Tuesday, February 9, 2010: "Cinderella III: A Twist in Time"

Disney DTV sequels get a bad rap. True, a lot of them may suck, but not all of them do, and some of them even try to do something cool with the source material. This is the case with "Cinderella III." Taking place a year after the original film ended, we see that Cinde3rella and the Prince are happy together while the wicked stepmother and stepsisters are miserable. Serves them right, right? Everything goes well for Cinderella until one day through a series of unfortunate events, the stepmother gets a hold of the fairy godmother's magic wand and turns back time to the day Cinderella tried on he slipper and won the prince's heart. Using magic, the stepmother makes the glass slipper fit Anastasia, and suddenly everything is changed. Cinderella must try to set things right again and make the prince realize that she, not Anastasia, is his true love.

I always felt kind of bad for Anastasia in the original "Cinderella." she never seemed as bad as her sister, and I'm clumsy too, so I always identified with her character, and I enjoyed seeing more of her personality in this sequel. I also like how the story really doesn't seem forced...it seems like a real continuation of the original film. The prince and Cinderella have what seems like a cute, fun, playful relationship in the beginning of the movie, and we get to see more of the Prince as a real character here, not just the archetypal dream guy on the white horse. One of my other favorite movies as a kid was the musical "Cinderella" with Lesley Ann Warren as Cinderella, and in that movie, the prince is a real character and we get to see more of his emotions and feelings, so I appreciated the way this movie tried to put a face on the prionce instead of making him one-dimensional. I was impressed. The animation quality isn't really as spectacular as Disney can be, but for what this is, it's a fun little movie that does some interesting things (stay tuned for the end credits, because there's a surprise coming).

Ignore the sequel hate and give this movie a chance.