Cinderella II: Dreams Come True
Year: 2002
Directed by: John Kafka
Starring: Jennifer Hale, Rob Paulsen & Russi Taylor
Runtime: 73 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 04/04/22
Directed by: John Kafka
Starring: Jennifer Hale, Rob Paulsen & Russi Taylor
Runtime: 73 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 04/04/22
If you’ve been following my reviews for the Disney Animated Sequels you’ll know that I kind of hated Belle’s Magical World; the third Beauty and the Beast film which was a collection of half baked ideas cobbled together in a ‘storybook’ format so that the writers didn’t need to think of a way to connect the stories they wanted to tell. I had hoped that Belle’s Magical World would be the only culprit of doing this, but unfortunately Walt Disney Television Animation weren’t satisfied enough to create just one hot mess, but they needed to do it again and this time poor Cinderella was in the firing line.
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True is a collection of three animated shorts which are all stories recounted by Cinderella’s mice friends about various adventures that have taken place since the end of the original film. The first story sees Cinderella (Jennifer Hale) undertake her first duties as Princess and fail to meet the lofty expectations of the palace staff.
The second story sees Jaq (Rob Paulson) wish to be helpful in Cinderella’s new life, and so the Fairy Godmother (Russi Taylor) turns him into a human…chaos ensues. Then the third and final story sees Cinderella help her stepsister Anastasia (Tress MacNeille) win the affections of a local baker (also voiced by Rob Paulson) against the wishes of her evil stepmother (Susanne Blakeslee).
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True is a collection of three animated shorts which are all stories recounted by Cinderella’s mice friends about various adventures that have taken place since the end of the original film. The first story sees Cinderella (Jennifer Hale) undertake her first duties as Princess and fail to meet the lofty expectations of the palace staff.
The second story sees Jaq (Rob Paulson) wish to be helpful in Cinderella’s new life, and so the Fairy Godmother (Russi Taylor) turns him into a human…chaos ensues. Then the third and final story sees Cinderella help her stepsister Anastasia (Tress MacNeille) win the affections of a local baker (also voiced by Rob Paulson) against the wishes of her evil stepmother (Susanne Blakeslee).
The first and third shorts are acceptable enough and fit in reasonably well with the whole Cinderella theme, though the second short I do feel was largely a waste of time. That being said, I still hate the fragmented structure of the film, and I think that Disney Television Animation shouldn’t have bothered making a film if they were only capable of making three twenty-minute shorts. It feels like less of a sequel and more of a pilot for a TV series.
I could have gotten on board with a whole film about Cinderella struggling to take on her new responsibilities as Princess and including elements from the third story to give it a bit more depth. But what is present barely scratches the surface of what could have been possible with a Cinderella sequel.
Visually Cinderella II is on par with the likes of Lady and the Tramp II and Little Mermaid II. But with everything looking so similar it does begin to feel like many of these direct-to-video sequels have lost the visual charm of the original films. Whilst they themselves were not necessarily visually distinct from other films at the time, they were at least visually distinct from each other. I feel like more effort could have been put into making the films look more like the films they are sequels to. But the animation is good quality especially for a low budget film so I can’t complain too much.
Cinderella II is disappointing more than outright bad. Had the idea of the first story been expanded into a feature length film then I feel like Cinderella II could have been a reasonably decent addition to the Animated Sequel library, but as it stands ‘Dreams Come True’ feels hollow and cobbled together. Seems like Dreams Come True is rather a bold statement for a film of this calibre.
I could have gotten on board with a whole film about Cinderella struggling to take on her new responsibilities as Princess and including elements from the third story to give it a bit more depth. But what is present barely scratches the surface of what could have been possible with a Cinderella sequel.
Visually Cinderella II is on par with the likes of Lady and the Tramp II and Little Mermaid II. But with everything looking so similar it does begin to feel like many of these direct-to-video sequels have lost the visual charm of the original films. Whilst they themselves were not necessarily visually distinct from other films at the time, they were at least visually distinct from each other. I feel like more effort could have been put into making the films look more like the films they are sequels to. But the animation is good quality especially for a low budget film so I can’t complain too much.
Cinderella II is disappointing more than outright bad. Had the idea of the first story been expanded into a feature length film then I feel like Cinderella II could have been a reasonably decent addition to the Animated Sequel library, but as it stands ‘Dreams Come True’ feels hollow and cobbled together. Seems like Dreams Come True is rather a bold statement for a film of this calibre.