5. Cinderella- 1950

Rating: 🏆 most excellent

Cinderella is a beautiful young girl with a loving father. Her father wants nothing more than to give her a mother, but shortly after he remarried, he passed away, leaving her with an evil stepmother and two bratty stepsisters.

Okay, Disney loves its slavery stories. Instead of being sold into slavery live Pinocchio, Cinderella is instead enslaved by her stepmother. Forced to labor for free with none of the comforts her father’s wealth afforded, this is a strange plot for a children’s story. A central theme that I take a serious issue with in this movie is Cinderella’s kindness. Rather than standing up for herself, she instead faithfully serves her family until she is eventually rescued by her prince charming. I think this is a horrendous message to teach young girls. We should be empowering them to take control of their own futures and not to rely on a savior that may never come.

That being said, I absolutely love this movie. The soundtrack is FIRE. Of the first five Disney movies, Cinderella by far has the best original music with such bangers as “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” and “Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo”, I see why I watched this movie so many times as a kid. Also, fashion. The dress Cinderella’s fairy godmother makes for her to wear to the ball is gorgeous! It sparkles like a diamond and I’m sure more than one bride has walked into Kleinfeld searching for this look. And although Cinderella does not always take her fate into her own hands, she does defy her stepmother in the end and I LOVE a good heroine standing up to the antagonist moment. Overall, Cinderella has rightfully earned a place as one of the best of the Disney classics.