As I get closer to the end of watching all these Disney sequels, I can say that, honestly,
the most entertaining out of all of them is "Cinderella 3".
Yeah. I know, right? The third "Cinderella" movie? That's ridiculous!
Look at this opening! It doesn't even look like it's gonna be anything!
It looks like a sequel even worse than the previous sequel!
But, when I was telling people I was gonna do all these Disney sequels, what I kept hearing over and over
is that "Cinderella 3" is good. "Wait 'till you get to 'Cinderella 3'. That's a good one."
And, for the most part, they're kinda right.
Are there problems? Yeah, I guess that's sorta to be expected with any of the Disney sequels.
Is it my favorite? No, but, again, its -- How do I put this? -- easily the most fun.
Like I said before, it opens up kinda corny and chintzy with a goofy little song. Not really that impressive.
But, suddenly, the villains return: the stepmother and the stepsisters.
They come across the Fairy Godmother's magic wand, turn her to stone,
and start going back in time to make it that the stepsister is the one that has the shoe that fits.
Thus, everything is altered, Cinderella's left in the dust, and she doesn't have her happily ever after.
The villains are taken to the palace,
they hypnotize the prince into thinking that the sister was the one that he fell in love with,
and it's up to Cinderella to sneak in there and convince him what's really going on
without getting caught by the guards or the evil stepmother.
On the one hand, this sounds incredibly forced and silly, and... yeah, I guess it kind of is,
but, for such a forced and silly idea, they do everything that they can with it.
They realize that the most interesting characters are the villains, and there's a *lot* of time focused on them.
Look at the drawings on them. Look at these closeups.
They are just so devious, and they love every second that they're on screen, and so do we!
I remember there's a scene where Cinderella sneaks in as a servant, and she has her face covered,
and the stepmother is sort of looking at this reflection in the water, and she can kind of see her face,
and I actually went, "Oh, no!" Which is amazing!
I actually said, "oh, no" during a "Cinderella" film, let alone a sequel. That's insane!
But, on top of that, they actually give a lot of characters who didn't have much development
in the other films a lot more development.
The king, for example, is more than just a guy who's bouncing up and down,
saying, "Ah! Get me grandchildren!"
They make him this really sentimental guy who lost his wife years ago,
and so he's passing on this piece of jewelry to the now daughter-in-law, and it's actually really sweet.
One of the stepsisters is given a lot more development, too. And what makes this so clever
is that it actually ties into the second film, "Cinderella 2".
Yeah! That stupid sequel that nobody cared about. They actually have some things that tie into it.
Not only is her character given a lot of depth and a story arc, but they even have characters
from the second film that were introduced in this one, as well.
Remember the woman in charge of the servants?
Of course you don't! Because nobody remembers the second film!
But she's in this. What an incredible touch of detail!
Even the prince, who had maybe one line of dialogue in the first movie and, I don't know,
maybe two in the second one -- he was clearly just the eye candy --
has a lot more character in this.
Well, okay. Not a *lot* more character, but, certainly, there is a personality there.
He's gentle, nice, and charming, but you do get to know him a little bit more.
Enough that you want to seem him get with the right person.
The animation is fantastic,
and what's so great about it is that is doesn't necessarily try to recreate the same animation from the first film.
"Bambi 2" kinda fell into that trap, and, while it wasn't really bad or anything,
you're just constantly reminded that this isn't its own thing.
*This*, even though it's a sequel, does feel like its own thing.
The imagery gets a lot more creepy and a lot more creative.
There's this scene where she throws Cinderella into this giant pumpkin, and it's all gross and disgusting inside,
and these vines just grab this horse and wrap around it,
and then she turns the cat into this evil servant who's laughing maniacally as he's gonna ride it off a cliff,
and it's just crazy! It's something that you want to see in a fairy tale sequel.
It gets a little darker, it gets a little crazier, and it gets a lot more fun.
It's like half Cinderella and half Tim Burton. It's just so enjoyable to view.
So, okay, this movie sounds great. Is it great?
Well... there are a few little problems that hold it back from being a complete piece,
and I don't think it's just nitpicking.
The biggest one is Cinderella, herself.
Which is not to say the characters is done horribly, I mean they actually animate her very well,
and the pacing is good, and there's even a scene when she finds out that everything's been changed,
where you don't even see her reaction.
You just see her place her hand on the door, and that's kind of all you need.
Little moments like that are really, really good.
But the problem is, in the story, it's kinda like "The Little Mermaid": She doesn't learn anything.
She doesn't go through an arc. She just kinda wants to get something, and she gets it.
I guess it's just kind of a distracting contrast
when you see what these other characters are going through and all the changes that they have going on.
On top of that, some of the morals are a little weird, like there's this ongoing thing
that when you touch a person's hand, you immediately know if you're in love, and... yeah, I know.
Disney. Fairy tales. They kind of teach even weirder lessons than that if you really think about it, but...
I don't know. That seemed particularly odd.
For a movie that's really trying to fix the dated problems of the first film,
it seems like that was something that was clearly really distracting that they maybe
should have taken another look at.
On top of *that*, this movie has three climaxes.
Yeah, there's one where the prince saves her, then there's one where she saves herself,
and then there's one where she saves him, and it's just kind of all over the place.
But they're all kind of fun, too.
It's, like, all this green stuff flying everywhere, and this choir going, (vocalizing).
It's something you can clearly tell the animators, and the writers, and the directors were having fun doing,
and we feel that fun.
The hard work and effort is clearly there in a project where it didn't need to be there.
They went 110% on something that clearly was just meant to be thrown out really fast,
but they really tried, and you can tell they really tried.
But, yeah, those problems I mentioned before are still legitimate problems.
They do kinda focus a little too much on the side characters, and, yeah, I know the first film
you could argue that, too, but the center was still around her need, her want,
her going through this endurance to get what was needed, working hard and finally getting that reward.
Here, I guess it's just kind of the same thing, working hard and getting that reward,
but we already saw that, so why is that interesting?
But, in my opinion, the rest is so much fun, and so crazy, and so enjoyable
that I can kinda overlook it, and I think a lot of other people overlook it, too.
All I can say is what everyone's been saying about is strangely right.
It is really entertaining, and I highly recommend it.
I can't say it's perfect. I can't say it's a Disney classic, or anything, but it's just a ton of surreal joy.
I like how they took something that was pretty pointless and even a kind of dumb idea
and turned it into something that was just kinda cool,
and focused on the elements that were the most enjoyable from the first film.
If you want a Disney sequel that doesn't need to exist but is still really, really neat,
"Cinderella 3" is, bizarrely enough, the one to check out.