All spoilers for Cinderella will be left unmarked.
Cinderella: I still can't believe I'm going to live in a castle. Are you sure this isn't just a dream?
Prince Charming: You're a princess now. Princess Cinderella.
Prince Charming: You're a princess now. Princess Cinderella.
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True is the 2002 Direct to Video sequel to the Disney Animated Canon hit Cinderella. This is a Compilation Movie of three stories, intended to be episodes for an aborted TV series, loosely tied together:
- Aim to Please, in which Cinderella, after returning from her honeymoon, tries to put on a royal buffet and adjust to life as a princess;
- Tall Tail, in which one of the mice, Jaq, gets transformed into a human by the Fairy Godmother in order to help out Cinderella;
- An Uncommon Romance, in which Cinderella's stepsister Anastasia comes at odds with her family when she falls in love with a baker and starts on a path to redemption.
Followed up in 2007 by Cinderella III: A Twist in Time.
(See the Cinderella category under Fanworks: Animated Films for various fanworks of all 3 films)
The film provides examples of the following tropes:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The Ferris wheel in "Tall Tail".
- Abhorrent Admirer: In "Tall Tail", human Jaq gets an admirer in a very fat noblewoman who previously tried to stomp him as a mouse.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: A heartwarming variation. In "Aim to Please", when the King comes home to a ball being thrown "untraditionally", three times over does he have a fit about the traditions being broken, before being distracted by how he enjoys the ball without the traditions. First, he rants about how the curtains aren't supposed to ever be open, but finds that without the curtains, he can see the moon. Second, he has a tantrum over how peasants aren't supposed to be invited into the castle, before he recognizes an old friend among the peasants. Lastly, he acts dissatisfied about how his favorite dessert menu has been changed from prunes to pudding, only to realize he likes chocolate pudding. All in all, in the span of a solid minute, his mind is changed about adhering to tradition.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: In "Tall Tail", Jaq has the Fairy Godmother transform him a human. He gets more than what he bargains for.
- Be Yourself: All three of the stories involve this message in some way.
- In "Aim to Please", Cinderella struggles to adapt to being a princess, while Prudence constantly pressures her to adhere to the old traditions. After suffering a Heroic BSoD, Cinderella eventually decides to take her own approach to being a princess, leading to much better results for herself and everyone else.
- In "Tall Tail", Jaq feels inadequate with his small size and wishes for Fairy Godmother to turn him human so he can be useful to Cinderella again. While thrilled with this at first, he soon comes to regret his decision, and realises there are some things that only a mouse can do.
- In An Uncommon Romance, Lady Tremaine still instils her warped standards of beauty and class onto Anastasia and Drizella, and wants them to impress men of nobility at Cinderella's ball. When Anastasia falls for a humble baker instead, Cinderella encourages her to simply be her real self with him rather than trying to win him over with her looks.
- Big Beautiful Man: The baker Anastasia meets has a notably larger figure than the usual Disney male lead, but this doesn't make him unattractive.
- Big Sister Instinct: After seeing Anastasia's attraction to the Baker and her subsequent embarrassment, Cinderella takes it upon herself to help her step-sister, taking her to the castle and guiding her through how to handle her budding romance. Near the end of the story, Cinderella also briefly looks prepared to come out and defend Anastasia when Tremaine confronts her and the Baker, though she remains hidden and watches proudly when Anastasia is able to stand up for herself.
- Book on the Head: In "Aim to Please", Cinderella learns to dance with four books on her head. Because she also has to answer a test at the same time, she eventually trips. Moments later, while dancing how she wants, Cinderella manages to successfully keep two books on her head.
- Call-Back: In the last scene of "Aim to Please", Prince Charming and Cinderella kiss in the same manner during the first film's final scene.
- Calling the Old Woman Out: Near the end of her side story, Anastasia works up enough courage to stand up to her mother who had also been putting Anastasia down and had disapproved of Anastasia’s romantic interest in the Baker.
- Casting Gag:
- Christopher Daniel Barnes plays Prince Charming in this series. He previously played a Disney prince, Eric, in The Little Mermaid (1989).
- Mary is voiced by Russi Taylor, most well-known for voicing Minnie Mouse from 1986 to 2019.
- Character Catchphrase: For Prudence: "It simply isn't done!"
- Comically Missing the Point: Cinderella gently accuses her council for the Spring Festival of this in "A Tall Tail". One of the members suggests moving it to summer, and another proposes forbidding children from attending. After Cinderella reminds them that it wouldn't become a Spring Festival, or a way to entertain the children, all the Yes-Men in the council support her.
- Cool Crown: At the end of "Aim to Please", Cinderella is given a glass tiara.
- Deconstruction: "Aim to Please" is about how being a princess (at least in this kingdom) isn't all it's cracked up to be. Cinderella can't dress the way she wants to dress, eat what she wants to eat, dance the way she did when she met the prince, and is constantly bombarded with decisions on which color different things should be (when the colors are all the same). She can't even invite her closest peasant friends to the ball to celebrate her new life. It gets better when she decides to change things up despite traditions.
- Demoted to Extra: The film does not show Cinderella's step-family until the final story, "An Uncommon Romance". Though it's understandable for Cinderella to keep her distance from them after the way they treated her, with her and Anastasia only seeing each other by chance in the final story.
- Description Cut: In "Aim to Please", just after Cinderella worries that she has no idea how to plan a royal banquet, the prince assures her he'll stay by her side. The very next scene opens with him protesting that he and the king are to be abruptly sent on a trip.
- Didn't Think This Through: When Lucifer falls for Pom Pom, the mice work to help him impress her in an attempt to get him to stop tormenting them. When it works and the two become a pair, they decide to hunt the mice together, something Jaq and Gus totally should've thought of.
- Distaff Counterpart: Pom Pom, the cat who lives at the palace, is the female equivalent of Lucifer. And at the movie, they meet, fall in love and go hunt on the mice together. A double nightmare for the mice.
- Dramatic Irony: A woman absolutely terrified of mice falls for Jaq while he's a human.
- Early-Bird Cameo: When Cinderella speaks to her village friends in "Aim to Please", the Baker is shown as part of the group. He later appears in a more substantial role in "An Uncommon Romance", serving as Anastasia's love interest.
- Easily Forgiven: The plot of "An Uncommon Romance" involves Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella preparing to attend a ball that Cinderella is hosting, implying that she still invited her stepfamily despite all the years of abuse they put her through. This is shown even more directly with how Cinderella interacts with Anastasia in the story, as she clearly holds no ill will towards her stepsister for her previous antagonism, and goes out of her way to help Anastasia impress the Baker she's fallen for.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: Twice during "Tall Tail".
- During the meeting about the Spring Festival, Jaq is accidentally picked up by a woman, who really freaks out in response, to the bewilderment of Cinderella.
- At the end, Jaq chooses to be turned back into a mouse so he can scare a rampaging elephant.
- Elephants Are Scared of Mice: As above, Jaq gets the Fairy Godmother to turn him back into a mouse to scare a rampaging elephant into stopping.
- Follow Your Heart: There's a whole song with that title.
- Framing Device: The movie transitions between each episode by showing the mice recollecting some misadventures to document in a storybook.
- Going to the Store: During "An Uncommon Romance", before Anastasia goes to meet the baker again, she grabs some bread from the pantry, throws it out the window (right on Drizella's head, even), and tells Lady Tremaine that she has to go to town and buy some more bread.
- Heroic BSoD: A distraught Cinderella goes upstairs and lies on her bed after her efforts to become an actual princess fail in "Aim to Please". She gets better.
- Hot Librarian: Prudence, in the eyes of the Grand Duke and her fans.
- Hugh Mann: Almost literally in "Tall Tail"; Human Jaq's attempt to say "I'm human!" to Cinderella gets interrupted when he's forced to cough, causing people to think his name is "Sir Hugh".
- Humanity Ensues: In "Tall Tail", Jaq is turned into a human by the Fairy Godmother so he can help Cinderella; unfortunately, Pom Pom was watching nearby and still has the intention of hunting him.
- I Can See My House from Here: When the King is launched off the back of an elephant and lands in a Ferris Wheel carriage he isn't mad because he's delighted he can see his castle from it.
- Idiot Ball: In "Tall Tail", the Fairy Godmother forgets her magic words just before Jaq is about to be trampled by an elephant. As in "bibbidi-bobbidi-boo", the only magic words she uses.
- Imagine Spot: Anastasia has a brief one of her and the baker waltzing at one point in "An Uncommon Romance", which eventually comes true.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Cinderella is forced to wear a rather overdone gown in "Aim to Please". All the ribbons on it make Cinderella say she looks like a gift-wrapped present.
- Ironic Echo Cut: One scene at the start of "Aim to Please" cuts from Prudence informing the King that Cinderella might not know how to plan a royal banquet, to Cinderella admitting to Prince Charming exactly that.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When helping the Grand Duke prepare the Spring Festival in Tall Tail, Cinderella casually remarks that the castle seems to throw a lot of parties. Indeed, all three of the film's stories revolve around preparing for different celebrations.
- Lessons in Sophistication: Prudence tries teaching Cinderella some of these—but Prudence was trying to teach how to be a cold, always elegant above all princess, and she was so boring and stuck-up throughout the whole process that Cinderella was unable to learn what she was being taught. Cinderella ultimately gave up and decided to give her own twist to the fancy party they were organizing. The king and the prince were pretty much amused and Cinderella succeed in earning the sympathy of everyone in the castle anyway.
- Letting Her Hair Down: Anastasia's bound curls are let loose during her makeover.
- Logo Joke: Fireworks reveal the castle instead of the usual fade-up-to-down effect. The Walt Disney logo is also written out instead of flashing onto the screen. After the logo is formed, we cut to the castle.
- Love at First Sight:
- The moment Anastasia and the Baker lay eyes on each other, they are immediately smitten.
- Lucifer also falls for Pom Pom when he first sees her. Unfortunately for him, the feeling wasn't mutual.
- Makeover Montage: "An Uncommon Romance" has one for both Anastasia and Lucifer before they meet their respective love interests.
- Meaningful Name: Countess Le Grande in the second story is indeed very grand...as in large.
- Naïve Everygirl: Cinderella's redhead stepsister Anastasia gets retconned into one of these.
- No Name Given: The baker Anastasia falls for. A few people have nicknamed him Dimitri, as a nod to Don Bluth's Anastasia.
- Oh, Crap!:
- The King's understandably shocked by Cinderella's actions when he enters the ballroom towards the end of "Aim to Please".
- Jaq, Gus, and the mice are beyond horrified that their plan to help Lucifer impress Pom Pom results in them becoming a mouse-hunting team, meaning they have two cats to avoid now.
- Once per Episode: All three stories have Cinderella helping plan a royal celebration.
- Ojou: Prudence.
- Palette Swap: Cinderella wears several slightly modified versions of her classic ballgown throughout the movie, with the most common change being different colors.
- Princess Protagonist: Cinderella's the heroine of the story (but has less focus compared to the first movie) and is now technically a princess.
- Recycled Animation: Some sequences in the Framing Device seem recycled from a scene in the first movie, in which the mice make Cinderella a ballgown.
- Remember the New Guy?: The introduction of Jaq's girlfriend, Mary, as one of Cinderella's closest animal friends can feel a little abrupt, since the first movie referred to none of the female mice by name (Books about Cinderella characters refer to two of them as Suzy and Perla, but still don't mention a Mary). At least they took her color palette from one of the background mice seen occasionally throughout the original film, downplaying the trope in a way that can't often be done.
- Sealed with a Kiss: "Aim to Please" ends with Cinderella and Prince Charming kissing while seated on their thrones, with a heart shaped Iris Out closing over them.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Anastasia doesn't live up to her position as an "ugly" stepsister after her makeover.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: One of the triggers behind Anastasia's Heel–Face Turn is her love for a commoner. More exactly, the local baker boy.
- Story Arc: Anastasia begins her development into a more sympathetic character here, which continues into Cinderella III: A Twist in Time.
- Take a Third Option: After Cinderella decides to do things her way, Beatrice happens to show up and provides yet another choice between identical napkins — either sand or buff. Cinderella instead asks Beatrice what color she likes; she chooses pink, which Cinderella accepts.
- Third-Act Misunderstanding: Anastasia sees what she believes to be the baker giving flowers to another woman—it soon turns out that he and the woman are Just Friends and he was just asking her opinion on the flowers being a good gift for Anastasia. Had she not turned around, she would have seen that the woman was (presumably) already in a relationship with someone else.
- Those Two Girls: Beatrice and Daphne, Cinderella's ladies-in-waiting at the castle.
- Title Drop: Not quite the exact title, but the last story ends with Cinderella telling Anastasia, "Dreams do come true!", as Anastasia and the baker dance together.
- Totally Radical: Cinderella briefly exclaims "Ew!" in a rather Valley Girl-esque tone at one point.
- The Un-Smile: How Anastasia "smiled" before her makeover. It's enough to make Lucifer hiss at her.
