Film Review #71: Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time

Of all of the Disney Sequels, no film had a dumber premise than this.  Not a single film.  Cinderella's wicked stepmother gets a hold of the Fairy Godmother's wand and manages to change time so that the slipper fit Anastasia's shoe and ruined Cinderella's happily ever after.  I'm not even kidding about that either.  This is the plot to Cinderella III.  And yet, something happened.  I don't know what it really was, but something happened that
made this film tolerable.  Something, but I don't know what...

Plot: It's been a whole year since Cinderella and the Prince married.  And while Cinderella enjoys the life of a princess, Anastasia and Drizella Tremaine are forced to take on the duties of their stepsister.  After Anastasia sneaks away to spy on Cinderella, she finds the Fairy Godmother's magic wand and brings it to Lady Tremaine.  The wicked stepmother then hatches an elaborate scheme to turn back the time to the day the Duke came to fit the glass slipper on the Tremaine sisters.  By using her magic to make the slipper fit Anastasia and subseqeuntly shattering the glass slipper Cinderella had held on to, Lady Tremaine and her daughters are whisked away to the King's castle in her place.  Cinderella decides to take it upon herself to fix this and goes to the castle to find out the truth, along with her two mice friends.

The Prince is at first reluctant to marry Anastasia, but the girl finds a quick friend in the King, who tells her of the first time he fell in love.  This makes Anastasia's conscience uneasy, while Cinderella is captured and exiled to a faraway land after she learns the truth of her stepmother's evil act.

What's Bad?: He may not be as bad as he was in the original, but the Prince in this film is fairly boring and uninteresting.  We don't really care for his happiness, but the happiness of both Anastasia and Cinderella.

What's Good?: Like in the first sequel and with Iago in the Aladdin sequels, Anastasia is one of the few Disney Villain sidekicks that actually gets depth and a character arc.  We actually get to see a side character with a storyline and a dream of her own, and not just recycling storylines and jokes from the original.

But the film's strong point is not Anastasia, but Cinderella herself.  Somehow, in an act of redemption, Cinderella's character receives proper fleshing out and the film begins to write the wrongs about the original, such as Cinderella's extremely passive attitude about most things and her reactive role over the active role in more modern Disney Fairy Tales.  HEre, Cinderella actually has to save herself and make her own decisions throughout the movie that somewhat makes up for her weakness in the original.

Lady Tremaine remains as bitchy and evil as ever.

Overall: Cinderella III is a film that should have fallen flat on it's face and failed as miserably as the other pitiful sequels I've reviewed on here.  But the film manages to follow Brother Bear 2 and build up on the weaknesses of the original and turn it around to be an advantage for the film.

Final Grade:    B