The Magic Riddle 1991

Cindy, short for Cinderella, lives with her widowed stepmother and two stepsisters, Bertha and Ertha, and is treated like a servant who handles the bulk of the housework. The stepmother keeps Cindy busy on purpose, not only to exhaust her but also to prevent Cindy from discovering a crucial will the grandmother once hid. That hidden document would pass the entire family inheritance to Cindy, a fact the widow fears she’ll lose if Cindy ever learns of it. To complicate matters, the widow schemes to marry Bertha off to a dashing young man named Phillipe, even though Phillipe has fallen for Cindy.

One night, with chores unfinished, an old lady slips into the house to finish the work for Cindy. Ertha, Cindy’s kinder sister, meets this visitor and learns she is Cindy’s Grandmother—a grandmother who was ousted from the family home after Grandfather’s death. The same thing happens on the following night, but the widow wakes and drives Grandmother away. Ertha, who witnessed the events, tells Cindy what she has seen, sowing the seeds of hope.

Afraid that Grandmother might help Cindy uncover the will, the widow follows a plan inspired by her magic mirror. She disguises herself as a traveling salesman and traps Grandmother in a realm called The Castle of a Hundred Doors, a place from which there is no easy escape. Cindy, meanwhile, arrives at Grandmother’s cottage in a red riding hood, only to be chased away by a wolf—revealed to be the widow in another disguise.

At a quiet lakeside, Cindy confides her dreams to an ugly duckling, not realizing that Phillippe is nearby listening. Phillippe steps forward, revealing himself and offering Cindy a ring as a token of his affection, but their moment is interrupted when the widow intervenes and orders Cindy back to work. In the barn, Cindy uncovers the widow’s wolf costume, confirming the danger she’s in. Bertha, jealous of Cindy, drives the pigs away and falsely blames Cindy for the trouble. Ertha counsels Cindy to escape to Grandmother’s cottage, a move that leads her to a magical discovery: seven wooden dwarfs and a wooden puppet Pinocchio that come alive when she kisses them. They tell her that the widow has taken Grandmother.

The widow’s plan to reclaim Cindy escalates with a masked ball designed to lure Cindy back. She hopes the ball will give Phillippe a chance to see Cindy, while the dwarfs craft a special costume for her—but they warn that because her mask is made of snow, it will melt at midnight. At the ball, Cindy’s disguise works, and she shares a dance with Phillippe. Ertha and Pinocchio also enjoy the dance, but when the clock strikes twelve, Cindy’s disguise melts and she bolts from the ballroom, followed by her friends.

After the escape, Ertha confronts the widow’s ruse, and she tells Phillippe where Cindy can be found. He sets out to find her, but his path ends up at The Castle of a Hundred Doors instead, while the dwarfs also arrive there, only to become lost inside. The widow returns to the cottage in another clever ruse, pretending to be Pinocchio’s mother. Under a spell from a magic apple, Cindy falls asleep, and in the ensuing confusion the widow accidentally falls into a well. Pinocchio, now on his own, discovers the Castle and enters it, though one of his shoes catches on a nail and begins to unravel as he moves.

Grandmother is eventually found, and the group follows the trail back to the cottage. There, Cindy awakens when Phillippe kisses her, and Grandmother explains the truth behind the will: the answer lies in a Magic Riddle, a poem whose ending reads: > Only Pinocchio knows. The riddle reveals that Grandfather’s possessions belong to Cindy.

With the truth revealed, a wedding unfolds at what used to be the widow’s house. After the celebrations, the dwarfs and Pinocchio return to their wooden forms, having completed their magical task. Yet Ertha’s kiss revives Pinocchio, who comes back to life to be with her, and the story resolves with Cindy’s rightful inheritance secured and a new union set in motion.