Film
The definitive triumph of American culture characterised the post-World War II period, also on our soil. Thus, when Cinderella was released in cinemas in 1950, it could be said to have been an already announced success. Charles Perrault's fairy tale was an old acquaintance of the Studios because it had already previously been the subject of a short film for the Laugh-O-Gram series (1922), the first animation studio founded by Walt Disney when he was just 20 years old. This new version, which became the 12th Classic, despite being set in the late 19th century in an undefined French town, is enriched with narrative elements that came directly from the English fairy tale tradition. This is the case with Giac, Gus and their friends, mice who help Cinderella in her attempt to make a dress for the grand ball, who come directly from Beatrix Potter's novella entitled The Tailor of Gloucester, illustrated by the writer herself. The film was a resounding success, which, although still suffering from the near non-activity the studio had to endure during the war years, earned Walt Disney a special prize at the Venice Film Festival.
Art
It sometimes happens that, between one quotation and another, it is not the work of art that inspires but the Classic itself. An example of this is the work of Maurizio Cattelan, a contemporary artist who in 1996 created an installation whose title is a quotation from Cinderella's most famous song, but slightly modified: Bidibidobidiboo. A title that contrasts the drama of the staging of a suicidal squirrel, shot by a wrong formula that did not achieve the hoped-for magic. The unfortunate little animal draws upon himself all the potential failures of a life devoid of any possible redemption, presenting us with a moment of supreme despair despite the surreal scene of a humanised squirrel (like Disney's Cip and Ciop or Cinderella's mice dressed in human clothes and supporting the young girl in her daily difficulties). The scene arouses conflicting feelings: on the one hand, a hilarious astonishment due to the unreality of the fact (a squirrel could never commit suicide by shooting itself with a gun); on the other, empathy towards a bleak and miserable tragedy.
The installation adapts to scale all the elements of the kitchen to the natural dimensions of the taxidermied squirrel, and in presentations it is often placed at floor level, forcing the viewer to bend down to observe it. This is because Bidibidobidiboo is not a celebrity like his Disney counterparts: he is an ordinary squirrel living in a cramped, poor environment. He is alone, with no one to stop him from making his extreme gesture. It is perhaps the decline of a life that would have wanted something else for itself, or it is the end of love, of unbearable pain. The only certainty is that in this case no magic formula could overturn the inauspicious fate to which the squirrel was condemned. Bidibidobidiboo is the crumbling of the dream of a life that no longer has any spells to play or, even more cruelly, the disillusionment of a childhood that not even a loving and experienced fairy godmother could rehabilitate or save.
External Links
Watch Cinderella on Disney +
The artwork:
Bidibidobidiboo (1996) by Maurizio Cattelan
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