★★★★★[/types]]

Cinderella no doubt deserves to listed among the Walt Disney Company’s classic animated features. It is lushly and handsomely drawn and genuinely heartwarming. Songs like “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” are not the most famous to emerge from the Disney canon, but they are worthy of being called minor classics.

None of that disguises the simple fact that Cinderella is in many ways two shorter films shoehorned into one. The actual tale of the young scullery maid abused by her evil stepmother and vain, selfish step-sisters is too slight even to fill Cinderella’s not-quite-feature-length running time of 74-minutes. A large part of the movie, included much of the first twenty minutes is filled with a great deal of slapstick involving the four mice (who eventually become the horses drawing the carriage) and the stepmother’s cat. These entertaining passages play out like a classic Disney short but have little to do with the main story.

However minimal the actual storytelling is, Cinderella is a fine bit of entertainment for the under-ten crowd and a warm, fuzzy dose of fond memories for their parents. The lovingly rendered animation is a joy to look at, the height of the golden age of Disney artistry.

Young man, are you sure you're trying it on the right foot?