GET IT NOW IF A HUGE FAN!!!!
Following in the footsteps of The Lion King and Aladdin, this Gift Set's goodies are housed in a beautiful, thick cardboard box, which is a deep blue with a tint of indigo. The artwork on the box is as lovely as Cinderella and as charming as the Prince. It is magnificently decorated with the "Cinderella Special Edition" logo floating above the famed glass slipper (sparkling fairy dust and all) sitting on a royal blue pillow. The backdrop is a twilight sky with The Prince's glowing silver castle to match. The back of the box has the same text about the film's audience-captivating qualities and the DVD's bonus features that can be found on the back of the DVD itself.
The DVD inside is shrink wrapped and housed, as usual, in a cardboard slipcover which opens up to reveal the bonus features, restoration information, etc. Unfortunately, more often than not, with the Gift Set, all you receive inside the keep case (besides the two discs which house the film and bonus features) is the DVD Guide, without the Disney DVD Insider or Coupon Booklets. Luckily, Walt Disney Home Entertainment Consumer Relations (reached at 1-800-723-4763) are happy to mail you any missing papers.
Now, let's not get sidetracked. There is more to the set than just the DVD. Also included are eight Character Portrait Drawings, done by original Cinderella animator Ollie Johnston (the only living one of Walt's Nine Old Men) and current Disney animator Andreas Deja. When opening up the special portfolio housing the sketches, you'll find a Certificate of Authenticity stating that the drawings were specially made in 2005 exclusively for the gift set on "acid-free Dur-O-Tone Butcher White 80 lb. cover paper"...da-da-da-da-da-da, and so on. The first sketch is a picture of Cinderella and the Prince dancing at the Ball. The pictures following are (in order): Jaq and Gus (the main Mice), the Royal Footman who performs the glass slipper fittings, Lady Tremaine, the King and the Grand Duke (fighting, as always), Lucifer the Cat, Drizella and Anastasia practicing their music lesson, and finally, the Fairy Godmother. Even though the characters in the sketches don't look exactly like their on-screen counterparts, they are still very nice. Each drawing bears the (non-original) signatures of both Johnston and Deja.
The next goodie inside this package is the Cinderella Senitype (that is, a film frame reproduction), which is enclosed in its own (removable) plastic wrapping. The cell is surrounded by a piece of cardboard which shows the Special Edition logo and the glass slipper, looking very classy as on the main box. The frame itself depicts a shot from Cinderella's dress transformation (a favorite scene for many fans of the film, including reportedly Walt Disney). Each person may receive a different still from the scene; however, I got one right as she is looking down in awe, with the fairy dust just disappearing (No. 139713). The back of the cardboard is white and describes the scanning and reproduction process used to create the Senitype.
The third and, final item in the Gift Set is A Dream Come True: The Storybook and the Making of a Masterpiece. This sleek 159-page hardcover collector's book is split up into three chapters ("Introduction", "The Storybook", and "The Making of a Masterpiece"). This concludes this evaluation of the Cinderella: Collector's Gift Set DVD. If you are a big fan of Cinderella, you likely need little encouragement to pick this set right up!Read full review
