Yet Cinderella has hope that she may one day find greater glory, revealing it as she awakens one morning to her mice and bird friends through song ("A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes"). After she gets ready, she discovers a mouse on the stairs, and like she has done to all the other mice in the château, she gives him clothes and a name - Gus. Gus is befriended by another mouse Jaques, who shows him around the strange place. As Cinderella readies the breakfasts for her stepmother and stepsisters, Gus encounters the stepmother's detestable cat Lucifer, whom he narrowly escapes from.
Meanwhile, the grandchild-craving King decides that he and the Grand Duke should throw a ball for all the eligible ladies in the kingdom so as to find Prince Charming a wife. As the stepsisters are having a singing lesson and Cinderella is singing (albeit far better) as she is cleaning the floor ("Sing Sweet Nightingale"), a messenger hands an invitation to the royal ball. Cinderella realises that she can go, and the stepmother says that she can if she gets all her work done and can find something suitable to wear. There is much emphasis on the "if" though, and a work-ridden Cinderella doesn't even have a chance to start smartening up her mother's wedding dress into a nice ball gown. The mice and the birds, however realise that they can get the dress ready for her ("The Work Song"), and Jaques and Gus help find some extra-trimming. However, this extra-trimming comes from some of Anastasia and Drizella's old clothes that were found lying about, and when Cinderella presents herself ready, the evil stepmother in a subtle yet powerful manner points this out to her daughters, who in anger, rip the trimming of Cinderella's new gown, leaving it in tatters.
Completely upset, Cinderella runs into the garden and cries upon a bench, feeling all hope is lost. Yet at that moment, Cinderella's fairy godmother appears, and with the wave of a magic wand, helps prepare Cinderella for the ball ("Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo"). A pumpkin becomes a coach, four of the mice become horses, an old horse becomes the coachman and the old dog Bruno becomes a footman. Last but not least, Cinderella's rags turn into a beautiful gown, complete with magical glass slippers. The fairy does warn Cinderella, however, that this magic will end at the stroke of midnight, so she must leave the ball before then. Cinderella doesn't care, though, and sets off for the palace.
Prince Charming is having trouble finding the right maiden, much to the King's annoyance. Yet when Cinderella arrives, he becomes interested, and the two start to dance. The stepmother, believing that she recognises the mysterious princess from somewhere, tries to spy on them, yet is quickly thwarted by the Grand Duke. Cinderella and the prince spend the whole time together, and fall in love ("So This is Love") All of a sudden, the clock starts to chime that it is midnight, and Cinderella hastily runs away, dropping a glass slipper as she does so. Cinderella escapes, with nothing from the night left, except from the other glass slipper, which had not changed back.
Prince Charming orders his love to be found by means of the odd shoe, and the Grand Duke is sent around the land getting every girl in the land to try on the glass slipper to see if it fits. Eventually the Grand Duke reaches the residence of Cinderella, but she is nowhere to be seen; the stepmother, eventually realising that it was her stepdaughter who was the mysterious princess at the ball, locks Cinderella in her room. As Anastasia and Drizella frantically try to get the glass slipper to fit so as to wed into royalty, Gus and Jaques steal the key from the stepmother and get it to Cinderella's door. But Lucifer pins poor Gus, who has the key, under his bowl, and hope seems lost again. The other mice and birds battle Lucifer, yet it is Cinderella's idea for the birds to get Bruno the dog, who hates Lucifer. Bruno barks at Lucifer, who in fright jumps out of the window to his doom. Now Cinderella can get the key and escape her room.
The Grand Duke is about to leave as Cinderella finally appears. He orders the messenger to bring forth the glass slipper, yet the stepmother in a last minute attempt to prevent her stepdaughter from better things, causes the messenger to trip, thus breaking the fragile shoe into pieces. Yet the arrogant woman hadn't betted on Cinderella producing the other glass slipper, which fits onto Cinderella's foot perfectly. Very soon, wedding bells ring, and Cinderella marries her prince, and they live happily ever after.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042332/synopsis
