Cinderella 2 - Träume werden wahr

I love the original Cinderella movie, WHY RUIN IT WITH SUCH A CRAPPY SEQUEL? We've all got to admit, Disney is attempting to keep the original feel to its sequels alive, but none can compare to the timeless stories created by Walt himself. So why try to ruin it? Wasn't the first good enough to follow future generations? These sequels are simply trying to copy-cat the feelings that the originals brought us--and a crappy job at that. The songs have no meaning and the animation is disappointing. WILL DISNEY PLEASE STOP MAKING THESE SEQUELS AND LEAVE THE ORIGINALS ALONE?? I hate to see such great movies ruined. I rate this movie 3/10.

There is barely a plot or story in Cinderella II. No great crisis or danger to be resolved, just syrup. Though my toddler enjoys it there are many other children's DVDs that I enjoy watching with her but not this one. She loves it when we watch her DVDs with her but Cinderella II makes it difficult for me to be able to. If you don't already have Snow White, Cinderella, Mulan, Pinocchio, the Lion King, Pocahantas, The Prince of Egypt, The Wizard of Oz, or Peter Pan, buy any of these before wasting your money on this effort to part you of yours. This weak effort is a stark contrast to the earlier fairy tell productions of Disney that were under Walt's direction. It makes one appreciate his effort to make a great production for entertainment for the whole family and not just pumping something out to make money. I'll give it a generous 4 out of 10 points only because my girl enjoys it.

When I first saw the huge life-size cardboard standup promoting Cinderella II in my local Hollywood Video, I was positively shocked and dismayed as to how far Disney has fallen in its attempt to strip-mine the memory of its classics in order to make an extra buck. Watching the video itself did nothing to enlighten my preconceived notions. While the animation and voice-acting is top-notch, the story suffers as the film tries to describe Cinderella's "happily ever after" life in the castle. Since any real conflict could possibly hurt that "happy" image, they appoint Cinderella head of the Ministry of Parties and allow her to demonstrate her unbounded optimism through several heavily contrived situations that mostly involve jokes about clumsy, amorous fat women (fat-acceptance advocates, watch out!) and mice being mindlessly chased by palace cats (who in real life would probably have servants to chase mice for them!) The mice are the real stars of this film, recreating their feature film roles pretty well and tying the loose, disjointed narratives together. Yet, one gets the feeling that the mice are the only characters in this film and the others are just there to give the mice something to do. For a movie that purports to teach us how to be ourselves and feel good about ourselves, one would be shocked at the gross lack of characterization in the film. Even compared to other Disney movies, the characters never go beyond their surface stereotypes and develop any hidden motives. Why does Jaq so singlemindedly want to pursue Cinderella? Why does the Fairy Godmother linger around the castle like a freeloading roommate? Why does Anastasia fall in love with the incredibly uninteresting baker? Yet one shouldn't picket the movie too seriously, after all, it's clear from the packaging and DVD extras ("A composer is a person who writes the music to a movie") that this film was intended solely for the kiddie crowd. With that in mind, it's blissfully entertaining. It's a great film if you are under 6 or so, but if you were raised on more captivating Disney fare such as the great musical features and the Disney Afternoon of the early 90's, it's rather disappointing.

Of course the animation is really bad, and it's not a deep movie, but at least the writers put some thought into the story and didn't just go with the standard. (Cinderella and her still-unnamed Prince have a daughter who falls in love with a peasant, and they have to convince the king that she should be able to marry him and not be forced to marry someone of royalty. Can anyone say 'Aladdin'? Ugh.) This movie is made of three separate stories instead of just one long yawn factory like some others I can think of (Cough. Hunchback 2. Return to Neverland. Cough.) so there is a lot more opportunity for variation and character interplay. They even involve a dour governess named Prudence (very nice to see a black-clad miser in a Disney film who is stodgy and stuffy instead of thoroughly evil.) and give one of the stepsisters a story of her own, and do something with Lucifer except having him be the (you guessed it) black, evil cat who does little but chase the mice. Even Jaques gets a place in the spotlight, and there are happy endings all around as everyone falls in love. No.. not a deep movie, but it isn't boring, either. There is enough happening here to hold your interest, and that's saying a lot for a Disney sequel these days. The only real failing is that they selected quite possibly the most "edgy" and downright obnoxious Hip Hoppish singer to warble some songs that would have sounded fine otherwise.. Some of the tunes and lyrics are actually quite good, but there's so much "groove" and "attitude" going on that any charm is completely lost -- And if that's how they sound *now*, you can imagine how much this music is going to grate on the ears in a decade or so, when Hip Hop has long since gone the way of disco and vinyl and VHS... Seriously, can't anybody just SING anymore? I will be really happy when the people at Disney realize that lavishing modern sound on their (ahem) "masterpieces".. only hastens their descent into the post-modern doldrums of such films as 'Oliver & Company' and 'Aladdin'. I'm sure I'm not the first to cringe upon hearing Cinderella say 'EEYew' with all the pouty, adolescent inflection of 2001's cohort of sexed-up, belly-baring Britney wannabes.

So, I really didn't want to watch this. I work at a video store so I get to watch everything before everybody else. Usually that's a good thing. Cinderella 2 is just one pointless movie. One little plot point after another that simply joins characters back together again. Don't ruin the first by watching this one. Walt had the idea. No sequels. Too bad he's still not around to enforce that idea.