There is a lot of thought and careful decision making when it comes to designing a character. Usually, it is the goal of a character designer to have an audience be able to guess what a character is all about just by their design alone. When it comes to designing a character, everything is chosen with a particular intent. In serious production and media, there is no such thing as; “just because.”
Character design invites analysis. In that details and small touches, when well thought out enough by a designer, give clues to the background, and driving factors of a character’s motivations.
The importance of character design never weighs the same in every production entity, whether it be a cause of budget, limitations, or intended audience. Usually, media all follow the same type of formula, in that there is a protagonist and an antagonist, as well as other characters who surround them and create depth to the story, or the world that the story takes place in. At the same time, character interpretations vary from person to person, but there are tools that designers use successfully in order to convey the messages behind the character or support the narrative of the plot. Values of the time period of production also deeply impact the use of character design, as often media is a reflection or nurturer of the attitudes of the time.
There is relevance in analysing character design, as there is the intention for the viewer to understand a character upon their first impressions, especially when colours and visuals are heavily utilised by the specific media.
It is important to ask who characters are being designed for, as the intended audience is the driving force for all creative decisions in production, from the tone, to the plot, and to the language used. Therefore, the character designs are also deeply impacted by the intended audience, as different age demographics react differently to the use of colours and shapes of characters.
Cinderella, as a character, is a soft-lined, slender and lightly coloured beautiful young woman. She is pleasing to the eye and is very easy to believe that she is filled to the brim with goodness. She has long legs, subtle breasts and when she is in her princess dress, she is covered in sparkles. Even her feet are delicate and dainty, thus the glass slippers.
As the main character of an animation film, Cinderella had to have an iconic design, and because she’s a princess, the design had to also be beautiful, as that is the common societal expectation of a princess-like character.
Granted, Cinderella is an animated film from the early 1950s, the characters needed obvious designs, in order to push the narrative of the young woman being freed from her life of slavery by Prince Charming. In the time, family values were highly represented, whilst completely ignoring the struggles of the time. While movies and television shows sought to entertain audiences with comedies and games, there was a need to reinforce values such as religious faith, patriotism, and conformity to societal norms. Especially as an early Disney production, Cinderella supported these societal values and norms, and created a story that was easy to follow, and used designs that were unique and pushed the narrative of the story. The pretty young woman is a good character, who people should support, and the ugly step-sisters are mean and vain, so people should look at them with disdain and be happy when they don’t get the happy ending and marriage into royalty.
Cinderella goes above and beyond in the department of standing out from the rest of the characters in the movie, in that there isn’t anyone else who is comparative to her in terms of beauty (other than the Prince, but he serves as her aesthetic counterpart).
In the movie, there is a deeper narrative of “Good vs Evil” also being a battle of “Pretty vs Ugly.” She, the character who holds all the kindness and beauty, is completely unchallenged in this regard, her character is designed as such. But this is not a critique on Cinderellas character as a whole, nor the message that she supports. She is a classical character with an easy to understand story which emphasises kindness and grace over… well… being mean and making one person in the household do all the chores. It’s a classical and very old story, even before Disney presented it as an animation.
Since the 1950s, Disney has not strayed far from this original design for Cinderella, and her iconic gown. The simple but elegant, and even pure style fits well into Cinderellas personality and character arc.
In comparison, the evil / ugly stepsister characters are the opposite of Cinderellas grace, beauty and femininity. Anastasia and Drizella are loud and squawky in their personalities, and their colour palettes are unique in their own rights but are not subtle nor easy on the eyes.
In terms of body and character design, Anastasia and Drizella are broad-shouldered, have more lines around their faces, and they also do not seem to have any breasts, and in comparison to Cinderella, have comically large feet. It reminds the audience of a time where, when Cinderella used to be performed on stage: Men would play the parts of the sisters, for comedic purposes, or to emphasise the point that the sisters are not meant to be portrayed as feminine or pretty because that’s Cinderella’s job.
In terms of character design, they’re not the worst, they’re not grotesque or reek of villainy as much as they reek of insecurity. But, they are no-where near the league of unrealistic beauty that is represented by Cinderella.
Granted, Cinderella is an animated film from the early 1950s, the characters needed obvious designs, in order to push the narrative of the young woman being freed from her life of slavery by Prince Charming. In the time, family values were highly represented, whilst completely ignoring the struggles of the time. While movies and television shows sought to entertain audiences with comedies and games, there was a need to reinforce values such as religious faith, patriotism, and conformity to societal norms. Especially as an early Disney production, Cinderella supported these societal values and norms, and created a story that was easy to follow, and used designs that were unique and pushed the narrative of the story. The pretty young woman is the good character, who people should support, and the ugly step-sisters are mean and vain, so people should look at them with disdain and be happy when they don’t get the happy ending and marriage into royalty.
Conclusion
Perhaps it was just a sign of the times or a device to aid in storytelling, but the 1950s Disney animation of Cinderella falls into the trope of “good vs evil” being a parallel battle of “pretty vs ugly”.
Looking at the character design supports this argument, in that the design Cinderella is that of a beautiful, slender, blonde and trustworthy woman. Meanwhile, the step-sisters, who arguably have an aesthetically interesting mother, are round-faced, have broad shoulders, are portrayed as unfeminine and wildly coloured, which is in par with their childish and rude personalities.
References:
Ekström, H. 2013, How Can a Character’s Personality be Conveyed Visually, through Shape, Högskolan på Gotland, retrieved 2nd of June 2020, <https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:637902/FULLTEXT01.pdf>
McGuire, S. 2017, What Disney Villains Can Tell Us About Colour Psychology, Venngage, retrieved 2nd June 2020, <https://venngage.com/blog/disney-villains/>
Nieminen, M. 2017, Psychology in character design, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, retrieved 2nd June 2020, <https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/126784/MarikaNieminen_Thesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y>
7.2 The Relationship Between Television and Culture, COM_101_01_TestBook, retrieved 2nd June 2020, <https://opentext.wsu.edu/com101/chapter/9-2-the-relationship-between-television-and-culture/>
Khan Academy, N/A, Popular culture and mass media in the 1950s, OpenSaxCollege, retrieved 5th June 2020, <https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/1950s-america/a/popular-culture-and-mass-media-cnx>
Picture references:
Anastasia and Drizella: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042332/mediaviewer/rm2965578752
In the movie, there is a deeper narrative of “Good vs Evil” also being a battle of “Pretty vs Ugly.” She, the character who holds all the kindness and beauty, is completely unchallenged in this regard, her character is designed as such. But this is not a critique on Cinderellas character as a whole, nor the message that she supports. She is a classical character with an easy to understand the story which emphasises kindness and grace over… well… being mean and making one person in the household do all the chores. It’s a classical and very old story, even before Disney presented it as an animation.