It seems hard to imagine now, but there was a time during the forties when Walt Disney thought his animation studio was going to disappear as quickly as it was set up.

They may be considered classics now but both Pinocchio and Fantasia were both flops when initially released, making Disney dangerously close to going under. It reached a point where his next big animated feature had to be a hit, otherwise the Disney dream was over. Luckily for all concerned, Cinders made good.

It's hardly a surprise that the story is instantly familiar to all ages, considering it has been told since the seventeenth century. This film however, embellishes on the original central theme with a sub-plot riddled with a number of animated animals.

There's a real tragic history to Cinderella's (Ilene Woods) story. Not only does her mother die, but her father then remarries another woman Lady Tremaine (Eleanor Audley), who is far from sympathetic towards Cinderella. Then her father dies, leaving Cinderella with an evil step-mother and two obnoxious step-sisters, Drizella (Rhoda Williams) and Anastasia (Lucille Bliss).

With her father dead, Cinderella is treated like nothing more than a servant, doing every chore that needs to be done in the household, day in, day out. Her only respite is her relationship with the mice in the house; despite all of the work put upon her she still manages to make little outfits for them.

Elsewhere in the kingdom, the king (Luis Van Rooten) is keen for his son the prince (William Phipps) to find the love of his life. To speed up this process, the king decides to throw a ball, which he expects to be attended by every young maiden in the land.

Her step-mother agrees, in principle, to the idea of Cinderella attending, but only if she manages to finish every chore given to her. Tremaine is confident that Cinders won't be able to complete all of her work in time, but she doesn't allow for Cinderella's friendship with the animal world, nor the power of dreams. But even with some help in her corner, Tremaine is still determined to make sure that Cinders most definitely will not go to the ball.

OK mice, listen up. This is the latest Stella McCartney design we need to rip off in 5 days for Primark. Get to it!

Cinderella may well be sixty-two years old now, but thanks to the trademarked magic of Disney, she scrubs up remarkably well for her Blu-ray debut. And as you would expect, her tale also manages to stand the test of time.

At the heart of Disney's version is a romance between a beautiful young woman and a prince. If it was just this tale that was told however, the film would have struggled to make it to a feature length. It's no surprise then that Disney supported this central story with a collection of cute – and in the case of Lucifer the cat, not so cute – animals. In fact the sub-plot between Lucifer and his on-going battle with the mice must take up pretty much half of the film. To that end then, not only do you get a sprinkling of romance, but you also get a slightly more gentile version of Tom and Jerry thrown in for good measure too.

Although it has a few musical numbers, it doesn't feel like a full blown musical. Best of the bunch by far is the 'Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo' song performed by the fairy Godmother. Elsewhere the film has an incredibly bouncy soundtrack that maintains an upbeat tempo and an air of musical optimism throughout.

This Blu-ray is also choc-full of interesting extras, including archive footage of live action scenes shot, which served to aid the animators in making the characters and scenes play out more naturally.

It may well be classic Disney, but it's difficult to imagine anyone other than pre-teens appreciating the true splendour of it all. It won't stop Disneyphiles from adding it to their growing collection though. Quite rightly too. Not only is it the perfect fairy tale put to celluloid, but it's also an excellent example of pioneer animators at Disney doing what they did best: drawing the stuff of dreams.