70 Fun Facts About Cinderella

Which writer's 1697 French version introduced the fairy godmother and the glass slippers to the story?

His title was Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre, and it came with two morals, the second admitting that talent gets you nowhere without a godparent.

In the Grimm tale Aschenputtel, the heroine's help comes not from a fairy godmother but from what?

She grew it from a hazel twig her father brought back from a fair, watering it with her tears; a white bird in its branches throws down whatever she asks for.

In the Grimm version, what are the slippers the heroine wears on the third night made of?

The glass slipper belongs only to the French telling and its descendants; other variants use an anklet, a ring or a bracelet instead.

In the Grimm tale, what does the elder stepsister cut off on her mother's advice so the slipper will fit?

The younger sister trims her heel instead, and both are exposed by two doves who point out the blood dripping from the shoe.

How does the prince in the Grimm tale try to stop the mystery girl escaping on the third night?

It works only halfway: she loses one golden slipper in the tar and gets away, having earlier escaped him via a pigeon coop and a pear tree.

In the coda the Grimms added in 1819, what happens to the stepsisters at the wedding?

The 1812 first edition had no punishment at all; the blinding was bolted on for the second edition, one eye on the way into church and the other on the way out.

Which ancient writer first recorded the tale of the Greek girl Rhodopis?

Herodotus mentions a courtesan called Rhodopis five centuries earlier, but without the shoe story; Aelian later added that the king was Psammetichus.

In the ancient tale of Rhodopis, what carries her sandal away to the king of Egypt?

The bird drops it in the king's lap while he is holding court outdoors, and he sends men across the country to find the foot that fits.

In the ninth-century Chinese tale of Ye Xian, the heroine's festival finery comes from the magical bones of what?

The fish is the reincarnation of her dead mother; the cruel stepfamily ends up killed by flying rocks.

The first European prose version, Basile's La Gatta Cenerentola of 1634, was published in which city?

It was written in Neapolitan dialect and set in the Kingdom of Naples; the heroine, Zezolla, actually helps her governess become her stepmother.

In Basile's 1634 version, how many stepsisters does the new stepmother spring on the heroine?

Zezolla is dressed for the ball by a fairy living in a date tree grown from a seedling her father brought back from Sardinia.

In Rossini's opera La Cenerentola, what replaces the slipper as the proof of the heroine's identity?

Rossini agreed to the opera only if all magic was cut, so she is helped by a philosopher named Alidoro rather than a fairy.

Folklorists classify the tale under which Aarne-Thompson-Uther type number, 'Persecuted Heroine'?

The same type covers The Wonderful Birch, Fair, Brown and Trembling and Katie Woodencloak; stories where the father is the persecutor are 510B.

If Cinderella's 'glass' slipper came from confusing French verre with vair, what would the slippers be?

Most scholars think the glass was deliberate poetic invention; Nabokov's Professor Pnin nonetheless states the fur theory as fact.

Who made the first film version of the story, Cendrillon, in 1899?

Hundreds of films have followed, from Mary Pickford's 1914 silent to a 2025 Norwegian body-horror take told from the stepsister's side.

Who provided the voice of Cinderella in Disney's 1950 animated film?

She got the part after recording demo songs as a favour for the songwriters; Walt Disney phoned her two days later and she was named a Disney Legend in 2003.

Roughly how many applicants auditioned for the voice of Cinderella in the 1950 film?

The Hollywood Reporter even announced singer Jeannie McKeon had won it in March 1948 before the deal fell apart.

Which Disney regular voiced the Fairy Godmother in the 1950 film?

Walt wanted a tall, regal fairy like Pinocchio's Blue Fairy; animator Milt Kahl used Felton's casting to win him over to a dotty little one instead.

Eleanor Audley, the voice of the stepmother Lady Tremaine, went on to voice which other Disney villain?

Her Lady Tremaine look and manner were reportedly modelled on Bette Davis as Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes.

Which of these is one of Cinderella's stepsisters in the 1950 Disney film?

The other names all belong to rival versions: Javotte to a 1940 Disney treatment, Marguerite to Ever After and Esmerelda to the 1965 TV musical.

What is the name of Cinderella's dog in the 1950 film, who is turned into a footman for the ball?

Bruno later saves the day by chasing the cat Lucifer out of the house so the mice can free Cinderella from the attic.

Where did Walt Disney find the model for the villainous cat Lucifer?

None of Kimball's earlier designs had pleased Walt; the animals, unlike the humans, were animated without live-action reference footage.

Cinderella's reference model Helene Stanley later did the same job for which Disney heroine?

Animators were filmed a full-length reference film first, partly to keep costs down, and complained it left no room to invent.

By 1947, shortly before the film was greenlit, roughly how deep in debt was the Disney studio?

Roy Disney wanted Walt to sell up and retire; the film's success instead funded Disneyland and the studio's move into television.

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo lost the Academy Award for Best Original Song to which song?

The most popular record of it was by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters, which reached number 14 on the Billboard chart.

'A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes' was inspired by a Transcendental Etude by which composer?

It later opened The Wonderful World of Disney on television and was re-recorded by the star of the 2015 remake's soundtrack.

At the very first Berlin International Film Festival in 1951, the 1950 film won which award?

Berlin got it back in 2023, when a 4K restoration scanned from the original Technicolor negative premiered there for Disney's centenary.

The 1988 VHS release of the film was the best-selling video title ever until which film overtook it?

Disney shipped 4.3 million tapes and had to send more than seven million; it went into the vault seven months later with $108 million in sales.

Disney's 'Nine Old Men' nickname borrowed a jibe Franklin Roosevelt aimed at what?

Two of them, Eric Larson and Marc Davis, both drew Cinderella herself, and Ken O'Brien was assigned to make their two versions look like the same woman.

Who took over the voice of Cinderella for the 2002 direct-to-video sequel Dreams Come True?

The original voice had sued Disney over VHS royalties in 1990, following similar suits by Peggy Lee and Mary Costa.

In Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (2007), how does the stepmother undo the happy ending?

She rewinds to the day of the slipper fitting and magically enlarges the shoe to fit Anastasia's foot.

In the 1950 film, what does the Fairy Godmother turn into Cinderella's coach?

The pumpkin, like the fairy godmother, was a 1697 French addition and does not appear in the Grimm or Basile tellings.

What kind of animals are Jaq and Gus, Cinderella's helpers in the Disney film?

Both were voiced by sound-effects man James MacDonald, who also voiced the family dog and, elsewhere, Mickey Mouse.

Who directed Disney's 2015 live-action Cinderella?

Mark Romanek had spent fifteen months on it, pitching 'Barry Lyndon but with magic', before Disney let him go for being too dark.

What is the prince's name in the 2015 live-action film?

The wrong answers are all real Cinderella princes: Henry in Ever After, Christopher in the 1957 TV musical and Topher on Broadway in 2013.

Who played the title role in the 2015 film after Emma Watson's deal fell through?

Watson later said the character did not resonate with her; she took Belle in Beauty and the Beast instead.

Before landing the 2015 lead, its star first auditioned for which part?

Her Downton Abbey co-star Sophie McShera ended up as the other stepsister, Drisella.

How many life-size crystal slippers did Swarovski make for the 2015 film, none of them wearable?

The leather shoes the star actually wore were digitally replaced with crystal; Swarovski also supplied 1.7 million crystals and 100 tiaras for the ball.

Which animated short played in cinemas ahead of the 2015 film?

The pairing helped it to a $67.9 million opening weekend, Disney's biggest ever for a 2D PG-rated film at the time.

Who played the Fairy Godmother in the 2015 film?

Her enormous white gown had battery-powered lights sewn under the skirt, which kept running flat mid-scene.

Who was the first actor cast in the 2015 film, as the stepmother?

The remake gives the stepmother a motive: she overhears her new husband admit he still loves his first wife more.

Who starred in the original 1957 live television broadcast of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella?

She was starring in My Fair Lady on Broadway at the time, and there were no understudies: Rodgers said if she could not do the show, neither could they.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is unique in their catalogue for being written for what?

It had to fit 90 minutes with six commercial breaks, so the show was split into six short acts and squeezed into CBS's smallest colour studio.

Roughly how many Americans watched the 1957 broadcast, then the largest TV audience in history?

Only black-and-white kinescopes survive; the dress-rehearsal recording was thought lost until it turned up in 2002.

In the 1997 television version, who played the Fairy Godmother?

She had originally pitched herself for the title role after seeing the 1993 TV Gypsy; Goldberg played the queen and Peters the stepmother.

Which Seinfeld actor played Lionel the herald in the 1997 TV version?

The 1997 film cost a then-unprecedented $12 million for a TV movie and drew 60 million viewers for ABC.

Who played the title role in the 1965 television remake, at the age of 18?

Ginger Rogers and Walter Pidgeon were the queen and king; the taped version was rebroadcast eight times through 1974.

The 2013 Broadway production was nominated for nine Tony Awards but won only one, in which category?

William Ivey Long's onstage rags-to-gown quick change was the show's signature trick; it ran 770 performances with Laura Osnes in the lead.

Who plays the heroine Danielle in the 1998 film Ever After?

The film drops all magic and treats the story as Renaissance history, with a heroine who quotes Thomas More and knocks the prince off her horse with an apple.

Which historical figure stands in for the fairy godmother in Ever After?

He arrives at court as a guest of King Francis, and it is he who leaves the prince holding the lost slipper.

Ever After opens with an elderly Grande Dame summoning whom to hear the 'true' story?

The Grande Dame, played by Jeanne Moreau, is presented as the heroine's great-great-granddaughter and produces the actual glass slipper.

In Ever After, which book given to Danielle by her father does the stepsister Marguerite burn?

Thomas More's book is the source of the heroine's political arguments, and it inspires the prince to found a university.

Which castle in the Dordogne served as the royal palace in Ever After?

The de Barbarac house was Château de la Roussie, and Danielle's portrait is based on da Vinci's La Scapigliata.

Who plays the stepmother, Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent, in Ever After?

Her comeuppance is being sent to work in the palace laundry rather than anything supernatural.

Besides the Magic Kingdom in Florida, which Disney park has its own Cinderella Castle?

The Tokyo twin is slightly shorter and from 1986 to 2006 housed a villain-themed walk-through called the Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour.

How tall is Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom, measured from water level?

That makes it more than 100 feet taller than Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle, and forced perspective makes it look taller still.

Cinderella Castle's towers are numbered 1 to 29, but only 27 exist. Which two numbers were dropped?

The clock tower is number 10 and the tallest is number 20, which also holds the elevator up to the private suite.

For Walt Disney World's 25th anniversary in 1996, the castle was made over to look like what?

It took more than 400 gallons of pink paint, 26 candles up to 40 feet tall and 1,000 feet of inflatable icing, and stayed up for 15 months.

In the mosaic murals inside the castle archway, the two stepsisters' faces are tinted which colours?

The five panels took 22 months and more than 300,000 pieces of Italian glass, some fused with sterling silver and 14-karat gold.

The suite planned inside Cinderella Castle for Walt Disney's family was at one point used as what?

It was finally fitted out as a royal bedchamber in 2007 and given away as a prize; the last overnight stays were in 2009.

What was Andrew Lloyd Webber's 2021 glass-slipper musical retitled for its short Broadway run?

It closed after 85 performances, ending a 44-year unbroken run of at least one Lloyd Webber show on Broadway.

In the 2021 Amazon musical film, who plays the fairy godparent 'Fab G'?

Camila Cabello made her acting debut in the lead, and the film went straight to Prime Video after Sony sold it during the pandemic.

In which US city was Disney's animated Cinderella first released to theatres in February 1950?

The film opened on February 15, 1950, and went on to become Disney's biggest hit since Snow White, earning nearly $4.28 million in North American rentals.

Which voice actress, later famous as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, voiced Lucifer the cat in 1950?

Asked by a studio representative whether she could do a cat, Foray replied that she could do anything, and got the job.

Walt Disney first adapted the Cinderella tale in 1922 as a cartoon short for which company?

He revisited the story in 1933 as a possible Silly Symphony short before it grew too complicated and was pushed toward a feature.

Which three-time Oscar winner designed the costumes for the 2015 live-action film?

Powell aimed for the look of a 19th-century period film made in the 1940s or 1950s, and each ballgown used more than 270 yards of fabric and 10,000 crystals.

The mostly computer-generated royal palace in the 2015 film was modelled after which building?

Real locations used in the shoot included Hampton Court Palace, Blenheim Palace, Windsor Castle and Pinewood Studios.

Roughly how much did the 2015 live-action Cinderella gross worldwide?

Against a $95 million budget it was the twelfth-highest-grossing film of 2015, with China its biggest overseas market.

Who played the stepmother opposite Brandy in the 1997 television film?

Several white actresses reportedly declined the part; Peters' comic background led to a funnier stepmother than earlier versions.

Which pop singer made her acting debut as the title character in the 2021 jukebox-musical film?

Kay Cannon wrote and directed the film, which was produced by James Corden's Fulwell 73 and released on Amazon Prime Video.