INSTANT TRIVIA
IF THERE WAS ever a cinematic image that encapsulates the idea of rags to riches in its purest form, it’s the transformation of Cinderella’s dress. Stood in the tatters of her home-made pink frock — assembled by her loyal coterie of mice (don’t ask) but clawed apart by her jealous stepsisters — the ever-hopeful hero at the heart of Disney’s second princess fairy tale (after Snow White) is left with the disappointment that she won’t be heading to the ball, after all. Enter her fairy godmother, who bestows the ultimate glow-up — with a simple bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, Cinderella goes from derelict to downright ball-ready royalty.
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Legend has it that Cinderella’s transformation was Walt Disney’s favourite ever piece of animation — and as one of the godfathers of the entire animated-feature medium, he’d know a thing or two about that. It’s easy to see why — for one, it is visually sumptuous, gorgeously rendered by Marc Davis (one of the animation studio’s fabled Nine Old Men), Cinderella herself wreathed in shimmering, sparkling swirls of magic dust (courtesy of effects animator George Rowley) that rise, fall, and rain down around her. It’s technically masterful, the shreds of the pink dress blossoming into a gleaming couture ballgown almost imperceptibly, rising from Cinderella’s crystal-capped toes up to the tips of her fingers. Then there’s the accompanying swell of the score, synced to Cinderella’s rising body as she’s physically uplifted by someone finally looking out for her, all capped off with a halo of fairy-dust. It lasts just seconds, but its impact is immense.