What is it? Cinderella, 50th anniversary edition, 83 minutes on one disc from Shout! Factory
How much? $19.97
When? Now
Cinderella, OK. But which version? The musical version. To be more precise, this is the second TV production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. The first was a live broadcast starring Julie Andrews in 1957, and in 1965 they decided to do a revival in color with more elaborate production values and a new script.
The 1957 version disappeared for decades (it's now on DVD) but reruns of this production were numerous. (A 1997 version starring Brandy and Whitney Houston is also out there.)
Everyone should be familiar with the story and lineup of characters: put-upon girl (Lesley Ann Warren), handsome prince (Stuart Damon), wise king and queen (Walter Pidgeon and Ginger Rogers), wicked stepmother (Jo Van Fleet), ugly stepsisters (Pat Carroll and Barbara Ruick), fairy godmother (Celeste Holm) and assorted mice, rats and villagers.
How is it? I grew up watching a videotape of this production, so I can only watch it through nostalgia-tinted glasses. To see how it would go over with today's children, I borrowed three tech-savvy, Disney-loving girls (ages 2, 4 and 7) to use as guinea pigs. How would they react to primitive special effects and a lack of talking animals?
Pretty well, it turned out. The 2-year-old only watched intermittently and the other two were occasionally distracted, but they asked frequent questions and had quite a few comments to make, which showed they were at least somewhat engaged: "She'd [Cinderella] be pretty if she didn't have that stuff on her face," and, "Why are they [the stepsisters] so old looking?"
They also got the giggles when the prince sang, finding his earnestness "crazy."
It was the 4-year-old who was most taken with it and she even tried to copy some of Cinderella's moves during her post-ball ballet number.
The older two were disappointed they wouldn't get to watch it again that night.
And how did the adult enjoy it? Not quite as much as I did when I was 7. But it was still innocent, charming fun.
On the whole, the songs aren't quite up to Rodgers and Hammerstein's best, but there are some truly lovely ones, like the lilting waltz "Ten Minutes Ago" and the bubbly "Impossible" and "Lovely Night."
Are there extras? A 10-minute retrospective featuring interviews with Warren, Damon and Holm.
New this week: The 100, Season 1; Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Season 1; China Beach, Season 4; Daniel Boone, Complete Series; Defiance, Season 2; How I Met Your Mother, Season 9 and The Whole Story; L.A. Law, Season 3; Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Season 15; Mama's Family, Season 5; Modern Family, Season 5; Mom, Season 1; Nashville, Season 2; Necessary Roughness, Season 3; Reign, Season 1; Royal Pains, Season 5; Scandal, Season 3.
Next week: 24: Live Another Day; The Donna Reed Show, Season 1; The Mentalist, Season 6; Mike & Molly, Season 4; NYPD Blue, Season 7.
Style on 09/21/2014