Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Sing Sweet Nightingale

I must share this cutie patooty princess anecdote~

Grace has enjoyed watching Cinderella the last few days. Yesterday afternoon, she was "cooking" in her little microwave; stirring, stirring, stirring. All the while she was singing "Sing sweet nightingale. Sing sweet nightingale~ hiiigh above me" She even sang a decent scale on the "hiiiigh" part. It was lovely & one of those "I wish I had recorded that" moments.

Cinderella Trivia (1950)
In both Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty (1959), the main character's friends surprise her with a new dress, calling out "Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! Happy birthday!"

  • Not only is the name of the prince never revealed, he is nowhere in the film mentioned as "Prince Charming".
  • Ilene Woods beat exactly 309 girls for the part of Cinderella, after some demo recordings of her singing a few of the film's songs were presented to Walt Disney. However, she had no idea she was auditioning for the part until Disney contacted her; she initially made the recordings for a few friends who sent them to Disney without telling her.
  • Lucifer was modeled after animator Ward Kimball's cat. Animators were having trouble coming up with a good design for that cat, but once Walt Disney saw Kimball's furry calico, he declared, "There's your Lucifer."
  • When Cinderella is singing "Sing, sweet nightengale", three bubbles form the head and ears of Mickey Mouse.
  • The royal proclamation on the castle gate wall reads: " All loyal subjects of his Imperial Majesty are hereby notified by royal proclamation that in regard to a certain glass slipper, it is upon this day decreed that a quest be instituted throughout the length and breadth of our domain. The sole and express purpose of said quest is as follows to wit: That every single maiden in our beloved Kingdom shall try upon her foot this aforementioned slipper of glass, and should one be found whose foot shall properly fit said slipper, such maiden will be acclaimed the subject of this search and the one and only true love of his Royal Highness, our noble Prince. And said Royal Highness will humbly request the hand of said maiden in marriage to rule with him over all the Land as Royal Princess and future Queen."
  • According to Ilene Woods, who did the voice for Cinderella, it was Walt Disney who suggested the layered harmonies in the "Sweet, Sweet Nightengale" sequence. She thinks that it might have been the first time that it was attempted.
  • According to Marc Davis, one of the directing animators of Cinderella, at least 90% of the movie was done in live action model before animation.
  • Cinderella was the first Disney film to have its songs published and copyrighted by the newly created Walt Disney Music Company. Before movie soundtracks became merchandisable, movie songs had little residual value to the film studio that owned them and were often sold off to established music companies for sheet music publication.
  • The transformation of Cinderella's torn dress to that of the white ball gown was considered to be Walt Disney's favorite piece of animation.
  • Walt Disney had not had a huge hit since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The production of this film was regarded as a major gamble on his part. At a cost of nearly $3,000,000, Disney insiders claimed that if this movie had failed at the box office, it would have been the end of the Disney studio. The film was a big hit. The profits from its release, with the additional profits from record sales, music publishing, publications and other merchandise gave Disney the cash flow to finance a slate of productions (animated and live action), establish his own distribution company, enter television production and begin building Disneyland during the decade.

Movie Goofs

  • When Cinderella is getting dressed in the morning she pulls the hair ribbon around all of her hair. In the next shot it is tied only around half.
  • Cinderella's bed sheet has patches, but when the birds fold it, the patches are gone.
  • During the ball, the Duke's monocle gets broken during an argument with the King and he looks through the broken monocle at the King as the King leaves. When the Duke goes down to keep and eye on the Prince and Cinderella and, as he closes the curtain on the snooping Stepmother, his monocle is whole again.
  • When Cinderella and the Prince are getting married, Cinderella wears a long-sleeved wedding gown. Afterwards, when we see them through the back window of the carriage, her gown has puffed sleeves.

You will find more Cinderella trivia at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042332/

1 comment:

Tracy said...

Cinderella is my favorite movie of all times! The Sing Sweet nightinggale scene is my favorite part of the movie.