Cinderella

The Historical Context. In 1948, the Charles Perrault fairytale, Cinderella, became the focus for a full-length animated feature by Walt Disney. Being a classic story of an ‘underdog’ who succeeds with a dream fulfilled, the fairy-tale Cinderella was the ideal story to make into a feature film. It was a story with which individuals, including Walt Disney, could identify (Cinderella).

Although the Disney Studio previously had a huge financial success with Snow White in 1939, it now was millions of dollars in debt. Walt Disney needed to make a successful full-length feature animation, or else he would have had to sell the business. As John Culhane states, “it was a question of survival” (Cinderella).

Cinderella ended up being an enormous success for Walt Disney. Not only did the film become a huge hit, but the soundtrack sold 750 million copies, and the film was nominated for Best Song, and Best Score. When filming the feature, Disney took the music very seriously. He had Jerry Livingston, Al Hoffman, and Matt David, commercial songwriters from Tin Pan Alley, compose the feature songs. The