Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Cinderella Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 15, 2022

According to a feature report in Variety that came across my news feed the other day, none other than Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber was booed loudly by the audience at the recent closing of his musical version of Cinderella when he mentioned that it had been "a costly mistake". I couldn't help but jokingly wonder what might have happened had Sir Andrew simply followed up by announcing, "The people behind the film I'm about to show you have said something curious to me: 'Hold my beer'", and then launched into a screening of another musical version of the venerable tale which some may feel was a "mistake", costly or otherwise. Cinderella in this 1977 iteration is a musical, no doubt, and I have to say I was actually kind of pleasantly surprised by the general competence of the song score and the arrangements and orchestrations in particular, but the song and dance here are accompanied by a generous dose of another famous pair, namely T and A, in a soft core romp that is occasionally kind of funny but which becomes increasingly labored as it wends its way to a happy ending (in more ways than one).

Cinderella's story of a little magical help from beyond and a definite sense of comeuppance for those who are churlish for no reason has made it a ripe property for adaptation through the centuries, and there have been numerous iterations that have either been outright musicals, or at least close to it. Among the many titles in this kind of curious subgenre are Cinderella , Cinderella, The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella , The Glass Slipper and at least parts of Into the Woods. If this film's music is perhaps unsurprisingly not the equal of Stephen Sondheim or even the Sherman Brothers, it's often surprisingly tuneful with occasionally witty lyrics. The song score is by Andrew Belling and Lee Arries, who most likely aren't going to be household names for even diehard musical fans, but who also contributed tunes to Wizards and perhaps more saliently another somewhat similar Charles Band enterprise, Fairy Tales.

The general outlines of the Cinderella story are hewed to relatively closely, with Cinderella (Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith) suffering the indignities foisted upon her by her two ugly stepsisters, Drucella (Yana Nirvana, perhaps my new favorite actor name) and Marbella (Marilyn Corwin). In this version of the story, Drucella, Marbella and Cinderella are all more than happy to discard their blouses before engaging in music making, giving the film a decidedly wacky demeanor from the get go. There are also goofy jokes built around the impressive endowment of the king (Boris Moris), though I'm not sure how well this film's "refashioning" (a carefully chosen word) of the Fairy Godmother (Sy Richardson) as a, well, "fairy" (in the pejorative sense) is going to sit with more PC minded audiences.

As the film's cheeky log line mentions, what the Prince (Brett Smiley) slipped Cinderella was not a slipper, and in fact the "ball" in this case may be taken in a somewhat euphemistic sense, since it's more or less an orgy, with the Prince discovering that Cinderella is a perfect "fit" in a way not exactly developed in the more innocent original version. The film has a lot of girl on girl action, with copious full frontal nudity on the part of several of the females in the cast, with the Prince occasionally appearing almost fully nude himself. The "sex" is not exactly titillating and in fact is often played for laughs, though this film's comedic energy arguably begins to lag even before a needlessly drawn out third act.

Cinderella Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cinderella is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Full Moon Features with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. The back cover of this release states that it has been "remastered from the original 35mm camera negative". The results here are generally very good, especially in terms of a rather robustly colorful palette, which pops agreeably throughout virtually the entire presentation. Detail levels are often commendable as well, with close-ups in some outdoor scenes offering substantial precision on things like costume fabrics and facial features. There are some passing irregularities, including short interstitial moments where image clarity and suffusion take downturns and the grain spikes pretty dramatically (see screenshot 19). Occasional scenes have noticeable blemishes, including some pretty bad scratches (see screenshot 18). On the whole, though, this is a pleasing transfer of a cult item with generally stable technical merits and a nicely organic appearance. My score is 3.75.

Cinderella Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unfortunately the disc features only lossy audio in the form of either Dolby Digital 2.0 (default) or Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. The sound design here is not opulent by any standards, but as mentioned above, I was actually kind of pleasantly surprised by the technical finesse of the orchestral backings on the songs. The singing is pleasant if hardly in the "take your breath away" category, and the two Dolby offerings support the music well enough, though of course curmudgeonly audiophiles (ahem) will no doubt wonder what lossless audio could have added to the (literal and figurative) mix. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. No subtitles are available.

Cinderella Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Vintage Trailers include:

  Mansion of the Doomed (HD; 1:50)

  
  

  Day Time Ended (HD; 1:34)

  
  

  Laserblast (HD; 1:26)

  
  

  Fairy Tales (HD; 1:31)

  
  

  Last Foxtrot in Burbank (HD; 1:30)

Cinderella Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I actually Music Directed the Rodgers and Hammerstein version of Cinderella many years ago in Portland where I live (with not quite yet Miss America Katie Harman in the title role!), shortly after the televised version with Brandy (linked to) had aired, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization in their wisdom (?) had started licensing the show with "The Sweetest Sounds" (from No Strings, for which Rodgers famously wrote both music and lyrics) interpolated. I could never quite get used to hearing that song in an unfamiliar context, but that sense of awkwardness probably pales in comparison to watching naked women cavorting in a fairy tale setting whilst warbling pop inflected tunes very much in a seventies vein (down to and including hints of disco). Some people I'm sure hear the name "Charles Band" and instantly roll their eyes, but for those with perhaps askew sensibilities, this version of Cinderella is not as bad as some may fear, and in fact it has a certain delirious if weird entertainment value at times. Technical merits are generally solid in the video department, though audio is only lossy, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.