Cinderella II Dreams Come True

[DodgerGirl]

I have never figured out what made Disney think of making Cinderella II Dreams Come True? I remember hearing so much about it and preordered my copy from Disney Store when it was released on DVD but as I saw it I thought i'd like the finished product but instead I found Cinderella II Dreams Come True one of Disney's weakest links in movie sequels. For one thing from the promising previews it seemed like Disney was planning to make an actual movie sequel but instead turned it into three short stories about Cinderella that they should've renamed it Cinderella's Fairytale Adventures rather than Cinderella II Dreams Come True instead. The other problem I had was with some of the stories. Take for example in the first Cinderella story of the movie why did they not tell Cinderella that she couldn't do things her own way? I guess the palace staff thought that Cinderella was new and wanted to show her how the palace was run then in the scene when Cinderella was trying on her new wardrobe she asked her ladies in waiting why she wasn't allowed to wear her own dresses but they put her in uncomfortable clothing that she disliked so much. Then in another scene Cinderella sobbed constantly about how she was a terrible princess and complained about rules of the palace and I think Cinderella was afraid nobody would like her if they would've let her run the palace her way. The other story I found odd in Cinderella II Dreams Come True is the one where Cinderella's stepsister meets the village baker and I couldn't figure out why Anastasia started having a crush on the baker after they only met once and then decides to invite him to the ball? Because it seemed that Anastasia started to go boy crazy and when you have crushes on boys you have to be friends and get to know other first before you have a crush. Why I think this movie was mainly put out on video was to simply market Cinderella to a new generation of fans and also to market the career of singer Brooke Alison because she sang the songs featured in the movie so well but is now a one hit wonder. And Juliet Mills was fantastic as the Fairy Godmother and she really did an amazing job better than the late Verna Felton

 

[BrianL]

Well, narrative shortcomings notwithstanding, the basic premise behind teh first two stories is that Cinderella is a "fish out of water" - she is not of noble status and back then, nobles and royals had theri certain ways of doing things, ways of presenting themselves, etc. It was all seen as very important to be "proper" all the time. As an audience of non-noble people, we are supposed to sympathize with her and appreciate her reformist attitudes. As for Anastasia, the stepsisters were always pretty "boy crazy" and they don't have a lot of sense either. Of course, back then, there was an expectation that a woman should be married early so as not to be a burden to her family. It's all very old-fashioned (like middle ages) type stuff.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I think why Disney even made Cinderella II Dreams Come True in the first place was to attract new fans to Cinderella because just like with The Little Mermaid II Return To The Sea they introduced new fans to The Little Mermaid and I think Disney had hoped to do the same with Cinderella II Dreams Come True. The other thing that could've made Cinderella II better is they could've put better songs in the film. I can never figure out why Disney started to put pop songs in Disney sequels instead of traditional regular songs like the Disney movies had back in the day. I think also why Brooke Alison was chosen to perform the songs for Cinderella II Dreams Come True was because Brooke had just released her debut album in 2001 and Disney gave Brooke Alison this movie as a chance for her big break in superstardom but now you don't hardly hear about Brooke Alison anymore. But whose idea was to remake Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo and turn it into a pop song called Put It Together was smart but if you listen to the song itself the lyrics are unoriginal and completely ruins a Disney song classic and the music video for the song is unappealing and is just basically clips of Cinderella II Dreams Come True but Disney could've used better songs for this movie. I still think that Disney could've made a better Cinderella II rather than making Cinderella II Dreams Come True like a cartoon series but at least Disney learned their lesson correctly when Cinderella III A Twist In Time debuted because that's how Cinderella II Dreams Come True should've been in the first place

 

[DodgerGirl]

I also think that with Cinderella II the main problem with it was that it suffered from no popular celebrity voice talent and they stuck animated cartoon voice actors from other animated cartoon series. Like for example they put Jennifer Hale as Cinderella's new voice and Jennifer Hale is from DC Comics cartoons on Cartoon Network and who could've played Cinderella better would've been singer Sandi Patty because Sandi could've been a perfect Cinderella and she even sings too. As for Prince Charming I would've chosen Paul Rudd to voice Prince Charming because I can't figure out why they chose the voice actor for Prince Charming because Prince Charming's voice is a little annoying. But i'm surprised that actress Juliet Mills is the Fairy Godmother's new voice and Juliet was so marvelous in the role it was like tailor-made for her and my mom and I used to see Juliet Mills on the soap opera Passions and that's how I found out about Juliet Mills. But you could tell Disney was planning to let Cinderella II Dreams Come True be a popular sequel to Cinderella by releasing the album Disney Princess Favorites by sticking the three songs from Cinderella II in that album but Put It Together was also in the Disney's Superstar Hits album as well. But had it gotten a little more promotion and improvement Cinderella II Dreams Come True would've been a worthy sequel to Cinderella

 

[maverik85]

The movie is structured the way it is with the short stories versus a true movie narrative as these were designed as episodes of a proposed Cinderella series that did not end up getting the go ahead. So since they were already made they put them together with a loose wrap around and called it a movie to try to make some money off of them.

As for Anastasia and the baker, I think they were just trying to develop her and give her more story. As mentioned by BrianL, the stepsisters were always a little boy crazy. But also, the quickness of the pairing isn't really that different from most Disney princess stories. Cinderella danced with the prince once at the ball and then they get married, don't think Anastasia getting feeling from a "love at first sight" crush is nearly as drastic.