Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella [DVD]

HEARTWARMING, BEAUTIFUL, FUN AND MEMORABLE!!!!!!, July 24, 2004 Reviewer: FEEMEISTER1 (Tallahassee, Florida United States) - See all my reviews (UPDATE--12/17/04--I just saw the Julie Andrews version on PBS for the first time. It couldn't TOUCH this version! (And Julie Andrews has always been my favorite lady singer!!) I thought the 57 version was flat, and the only thing really good in it at all were the "Stepsisters, Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley!" I thought I would be blown away by Julie singing these wonderful songs, but I was not. I much prefer Lesley Ann Warren's versions of the songs. THIS VERSION RULES!!!!!) This rendition of Cinderella is superb! The music is abolutely beautiful! I remember all the songs almost word for word from when I watched it when I was a child. I really loved it then, and watched it every year it came on. Now I'm 47, and I love it more NOW than I did THEN! I feel sorry for some of the reviewers here that can't see the beauty of this with their imagination, and who think everything has to have expensive new special effects and must be made with the greatest singers in the world (like Julie Andrews. No one can touch her singing!) But that is NOT what this is! This is a beautiful, unique, heartfelt rendition. Cinderella is fresh and sweet and tugs at your heart! The prince is gorgeous and nice and decent! The stepmother and sisters are FANTASTIC! They really make this complete! Jo Van Fleet's sneer is the best! (She even sneers when she's talking and has her back to you. "There's no pleasing THAT prince!" Her VOICE even sneered!!!) And Pat Carroll is so REAL!!!! And Esmerelda (Barbara Ruick) is hysterical with her eye batting! I LOVED the Prince's song at the beginning! It was warm and searching and heartfelt, and really set the tone for the singing! "The Prince is Giving a Ball" was novel and catchy, and I've remembered parts of it for almost 40 years!!! "In My Own Little Corner" I have loved and remembered all the words to for all this time! This song really comes alive and she puts SO much into it! Ms. Holm is a beautiful fairy godmother, and makes me wish I had been able to see her films when she was young! Her and Cinderella singing "Impossible" is wonderful! It's the usual Rodgers and Hammerstein's "nonsense" song and is very fast-paced, "wordy" and hard to sing! But they did an excellent job of it, and Cinderella's eyes absolutely sparkled! (This is another catchy one I've remembered ALL the words to for ALL this time!!!) The Prince and Cinderella dancing is just too wonderful for words! I wish I had all that room to waltz in while they're waltzing, but I only have a tiny living room and I don't know HOW to waltz, but I really wanted to! The movement of the dance was GREAT!!! (It would have been nice to see Ginger Rogers do a whole dance instead of one turn around the floor--but it was nice to see the legend dance in this for only a moment!) The stepsister's song (Stepsisters' Lament) was really a masterpiece! That was for all the normal girls, who aren't sweet and beautiful and ethereal like Cinderella! (She's a frothy little bubble--with a flimsy kind of CHARM! And with very little TROUBLE--I could break her little ARM!!!) This song is TOPS!!! "Ten Minutes Ago" and "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful" are beautiful gems of songs. They are truly memorable! "A Lovely Night" is another lovely one (there really are NO bad songs in this one)!!! And when the Prince comes to their home to try the shoe on them!!! JO Van Fleet tries to steal the scene again, by sitting down for them to try the shoe on her old "sneery" self when she sees her daughters can't make it at all! The man just gets up and walks away--he wouldn't give her the satisfaction! But to me, the greatest scene in the whole thing, is when the Prince wants to try the shoe on Cinderella and the stepmother starts screaming and squawking, and the Prince yells "SILENCE!!!!" and they show the frozen tableau of the stepmother and sisters when they actually were made to shut up! THAT SCENE IS ABSOLUTELY indescribable! I truly can't think of words for how funny it was and how satisfying! This is not "Gone With the Wind" acting and it's not performed by opera queens. It wasn't high budget and out to make billions of dollars! However, the songs in it are beautiful. I rate it up there with Mary Poppins (Chim Chim Cheree and Feed the Birds) and of course, the Sound of Music. This is an operetta meant to entertain. It is witty and funny and heartwarming and fun and beautiful and memorable. I have remembered it and loved it since 1965 and find it truly unique and recommend it to all!!! (Except for people LOOKING for only Gone With the Wind Acting or Prima Donnas!)BRAND NEW UPDATE 7/26/12 I have now bought this wonderful version for my very precious, wonderful granddaughter, and we have watched it together a couple times. She lives 200 miles away, and when I call her on the phone, we sing the songs in this movie together over the phone (she could sing and remember the words when she was 5). She loves this movie too! And I thought I loved this movie before!!!

I love this dvd and just had to have a copy of it. I am in my 70's but doesn't matter. From years past I would occasionally sing the songs from this awesome video. I may watch it any time! Thank you for making it available.

This product was as described and expected, and even a little BETTER than expected! It did appear that this mid-1060's production that I first saw as a child of 8, in 1965, and LOVED (because-> Leslie Ann Warren!), WAS clearly improved over un-improved mid-1960's TV & video quality! Digitally? Hard to say. Perfect, compared to today's standards? Far from it. But quite watchable and wonderful to see!As a professional in television and video for the past 43 years, I have scrutinized video image quality over the years. I was even a connoisseur for the child I was when this production first was broadcast! I've observed the flaws in productions made in the late 1950's and throughout the 60's and noticed the rise in quality that took place between about 1955 and 1970. As the flaws in this production can be accepted because television technology was in its infancy, still, in 1965, we can look past that and appreciate the performances of the range of actors in this production, and the skills of the camera work and control room switching, live to tape, when editing videotape was a very difficult practice!And these actors run the gamut; Broadway musical actors and movie stars joined together in an inspired ensemble cast! I had no idea when I first saw this production that the beautiful young star, Leslie Ann Warren was far younger than you'd expect -- just 18 when she was cast! I just remember I was enthralled with her! What a wonderful, sweet singing voice, for an actor as young as she was! In fact, her youth may have contributed to that sweet vocal-quality! She certainly MUST have best represented the fairytale character of an innocent, fair-minded and empathetic young girl living in oppressive circumstances!After seeing this show again, decades later, I was reminded that I had felt I was in love with this girl, as much as an 8-year-old boy could be! And I was obviously not alone! I've since seen Julie Andrews' portrayal in a similar-type (early, experimental, as far as stretching the capabilities of the early technology) 1959 production of the same musical. Of course she was also wonderful! I mean, she was the now-legendary Dame Julie Andrews! She can't do a poor job, even as young and green as SHE also was at that time! But, I still think I like Leslie Ann in the roll a little better!I think I read some reviews saying the image quality was poor... looked like VHS (and that's true, TV resolution in the 50's & 60's wasn't up to 1980's and 90's broadcast TV resolution and quality). But, again, removing the technical limitations of the time from the review, there's no valid complaint that can be made about this product containing a relic of nostalgia, which we, now, (semi-)old-timers can relive, and young people can see some television history and enjoy some fine performances of a sweet story and some cute show tunes! I highly recommend this video to anyone unsure about it! The price I paid was incredibly reasonable, and it arrived 2 days after I ordered it!

I was a little girl when this was first broadcasted on tv. I remember how magical and beautiful it was ! The music is so sweet and now to see Leslie Ann Warren so young and so sweet. I found it very emotional ! Loved it then and Loved it now . I'm so happy to see this offered as a dvd.

I loved it!

My favorite fairy tale. It's such wonderful movie. I've been watching this movie since I was 10 and still love it.