Six Things You Never Knew About Cinderella
While Cinderella wasn’t the very first Disney Princess (that honor goes to the sweet Snow White), she’s arguably one of the most beloved. Probably due to her rags-to-riches life story, where meeting Prince Charming changes everything, this tale was one you grew up adoring, and now your child, does too. Though you may be able to sing along to ‘Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo’ without skipping a beat, could you pass a trivia night session about Cinder-relly? Likely not, but after brushing up on these rarely-known facts, we bet you might even impress your 7-year-old cutie with your princess brain. To get excited for your upcoming trip to Disney World – where you’ll meet Cinderella in person!- here’s a history lesson on the blonde-hair beauty:
1- The voice of ‘Cinderella’ was a fluke.
One of the easiest princess voices to detect at first listen, the voice actress who gave Cinderella her lungs was a serendipitous gig. Mack David and Jerry Livingston wrote the music and lyrics for the movie, and Ilene Woods had stepped in to do a favor for the songwriting duo. After she recorded ‘Sing Sweet Nightingale,’ ‘So This is Love’ and ‘‘Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo’ – Walt Disney loved her voice so much, he wanted her to speak the script, too. This helped her career grow after the success of the film, and in 2003, she was honored as a Disney legend.
2- It was nominated for three academy awards
When Cinderella first came out in 1950, families of all ages and sizes made their way to the theater, excited for the magical experience. Their verdict? The glass slipper definitely fit, as the movie became a sensation, paving the way for Walt Disney to make more animated classics, like Sleeping Beauty. The critics were also a fan, earning the movie three Academy Award nominations, including ‘Best Scoring of a Musical Picture’, ‘Best Sound Recording’, and Best Song, for ‘Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.’
3- Jaq, Gus, and Bruno were voiced by the same actor.
You might not be a fan of mice in your house, but mice on the screen? The helpful – and hilarious – threesome are a sweet part of the film, as they help Cinderella find her way to destiny. But while their voices might sound different to you, they’re actually voiced by the same person, voiceover actor, Jimmy MacDonald. He’s so talented with voice transformation that he’s voiced many other beloved characters, including Chip from Chip ‘n Dale, Dormouse from Alice in Wonderland, Goofy and the greatest star of all, Mickey Mouse!
4- In real life, her shoe size would have been 4.5
Once you were old enough to truly understand the story behind Cinderella, it might seem a little outlandish: one random shoe that fits on one random girl is going to determine the fate of royalty? It’s definitely a stretch, but according to experts, if Cinderella’s feet were human-size, they’d be a super-small 4.5. While we’re pretty positive there is more than one woman in the world who has those tiny feet, it does make a little more sense that in small town, there might only be one gal who fits the bill. Those cruel stepsisters were much more normal for a shoe size, with their predicted insole number of 8, the national average.
5- She is the oldest of Disney Princesses at 19
Though the average age of marriage for a woman in the United States continues to extend, with most brides walking down the aisle around the age of 27, in 1950, that age was much younger: 20 years old. So while Cinderella’s age of 19 might feel far too premature to be saying ‘I do’ – at the time, it was the norm. Even so, Cinderella is the oldest of all of the princesses to wed, a tradition that Disney is only recently starting to change.
6- Many princesses are modeled after a specific actress
Believe it or not, many of the princesses are modeled after a single actress: Helene Stanley. When animators sketched Cinderella, Stanley served as the sit-in model, allowing her likeness to be translated into animated form. You might even find Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Anita from 101 Dalmatians, to be mighty similar, considering Stanley was the model for all three!
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