What a premise. The Wicked Stepmother discovers the magic wand used by the Fairy Godmother, and uses it to go back in time to the exact point at which Cinderella tried on the glass slipper. And casts a spell to enlarge the glass slipper so it instead fits Anastasia, one of the Wicked Stepmother's own daughters. Cinderella's happy ending is undone, and she has no memory of it for that matter. It's like the ending to the original Cinderella was totally changed.
And you know something? It works. It's actually very fun.
Everything that could be done with the premise, is done. There's some self-aware jokes, such as Cinderella starting off the movie by singing how her life is so perfect "all because I fit a shoe! ♫" And the prince being teased by the king for how illogical his decision is. "She can't be the only size four-and-a-half in the kingdom!"
But what shines the most in the movie is its focus on the villains!
The Wicked Stepmother is as nasty and cruel as ever, always using magic to intervene when possible. When the Prince comes close to realizing that it was Cinderella, not Anastasia, that he danced with at the ball, the Stepmother zaps him with the wand to rewrite his memory so he sees Anastasia in Cinderella's place. When Cinderella comes very close to actually marrying the prince, the next trick is to cast a spell to change Anastasia's appearance so she looks exactly like Cinderella!
As the one who's being set up to marry the prince, Anastasia gets a lot of screen time, and a lot of character development. However cruel she may have been to Cinderella in the past, Anastasia is portrayed sympathetically. She's jealous of Cinderella, but it's played up as sad for her, since no-one loves her the way they loved her. And she even rebels against her mother's plans, once she decides that she wouldn't be happy marrying the prince while disguised as Cinderella because it would mean that he didn't love her for her - he instead loved her thinking she was someone else.
Also, to my pleasant surprise, this has some of the better slapstick and funnier jokes I'd seen in Disney's movies. Some of the comedic timing is just great. My favorite being when the Prince is dashing off to save Cinderella from being sent away on a ship as punishment. The king forbids the Prince from going any further: "I forbid you to go down any more steps." The Prince takes this literally, and jumps out the window in a split second. It's cartoony and made funnier by how quickly it happens and how realistically drawn the Prince is.
I even liked the animal characters and their antics, as well as the fighting between Druzella and Anastasia, the Stepmother's daughters. It was actually funny.
The story even ends on multiple exciting notes in a row. In short, while not a great story, necessarily, it's told well, and in a way that's a lot of fun. Which, for a direct-to-DVD sequel, is very impressive.
Does everything it possibly can to take a dumb premise and make it a fun movie, and succeeds!
What a premise. The Wicked Stepmother discovers the magic wand used by the Fairy Godmother, and uses it to go back in time to the exact point at which Cinderella tried on the glass slipper. And casts a spell to enlarge the glass slipper so it instead fits Anastasia, one of the Wicked Stepmother's own daughters. Cinderella's happy ending is undone, and she has no memory of it for that matter. It's like the ending to the original Cinderella was totally changed.
And you know something? It works. It's actually very fun.
Everything that could be done with the premise, is done. There's some self-aware jokes, such as Cinderella starting off the movie by singing how her life is so perfect "all because I fit a shoe! ♫" And the prince being teased by the king for how illogical his decision is. "She can't be the only size four-and-a-half in the kingdom!"
But what shines the most in the movie is its focus on the villains!
The Wicked Stepmother is as nasty and cruel as ever, always using magic to intervene when possible. When the Prince comes close to realizing that it was Cinderella, not Anastasia, that he danced with at the ball, the Stepmother zaps him with the wand to rewrite his memory so he sees Anastasia in Cinderella's place. When Cinderella comes very close to actually marrying the prince, the next trick is to cast a spell to change Anastasia's appearance so she looks exactly like Cinderella!
As the one who's being set up to marry the prince, Anastasia gets a lot of screen time, and a lot of character development. However cruel she may have been to Cinderella in the past, Anastasia is portrayed sympathetically. She's jealous of Cinderella, but it's played up as sad for her, since no-one loves her the way they loved her. And she even rebels against her mother's plans, once she decides that she wouldn't be happy marrying the prince while disguised as Cinderella because it would mean that he didn't love her for her - he instead loved her thinking she was someone else.
Also, to my pleasant surprise, this has some of the better slapstick and funnier jokes I'd seen in Disney's movies. Some of the comedic timing is just great. My favorite being when the Prince is dashing off to save Cinderella from being sent away on a ship as punishment. The king forbids the Prince from going any further: "I forbid you to go down any more steps." The Prince takes this literally, and jumps out the window in a split second. It's cartoony and made funnier by how quickly it happens and how realistically drawn the Prince is.
I even liked the animal characters and their antics, as well as the fighting between Druzella and Anastasia, the Stepmother's daughters. It was actually funny.
The story even ends on multiple exciting notes in a row. In short, while not a great story, necessarily, it's told well, and in a way that's a lot of fun. Which, for a direct-to-DVD sequel, is very impressive.