68 Fun Facts About Cinderella

Which French writer's 1697 telling of Cinderella added the pumpkin, the fairy godmother and the glass slippers?

Charles Perrault called it 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?

On the third night the bird throws down a dress and slippers of pure gold; the shoe left in the pitch is a golden one, unlike the glass slipper of Perrault's French telling.

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

The mother tells the elder girl to cut off her toes, since a queen need not walk; the younger trims her heel, and two doves on the hazel tree point out the blood in the shoe.

In the Grimms' Cinderella, how does the prince try to stop the mystery girl escaping on the third night of the festival?

He has the staircase smeared with pitch, but it only half works: one slipper sticks in the tar and she gets away, having earlier fled 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?

Strabo's Geographica, around the turn of the first century, tells how Rhodopis's sandal was carried off to the king at Memphis; Herodotus had mentioned her centuries earlier only as a courtesan, without the shoe story.

In the ancient tale of Rhodopis, an early Cinderella, what snatches her sandal and carries it to the king of Egypt?

An eagle 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?

In Duan Chengshi's ninth-century Youyang Zazu, Ye Xian's stepmother kills her pet fish; its buried bones grant her a gown and slippers for the festival, and the stepfamily is later killed by flying stones.

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

It was written in Neapolitan dialect and printed in Naples in 1634 in Basile's Lo cunto de li cunti; the heroine, Zezolla, helps her governess become her stepmother by killing the first one.

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?

Angelina gives the prince one of a matching pair of bracelets and tells him to find its twin; Ferretti's libretto dropped the fairy and the slipper, giving her the philosopher Alidoro as helper instead.

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

Type ATU 510A, the Persecuted Heroine, also covers The Wonderful Birch and Fair, Brown and Trembling; stories where the father himself is the persecutor, like Donkeyskin, are type 510B.

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

Vair was the heraldic name for squirrel fur, hence the old theory that Perrault meant fur slippers; most scholars think the glass was deliberate, though Nabokov's Professor Pnin states the squirrel-fur theory as fact.

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

Georges Méliès shot Cendrillon in 1899, a trick film in several tableaux; hundreds followed, from Mary Pickford's 1914 silent to the 2025 Norwegian body-horror film The Ugly Stepsister.

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

Ilene Woods got the part after recording demo songs as a favour for songwriters Mack David and Jerry Livingston; Walt Disney phoned her two days later, and she was named a Disney Legend in 2003.

Which song does Cinderella sing while scrubbing the floor among multiplying soap-bubble reflections?

Cinderella sings Sing Sweet Nightingale while scrubbing the floor, harmonising with several reflections of herself in the soap bubbles, after the stepsisters have mangled the same song at their music lesson.

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?

Eleanor Audley went on to voice Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (1959), also serving as the live-action reference for that villain, and is familiar to TV viewers as Eunice Douglas on Green Acres.

Which stepsister, alongside Anastasia, torments Cinderella under Lady Tremaine's roof in Disney's 1950 animated film?

Drizella and Anastasia are Lady Tremaine's daughters; the other names belong to rival versions: Javotte is Perrault's elder stepsister, Marguerite is in Ever After and Esmerelda in 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?

Walt spotted Ward Kimball's own calico cat at the animator's home and declared it was Lucifer; none of Kimball's earlier designs had pleased him, and the animals were animated without live-action reference footage.

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

Helene Stanley was the live-action reference for Aurora in Sleeping Beauty and later Anita in One Hundred and One Dalmatians; Cinderella was shot as a full live-action reference film first, partly to keep costs down.

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?

Mona Lisa, sung by Nat King Cole in Captain Carey, U.S.A., took the 1950 Oscar; Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo's most popular record, by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters, reached number 14 on Billboard.

In Disney's 1950 film, what is the name of Cinderella's horse, who becomes the coachman?

Major, Cinderella's old grey horse, is turned into the coachman by the Fairy Godmother's spell, while four mice become the white horses that pull the pumpkin coach.

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

Cinderella took a Golden Bear at the first Berlinale in 1951, when the festival gave one per genre; Berlin screened it again in 2023 in a new 4K restoration for Disney's centenary.

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

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, released on tape later the same month in October 1988, sold about 15 million copies; Cinderella had shifted more than 7 million before Disney returned it to the vault.

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

Roosevelt called the Supreme Court justices who struck down New Deal laws 'nine old men'; Walt applied the tag to his core animators, two of whom, Eric Larson and Marc Davis, both drew Cinderella herself.

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

Jennifer Hale took over as Cinderella for Dreams Come True in 2002 and kept the role for A Twist in Time in 2007; original voice Ilene Woods, by then in her seventies, did not return.

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?

Jaq and Gus are mice; both were voiced by sound-effects man James MacDonald, who also voiced the family dog and, from 1947, took over Mickey Mouse from Walt himself.

Who directed Disney's 2015 live-action Cinderella?

Kenneth Branagh directed, from a Chris Weitz script, after Mark Romanek left the project over creative differences, his darker take not matching what Disney wanted.

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

Richard Madden's prince is known simply as Kit; the wrong answers are other Cinderella princes: Henry in Ever After, Christopher in the 1957 TV musical and Topher on Broadway in 2013.

Who took the title role in Disney's 2015 live-action Cinderella after Emma Watson's negotiations for the part fell through?

Lily James got the part; Watson later said the character did not resonate with her and took Belle in Beauty and the Beast instead.

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

Lily James first read for the stepsister Anastasia before being asked to try for Ella; her Downton Abbey co-star Sophie McShera was cast as the other stepsister.

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

Frozen Fever, a short sequel to Frozen with Elsa and Anna, ran before the feature and helped it to a $67.9 million domestic opening weekend in March 2015.

Who played the Fairy Godmother in the 2015 film?

Helena Bonham Carter's Fairy Godmother wore an enormous white gown with battery-powered lights sewn beneath the skirt, and she also narrates the film.

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

Cate Blanchett was announced as Lady Tremaine in late 2012, before any other casting; the remake gives the stepmother a motive, overhearing 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?

Julie Andrews, then starring in My Fair Lady on Broadway, played Cinderella in the live CBS broadcast of 31 March 1957 and earned an Emmy nomination for it.

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?

An estimated 107 million viewers, around 60 percent of the US population, tuned in on 31 March 1957; only black-and-white kinescopes of the colour broadcast survive.

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

Whitney Houston had pitched herself for the title role after seeing the 1993 TV Gypsy, then offered it to Brandy and took the Fairy Godmother herself; Goldberg played the queen.

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

Jason Alexander's herald served Victor Garber's king and Whoopi Goldberg's queen in a film that cost a then-unprecedented $12 million for a TV movie.

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

Lesley Ann Warren, then 18, starred in the 1965 CBS remake with Ginger Rogers and Walter Pidgeon as the queen and king; the taped version was rerun yearly until 1974.

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

William Ivey Long won the Tony for Best Costume Design, his onstage rags-to-gown quick change being 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?

Drew Barrymore's Danielle de Barbarac pelts the prince with apples when he tries to take her father's horse and argues with him about the poor; the film drops all magic and treats the tale as history.

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

Leonardo da Vinci, at the French court as a guest of King Francis, befriends Danielle, helps her reach the masque and later persuades Prince Henry to go after her.

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

The Grande Dame, played by Jeanne Moreau, summons the Brothers Grimm to correct their version, presents herself as the heroine's great-great-granddaughter and produces the actual glass slipper.

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

Château de Hautefort, a 17th-century castle in the Dordogne, stood in for the royal palace; 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?

Anjelica Huston's Rodmilla ends up sentenced to work in the palace laundry alongside Marguerite, rather than meeting anything supernatural.

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

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

Before becoming Cinderella's Royal Table in 1997, the castle restaurant was named after which character?

King Stefan's Banquet Hall, named for Sleeping Beauty's father rather than anyone from Cinderella, was renamed Cinderella's Royal Table in 1997 to fix the mismatch.

Which two numbers are missing from Cinderella Castle's 29-numbered towers, of which only 27 exist?

Towers 13 and 17 were cut from the plans because they would have been hidden from view; the clock sits on tower 10, and the tallest, number 20, carries the elevator to the 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?

One stepsister is tinted red with anger and the other green with envy; the five panels by Hanns Scharff took 22 months and more than 300,000 pieces of Italian glass, some fused with silver and 14-karat gold.

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

For years the unfinished space served as a telephone call center; it was finally fitted out as a royal bedchamber in 2007 and given away in nightly prize stays during the Year of a Million Dreams.

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'?

Billy Porter's gender-neutral Fab G replaces the fairy godmother; the film went straight to Prime Video after Sony sold it to Amazon during the pandemic.

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

It premiered in Boston on February 15, 1950, then opened nationally in March, and went on to become Disney's biggest hit since Snow White.

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?

Laugh-O-Gram Films, Walt's short-lived Kansas City studio, made Cinderella in 1922 as one of its modernised fairy tales; he revisited the story in 1933 as a possible Silly Symphony before it grew toward a feature.

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

Sandy Powell aimed for the look of a 19th-century period film made in the 1940s or 1950s, with 10,000 crystals on each ballgown.

Who plays Ella's merchant father in Disney's 2015 live-action Cinderella?

Ben Chaplin plays the merchant father who dies on a trading trip, while Hayley Atwell plays Ella's mother, whose dying advice is to have courage and be kind.

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

Cinderella took about $543 million worldwide against a $95 million budget, the twelfth-highest gross of 2015, with China its biggest overseas market.

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

Bernadette Peters played the stepmother, with Brandy as Cinderella, Whoopi Goldberg as the queen, Victor Garber as the king and Paolo Montalban as the prince.

Which pop singer made her acting debut as the title character in Kay Cannon's 2021 jukebox-musical Cinderella for Amazon?

Camila Cabello, formerly of Fifth Harmony, starred opposite Nicholas Galitzine's prince in a jukebox musical that Sony sold to Amazon during the pandemic.