WesternAnimation 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.
WesternAnimation Cinderella III - A Twist In Time - Best Sequel
I watched this movie yesterday and I loved it. I thought it was going to be badly rushed, judging by the plot, but I was wrong.
The first thing I loved about the movie was Cinderella's transformation to a bland, Mary-Sue character into a strong-willed badass. Unlike the first movie, Cinderella didn't wait for her dreams to come to her, she fought for what she felt was right! Instead of being a doormat to her stepmother and others, she was able to stand up to that witch, because lord knows what would have happened if Cinderella didn't defy her evil b*tch of a stepmother. Do you know what would have happened if Cinderella just obeyed her evil stepmother by staying away from the castle, and just playing the victim? Instead, she took risks, including back-flipping off of a moving carriage, and then crashing her own wedding!
The second thing I liked was Anastasia's Character Development. She was able to go from a jerkass step-sister to a sympathetic character who only wanted someone to love her for who she is. I loved how she was able to open her heart and let Cinderella have her happy ending, while in the credits it showed that she supposedly did get a man.
I also loved Jaq and Gus because they were funny. I felt that they were also talented singers and I loved their musical numbers. I also loved how they sang to the prince to convince them about Cinderella. Plus, I loved their battles against Lucifer the Cat. One thing I love about their character is their devotion to Cinderella.
One thing I was shocked about was the derailment of Lady Tremaine. She went from a nasty jerkass stepmother to a sadistic psychopath who would do anything to keep Cinderella from being happy, including attempting to get Lucifer to murder her. I thought that her trying to get Anastasia to pose as Cinderella was a Moral Event Horizon because she was basically attempting to trick the prince into marrying someone else! This is actually rape by association, if anyone doesn't know. I felt that the punishment that her and Dizrella got wasn't very adequate, but at least they got a punishment.
Anyway, I loved this movie and I will be watching it again, next time with my family because I know they might be impressed. That's all.