"Mother! Do you realize what you just said?" the stepsisters whine as soon as Cindy leaves.
"Of course," she replies coolly. "I said if.”
Even the stepsisters are bright enough to figure out the significance of that word. “Ohh. If.” The three of them share an evil laugh as the scene ends.
Back in the attic, Cindy pulls a rather unflattering pink and white dress out of a chest. “Isn’t it lovely?” she says to the mice. “It was my mother’s.”
"It’s pretty-pretty, but it’s old!" they answer.
Cindy’s got a plan for fixing it, though. “There ought to be some good ideas in here,” she says as she picks up a book of dress designs and flips through it. She soon finds a nice-looking design with ribbons and lace and beads and such, but it’s going to take a lot of work. “I’ll have to shorten the sleeves, I’ll need a sash…a ruffle…and something for a collar. And then I’ll — “
"CINDERELLA!"
"Oh, now what do they want?” Whatever they want, they’re not shutting up about it. “Oh, well. Guess my dress will just have to wait.”
"Poor Cinderelly," Jaq remarks as she leaves. "Every time she finds a minute, that’s the time when they begin it!"
So begins what is referred to as “The Work Song.” I refer to it as “The Only Good Scene With The Mice So Far.” It’s a short but bouncy tune where Jaq leads his friends in complaining about how the Tremaines run Cindy ragged. He knows that they’re trying to keep her so busy that she won’t have time to get ready for the ball.
After a short interlude where he explains this, the female mice get an idea; “We can do it! We can do it! We can help our Cinderelly! We can make the dress so pretty! There’s nothing to it, really!” They tell Jaq and Gus to leave the sewing to the women (oh, 1950) and go find some trimming for them to work with.
Jaq leads Gus down to the stepsisters’ rooms. They’re piling laundry on top of Cindy while insulting it. “Everybody else seems to have such nice things to wear, and I always end up in these old rags!” Anastasia shrieks as she throws a pink sash on the floor. Drizella does the same with a necklace of green beads, and they both storm off.
The mice realize that those are just what they need. They sneak out of the wall and creep towards the sash, sneaking under a stool where Lucifer is sleeping and…oh God, we’re headed into more filler. Great job, movie. You had me liking a scene with the mice for once and then you blew it.
I’ll try to sum it up as quickly as possible; they get the sash, roll it up, try sneaking it past Lucifer, get seen but make it back into the wall safely. They go out again to get the beads, but Lucifer sits on them. Jaq lures him away, Gus grabs the necklace but breaks it, they have to string the beads onto his tail to get them back to the attic. Insert unfunny slapstick throughout.
Back in the attic, the mice sing a reprise of “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” in their Alvin & The Chipmunks voices as they and the birds work on the dress. They let the skirt out, sew the ribbons on, measure out the right length of lace they need and make a collar from it. The whole thing actually comes out looking pretty nice. They really worked hard on it, didn’t they? Such a shame…
That evening — eight o’clock, to be exact — a carriage that looks way too small to hold all three of the Tremaines pull up to the chateau. Cindy goes to tell her stepmother, who acts surprised that she’s not ready to leave. “I’m not going,” she answers.
"Not going? Oh, what a shame," Lady Tremaine says as the stepsisters giggle behind her. "But of course, there will be other times, and — "
"Yes. Goodnight." Cindy goes back up to her room, where she stares out her window at the castle. "Oh, well. What’s a royal ball? After all, I suppose it would be frightfully dull…and…and boring…and…and completely…completely wonderful."
The mice and birds choose this moment to light a candle and open up the closet, revealing the dress. “Surprise!” they all shout. Well, all but Gus. He shouts “Happy Birthday!”
Cindy holds the dress up to herself and twirls around in front of the mirror. “How can I ever…why…Oh, thank you so much!” Luckily, she remembers that if she wants to go to the ball, she should probably put the dress on.
Downstairs, the Tremaines are getting ready to head outside. I’ve heard the phrase “Old West prostitutes” used when describing the stepsisters’ outfits in this scene, and it’s not a bad comparison. I was always more disturbed by the fact that I thought their butts were really that big. But I digress. Again.
"Now remember," Lady Tremaine says, "when you’re presented to His Highness — "
"Wait!" Cindy shouts as she comes down the stairs in her dress. "Please, wait for me. Isn’t it lovely? Do you like it? Do you think it will do?"
The stepsisters aren’t going to stand for this and say so very loudly, but Lady Tremaine remains ever calm. “Girls, please! After all, we did make a bargain. Didn’t we, Cinderella? And I never go back on my word.” She starts examining the dress, showing no regard for Cindy’s personal space while doing so. “How very clever, these beads. They give it just the right touch. Don’t you think so, Drizella?”
Drizella recognizes the necklace that she’d previously said she never wanted to see again and promptly goes ape-feces. “Why, you little thief! They’re my beads! Give them here!” she shrieks as she rips them off.
"And look, that’s my sash!" Anastasia yells, tearing at the dress itself. "Wearing my sash! She can’t!”
Together they rip the dress to shreds while Lady Tremaine stands by and admires her handiwork. “Girls, girls,” she says once Cindy looks good and traumatized. “That’s quite enough. I won’t have you upsetting yourselves.” She marches them out the door, tells Cindy goodnight and leaves her behind.
Cindy, of course, bursts into tears and runs out to the garden. She flings herself on a bench, and the animals watch as she cries her eyes out. “Oh, no. No, it isn’t true,” she says as the disembodied voices start singing her song. “It’s just no use. No use at all. I can’t believe, not anymore…there’s nothing left to believe in.”
…This was all just one day, right?
My God…it’s true. All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest person alive to lunacy. Just one bad day. And now she’s had hers. Am I right? I know I am. I can tell. She’s had a bad day and everything’s changed.
Or has it?
As Cinderella continues to cry, little white sparkles float into the scene. They hover around her and form the image of a little old lady in blue who sits on the bench and strokes her hair. “Nothing, my dear? Oh, now you don’t really mean that.”
"Oh, but I do — "
"Nonsense, child! If you’d lost all your faith, I couldn’t be here. And here I am! Dry those tears," she says as she helps Cindy up. "You can’t go to the ball looking like that."
"The ball? Oh, but I’m not — "
"Of course you are. But we’ll have to hurry," she says as she rolls up her sleeves, "because even miracles take a little time. What in the world did I do with that magic wand…?"
"Magic wand? Why, then you must be — "
"Your Fairy Godmother? Of course. Where is that wand? I…oh! I forgot. I put it away." She then whips it out of thin air and starts looking Cindy over. "I’d say the first thing you need is…a pumpkin!" Good thing there’s a nice big one right in the garden.
Cindy doesn’t get it. “A…pumpkin?”
"Uh-huh! Now, the magic words…"
My famous musical number senses are tingling! PREPARE YOUR EAR WORM REPELLENT!
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