If there is one film during the illustrious history of Disney feature animation that could be deemed a savior, that film would be Cinderella. Walt Disney made his first animated feature, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, in 1937, and for a few years all seemed well. Increasingly elaborate films such as Pinocchio and Fantasia went into production, and were released in 1940. But then came an event that practically stopped the Disney Studio in its tracks: Pearl Harbor. During World War II, Disney lost its European and Asian markets, resulting in a financial crunch in Burbank and leaner times for the Studio. After two films that had already been in production, Dumbo and Bambi, were rushed into theaters, Walt Disney could not find the financing for another animated feature. For eight years, he had to be satisfied with releasing cartoon shorts and with grouping bunches of shorts together into pseudo-features, such as Melody Time and The Three Caballeros.

Finally, toward the end of the decade, Walt was able to scrape together a little money and embark on another full-length animated feature. He had to decide between two films that had already received a bit of story work: Alice In Wonderland and Cinderella. While more preliminary work had been done on Alice, it was Cinderella that Walt chose – and a fortunate choice it was. The tender rags-to-riches tale was a godsend for the Disney Studio. Released in 1950, it became one of the highest-grossing films of the year. But more importantly, it ensured there was still an audience for Disney animation and that the Disney Studio would survive. Alice In Wonderland, released a year later, did not enjoy the same success as Cinderella. Walt reasoned too late that Alice herself had no heart. But Cinderella certainly did, and audiences identified with the beautiful girl who was reduced to being a servant by her jealous stepmother and stepsisters, only to be transformed by a Fairy Godmother on the way to meet her Prince Charming. When the Academy Award® nominations for that year were announced, Cinderella received two nominations — for Best Song ("Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo") and Best Scoring.
(Read about the all-new Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, this issue.)