Representing Dreams and Hopes: Cinderella and the Disney Fantasy

The abstract sums up your paper’s purpose and content in 120 words or less. It includes important information such as the thesis and main ideas. Abbreviations and unique terms should also be defined. It should be in your own words and as brief as possible. >> Representing Dreams and Hopes: Cinderella and the Disney Fantasy Animation is a succession of images, sounds, and emotions in which Walt Disney has presented his miracle ideas by a number of animated cartoons and artworks for over 75 years.

Apart from being products of science and technology, Disney’s animated features also have an entertainment value, which promise elements of hope, joy, and sorrow. In the video,Once Upon a Dream the Making of Sleeping Beauty, Walt Disney says: It is always a challenge for bringing a great story classic to the screen and giving visual form to the characters and the places that only existed in the imagination. But it is the kind of challenge that we enjoy. Disney’s programs take their audiences out of the world of reality to give a peek into the most fantastic world of fantasy, touching and encouraging audiences at the same time.

In animated film history, the most popular example being Cinderella created in 1950. Since the early 19th century, its songs and narrative are a legend of the history of animation.. Cinderella (1950) is an incredible, classical masterpiece of animation history, a tribute to the Disney tradition of the animation production. It has successfully influenced cartoon culture and audiences over the years. Cinderella (1950) is an incredible, amazing, famous and classical American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and his studio. Since Mickey, Donald Duck, and Snow White Disney studios have dominated the American animation industry.

Post World War II, this studio was in great financial difficulty. John Culhance, an author and film historian, mentions debts of USD $4 million after the WWII period. Ohmer, in That Rags to Riches Stuff: Disney’s Cinderella and the Cultural Space of Animation, presents that during the story conferences of Cinderella in May 1947, Walter Lantz, president of the Cartoon Producers Association, announced that animated film production would be cut more than 45% during the following year. Disney faced a number of obstacles, both external and internal and ranging from economic to sociological.

Under these circumstances, producing a full-length feature seemed difficult given the time required to produce an animation film, which is usually about three to four years. Although it took risks of producing Cinderella, Walt Disney was persistent in fighting for his dream. It motivated him to make a full-length and full-colored animation movie despite his studio being in financial difficulty. In Cinderella, with a running time of 72 minutes, Disney used USD $2. 9 million for creating an attractive and dramatic content. Cinderella is based on the fairy tale “Cendrillon” by Charles Perrault.

Right from her sparkling ball gown and glass slippers to the Fairy Godmother, the mice, and Cinderella herself are etched in people’s minds. Apart from Perrault’s version, Disney added some extra details to the screen version. For example, when the two ugly sisters damage Cinderella’s ball gown, she looks kinder and lovelier. It successfully brings out the individual trait of each character. This 1950 classic fairytale helped Disney and his team save the entire cartoon business and helped create a legend. The film was a huge success at the box office, which allowed Disney to carry on the animation empire.

Cinderella has re-released at least six times in different generations. From the format of VHS video to the latest platinum DVD edition, it helps Walt Disney earn huge success and also make millions and millions of profits. Although there were limitations while producing Cinderella (1950), Disney used two critical strategies to save money and control the cost of production. These strategies defined the work process for creating animation feature films. To begin with, they hired outside consultants to conduct the market research. The research of product manufacturing was established through advertising and production conference.

Disney also used a previews section to understand audiences’ reactions. This helped to focus on audiences’ likes and dislikes. They wanted to make sure that everyone would love to see Cinderella. Joel Siegel, a film critic, also praised Cinderella stating that the story presented the faith of “American Dreams” and “Hollywood Dreams”. To illustrate, Cinderella imagines herself as the girl, who is chosen by the Prince and dresses up beautifully. People were attracted to this story, primarily because it transformed people’s dreams onto the screen.

Disney and his team transformed the dream into motion picture on the screen. This is also the major reason why this story is still fresh in the audiences’ minds and still very popular amongst generations for 60 years now. The second strategy that Walt and his animators used was a live action model for reference to shorten the development processes of Cinderella. Helene Stanley was the action model used, while Ilene Woods was the voice artiste. Both contributed greatly in creating this motion feature film. The live action models helped Disney transform the magical moments of the scene into meticulous details.

The animators paid careful attention to human movements; so that they could make the characters alive on screen. Before the final artworks were made, live action footage was used to create the plots, time the sequences of action, track both facial and physical movements of the characters, and test their cohesiveness. Actors and actress wore full consumes with makeup, in which they acted out of the screen on stage with background setting. Cinderella provided a link between Disney’s present and its past, and shaped the legacy of animation production.

After using live actors for motion reference to produce Snow White and the Seven Dwarf (1937) and the hugely successful Cinderella (1950); Disney truly thought that using live action model reference could allow the animators’ ability to improve the picture to be more realistic. They could take photos frame by frame such that some key poses could be pulled out directly as a basis for drawing the flipbooks. Shooting the film in live action also minimized the changes in the drawings and helped speed up production. The production of Cinderella thus proved how important and valuable it was to use live action models for reference.

Since then, 90% of the hand drawn animations were created based on live action models. This production strategy is still being used for more recent animation films, such as The Little Mermaid (1989) and Hercules (1997). The Little Mermaid (Platinum Edition) The Making: Live Action Reference (Clip), shows that Broadway actress Jodi Benson was chosen to play the voice of Ariel; while Sheri Lynn Stoner, a former member of Los Angeles’ Groundings improvisation comedy group, was chosen to be the live action reference model of Ariel.

Glen Keane, the co-supervising animator of Ariel, indicated that he understood the importance of studying frame by frame of footage in drawings. Since the animators wanted to balance the coherence of the sound and motion, live action models did help create detailed and realistic drawings. The Making of Hercules, 1997 video showcases Disney’s traditional production strategy, even though modern animation uses a combination of technology and art works. The production of Hercules (1997) combines traditional animation techniques with the latest computer-generated imagery CGI to add graphics and 3D effects into the film.

Roger Gould, the CGI supervisor, mentioned that the computer could only help in creating more than what they could do before. However, all the preparation and production processes still remain very traditional. Once the story structure is completed and presented using a storyboard, voice artistes record voices of the characters by adding other details to the animation. Nik Ranieri indicated that he wanted the voices and the animations to be combined nicely; therefore, the voice artistes’ performances were very important to create detail body movements and facial expressions of the character.

Andreas Deja, the supervising animator of Hercules, combined Tate Donovan’s energy and naive quality into the characteristics of Hercules. Besides, different voice actors also acted out with body movements and facial expressions. For example, Danny DeVito (the voice artiste of the Philoctetes), changes his facial expressions while talking in different tones. The animator videotaped Vito’s recording process and used these expressions while animating Philoctetes. James Woods (the voice artiste of Hades), used his body movement and sneer as the basis for Hades’ gestures.

These elements are very powerful and increase the ability of storytelling. By comparing the production processes of Cinderella (1950), The Little Mermaid (1989), and Hercules (1997) Disney and his team strived to animate magical moments into realistic motion pictures. They created many unforgettable scenes, such as Cinderella imagining herself as the girl chosen by the Prince and dressing up beautifully; the Little Mermaid becoming human to look for her true love and dreams; and Hercules sacrificing himself to save his lover and finally becoming a real hero.

There is no doubt the huge success of Cinderella (1950) created a defined the production legacy by building up a traditional system for creating animation feature films. Disney and his studio not only aim on creating entertainment, but also present the meaningful thesis of “Dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursuit them. ” By comparing the latest princess story of Cinderella (1950) and The Princess and The Frog (2009), we can certainly pinpoint that Cinderella influences the cartoon culture of Disney stories.

Typically, Disney stories present royal romance including love, faith, and dreams. Moreover, they highlight the importance of the Fairy Godmother, the narrative power of the songs, and animal helpers. Cinderella (1950) is really a successful story, which can attract everyone in different generation, because all people have the imagination and dreams. Most girls can identify with the Cinderella story and would like to be pretty like her and be chosen by their Prince who will help them put on the glass slippers.

Many boys also want to find their true love just like the Prince found Cinderella. The lyrics of “A Dream is A Wish Your Heart Makes,” encourages people in different generations. “No matter how you heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true. ” Cinderella is transformation by Fairy Godmother with the beautiful ball gown, is one of the scenes liked by Disney the most. Thus, Cinderella not only explores the audiences’ imagination, but also makes everyone’s dreams come live on the screen.

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Representing Dreams and Hopes: Cinderella and the Disney Fantasy. (2016, Aug 04). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/representing-dreams-and-hopes-cinderella-and-the-disney-fantasy/

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