Cinderella

Perrault's "Cinderella" and the American Dream

The Cinderella story has existed since the age of antiquity and has been told in many different cultures in as many different fashions. Yet, in America, one version stands out above the rest. Charles Perrault's version, popularized by Disney in 1950, became the standard, sentimental (Disneyfied) "some day my Prince will come" spawning fairy tale that became the classic progenitor of other animated features like Sleeping Beauty. While Walt Disney's animated feature helped cement Perrault's "Cinderella" in the minds of generations of Americans, the Cinderella fantasy had actually been produced in film around the world several times since the beginning of the twentieth century. Each was unique, yet, it is Perrault's that continues to perpetuate the kind of idealized dream-come-true fantasy that fits so well in the idealized world of Americana. This paper will show how of all the various Cinderella stories that...
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