Cinderella II: Dreams Come True

Now we come to the first sequel to a movie that I think isn’t as bad as everyone says, “Cinderella II: Dreams Come True,” released in 2002. This is another one of those movies where it’s three different stories in one.

So the basic story is Jaq and Gus-Gus, voiced by Corey Burton, miss the Fairy Godmother telling the Cinderella story, so they get the idea to make a book with more stories about Cinderella in it so they can give that to her as a gift.

The first story is titled “Cinderella’s First Day in the Castle.” The King (Andre Stojka) assigns Prudence (Holland Taylor) to teach Cinderella (Jennifer Hale) all about being a proper princess and how to prepare a royal banquet. Prudence starts to teach Cinderella the basics: a princess never prepares her own food, a princess must dress like royalty all the time, a person’s title speaks where they will sit at the table, commoners are never allowed through the royal gate into the palace, and countless other rules that Cinderella is convinced she fails as a princess! When Cinderella finds out that she is failing because she is trying to be something – and someone – she is not, she changes life in the palace for everyone!

This is a nice story about being happy with who you are. Rather than try to become one of the superior upper class, Cinderella decides to remain the servant maid that the prince fell in love with. Every young princess needs to strengthen their self-esteem and this cartoon may help give little girls the right advice! Debbie Winkler said in her review, “I am not saying to go crazy and be weird and wild, but it is a good reminder to all of us that people can tell when you are pretending to be something you are not. When you are comfortable with who you are, it is easier to make and keep friends and to find a place where you belong.  Take the time to think about what you are doing and why – do you enjoy dancing or fishing or sculpting?  Don’t be afraid to enjoy your favorite activity and to find others who do, too!” Life is too short to spend your entire time trying to make everyone else happy. Start with yourself, and because you are happy, others around you will be happier as well. Just look at Prudence in this cartoon. She begins being very uptight and unhappy, firm and inflexible and completely unwilling to try something new. By the end, she is a completely new person!

Next is “Jaq’s Unusual Wish.” Jaq, voiced by Rob Paulsen, longs to be helpful to Cinderella, like he used to before she was a princess. However, with a handful of other people around to help her, what can this little mouse do? Frustrated with being a mouse, Jaq wishes that he was a human! When Fairy Godmother, voiced by Russi Taylor, arrives to grant his wish, Jaq is sure that everything will be better now that he is a human. However, Jaq quickly learns that being human isn’t as great as he thought it was. When a chance to really help comes to him at the spring festival, will Jaq choose to remain human or go back to being a mouse?

Winkler said, “This episode brings a whole new meaning to the “Are you a man or a mouse?” question!” It is very easy to believe that things would be better if we could just change one part of our lives, but that is not really true. Happiness can be a choice just like everything else. Winkler admitted, “Some of the poorest, ugliest, neediest families I know seem to be so much happier than I am.” Money doesn’t buy happiness, neither does being beautiful nor fame. Also, be aware that your size does not limit how helpful you’ll be. There is so much that everyone can do to help out – you just have to take the time to figure out how. This is a good lesson for adults to learn as well. We all need to make sure that we help others feel needed and valued. It could be faster and easier to complete a task by ourselves, but others will never learn to do it right if we don’t take the time to let them help us!

The final story in this film is “Anastasia Falls in Love.” It’s love at first sight when Anastasia (Tress MacNielle) meets the baker (Rob Paulsen) in town. However, since her mother is Lady Tremaine, voiced by Susanne Blakeslee, Anastasia will never get her chance to create the romance – not without a little help, that is! When Cinderella’s first try to get these two together become a horrible mess, she has to try and convince Anastasia to give the baker a chance after she gets a makeover, obviously! There is also another romance being made in the castle: Lucifer (Frank Welker) and Pom-Pom (Frank Welker). Will Anastasia come to understand that looks aren’t everything when it comes to love?

This part of the cartoon teaches us that looks are not the only thing that matter. Yes, it is easy to fall in love with the outside appearance at first, but if there is no inner beauty to match it, the relationship will usually deteriorate. Winkler advised, “As women, we are incredibly hard on ourselves and always think that we could be thinner, more stylish, have better skin, more expensive clothes, a better hairstyle, etc.  While most of us will not be seen as Hollywood’s version of beautiful, those who know us will think we are beautiful because they love us and like us for who we are.  A lovely smile always makes you appear as more attractive than you are.  Kind words make people want to be your friend.  I believe that we become more and more attractive to people as they get to know us – or less and less attractive if we are mean and self-centered. Focus on polishing your inner beauty and the outer beauty will follow.”

These are very nice little trio of stories to help boost self-esteem in little girls. Even though the animation is not up to the standards of the original “Cinderella” movie, it is alright, if a bit lacking in detail. The colors are still bright, cheerful and there is plenty of action to keep kid audiences’ interested. Winkler admitted, “I found myself smiling through this DVD.” Despite that it is targeted towards the kids, there is a handful to smile and laugh about as Cinderella’s animal friends keep everyone around them paying attention! The music and songs are not really memorable (you won’t go around the house singing them), but they are solid and fit the storyline. Winkler said, “I think the best song is the one that is played while the credits are rolling called “Put It Together.” It is a more upbeat, contemporary song and I found it quite catchy.” If you have daughter(s) that are fan(s) of Cinderella, this is a DVD that they will enjoy. I know that this is not one of the strongest direct-to-DVD sequels that Disney released over the years; Disney Princess fans will not notice the difference. Winkler ended her review by saying, “I found it to be a decent rental, but not something I would be interested in purchasing or watching multiple times.”

Everyone seemed to thrash this movie, but I thought it was harmless. Little girls can see this movie and enjoy it just fine, there’s nothing atrocious or painful about it. Nor is this boring, long or tedious, but has some really good life lessons in them. I would say that if you have any daughters, then let them see this, they will like the movie just fine.

I think everyone knows that there was a “Cinderella III,” but I won’t be looking at that monstrosity until much later in the month. Stay tuned tomorrow for another entry in “Disney Sequel Month” where I think the sequel is not as bad as everyone says it is.