why they could whip up an entertaining movie even when the conditions were problematic.