Disney has pulled Cinderella out of the vault and given her quite the makeover for her to be re-released on Blu-ray, October 2nd! I do not mean this literally, they did not re-make the movie with Taylor Swift as Cinderella or that type of nonsense. I mean, they have done years of work to remaster the original 1950s classic to its original glory. Moreover, they have added enough special features to make this any Disney collector’s new favorite. I was lucky enough to get to visit with the folks at Disney last month and get a glimpse of some of these new features.
On both Diamond Edition versions of the movie, DVD and Blu-ray, you get a feature about the renovations taking place at the Disney Parks; the new short – Tangled Ever-After – and an introduction to the movie by Walt Disney’s daughter, Diane Disney Miller. The Tangled short picks up where the movie left off and takes place during the wedding of Flynn Rider and Rapunzel. It is the same short that was shown in the theaters along with Beauty and the Beast 3D.
With the Blu-ray versions of the Cinderella Diamond Edition, there are considerably more features. You also get a never-before-seen alternate opening sequence, a personalized digital story book and an original story about the real Fairy Godmother – who the Cinderella Fairy Godmother was based on. The two features that I have had a chance to see were the digital story book and the Fairy Godmother story.
The digital story book, named Bibbidi-Bobbidi-You, is more of a second screen experience. When used with the iPad and Blu-ray player together, it puts the viewer into the story. The viewer gets to read along with the story while stopping for “mini-games” periodically to complete a task. This includes cleaning the floors and popping bubbles. Little ones will have plenty of fun with this.
The story of the Real Fairy Godmother is an amazing biography of Mary Alice O’Connor, the wife of one of Disney’s cartoonists. When he created the fictional character of the Fairy Godmother, he envisioned what she would look like when she was much older. As you can see from the photo of her to the side, he was right on the money. This story of how cartoonist A. Kendall O’Connor and Walt Disney really created the whole vision of the animated movie, and the life that Mary Alice O’Connor led, make this version of Cinderella a must-own.
Be sure to pick up your copy of Cinderella Diamond Edition on Tuesday, October 2nd!
