DISNEY'S COLORBLIND `CINDERELLA'.

Byline: Keith Marder Daily News Television Writer

In 1957, technology limited the first televised ``Cinderella,'' starring Julie Andrews, to a black-and-white broadcast.

Tonight, 40 years later, ``Cinderella'' will be back - this time a full-color display with a black and white cast.

Technological advances and a $12 million budget have brought color to the screen, but societal changes have done far more to alter the look of Rodgers and Hammerstein's take on the classic tale.

This will be the first time audiences will get to see colorblind casting in a big-budget, nationally broadcast, live-action fairy tale.

Cinderella (Brandy Norwood), her fairy godmother (Whitney Houston), the queen (Whoopi Goldberg) and one of the evil stepsisters (Natalie Desselle) are played by African-Americans. There are two interracial couples. The prince (Paolo Montalban) is Filipino. The other main characters are Caucasian in the ``Wonderful World of Disney'' spectacular that will air at 7 tonight on KABC (Channel 7).

``Whitney and I know what it would have meant to us to have a young, beautiful, black Cinderella,'' said executive producer Debra Martin Chase. ``It would have been an incredible inspiration, so we wanted to give that gift. As we approach 2000, the millennium, this is the direction that the world is really moving in. We're just pushing it on.''

Executive producer Craig Zadan said the sets and costumes are so colorful that skin tone becomes secondary.

``It is really startling and wonderful when an African-American Cinderella is kissing an Asian prince,'' said executive producer Neil Meron. ``I think it's very, very moving. It adds depth to everything that has been accomplished in the story.''

Musical stars

Originally, Houston was going to play Cinderella, but by the time the production got going, she figured she was too old, and young singing star Norwood was called in to play the future princess.

``I didn't really have a problem with the white faces that I saw growing up,'' said Norwood, a Woodland Hills resident whose only previous exposure to ``Cinderella'' was the animated version. ``I think I looked deeper into what the message was representing. But I think it is good for young teens to see that it can be more than a white face that's basically a hero or a fairy tale person that's on television or in the movies. I think it's great for them to see an African-American face and an Asian face or just any type of face that they don't see all the time.''

Sure, this is still the story of a glass slipper, but race is not the only update to the story. The people behind this production of the fairy tale also took liberties with the content. They turned it into more of a love story, making it the only version in which the prince and Cinderella see each other before the ball. They make it clear that the prince isn't looking for just a pretty face, he's looking for a companion.

This Cinderella is not a doormat, and her fairy godmother tells her that she has the power to make changes on her own - without the help of fairy dust and magic. And the stepsisters are not evil, just products of their environment.

Politically correct mission accomplished. Still, the show has its critics.

``I like multicultural, it's more realistic than all white or all black, but it's interesting that the king is still white,'' said Doris Benson Jones, a professor of educational psychology and counseling at California State University, Northridge. ``Speaking from an adult perspective, something can be made of that, that the ultimate authority figure is still white. Whether or not kids think that way is speculation.''

Not enough?

To some, the cast is not multicultural enough. Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, argued that too often multiracial means the addition of African-Americans.

``This country is locked in a conversation between black and white,'' he said. ``That dialogue excludes Latinos. On radio, television and film, we are sorely lacking and it's unconscionable. If we were like one fraction of 1 percent of the population, you may not like it, but you could understand why we are overlooked. But you're talking about a population that is 10 percent of the United States. We are going to be the largest minority group, whether people like it or not, in seven years.''

Another potential controversial part of the telecast may be the two interracial couples.

``Some right-wingers and the conservative elements of the African-American community who consider themselves traditionalists and want people to marry within their own culture may be critical,'' said Jones, who specializes in education and minority and multicultural counseling. ``It could be, but I don't expect it would be.''

The filmmakers said that they had no resistance from Disney when they presented their cast, but they do realize it may cause controversy.

``We told (Disney) our idea to do this with a multiracial cast, and we never heard a word,'' said executive producer Craig Zadan. ``It should be interesting to see in the South and (elsewhere) how people react to it.''

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Photo

Photo: Brandy Norwood plays Cinderella in tonight's Disney production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical fairy tale.