DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE BONUS
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True
and
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time
Did you know there is a Cinderella Trilogy? It's ok if you didn't. Cinderella II and Cinderella III are direct to video films released in 2001 and 2007 and didn't get much fanfare. Walt Disney was notorious for not wanting to do sequels to his films, but times change. In 1990 Disney Studios already released their first official sequel with The Rescuers Down Under, but in 1994 Disney discovered they can make more money with Direct to Video films with a newly created DisneyToons Studio. So, 50 years after Cinderella hit theaters Cinderella II hit home video.
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True has three short stories inter-cut with Cinderella's mice friends making a book for her. The first short in the film picks up with Cinderella coming back from their honeymoon and the King tasks Cinderella with making a party. Still not comfortable living in a castle she ends up rejecting a lot of what is considered appropriate for royalty and brings her own style to the event. The second short has Jaq the mouse wanting to help Cinderella. Finding that Cinderella doesn't need as much help now that she is a princess he wishes to be human. The Fairy Godmother comes back to grant him his wish and things of course done go as he planned. The last short has one of Cinderella's step-sisters Anastasia falling in love with a baker and having to stand up to her mother. There is also a subplot in the last short where the cat Lucifer from the first movie falls in love with a cat living at the castle named Pom-Pom.
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time is a time travel film that rejects everything that happened in Cinderella II (especially Anastasia's love story) and starts at the 1 year anniversary of Cinderella and the Prince's wedding. After stealing the Fairy Godmother's magic wand Anastasia gives it to her mother who uses it to turn back time and make the glass slipper fit on Anastasia instead of Cinderella. As wedding plans are started for Anastasia and the Prince to get married Cinderella must do whatever she can to stop the wedding from happening and make the prince realize it was her that he dances with at the ball.
The quality of the films are what you would expect from DTV films. It doesn't look great but not the worst either. The stories are definitely more modernized. In both films Cinderella has a bit more agency and needs to do things and make decisions to get results. If you like your Cinderella with more action then I recommend Cinderella III. There is a fun scene at the end where The Prince has to rescue Cinderella from a boat. The weird thing that bothered me the most about both movies was the rules of the magic. In Cinderella there was a finite time that the magic will work. Neither one of the sequels addressed that. Granted not much magic was used in part II but part III is just the evil Stepmother saying Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo every 10 minutes to get what she wanted. I kept expecting some of the magic to wear off after a while but nope that never came up.
OVERALL: Don't go in expecting much and you won't be disappointed. This definitely plays to younger kids (both my kids actually like these films) but if you loved the original probably just skip these.
Random Facts:
Cinderella II was made at Disney's Japanese Studio
Cinderella III was the last movie made by Disney in their Australian Studio.
Christopher Barnes who did the voice for both of these films also did the voice for Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid.
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