Except it doesn’t turn out like in the book. Instead of a coach and horses, Santa and his reindeer fade in. Carl Stalling’s soundtrack plays “Jingle Bells” before they even arrive.
These are two consecutive frames. The action doesn’t match when director Tex Avery cuts to a close-up.
The fairy godmother tries again. Out fades Santa. In fades a stagecoach and horses, as Stalling plays “Cheyenne.” “Hmm,” thinks F.G. “Well, I guess it will have to do.”
The most casual gag in Cinderella Meets Fella is by Stalling. When the wicked step-sisters close the door and quickly open it again, not only do they shout radio gossiper Jimmy Fidler’s “And I do mean you!” catchphrase, Stalling tells you it’s a radio reference by playing the NBC chimes on a xylophone in the background.
Tedd Pierce wrote a fine story here; you can hear him as a prince exclaiming “Baby!” when Cinderella walks into the ball. “Outstanding cartoon,” cried the Motion Picture Herald. “Plenty of laughs,” rated The Film Daily. “Clever,” declared Showman’s Trade Review. “Excellent,” “Very entertaining,” said two theatre managers. For 1938, it was miles above what Warners was putting on the screen just three years earlier.
Looks like Irv Spence's work on that close-up shot (can't mistake that bottom lip).
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, Avery would top himself a decade later with Swing Shift Cinderella, putting it miles above what he did before AND what Harman & Ising were doing with their fairy tales..