Disney's Cinderella

Like many little girls throughout the ages I dreamt of growing up to become a princess.  (Nowadays I aspire instead to a quiet life with a veggie patch, a rose garden and maybe a bee hive).

Perhaps the most accessible princesses during my childhood were the Disney versions.  I loved all the classics of the time, but Cinderella possibly had a slight edge when it came to my affection.

I think the appeal of Cinderella is the 'against all odds' aspect of the story.  She endures great personal tragedy, reduced circumstances and overt cruelty - and then just when life seems at its bleakest - fate (and a fairy godmother) step in and whisk her away to a new life of happiness and promise.

When we went to Disneyland (Paris) I chose a small figurine of Cinderella as my memento of our holiday.  

 I can't seem to photograph her successfully but she stands on my dressing table with all my other little treasures.....

.... . And then last Christmas I bought a 'vintage'ornament for the tree.  It was a bit of an impulse buy but I couldn't resist it and she looked really pretty amongst the other decorations.. 

The most bizarre thing has just happened.  I was busy adding these pictures to my blog when I saw a Google notification. It told me 'an awesome photo has been added' and someone else has included this effect of the tree sparkling - how strange is that! 

My Mom owned these two identical little books of Cinderella and she loved them.  The books are really small - like the little pocket dictionaries I used before we were able to look things up online.  As a child I could never really see their appeal.  They were not big or colourful enough for me, but I treasure them today because they meant so much to her.

Something that has always intrigued me is that Disney brought out two versions of Cinderella.  I've always found both quite magical.  Does anyone know if the alternate version was ever made into a movie?  If it was I've never come across it.

There is a well known paper doll book based on these illustrations - I've never owned a copy but have seen it advertised for sale and have often been tempted.  

When I was eight years old (don't laugh I know I was that age exactly!) one of the big South African supermarket chains gave out a page of card when you shopped there (it must have been some sort of promotional offer) that had a game on it - I think it was a bit like snakes and ladders.  It was similar to the sort of thing that appeared on the back of cereal boxes.  The illustrations all centred around Cinderella wearing the ball gown from this version of the story.  I would love to be able to see this game again but doubt any are still in existence.  I do own a book with the full story and all the illustrations - I've scanned my favourites from it and have included them here:

I've always thought this paper doll book a particularly lovely one.  It first appeared 4 or 5 years ago and looks like it is from somewhere like Russia.   The dolls and dresses are gorgeous.  I'm not going to repeat them all here but will instead give two blog links where you can see the complete set (including other Disney princesses as well)

One can be found here at Paper Doll Collections and I also spotted them on the blog belonging to Miss Missy  (a fellow OPDAG member).

Of all the blog posts I've ever done the one that still continues to be visited the most (at least 50 times every day) is my compilation of Disney love songs.  I shouldn't be encouraging more traffic to it but the link to that post can be found here.  I wanted to put the same version of the song at the end of this post to finish but can't get it to list in the YouTube search so have included another one instead.