When one thinks of Disney classics, Cinderella easily comes to mind. As he did for Beauty and the Beast, animation historian Charles Solomon wrote an entire single book about the film.
Have you read A Wish Your Heart Makes: From the Grimm Brother's Aschenputtel to Disney's Cinderella? What do you think about it?
Solomon divided A Wish Your Heart Makes: From the Grimm Brothers' Aschenputtel to Disney's Cinderella into much fewer chapters than he did for Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. The exact number is three: there's a chapter on the original fairy tale, one on the production of the 1950 animated film, and one more on the making of the 2015 live-action adaptation.
Each chapter offers detailed facts about the Cinderella story I never thought about before. For instance, the first chapter quoted child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim on his belief that Cinderella appealed because it spoke to children's sibling rivalries.
The first chapter not only describes the origin of the fairy tale, but it also lists several non-Disney stage, film, and television adaptations; the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, of course, is one example. Not surprising for a film made in 1950, the second chapter features quotes from several modern Disney artists on its impact and quality alongside describing Walt Disney's approach to it. Yet, the last chapter on the remake features quotes from people who actually worked on the film.
Of course, there are several illustrations throughout the book. These include illustrations for literary versions, sketches for and scenes from the animated film; and preliminary paintings, sketches, and scenes from the live-action film. It is a bonus that the cover features images from the literary versions, animation, and remake. Throughout the book, just one image in the last chapter has a caption that is slightly off.
If I could make one critique about the book, it would be for the title; it lists the iconic literary source as "the Grimm Brothers' Aschenputtel" when it was really Charles Perrault's Cendrillon. People rarely seem to realize how different the Grimm Brothers' version is from the iconic version we hear most.
Otherwise, A Wish Your Heart Makes: From the Grimm Brothers' Aschenputtel to Disney's Cinderella is a well-written documentation on the Cinderella's story progression from literature to film. It is a must-read for fans of the Disney films and/or the original fairy tale.
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