Cut execution scene in Cinderella 3
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I spotted that Paul just uploaded a fan-made animation of Cinderella being executed, and I thought I'd drop some movie trivia that some of you might find kind of interesting, namely - in the original script for the movie Cinderella 3 there was supposed to be a hanging scene.
For those of you thinking "Wait, there was a Cinderella 3? I didn't even know there was a Cinderella 2!", a whole lot of Disney movies got direct to VHS/DVD sequels by DisneyToon studios, a currently defunct company which basically comprised Disney's B-level talent, working on stuff like animated cartoons, DVD extras and, of course a whole lot of direct to DVD sequels like Mulan 2, Lion King 2 and 3, Hunchback of Notre Dame 2, etc. Many of those sequels were absolutely terrible, as they were pushed out quickly and without a lot of care put into the scripts. While Disney's A-team, Walt Disney Studios (responsible for the theatrical releases) could revise, rewrite and re-animate a story dozens of times before they settle on the exact right version they want to tell, Disneytoon had extremely tight deadlines and often couldn't afford to make anything but the slightest revisions.
I know some behind the scenes stuff about them because an old friend of mine actually used to work in the Sydney office of Disneytoons (I believe they had several studios around the world), and he occasionally shared some juicy tidbits with me, and one of them was that they had to make a last-minute cut to remove an execution scene from Cinderella 3. The plot of Cinderella 3 revolves around the evil stepmother gaining the fairy godmother's wand and creating an alternate universe in which Cinderella remains a servant and instead it's one of the evil stepsisters that marries Prince Charming. Cinderella still remembers the old timeline, but nobody else except for the evil stepmother does. When Cinderella tries to get to the prince and he starts to remember her, the stepmother quickly decides to get rid of her. This is the interesting part.
Originally, she sentenced Cinderella to death and ordered her to be taken to the gallows to be hanged. She climbs up on the platform, but the prince remembers her right on time and rushes over to go save her, which of course he does. Interestingly enough this is NOT the first time the main character of a Disney movie is almost executed in a sequel, as in Aladdin 2 they almost execute Aladdin via beheading before the Genie saves him. I don't know why, but while Disney were totally okay with the Aladdin execution scene, the Cinderella one was very quickly vetoed by executives and had to be changed pretty much last-minute. They didn't have time to fully re-animate the scene from top to bottom, so instead they just changed a few backgrounds and added a couple of new shots so that instead of being hanged Cinderella is just sent away on a ship instead. Looking at what actually made it into the movie, though, the original intent of the scene seems pretty obvious.
I've attached a couple of screenshots of the scene so you can see for yourselves what I'm talking about.
For those of you thinking "Wait, there was a Cinderella 3? I didn't even know there was a Cinderella 2!", a whole lot of Disney movies got direct to VHS/DVD sequels by DisneyToon studios, a currently defunct company which basically comprised Disney's B-level talent, working on stuff like animated cartoons, DVD extras and, of course a whole lot of direct to DVD sequels like Mulan 2, Lion King 2 and 3, Hunchback of Notre Dame 2, etc. Many of those sequels were absolutely terrible, as they were pushed out quickly and without a lot of care put into the scripts. While Disney's A-team, Walt Disney Studios (responsible for the theatrical releases) could revise, rewrite and re-animate a story dozens of times before they settle on the exact right version they want to tell, Disneytoon had extremely tight deadlines and often couldn't afford to make anything but the slightest revisions.
I know some behind the scenes stuff about them because an old friend of mine actually used to work in the Sydney office of Disneytoons (I believe they had several studios around the world), and he occasionally shared some juicy tidbits with me, and one of them was that they had to make a last-minute cut to remove an execution scene from Cinderella 3. The plot of Cinderella 3 revolves around the evil stepmother gaining the fairy godmother's wand and creating an alternate universe in which Cinderella remains a servant and instead it's one of the evil stepsisters that marries Prince Charming. Cinderella still remembers the old timeline, but nobody else except for the evil stepmother does. When Cinderella tries to get to the prince and he starts to remember her, the stepmother quickly decides to get rid of her. This is the interesting part.
Originally, she sentenced Cinderella to death and ordered her to be taken to the gallows to be hanged. She climbs up on the platform, but the prince remembers her right on time and rushes over to go save her, which of course he does. Interestingly enough this is NOT the first time the main character of a Disney movie is almost executed in a sequel, as in Aladdin 2 they almost execute Aladdin via beheading before the Genie saves him. I don't know why, but while Disney were totally okay with the Aladdin execution scene, the Cinderella one was very quickly vetoed by executives and had to be changed pretty much last-minute. They didn't have time to fully re-animate the scene from top to bottom, so instead they just changed a few backgrounds and added a couple of new shots so that instead of being hanged Cinderella is just sent away on a ship instead. Looking at what actually made it into the movie, though, the original intent of the scene seems pretty obvious.
I've attached a couple of screenshots of the scene so you can see for yourselves what I'm talking about.
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Apparently there is a fan film of it, where a guy had her threatened with beheading instead.
As a side tangent, I actually wonder which was more likely to be the official means of execution in that country. In England it was entirely hanging except for high treason. But in France beheading was official until as recently as 1976.
As a side tangent, I actually wonder which was more likely to be the official means of execution in that country. In England it was entirely hanging except for high treason. But in France beheading was official until as recently as 1976.
France broke a lot of people on the wheel, and beheaded with the sword. An attempt regicide resulted in the man being torn apart by animals, and sometimes Sanson with his sword managed to botch a sword beheading. Enter the Guillotine, just in time for the Revolution. Working the revolution with a sword would have wore Sanson out.
Apparently there is a fan film of it, where a guy had her threatened with beheading instead.
No relation at all to Cinderella 3, but seeing it on the front page here reminded me of the anecdote I shared.
Aw! I would love a version of Cinderella with an execution attempt (the one time I want a happy ending in an execution).
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