Cinderella (character)

Cinderella is the titular protagonist of Disney's 1950 animated feature film of the same name. After the death of her mother, her father remarried, believing that she "needed a mother's care". He died shortly thereafter, upon which she was forced to work as a scullery maid for her wicked stepmother, Lady Tremaine and two stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella.
Despite the cruelty of her jealous stepfamily, Cinderella remained kind, spirited, and internally beautiful. Her faith and everlasting optimism manifested itself into a Fairy Godmother, whose magic served as a catalyst for Cinderella's ascent from servant to princess.
Cinderella is the second official member of the Disney Princess line-up, preceded by Snow White.
==Background==
Cinderella was born to wealthy, unnamed parents who treated their daughter with great love. The family resided in a château, just beyond a small- but powerful- kingdom. Sometime during her childhood, Cinderella's mother tragically passed away, and as a result of believing his daughter needed a mother figure in her life, Cinderella's father remarried a woman named Lady Tremaine, who notably had two daughters of her own, both around Cinderella's age: Anastasia and Drizella. After the death of her father, Cinderella was under the control of Lady Tremaine, whose true colors finally surfaced, showing a cruel and cold-hearted woman. Her selfishness and vanity destroyed both the family fortune and left the once beautiful château in a state of disrepair. While pampering her own two daughters and spoiling them rotten, she raised Cinderella in abuse and virtual slavery. This was a result of being wickedly jealous of the young girl's natural beauty and charm, which she and her own daughters all lacked. This went on for many years, but Cinderella's personality remained sweet, humble, and kind.
===Official Description===
:Cinderella is kind to all, especially her mice friends, Jaq and Gus. She has faith that if you keep on believing, your wish will come true. With help from her fairy godmother, she gets a chance to live her dreams.
===Development===
The Disney version of Cinderella was based on the protagonist of the French version of the tale by Charles Perrault, "Cinderella", written in 1698.
Cinderella was animated by Marc Davis and Eric Larson, but the two animators did not have the same perception of the character, accentuating the elegance of Davis and Larson's opting for simplicity. This resulted in Cinderella being a more complicated character than her predecessor Snow White, due to her duality. As done with other Disney films, Walt Disney hired actress Helene Stanley to perform the live-action reference for Cinderella. She later was asked to do the same kind of work for the characters of Aurora in Sleeping Beauty and Anita Radcliffe in One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
According to Christopher Finch, the author of The Art of Walt Disney:
:Disney insisted that all scenes involving human characters should be shot first in live-action to determine that they would work before the expensive business of animation was permitted to start. The animators did not like this way of working, feeling it detracted from their ability to create the character. The animators understood the necessity for this approach and in retrospect acknowledged that Disney had handled things with considerable subtlety.
===Voice===
About 400 contestants auditioned for the role of Cinderella. Out of all of them, Walt Disney chose Ilene Woods, who worked on the radio at the time and did not know anything about the audition itself. One day, her colleagues Mack David and Jerry Livingston asked her to sing a song from Cinderella, and she agreed. Then, without saying a word to her, friends of Ilene transferred to the office of film at Disney. After listening to the material, Walt Disney immediately decided that he had found the voice with which to speak and sing its main character, and contacted Ilene.
When casting for Cinderella II: Dreams Come True in 1999, Jennifer Hale was selected as Woods was deemed too old to be able to produce the sweetness needed for Cinderella. Hale has been the main voice of Cinderella since the House of Mouse debuted in 2001.
===Personality===
Despite being raised in toxicity and emotional abuse, Cinderella declared herself independent and strong-willed by remaining kind-hearted and self-loving, unlike her cruel stepfamily, not allowing the bitterness surrounding her life to overtake her and morph her into someone as cruel as her stepfamily. She makes the most of her misfortunes by remaining optimistic of the possibilities of a brighter future, keeping herself preoccupied with enforced housework and friendly bonds built with her pets, birds, and dozens of mice that have found themselves trapped over the years by Tremaine's mouse traps, only to be rescued and spared by Cinderella. She would also protect her animal companions from her stepfamily, mostly the mice, and would take it upon herself to make sure they were well-fed, clothed, and had places to stay. In gratitude, the birds and mice would become loyal companions to Cinderella, providing her with company and serving as diligent helpers should something troubling occur. The particular devotion of the mice would ultimately play a crucial role in the young woman escaping her abusive household, thus furthering the example of how Cinderella's evergreen kindness towards others, despite her situation, would ultimately lead to her uprising.
As assumed, Cinderella's primary goal in life was to escape her stepfamily (though her dreams and other goals also seemed to be of romance, especially with the lyrics from "So This is Love" where Cinderella and the Prince sing, "So this is the miracle that I've been dreaming of.") However, as she was under Lady Tremaine's control since her childhood when her father passed away, such a feat proved to be difficult, with the emotional abuse and manipulation having been planted in Cinderella's mind for far too many years, making for an obedient and fearful young woman when faced with Tremaine's wrath; she would typically make attempts to avoid any form of conflict with her stepmother and stepsisters as a direct result of this.
Cinderella is also witty and sarcastic, at least when she is alone, and during those moments she would often make quips regarding her stepfamily's laziness, lack of talent, and over-dependence on her. She is also unafraid to stand up for herself when she feels she's in the right - or at least attempt to do so, especially seen when she stands up for herself as being able to go to the ball, and though she strives to contain her optimistic aura, she can fall into fits of frustration and annoyance quite often. This is seen through her interactions with Lady Tremaine's cat, Lucifer, who she sarcastically refers to as "Your Highness" and "Your Majesty", and openly berates for his cruelty, which mirrors that of her cruel stepmother. Her daily goal is to make the most of her situation, but she never forces herself to bottle up her true emotions in an unhealthy manner; instead, wisely keeping them under control, while also keeping in mind that the future holds brighter experiences. She also is shown to have common sense, as shown after Drizella and Anastasia rushed to Lady Tremaine in fear about how Cinderella had allegedly put a mouse in their teacup, Cinderella, hearing the report, immediately deduced that it had been Lucifer who had actually been responsible, and forced him to reveal Gus, allowing Gus a quick escape. She also happens to be quite intelligent, as shown when she thinks of how poorly she's raised and figure out a way to escape, as demonstrated when she strategized with her animals friends from her room and keep the glass slipper a secret until the right time in case the other one gets destroyed.
In Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, Cinderella further utilizes her bravery and kindness as she navigates through her new life as a princess. In the film's first segment, Aim To Please, Cinderella is tasked with organizing a royal banquet to test her worthiness as the kingdom's new princess. With her upbringing as a servant, Cinderella struggles to adapt to the lavish traditions of the palace, but ultimately decides to break tradition and throw the party her own way. The segment also reveals that her hard-working, independent nature persists even as a princess, when she is shown to prefer cooking breakfast herself instead of leaving it to the castle staff, an aspect which would be majorly expanded upon in the next sequel. The third segment, A Uncommon Romance sees Cinderella helping her stepsister, Anastasia, when she discovers she and a local baker have fallen in love, showing that Cinderella is willing to forgive her stepfamily for their mistreatment of her.
In Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, Cinderella's hard-working ethics, optimism, kindness and devotion are put to the test when she is magically stripped away from her "happily ever after" by a vengeful and then magically-empowered Tremaine and is forced to jump into physical action to restore her happy life and relationship with Prince Charming and save Anastasia from her mother's cruel and vain influence when it becomes clear that she is also being abused and manipulated by her mother. During these events, Cinderella is shown to be cunning, tactical, persistent, and a fierce rival to those who oppress her. She is able to defeat her stepmother from causing more harm to the kingdom, repair her relationship with a reformed Anastasia and retain her much-deserved life of happiness, proving both her independence and strong will.
===Physical appearance===
Cinderella is a beautiful young woman of slender build, an hourglass figure, and a softly-shaped, kind face. Her skin is fair and flawless, and she has pink lips, duchess nose and blue eyes. Cinderella's hair is strawberry-blonde (golden blonde in most merchandise and sandy blonde in the 2023 remaster of the 1950 film) and medium-length with soft bangs.
In her initial appearance before changing to her maid outfit, she wears a light blue long-sleeved collared nightgown adorned with a blue ribbon and black ballet flats from her maid outfit. Her hair is tied in two low pigtailed braids before removing the blue ribbons on each side to make it loose.
During the bath scene, when she removes her collared nightgown and being showered by her several bird friends using a wet sponge, Cinderella's hair is tied into a bun.
In most of her appearances, she was seen in a maid's outfit, which consisted of a dark brown bodice with long, light aquamarine sleeves and a brown, knee-length skirt. Her hair was softly tied back into a low ponytail with an aqua ribbon. She also wore a white apron and a pair of black ballet flats with gray soles. On her occasional tasks, she wore a white apron and a kerchief in her hair. While doing outdoor chores, she wore brown wooden clogs over her black flats. At the near end of the movie, her hair is now loose rather than in a low ponytail. In later appearances in both sequels, Cinderella's maid outfit sleeves are now pale blue, and her hair remains loose.
For her first ball gown, modified from one that belonged to her late mother, she wore a frilly, sleeveless, pink-and-white dress with pink ribbons and a sash with a jade beaded necklace before her stepsisters violently mess up with it after seeing their discarded items being sewn onto it. She also wore a hair band with a white bow and red dress shoes with her gown.
Her second dress and most commonly seen sleeveless dress is a sparkling silvery-whitish ball gown with a low-cut neckline, pale cornflower blue bustle, white-capped sleeves, white armpit length opera gloves, a delicate laced white petticoat, and glass slippers topped with sparkly hearts. (It should be noted, though, that the ball gown is often colored light powder blue in merchandise and later productions.) Her hair is pulled up into a variation of a French twist complimented with a very light bluish-gray band over it with large gems on both ends of the band (in recent merchandise, the two gems of the band have been replaced with diamond earrings). She also wears a simple black choker around her neck.
Her wedding dress consists of a beautiful white dress and petticoat that exposed little cleavage. She uses her hair in a bun (though in the original film, we do not see where her bun is. In Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, we see it as a low bun) with a white tiara and a cap. Her veil is pulled back from her hair. The dress has long triangular sleeves, with a black choker around the neck (a white ribbon in Cinderella III), along with white dress shoes.
In Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, she wore a pink-and-white version of her original iconic Princess dress. While getting ready for the banquet in the same segment, she had to wear was a pink, formal, and rather puffy dress with a cage crinoline underneath, an elaborate hairstyle with several pink bows and pearls, pearl earrings, white armpit length opera gloves, and pink high-heeled shoes.
The dress she wears to the royal ball she arranges is a sea green/teal ball gown rather like her original, but with a corset attached to a flat triangular overskirt and a spiky-laced white petticoat. She has a simple black choker with emeralds hanging on it. Cinderella wears a more sea green version of her original headband and evening gloves. She also has the same French twist hairstyle from her original Princess dress.
In both "Aim to Please" and "Tail Tail", she wore a blue-and-white version of her maid outfit with the same black flats. During the party in "Tail Tail", she wore a yellow ball gown with the same French twist hairstyle from her original Princess dress.
In "An Uncommon Romance" she has the same maid outfit and a light blue colored variant of her ball gown from the original film.
In Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, Cinderella wore two wedding gowns along with her maid outfit. She also has two normal outfits at the beginning of the movie. In her initial appearance before Lady Tremaine altering the time using the Fairy Godmother's wand, Cinderella was seen in her normal outfit similar to her husband Prince Charming's; a light brown formal vest with a pale yellow long-sleeved collared shirt, cream-colored long skirt and brown heels. Her hair is left loose while wearing this outfit. Her other outfit which it was seen in her portrait with her husband, she was seen wearing a similar outfit as the first outfit as her formal vest is brown, her long skirt is gold with a light-yellow petticoat as the length of the skirt covers her brown heels and has a matching light-yellow tie on the collar.
When disguised as a housemaid, she wore a full white frilled apron with matching bonnet with her maid outfit. When Lady Tremaine pulls off her bonnet, her hair is briefly messy with two loose strands and messy fringes and tied in a ponytail similar to Belle's.
While wearing her maid outfit when she is about to be banished whilst riding in the ship and being reunited with Prince Charming, her hair is loose to show her full fringes.
Towards the climax, she wears her wedding dress from the first movie (albeit recolored pale blue). When Cinderella is transported to the twisted pumpkin carriage by Tremaine, her dress becomes shredded; the sleeves are now short, her shoes and veil are completely gone, and her hair is now in a messy bun.
At the end of the film, her second dress is a white elaborate long-sleeved wedding gown with its V-neckline has three linings to show her cleavage. She also wears an elaborate diamond tiara along with a long sparkling wedding veil and white heels. Her hair is changed to her signature French twist. The edge of the dress skirt from her wedding gown has diamond designs. In the final picture in the credits sequence, her veil and tiara are erroneously replaced with a white headband.
===Abilities===
*Animal Empathy and Communication: Cinderella has a special ability to empathize with animals, perceive what they say and communicate with them.
==Appearances==
===Cinderella===
Cinderella is the daughter of a widowed aristocrat who gave her every luxury and comfort in her youth. Her father, feeling she needed a mother figure in her life, married Lady Tremaine, who had two daughters about her age from a previous marriage: Anastasia and Drizella. However, after her father's passing shortly thereafter, Lady Tremaine revealed herself to be a passive-aggressive tyrant who is jealous of Cinderella's beauty surpassing her own daughters'. She, her daughters, and their pet cat Lucifer abused and mistreated Cinderella, ultimately forcing her to become a scullery maid in her own home. Her only friends around the château became mice (especially Jaq and Gus), the birds, Bruno the dog, and Major the horse whom have been owned by her father and left in her care after his passing.
One day while attending to her usual chores, Cinderella receives an invitation to a royal ball at the King's castle. She immediately delivers it to her stepmother, who tells her she can go―provided that she finishes all of her chores and is able to find something suitable to wear at the ball. After thanking her stepmother, she goes back to her room, where she shows the mice and birds a dress that had belonged to her late birth mother. Cinderella intends to redesign the dress into a sleeveless ballgown, but her stepfamily calls her downstairs to help them dress for the ball before she has time to fix it up. The mice and birds, feeling sorry for her, decide to alter the dress for Cinderella themselves. While Cinderella attends to her stepfamily's demands, the animals work on the dress, with Jaq and Gus finding a sash that Anastasia doesn't want anymore as well as some beads which are thrown out by Drizella and taking them to help fix the dress.
By nightfall, Cinderella has finished all her chores, but is despondent over not going to the ball. Cinderella sees a carriage outside the château through a large window. She goes to inform her stepmother that it has arrived to take her stepfamily to the ball. When Lady Tremaine notices that Cinderella has not yet dressed for the event, Cinderella replies that she is not going, to which Lady Tremaine points out that there are other times Cinderella will be able to attend while smiling wickedly about Cinderella not going to her own daughters, who return the gesture. Cinderella walks back to her room and looks out the castle's window, wondering what a royal ball will be like.
Just then, she is pleasantly surprised when the mice and birds reveal they finished her dress for her. Delighted, she thanks them for their selfless act and changes into the dress before rushing downstairs to join her stepfamily. However, when they see Cinderella, Lady Tremaine recognizes her daughters' discarded items on the dress and coyly points them out to her girls. The stepsisters then flies into a rage in the belief that Cinderella stole their discarded items to use on her dress and, not caring about the fact that the dress belonged to Cinderella's birth mother, tear it apart in their fury. When the dress is reduced to tatters, and Lady Tremaine calls her daughters off, Cinderella's stepfamily departs for the ball without her.
Having reached her limit with her stepfamily's abuse, a devastated Cinderella runs outside to the garden and breaks down in tears, with the mice, Bruno, and Major watching her in sadness. She throws herself onto a bench and begins sobbing at the apparent loss of her dreams, feeling unable to continue enduring the cruelty of her stepfamily through hope and optimism any longer. Shortly thereafter, her magical Fairy Godmother appears on the bench to comfort Cinderella, explaining the latter's hope still reigns strong deep inside her, as the former wouldn't have been able to appear otherwise. The Fairy Godmother then insists that Cinderella attends the ball and demonstrates her magical abilities as she transforms a pumpkin into a coach, four of the mice into horses, Major into a coachman, and Bruno into a footman, before transforming Cinderella's ruined dress into a beautiful, sparkling ball gown, complete with glass slippers. The Fairy Godmother warns Cinderella that all her magic will be undone at the stroke of midnight. Cinderella thanks her, unimaginably grateful for the Godmother's kindness, and quickly jumps into the coach and sets off for the ball, waving goodbye to the Fairy Godmother as she does.
Cinderella arrives at the castle while the ball is still in procession. She walks upstairs to the castle's ballroom, where she attracts the attention of Prince Charming, who is enchanted by her sparkling appearance and walks over to her. He escorts her to the middle of the ballroom, and (surrounded by the other guests in attendance) the two begin to waltz. The two spend time alone together outside (courtesy of the Grand Duke), during which they become completely enthralled with each other and are about to kiss, but then the clock begins to strike midnight, prompting Cinderella, who has lost track of time and also has not realized at this point that she has been dancing with the Prince himself, to leave abruptly, realizing that the Fairy Godmother's magic is about to end. Panicked, she runs away from the palace.
As she runs down the stairs, she inadvertently drops one of her two glass slippers; nevertheless, she jumps into the coach and leaves the castle with the royal guards in pursuit (summoned by the Grand Duke). At the clock's twelfth strike, the spell breaks, reverting everything back to what it was. After running behind the bushes to hide from the palace guards who gallop past the pumpkin (smashing it in the process), Cinderella, her dress reverted once again to the rags of her late mother's destroyed dress, apologizes to the mice, Major, and Bruno for forgetting the time before going over her wonderful time at the ball, including her dance with the Prince. Just as she accepts that it has all ended, Jaq and Gus point out a glass slipper, the only remaining object from the Fairy Godmother's magic, on her foot. Cinderella takes off the slipper and thanks her Fairy Godmother for her help.
Meanwhile, back at the castle, the King orders the Grand Duke to search all over the kingdom for whoever can fit the slipper, the only clue of the mysterious maiden that the Prince wants to marry. Back at the château, Cinderella resumes her duties as a maid. As she walks upstairs, carrying breakfast for Anastasia and Drizella, she overhears Lady Tremaine telling Anastasia and Drizella about the news of the Duke's search for the girl who has lost a slipper at the ball last night and whom the Prince is madly in love with, causing Cinderella, upon realizing that handsome man she danced with was Prince Charming, to become so distracted that she drops the breakfast tray in the process, angering her stepmother. As she obeys her stepmother and cleans up the mess, she overhears Lady Tremaine continuing to tell her daughters that the girl who can fit the slipper will be the Prince's bride, making Cinderella smile dreamily, even when her stepsisters stack clothing in her arms, the sight of which makes them suspicious of her peculiar facial expression.
Upon hearing that the two have to get dressed in preparation for the Duke's arrival, Cinderella decides that she too must get ready. She puts down the clothes and heads upstairs to her room, singing and humming the tune she and the Prince had sung at the ball. Unknown to her, Lady Tremaine is spying on her dance-like movements and realizes Cinderella was the mysterious girl who danced with the Prince all along. Jaq and Gus see Lady Tremaine heading upstairs to the tower and, sensing the danger, rush to Cinderella's room to warn her, but Cinderella is too busy preparing herself to meet the Duke. By the time she sees them trying to warn her, she catches sight of Lady Tremaine locking the door (through a mirror), but it's too late, as the wicked stepmother slams the door shut. Having seen Lady Tremaine put the key into her pocket, Jaq and Gus decide to steal the key back and take it to Cinderella's room to free her.
A short time later, the Grand Duke and the Herald arrived at the château. While Cinderella sobs in front of the locked door, believing that her dreams of being reunited with the Prince have been shattered forever, Jaq and Gus steal the key to her room from Lady Tremaine. Cinderella hears Jaq and Gus climbing up the stairs outside her room panting and looks through the keyhole to see that the two mice have finally made it to the top with the key in tow, filling her once again with relief and hope, but is again shocked when Lucifer ambushes and traps Gus inside a bowl, along with the key. She pleads with Lucifer to let Gus go, but the stubborn cat refuses, knowing that he is buying time for the Grand Duke to leave and preventing Cinderella from trying on the slipper, as well as wanting to eat Gus as he has been trying to do throughout the movie. When the mice and the birds' attempts to make Lucifer release Gus fail, Cinderella, quickly realizing that Bruno may be the only one who can rid of Lucifer, orders the birds to fetch the dog. Bruno quickly arrives and frightens the cat into jumping out of a window, getting rid of him for the time being. Now victorious, Jaq and Gus wedge the key through an opening between the door and the floor, allowing Cinderella to finally exit her room and head downstairs.
Just as the Duke is about to leave, Cinderella calls out to him, causing his departure to be cut short, much to her stepfamily's horror. They try to dismiss Cinderella as just a scullery maid, but the Duke rebuffs Lady Tremaine as his orders were to have every maiden in the kingdom try on the slipper and helps Cinderella onto a chair so that she can try it on. He calls for the Herald to deliver the slipper, but Lady Tremaine, in one final desperate attempt to shatter Cinderella's dreams, trips him with her cane, sending the slipper flying and shattering it in front of the Duke and Cinderella. As the Duke reacts in horror and terror about the King's reaction and it is seeming that Lady Tremaine would keep Cinderella in her home forever, Cinderella reveals that she has the other slipper, which she pulls out from her apron, horrifying her stepmother, but filling the Duke again with joy and hope. He slides the slipper onto Cinderella's foot, and it fits perfectly.
Cinderella, along with the mice, birds, Bruno, and Major, is taken to the castle, where she reunites with Prince Charming and becomes his bride and a princess. The King and the Grand Duke happily celebrate their marriage as the newlyweds head downstairs to a carriage that will take them on their honeymoon. As Cinderella walks down the stairs with the Prince, she drops her slipper once again, prompting her to go back for it. The King assists her in putting it back on, and Cinderella gives him a kiss on the head to thank him. Cinderella and the Prince ride off in the carriage, and Cinderella waves goodbye to her mice friends, who wave back at her. As the carriage pulls away, Cinderella and the Prince share a kiss (with the final words in the book, below the illustration of the couple kissing, reading "and they lived happily ever after").
===Cinderella II: Dreams Come True===
Around a year after the events of the original movie, Jaq and Gus set off to make a new book to narrate what happens after the ending of the previous story by stringing three segments of astounding stories together, making three separate stories that are titled: "Aim to Please", "Tall Tail", and "An Uncommon Romance".
In the first story "Aim to Please", Cinderella and Prince Charming return home from their honeymoon, only to find that Charming and the King have to leave once again for royal affairs, leaving Cinderella in charge of a royal banquet that is to be held. Not knowing the first thing about organizing parties or the royal traditions, Cinderella struggles with her new life and tasks as royalty, and she ultimately decides to disregard the old traditions and set things anew, successfully throwing the party in her own unique style.
In the second story "Tall Tail", Cinderella and the Grand Duke work together throughout the castle to prepare for a festival, while Jaq feels guilt for his inability to assist her due to his size. Fairy Godmother, however, transforms Jaq into a human by the name of Sir Hugh, and in this new guise, he offers Cinderella assistance numerous times, only to fail abruptly when he does and ultimately realizes he's better off as a mouse anyway.
In the third and final story called "An Uncommon Romance", Anastasia falls in love with a local baker, much to the disgust and disapproval of Lady Tremaine and Drizella. Anastasia is told by her mother to never see the baker again. Having been watching the whole time, Cinderella comes up with a plan to get her stepsister back with the baker by getting her mouse friends (including Jaq and Gus) to distract him while the birds steal Anastasia's hat and fly off to the bakery with the intention of having her run after them to get it back and reunite with the baker again. The attempt backfires when the mice run into Lucifer (their old nemesis) who gives chase, resulting in a startled horse kicking Anastasia into the baker's shop. Anastasia runs out, breaking down in tears, and retreats to a quiet area in the village. She is found and comforted by Cinderella, who offers to help her stepsister change for the better and win the baker's heart. In the end, not only does Anastasia blossom a romantic relationship with the baker, but a loving relationship between her and Cinderella is also formed, finally accepting each other as true sisters.
===Cinderella III: A Twist in Time===
Cinderella and Prince Charming are celebrating their first anniversary when Fairy Godmother accidentally loses her wand to Anastasia. She immediately takes it to Lady Tremaine and Drizella, who learn the power of the wand and how to wield it properly. After the Fairy Godmother is accidentally transformed into a statue, Lady Tremaine then reverses time to before Cinderella tried on the slipper. By using magic, the slipper is able to fit Anastasia. Cinderella tries to convince Lady Tremaine that the slipper belongs to her by showing her that she has the other one. Instead, Lady Tremaine calls her night with Prince Charming nothing more than a dream and destroys the other slipper. Cinderella is left at the château while her stepmother and Lucifer make way to the castle to meet her prince. Devastated and confused, Cinderella begins to attend to her normal duties, but regains her confidence and decides to meet with the prince herself, knowing he should recognize her when he sees her. Cinderella, Jaq, Gus, and two bluebirds, sneak into the palace and begin their search.
When she finally bumps into him, however, he fails to recognize her. Heartbroken, Cinderella cries at losing her former love until Jaq and Gus arrive to expose Lady Tremaine's villainy. Upon finding out that Lady Tremaine used the wand to wipe Charming's memory of herself and make him believe Anastasia was the one he danced with, Cinderella forgets her sorrows and jumps into action. At Lady Tremaine's room, Jaq and Gus sneak in to grab the wand. They are almost exposed by Lucifer until Cinderella enters disguised as a maid. Lady Tremaine discovers her anyway, and a chase follows. While Jaq, Gus, and Cinderella evade Tremaine and the palace guards, the bluebirds rush to warn Charming of the danger, hoping to lure him to Cinderella's location for the spell to be broken. Meanwhile, Jaq and Gus hand the wand over to Cinderella just as Charming arrives onto the scene, but before she could flip the spell, the guards arrest her. Lady Tremaine regains the wand and orders the guards to send Cinderella to the next ship leaving the kingdom to have her banished, although she narrowly manages to touch the Prince's hand.
Jaq, Gus, and the bluebirds meet up with Prince Charming. They explain that his memory was altered (referring to Cinderella as Cinderelly), and he rushes off on his horse to find her before the ship sets sail. He is too late, but narrowly manages to find himself on board, reintroducing himself to Cinderella (whom he calls Cinderelly before she corrects him), and immediately takes advantage of the moment by proposing to the girl, which she gladly accepts. With their love having prevailed over Lady Tremaine's curse, the two return to the palace and explain the situation to the King and Grand Duke. Infuriated, the King orders the Grand Duke and the guards to search the castle for the stepfamily to have them arrested, while other members of the castle prepare for a wedding, which is set to take place that same night. Cinderella is preparing for her wedding with the help of her animal companions, when Lady Tremaine and Lucifer appear out of the shadows. Not only that, Tremaine soon summons Anastasia, who is revealed to have been magically transformed into an exact, identical copy of Cinderella. Tremaine explains her plot to have Anastasia marry the prince under her guise. Seeing her apprehension, Cinderella tries to ask her stepsister if she'll truly be happy marrying the prince, especially when she goes as far as to ask her if she even loves him. Fearing Cinderella could conjure a change in heart in Anastasia, Tremaine sends her off to be killed by a human Lucifer.
Still, Cinderella manages to escape her death and uses her time to make her way to the castle. Prince Charming and "Cinderella" are ready to marry, but to the real Cinderella's amazement, Anastasia refuses to marry the Prince, having realized that she does not truly love him. An infuriated Lady Tremaine tries to cause trouble for the kingdom and attempted to turn Anastasia into a toad until Cinderella steps in to defend her, angered by Tremaine's ruthlessness. Lady Tremaine then attempts to turn them both into toads, but Charming intervenes by reflecting the magic with his sword, causing it to hit Drizella and Lady Tremaine instead. They are transformed into toads and fall into the Palace's basement. Anastasia brings the real Cinderella and Charming together and transforms herself back to normal. Cinderella thanks Anastasia, and the two reconcile, putting their animosity firmly behind them. Together, they restore the Fairy Godmother, who gives Cinderella a brand-new wedding attire. As they are unaware of the twist in time, Cinderella and Prince Charming silently decline the fairy's offer to restore the timeline, and the two marry. Cinderella subsequently invites Anastasia to live in the Palace and become her lady-in-waiting, which she happily accepts, while Lady Tremaine and Drizella are forced into servitude within the palace as punishment for their actions, dressed in Cinderella's original servant clothes.
===House of Mouse===
Cinderella makes numerous cameo appearances in the animated series House of Mouse, always in her classic ball gown.
In the episode "The Stolen Cartoons" when Donald was left in charge, she fled away from the bad show, leaving behind her glass slipper.
In the episode "House of Scrooge", she lends Mickey the dress the mice made for her and after he thanks her she replies with "That old thing?"
In the episode "Rent Day", Cinderella was part of Mickey's borrow and exchange chain, telling him she could give him her pumpkin so long as he can find her another mode of transportation home.
In "Big Bad Wolf Daddy", her glass slippers broke as Big Bad Wolf continues blowing his trumpet during his performance on stage.
In "Where's Minnie?", when the advert named "Scuttle's Lost & Found" mentions glass slippers, she then realizes that she lost the slippers.
In "The Mouse Who Came to Dinner", Mortimer Mouse made fun of her regarding her missing glass slipper, much to her annoyance.
She also appears in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse, in which she is trapped in the House with the other guests. At one point, she talks about how she is thankful for friendly mice who make nice evening wear (a segment also used in the series episode "House of Turkey"). In the ending song, she receives the original pink dress they made for her as a Christmas gift.
She also makes a non-speaking cameo in Mickey's House of Villains, during the song "It's Our House Now!", where she is seen sitting next to Belle and Aurora, and the three are frightened by the Queen chopping off the Fates' heads, before being locked in the kitchen with the rest of the good Disney characters until Mickey defeats Jafar with Aladdin's help, forcing the rest of the villains to turn coward and flee, freeing all the good characters with Mickey back in control of the House of Mouse.
===Sofia the First===
In the pilot film, Once Upon a Princess, Cinderella is summoned by Sofia's magical amulet after the young princess casts a spell that causes everyone at the royal ball to fall asleep. Cinderella explains that when Sofia's in trouble, the amulet will summon one of the princesses to help her. Cinderella tells Sofia that the best way to solve the problem is to make amends with her stepsister, Amber. Sofia is reluctant to do so, however, since Amber has treated her harshly since she first arrived at the castle.
Cinderella tells Sofia that she believes Princess Amber was only jealous because Sofia had gained more attention recently and that showing her compassion could help her change her views. She also tells her that she went through a similar thing with her two stepsisters, Drizella and Anastasia, of how their jealousy for her made them cold and cruel as a result of Lady Tremaine's upbringing, and if she had tried to make amends with them, maybe things would have been better for them now. She sings a song with Sofia about her own troubles she had with her own stepsisters called "True Sisters" before departing. This ultimately gives Sofia the courage she needs.
In "Forever Royal" when Sofia is battling Vor inside her amulet, Cinderella appears to Sofia in spirit form along with all the other princesses who have been summoned to help her in her hours of need, and they encourage her to be brave and strong for they all believe in her.
===Ralph Breaks the Internet===
In Ralph Breaks the Internet, Cinderella appears as a netizen residing in Oh My Disney as a cast member. She and the other Disney princesses greet net users who most relate to them after answering a "Which Disney Princess Are You?" quiz. While visiting the site, Vanellope von Schweetz gets into trouble with First Order Stormtroopers for illegal pop-up advertising. She manages to find refuge in the Disney princesses' private quarters, where the ladies are on break; Cinderella can be seen picking leaves from Pocahontas's hair. The princesses immediately lunge at Vanellope, believing her to be a threat, either from one of their respective Disney Villains, or a net user who broke the cardinal rule of trespassing in a "Cast Members Only" restricted area; Cinderella breaks her glass slipper and threatens to use it as a shiv. To their surprise, however, Vanellope reveals to be a princess as well, prompting her and the others to stand down, but remain wary of if Vanellope is legit in her claim. Pocahontas questions what kind of princess Vanellope is; Cinderella asks if animals talk to Vanellope while holding her mice and birds, though she denies it. When Vanellope notes that she doesn't have a mom in response to Jasmine, Cinderella excitedly relates.
After declaring Vanellope an official princess, Cinderella becomes interested in Vanellope's casual modern attire and expresses a desire to have an outfit just like hers. As the other princesses take interest, as well, Cinderella has the mice seam comfy modern outfits for each of the girls. Cinderella's outfit consists of a pale silvery-blue top that reads "G2G" with artwork of the pumpkin carriage - a nod to her midnight deadline, light blue pants, and brown ballet flats. Her hair has also been let down and held in place by a blue bow. After changing, Cinderella lounges on a beanbag decorated with Fairy Godmother's magic sparkles and happily sighs, "So this is love..." and declares Vanellope the "queen of comfy" as she and the others enjoy the comfort of their new outfits. She and the other princesses then get into a conversation about songs. Vanellope explains that she's never had a song of her own. The princesses encourage her to find one by thinking about what she desires most while looking into water; Cinderella references the times she would sing to bubbles while cleaning her stepmother's château.
During the climax of the film, Cinderella and the princesses notice Vanellope's friend, Wreck-It Ralph, plummeting to his doom. They rally together to rescue the bad guy; Cinderella supplies Jaq and Gus with sewing material, along with donating her gown alongside Tiana, Ariel, and Belle's to serve as parachutes for Ralph. After Ralph is safe, Cinderella and the princesses formally introduce themselves as friends of Vanellope's, and befriending Ralph as well.
===Once Upon a Studio===
Cinderella is seen running down a set of stairs in her ballgown in the Disney Animation studio with Prince Charming, only this time he loses his shoe. They laugh about it, until Max from the The Little Mermaid runs off with his shoe. They run after him, Cinderella encouraging Max on while Charming calls for Eric to retrieve his dog so he can get his shoe back. Cinderella and Prince Charming most likely come out of the studio building offscreen, soon after everyone begins everyone begins singing When You Wish Upon a Star. They may have even been watching Goofy's botched first attempt from a distance with grave concern, but chose to continue on their way down after the singing began. The two are later seen singing the final line of the song with all the other Disney characters, and finally posing for the centennial group photo. In the original animatic of the short, Cinderella is seen joining hands with Anna and Elsa as they sing the final verse of "When You Wish Upon a Star" (instead of Snow White, Mulan and Asha), before handing over to Winnie the Pooh.
===Other appearances===
In the 101 Dalmatians: The Series episode "Home is Where the Bark Is", Cinderella's silhouette can be seen as one of the passengers of a subway train the Dalmatians' ride on.
Cinderella makes a cameo appearance at the end of the Teacher's Pet movie; she is shown holding a frog during the closing song.
Cinderella has a brief cameo in the Mickey Mouse Works cartoon "Mickey's April Fools", when Donald Duck fantasizes about replacing Mickey Mouse as Disney's biggest star, imagining himself in a parade with Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White as his entourage.
Cinderella makes a cameo appearance along with Prince Charming in the Mickey Mouse episode "Croissant de Triomphe".
Cinderella was slated to star in the second installment of the Disney Princess Enchanted Tales series of DVDs with Mulan. However, the film was canceled due to poor sales of the first installment.
In the Elena of Avalor episodes "First Day of Rule" and "Coronation Day", Cinderella can be seen amongst the guests at the royal ball and Elena's coronation alongside Belle.
An emoticon version of Cinderella also appeared in the As Told by Emoji retelling of the original 1950 animated film. Her ball gown in the short is modeled after the redesign featured in the Disney Princess franchise, as opposed to the film.
In Wish, Cinderella was among the Disney animated characters that appeared during the credits. Her stellar image has additional stars that form the magic swirl around her ball gown as it transformed.
==Printed material==
===Kilala Princess===
In the manga series Kilala Princess, Cinderella plays an important role in Kilala's quest for royalty. Kilala enters Cinderella's world after getting shot in the back and transferring her conscience into it. While helping Cinderella with her chores, the maid also teaches Kilala how to eat, dance, and walk like a princess. Her mouse friends secretly help her make a dress for the royal ball. After her stepsisters tear it apart, Kilala confronts the Tremaines and accidentally loses her Magic Tiara to them in the process. The Fairy Godmother shows up later than expected and makes a princess gown, carriage, and escorts for Cinderella. Affected by the tiara's magic, the Fairy Godmother's power will run out sooner than expected if the tiara is still in the Tremaines' hands.
With the magic of the Fairy Godmother, Kilala manages to get to the palace and steal back the tiara before Drizella can use it to hypnotize the Prince. Cinderella and the Prince meet and dance romantically till midnight.
Kilala later receives a clear diamond from the adventure that becomes the next jewel in her magic crown.
==Video games==
===Kingdom Hearts series===
Cinderella is one of several classic Disney characters who appear in Kingdom Hearts. She plays a small but important role in the game as one of the Princesses of Heart. Her world was destroyed by Maleficent, but she was taken into captivity.
In Kingdom Hearts, she is a Princess of Heart, so she is among the seven who were captured by Riku and Maleficent. Her role was the same as the rest of the Princesses. She is only found having been imprisoned in a glass coffin in a deep sleep with the other Princesses in the Great Hall of the castle in Hollow Bastion, where Maleficent set up her headquarters. After Sora defeats an Ansem, Seeker of Darkness-possessed Riku, he stabs himself with Ansem's dark Keyblade to release Kairi's heart, destroying the Keyblade and returning Cinderella's heart to her body, allowing her to awaken. When Sora returns later, Cinderella is in the Castle Chapel with Jasmine, Aurora, Snow White, and Alice using her power to try to prevent a massive release of darkness from Hollow Bastion's unlocked Keyhole until Sora defeats the large Behemoth Heartless guarding the Keyhole and locks it. When Sora intends to travel to the End of the World to deal with Ansem once and for all, Cinderella and the other Princesses give him an upgrade to his Fire magic to help him in his quest.
In Kingdom Hearts II, her name was part of the password needed to access Tron's world.
In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, she reprises a similar role to that of the original animated film. Jaq and a mouse-sized Ventus made a dress for Cinderella to wear for the royal ball since she had to do the chores. However, the two stepsisters tore apart her dress in jealousy and fury over Cinderella using their discarded items in it, causing her to rush out into the garden in tears. Terra encourages her to be strong and keep the faith, dealing with some Unversed that were attracted to Cinderella by her loss of hope, and then the Fairy Godmother appears and makes her a ball gown and carriage. Terra protects her from the Unversed when they reach the castle. At the royal ball, she and the Prince fall in love, but she rushes away at midnight before the Fairy Godmother's magic wears off, leaving a single glass slipper behind as she runs. The Prince was determined to find the girl and let every girl in the kingdom try the slipper on to see if it fits. Lady Tremaine locked Cinderella in her room, but Aqua, shrunk to mouse-size through the Fairy Godmother's magic, and Jaq freed her in time for the Prince to reunite with her so the two found each other and lived happily ever after until Aqua later finds that Cinderella's world has fallen into the Realm of Darkness due to Maleficent's future actions upon finding the castle within the dark realm.
===Kinect: Disneyland Adventures===
Cinderella plays a major role in the game, appearing as a meet-and-greet character near the Village Haus restaurant in Fantasyland. When she meets the player for the first time, she gives them a magic wand from the Fairy Godmother as a gift. Cinderella will also ask the player to accompany her to a royal ball and gather some supplies so that she and the mice can make an outfit (male players will get a Prince costume, while female players will get a Cinderella costume). While the mice are making the dress, Cinderella asks the player to find food (buckets of popcorn) for them. She also asks if the player can find more thread. Cinderella also loses her slippers during the game and asks the player to find them for her. Cinderella also participates in the Mickey's Soundsational Parade and Princess Fantasy Faire mini-games with her fellow princesses. A child version of her trademark ballgown for female players can be bought from the shops around the park. Since her redesign upon appearing in Sofia the First, this game is one of the few places she can be seen wearing the older version of her ballgown before it was retired by Disney Imagineers and Cast Members in real life for her redesigned version.
===Disney Dreamlight Valley===
Cinderella is set to appear in this game based on promotional footage in the trailers showing her with the player character in one scene wearing her trademark ballgown, but has yet to be added as only her fellow Disney Princesses Ariel, Moana, Belle, Mulan, Rapunzel, and Tiana are in the game at the moment, with Merida coming to the game soon. She will be possibly added in a future update, either DLC or free update, but it depends on upcoming news from Disney and Gameloft regarding what new characters are going to be added later in 2024 and into 2025 and beyond according to the game's road maps announcing future updates for both the main game and the DLC expansions, such as "Rift in Time" and "Storybook Vale". Instagram posts and news on the game's Discord channel have officially announced that Cinderella's Fairy Godmother joined the game in June 2023, as part of a major update regarding the Fairy Godmother's part in solving The Forgetting and dealing with The Forgotten, with the update titled "The Remembering". Cinderella's addition is still not confirmed yet and there has been no further information about when she is coming to the game.
===Disney Heroes: Battle Mode===
Cinderella is a playable character in DHBM. She switches between her ball gown and maid outfit. Ball gown helps her allies by applying several types of buffs to them, while in maid outfit she uses her brush to debuff enemies. She also summons her bird friends to attack enemies.
Her friendship campaigns are with Fairy Godmother and Anna. Cinderella also has friendship campaign with Tiana.
==Disney Parks==
Cinderella is a staple character at Disney theme parks around the world. She is often the spokeswoman for "Princess themed" scenes in the various show and parades. Her castle, Cinderella Castle, has become an icon at both Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland and is often used as the primary symbol for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts in general. She is commonly found in entertainment offerings and meet-and-greet sessions, such as at the Princess Fairytale Hall in Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom, Cinderella's Royal Table, Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, and more, especially alongside her friends and fellow Disney Princesses. During colder weather, Cinderella wears a long-sleeved, coat-styled version of her ballgown to keep warm, protecting her from her feet to her neck against the elements.
===Disneyland===
Cinderella took TV viewers on a tour behind the scenes of the Main Street Electrical Parade during the farewell season in 1996.
Cinderella also makes an appearance during the finale of World of Color. In her scene, it shows her transforming into a princess from the Fairy Godmother's magic.
In Disneyland's version of Fantasmic!, she appears on the Mark Twain Riverboat with the other characters in the finale.
For Disneyland's Christmas parade, she rides on one of the floats with several of her fellow Disney Princesses alongside Prince Charming and several of the Disney Princes. Due to the warmer weather in Anaheim compared to down at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, she's more often seen wearing her normal ballgown instead of her winter variant when seen in the parade.
===Walt Disney World===
In Stitch's Great Escape!, Cinderella makes a brief cameo (though only her voice is heard) at the end of the ride, where Stitch attempts to woo her at her castle by pretending he is Prince Charming. She quickly shoves him out when she realizes that he is not the prince.
Cinderella used to have a starring role in a Magic Kingdom Castle Show is known as Cinderella's Surprise Celebration. The plot was that she wished to share many special gifts, with a little assistance from Mickey and the gang, with the visitors of the Kingdom. When Snow White's wicked stepmother the Queen interrupts the festivities due to Donald opening her gift out of curiosity, Cinderella appears on the balcony of the castle to see what's going on, only for the Queen to spot her and then take away her dreams by causing her gown to rip in half and place her back in her servant clothes, causing Cinderella to run back into the castle in tears. After the Fairy Godmother undoes the Queen's damage and defeats her with help from the Guests, Cinderella, back in her restored gown, emerges from the castle to thank her Fairy Godmother and the Guests for helping to save the festivities and her dreams.
In the first phase of Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland expansion, the Tremaine château was to be featured as a walkthrough and meet and greet called Dreams Come True With Cinderella. Guests would see Cinderella singing with audio-animatronic birds and mice, the making of the dress, the stepsisters ruining the dress, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo and Cinderella being transformed into her princess incarnation and Cinderella would then teach guests how to dance or be Knights. This idea was eventually scrapped and the area that it was to occupy is now part of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
Cinderella instead does meet-and-greets with Guests at the Princess Fairytale Hall across from the Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, usually sharing her room with Princess Elena while Tiana and Rapunzel share the other room. Cinderella has also been seen returning to meet-and-greet Guests with some of her fellow Disney Princesses at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in the Norway Pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase as of February/March 2023.
In Disney's Hollywood Studios' version of Fantasmic!, Cinderella appears in the bubble montage during the princess-themed medley.
Cinderella also has a spell card known as "Cinderella's Magic Ribbon" in the attraction Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. Also in the Magic Kingdom, Cinderella can be seen in the Festival of Fantasy parade.
In 2016, Cinderella and Prince Charming hosted a ceremony at the Magic Kingdom in which they introduced Princess Elena of Avalor into the Disney theme parks.
In the Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade during the holiday season, she's seen riding in her pumpkin carriage with Prince Charming in the parade, escorted by several Cast Member royal guards, and usually in her winter variant of her ballgown as she waves to Guests during the procession. Snow White and her prince lead in front in their gazebo float, and the other Disney Princesses with their husbands follow behind in the larger main float with the Fairy Godmother joining them. If her carriage is out of action for maintenance or repairs, she and Prince Charming will ride on the main float with the other couples and the Fairy Godmother, and if it is out of action as well, Cinderella and the other Disney Princesses, being Snow White, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Tiana, and Rapunzel, will ride on the gazebo float together.
===Tokyo Disney Resort===
Cinderella starred in her own sequence in the Tokyo DisneySea version of Fantasmic!
Cinderella used to star in a nighttime spectacular called Cinderella's Royal Coronation, which, as the title suggests, celebrated her coronation as a Princess. She and several of her fellow Disney Princesses would be dressed in more regal, formal versions of their gowns for the celebration, with Cinderella wearing a white gown that included a sash and cape, and a large crown to officially dub her a Princess in her own right.
In Tokyo Disneyland's nighttime spectacular Once Upon a Time, there is a Cinderella segment where guests see the dress-making scene and "So This is Love".
===Shanghai Disneyland===
In the park's Enchanted Storybook Castle, Cinderella is depicted on one of the walls carving displays.
Cinderella appears during the final montage of Ignite the Dream: A Nighttime Spectacular of Magic and Light. Her iconic transformation sets off the finale.
===Disney Cruise Line===
On the Disney Cruise Line, Cinderella can be seen in the shows The Golden Mickeys, Believe, Dreams, and Twice Charmed.
===Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade===
Cinderella, along with several of her fellow Disney Princesses being Moana, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Jasmine, in their winter attire, rode on the Disney Cruise Line float based on the Disney Wish, dubbed "Magic Meets the Sea", in the 2021 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, joined by Flynn, Aladdin, Anna, Elsa, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Pluto, Chip 'n' Dale, and special guest singer Jordan Fisher, who sang "Together We Set Sail" when the float reached Herald's Square in front of the Macy's store there, backed up by supporting Disney Cast Members assigned to perform with them while other Cast Members assigned to supervise and look after the Theme Park Characters like in the parks and representing Disney Cruise Line and The Walt Disney Company kept them safe during their special assignment. During the procession from the parade's start line on Central Park West to 34th Street, Cinderella and the other characters waved to the crowds, adding that little bit of Disney magic to the parade as the United States, and Disney, were still recovering from the effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its mutations.
Cinderella rode on the float again in the 2022 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with several of the characters from the previous year, including Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Rapunzel, Flynn, Jasmine, Aladdin, Moana, and Tiana, but joining them this time was two more of Cinderella's fellow Disney Princesses being Mulan and Raya, Mirabel Madrigal, Cinderella and Tiana's husbands, Prince Charming and Prince Naveen, and Marvel superheroes Spider-Man and Black Panther. Similar to last year, Cinderella, Tiana, Moana, and Mirabel, were wearing their winter attire due to the cold morning weather in Manhattan for Thanksgiving Day. Upon nearing Herald's Square, Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the other Princesses with their husbands, dismounted from the float with Mickey, Minnie, Moana, and Goofy, leaving Donald, Raya, Mirabel, Mulan, Pluto, Spider-Man, and Black Panther on board, and walked alongside it on the final leg of the journey with all their supporting Cast Members, both performers and supervisors, while still waving to the guests attending the parade, along with the NYPD and FDNY providing security and protection for both parade members and guests, before performing one of the shows that are done on the Disney Wish proper during its cruises, dubbed "Seas The Adventure", which included snippets of "A Whole New World" and "When You Wish Upon a Star", ending with a final flourish of streamers and confetti, putting smiles on all the Guests and, once more, adding that spark of Disney Magic to Macy's long-time Thanksgiving tradition for the second year in a row that the float, the Cast Members, and the Theme Park Characters attended the parade. After the performance and the float reached the end of the parade route, Cinderella and the other characters got ready to return home to Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland to resume their duties there during Disney's holiday festivities until Macy's invites them back to Manhattan for another Thanksgiving Day parade, which is possible should Macy's decide to bring the float back for a third consecutive year and Disney's executives, including current CEO Bob Iger, agree to allow the characters to be in the parade again, especially as part of celebrating The Walt Disney Company's Centennial Anniversary in 2023.
Disney and Macy's agreed to have the "Magic Meets The Sea" float return for the 2023 parade, but sadly, despite this year celebrating Disney 100 Years of Wonder, Cinderella was not among the Theme Park Characters riding on the float this year.Disney Cruise Line Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2023 The main reason for this is that the float was repainted to represent the sister ship of the Disney Wish, the Disney Treasure, slated for joining the Disney Cruise Line fleet in 2024, and will have a restaurant themed around Coco with Peter Pan as one of the stern characters, along with the statue in the Grand Hall of the Disney Treasure sporting Aladdin and Jasmine on Carpet. As the Disney Wish sported a statue of Cinderella in its Grand Hall, that was a main reason why she rode on the float in the 2021 parade and the 2022 parade with Prince Charming when it represented that ship, and she was allowed to take 2023 off to remain at the Magic Kingdom to see Guests during the Thanksgiving celebrations there. Tiana, Moana, Rapunzel, and Jasmine still attended the parade to represent the Disney Princesses in Cinderella's stead with the Fab 5, Aladdin, Peter Pan, Genie, the Peddler, Anna, Elsa, Mirabel, Miguel, Naveen, Spider-Man, and Black Panther, alongside their supporting backup performers and Cast Member liaisons. However, the song that played on the float's loudspeakers during the last time Cinderella rode on it in the 2022 parade, "Let's Set Sail", was used again and performed by the characters and their backup performers during the 2023 parade.
Disney and Macy's have already agreed to have Disney Cruise Line return to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for a fourth year, but with a new float based on the entire fleet of ships currently in service, a new Minnie Mouse balloon, and several new characters riding on the new float. Sadly, Cinderella was not picked to be on the float this year as Jasmine, Tiana, Moana, and Belle would be representing the Disney Princesses this year. Cinderella would be staying safe at home at Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom for their Thanksgiving Day festivities at the park instead.
==Disney Princess==
Amongst the general public, Cinderella is often regarded as the quintessential figure of the Disney Princess line-up, having also been deemed as Walt Disney's personal favorite heroine. A number of official, promotional art pieces featuring the characters (specifically those prior to 2009) would even place Cinderella in the center as an indication of this.
===Redesign===
Cinderella received multiple changes in her late 2012 redesign.
Rather than its normal strawberry-blonde, her hair is now a vivid bright blonde in color and is primarily parted on the right side of her head and tied up into an elaborate, high chignon. Her headband no longer covers her ears, and she now has individual earrings.
Cinderella's glass slippers are now tinted bright blue rather than being clear like the original glass. The style of her sleeves are now more separated from the actual dress itself and now seem to be made of pale blue organza, as is her long evening gloves.
Her new dress is a simplified combination of a Mantua, Robe à la Française, and a Robe a l'Anglaise with strong influences from 1950s debutante gowns, particularly with the upper half of the dress. Much of the cloth is a now distinct sky-blue color with the pale blue organza overskirt drawn back and pinned up to display the matching petticoat revealed by the frontal opening of the sky-blue gown. The hem of the dress and part of its upper half are decorated with many elaborate swirly designs. The hem also contains designs that resemble the shape of her glass slippers, and the entire ensemble is now glittery.
Cinderella's new dress has unmistakably left behind the lighter blue influence of her silver gown in the original film along with her strawberry-blonde hair in the film and its two sequels, which is now a golden blonde similar to Aurora's and Rapunzel's.
This modified design of her is first seen during her appearance in Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess.
In the 2021 'Ultimate Princess Celebration' redesign, her hairstyle reverted back to its 2001 style, as well as the original strawberry-blonde color.
===Palace Pets===
Cinderella's Palace Pets are Pumpkin, Bibbidy, Slipper, Brie, Midnight, and La Grande.
==Differences from the source material==
Cinderella, coming from one of the most iconic fairy tales of all time, closely follows the original Charles Perrault story. However, there are some notable differences:
*"Cinderella" is a spiteful nickname given to her by her stepfamily from sitting in the cinders after finishing her work, but in the film it is implied to be her birth name. Some international dubs do use the nickname backstory when the equivalent translation is not suitable as a given name. This is also the case in some later Disney-issued media, including the 2015 live-action version.
*Cinderella's father is still alive, but is entirely ruled by his wife and would have scolded Cinderella if she had told him about the abuse she endured.
*Cinderella has no animal friends, although her fairy godmother does turn mice into horses, a rat into a coachman, and lizards into footmen. By extension, there is no first dress that is torn apart by the stepsisters. In the Grimm Brothers version, there are friendly birds helping her, replacing the fairy godmother.
*There are two balls on two consecutive days. Cinderella meets the prince at the first but loses her glass slipper at the second after losing track of time. She also sits and eats with her sisters at the first ball but they do not recognize her.
*Cinderella is not locked in her room while the stepsisters try on the glass slipper and watches in amusement knowing the slipper belongs to her.
*The first glass slipper is not shattered, although Cinderella still presents the second slipper for good measure after the first fits her perfectly. Her godmother also appears and transforms her rags into beautiful clothes.
*Cinderella forgives her stepsisters and lets them live in the palace, and on the same day matches them with two great lords of the court (there is no mention of her father or stepmother after the beginning of the story). This concept was utilized in the sequel, in which Cinderella forgives Anastasia and sets her up with the Baker.
==Relationships==
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*Cinderella's hair color has long been a subject of debate amongst fans. In the original film, Cinderella's hair seems to be of a light orange tone, classifying her as either a redhead or a ginger as her hair had been officially called burnt orange. In the franchise and in the Disney parks, Cinderella's hair is publicized as bright yellow, making her a golden blonde, although her hair color is orange-like in the films. The most common consensus is that her hair is strawberry-blonde, which is blonde hair bearing an orange tint.
**The second French dub of the film contains the lyric "Tu as [...] l'air d'une princesse sous une tresse de cheveux blonds" ("You have [...] the look of a princess under a braid of blonde hair") in the opening song, which means that by 1991, Disney had began to classify her as a blonde.
*In the movie, when Cinderella's ball gown is produced, the dress appears sparkling silver with a slight blue tone. However, in most merchandise and later productions (except Cinderella sequels, Kingdom Hearts, and Once Upon a Studio), her dress is shown in a bright blue shade, most likely to make her dress seems more like a ball gown as opposed to a traditional white wedding dress―which the mistake is shown in the storybook ending when her wedding dress changed into her ball gown.
**In her 2021 design, Cinderella's color scheme is closer to her original appearance after negative reception over the recoloring. However, the 2023 remaster changes her hair color to sandy blonde instead of strawberry-blonde.
*Cinderella's facial features and expression are similar to Alice from Alice in Wonderland and Wendy Darling from Peter Pan although the latter films are released one to three years after Cinderella.
*In the third movie, her shoe size is mentioned to be a size 4½ in women's.
*The symbolic message of the glass slippers is that Cinderella is so delicate that she can walk in glass shoes and not break them. It is also symbolic of how she can be comfortable in glass shoes, meaning that she can easily adapt to typically "uncomfortable" situations.
*Cinderella is generally considered the "leader" of the Disney Princesses, having often been positioned in the center of publicity photos.
**This is somewhat up for debate since Snow White came before Cinderella and thus initiated all future Disney Princesses. However, Cinderella's enduring of an abusive life through positivity and not having to be rescued by a prince in any capacity are often considered more suitable traits for a leadership position.
*Cinderella is the first Princess to be shown as a child within the film itself.
*Cinderella seems to share a number of similarities with Snow White:
**They both lost their biological parents and were replaced with cruel stepmothers whom are both bitterly jealous of their physical beauty.
**Both of them were forced to become servants in their own respective households.
**Despite the hardships they've faced in life, both of them remained kind-hearted and strong-willed.
**Both of them can communicate with animals.
**Both of them were aided by characters with good will at their time of need, namely the Seven Dwarfs and the Fairy Godmother.
*'Cinderella' is an anglicization of her French name Cendrillon, which translates in English as "little ash girl".
*The only mention of Cinderella's mother was in the first movie when she showed the mice a dress that belonged to her that she was planning to fix up for the ball.
*Cinderella never sang a song in her second film. In fact, none of the songs heard in Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, aside from the two reprises of "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" (one by the Fairy Godmother and the mice, and the other by only the latter), was sung by any of the characters. However, she did sing in the third film.
*In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the Genie transforms Jasmine's outfit into Cinderella's ball gown.
*One of Cinderella's stock poses used for her official artwork and clip art actually only appeared for a split-second in the actual film, right when she receives her iconic ball gown from the Fairy Godmother and twirls around in it, telling her, "Did you ever see such a beautiful dress?"
*Cinderella has the same character design as Katrina Van Tassel from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the Golden Harp from Mickey and the Beanstalk.
*According to Les Harding in his book They Knew Marilyn Monroe, a popular legend arose that Marilyn Monroe was the physical model for Cinderella. It seems that someone within the Disney organization heard a critic say that Cinderella was too voluptuous. This was in 1954, and the "reigning queen of voluptuousness" was Marilyn Monroe. The fact that Marilyn was not connected to the Disney studio and was all but unknown in 1949 when the movie was in production, did not stop the rumormongers. An actress named Helene Stanley was the actual model for Cinderella.
*The moment when the Fairy Godmother transforms Cinderella's torn dress into a beautiful gown fit for a princess is said to be Walt Disney's favorite piece of animation ever. It was drawn by Marc Davis, one of Disney's Nine Old Men.
*Cinderella was actually rich at the beginning, even before she married the prince. This was exempted, however, as she was forced to work as a servant.
**In the 2015 movie, she was rich until her mother died. When her father marries Lady Tremaine, they both expect to regain their wealth, but her father dies before that can happen.
*Cinderella's time period is also implied during the montage where she attends the ball, as gas lamps were seen near the streets of the village that she passed to get to the castle, which did not come into existence until the mid-19th century during the Industrial Revolution.
*In some stories, Cinderella's real name was Ella (short for Eleanor), and because she would always lie in cinders, her stepfamily would call her CinderElla. However, in the Disney film, "Cinderella" is implied to be her name by birth. The live-action remake, however, uses the original story's revelation that her original name is Ella, and some Disney-issued storybooks and dubs of the 1950 film also use this as well.
*In the book entitled Disney Trivia from the Vault - Secrets Revealed and Questions Answered by Dave Smith, who is also known to have his own column in the very first Disney Magazine called 'Ask Dave', or the most recent D23 (Disney's community for Disney fans) Website, he said that Cinderella's last name would likely have been Tremaine since her stepmother's name was Lady Tremaine if Lady Tremaine hadn't changed it from the time she wed Cinderella's father.
*For her redesign, her hair is side parted. Sofia the First, LEGO, her 2016 Funko Pop! figure and some dolls have her hair parted on the right side of her head.
*Throughout the first film, Cinderella's toes were barely visible, almost looking like she didn't have any. This was most likely a result of there being less detail in the animation of the time. However, in every media following the first film, they were clearly visible.
*Cinderella loses her shoes three times in the first movie:
*#When she is carrying breakfast trays up the stairs to her stepmother and stepsisters, she loses her right shoe. She stops and slips the shoe back on her foot.
*#When the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella has no choice but to leave the ball. Hurrying down the steps that lead to the castle, she loses her left shoe, the glass slipper.
*#After Cinderella weds the Prince, the two depart from the castle to embark on their honeymoon. As the two are making their way down the steps, her left shoe slips off. The King helps by slipping the shoe back on.
*"Cinderella Stamps" is a term for false stamps. They were made resembling a postage stamp, but not issued for postal purposes by a government postal administration.
*In the Disney Princess Beginnings book series, Cinderella's appearance is based on the likeness of her live-action child counterpart in the 2015 film.
*Cinderella has the most number of film variants produced by Disney, with five. The other three variants are her 2015 live-action counterpart, her 1997 Rodgers And Hamerstein's counterpart, her Into The Woods counterpart, and her Sneakerella counterpart.
*Despite being labeled as the typical damsel-in-distress, Cinderella was proactive in the film by choosing to assert herself, improve her situation and leave her abusive family. She shows further rebellion and bravery in her third movie and the live-action film.
*Cinderella is the only Disney Princess whose speaking voice actress changed within her own film series, as Jennifer Hale has been the main speaking voice of Cinderella since 2000, because although Ilene Woods was still alive during the 2000s, she was too old to be able to produce the sweet tone of voice needed for the character.
**Between then, she was voiced by Kath Soucie in the parks.
**Although her singing voice was provided by Tami Tappan Damiano in the 2000s, Jennifer Hale took on this role herself in Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess.
*According to Disneystrology, her birthday is September 6.
*Although the live-action film states that she is French, in the animated films, it is vague whether she is French or Hispanic, though it is usually assumed that she is French. It is worth noting that Disney's version was based on French author Charles Perrault's book. While the names are introduced as 'mademoiselle', they end in 'a' which is more typical of Hispanic cultures, and likewise, and some of the fashion is Spanish rather than French. Additionally, someone says "mademoiselle? señorita?" when she runs off and Jaq (as Sir Hugh) claims that "zug-zug" is "French" in the sequel.
**Her hometown and the surrounding countryside resemble Occitania, a region encompassing part of southern France, northern Spain, and Italy. This would explain the overlap in Spanish and French cultures as well as them being used as foreign languages, since Occitania's indigenous language is Occitan, and means that her native language is Occitan (though Disney has never dubbed the Cinderella or any other films into the language, but has dubbed several films, including Ralph Breaks the Internet, into the mutually-intelligible Catalan).
*There is an anachronism in Cinderella's design, as her appearance (particularly her hair and her pink dress) is modelled after 1940s beauty standards, even though her story is estimated to be set around the 1870s.
==See also==
*Cinderella (1997)
*Cinderella (Enchanted Forest)
*Cinderella (Magical Forest)
*Cinderella (Into the Woods)
*Ella (Cinderella 2015)
*El Morales
*Cinderella (Descendants)
==References==
==External links==
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de:Cinderella (Charakter)
es:Cenicienta (personaje)
fr:Cendrillon (personnage)
hr:Pepeljuga (lik)
it:Cenerentola (personaggio)
ja:シンデレラ（キャラクター）
ko:신데렐라
pt-br:Cinderela (personagem)
ru:Золушка (персонаж)
sr:Pepeljuga (lik)
tr:Külkedisi
vi:Cô bé Lọ Lem (nhân vật)
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