Cinderella II: How to Sacrifice Quality for a Quick Buck

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, the Disney name meant quality children's entertainment. You could count on breath-taking animation and an engaging story designed to capture the hearts of young and old alike.

Enter the Evil Prince Michael, whose only aim was to plunder the Disney treasure trove in any way possible. What did it matter that the name of Uncle Walt's company would forever be cursed in the bargain? And sadly, in this story, there is no Fairy Godmother to come to the rescue...instead, she apparently sold out, as we find her telling the abysmal tale (well, really three loosely tied together tales) in this dog of a sequel.

Cinderella II is just another cog in the "wheel" of Disney sequels like "The Return of Jafar" and "Lady & The Tramp II" that are designed to capitalize on familiar characters via a substandard product that can be sold on DVD to keep the kiddies quiet. Cinderella is an especially useful property because it contains that all-time number-one little girl pleaser: A Princess!

If you are looking for quality animation, don't bother to look here. It's a few pegs above the old Hanna-Barbera shows but still not anywhere above current Saturday morning standards. There is no attention to detai whatsoever...it's not meant to attract admiration like the old Disney classics were, but rather to hold the rapt attention of the toddler set with lots of moving colors.

In the first of the three stories, recounted by Fairy Godmother to the mice Jaq and Gus as they prepare a book for Cinderella, our heroine is now a married princess who must adapt to life in the palace after living as a maid to her evil stepfamily for most of her life.

Because the prince has bailed off on a business trip with his dad, the king, Cindy finds herself at the mercy of the pushy Prudence. Pru has always been the one to organize banquets and generally run the social life of the palace. But Cindy is a headstrong gal with ideas of her own.

Surely you can see where this is going: The After School Special moral of: Just be yourself and everything will work out just fine in the end. A worthwhile moral, but not told in a particularly compelling way. Worse yet, in case the kiddies didn't get it, it's drummed into their heads in the next two stories, too.

In story number two, one of the mice is frustrated because he wants to help Cinderella, but things never work out as planned. Poor little thing...he's just too small and clumsy. Fairy Godmother turns him into a full-sized human for a worn-out "the grass is always greener" plot that we've seen done to death already in cartoons and the movies. As you may have guessed, our mousey hero learns that his true form is the best of all and that he is more of a help than he realized.

In the last tale, Anastasia, one of Cindy's stepsisters, has the chance to find a "prince" of her own. But this prince is actually a baker, who the evil step mother immediately pronounces to be below her daughter. Can Cinderella get the two star crossed lovers together and let nature take its course? Since this is Disney, I'm sure you know the answer.

Out of all three tales, this one just didn't jibe with me because I just couldn't see the continuity. Granted, in the first tale there is some conflict over inviting commoners to the palace, which makes no sense in terms of the original ball, where all eligible maidens in the kingdom were welcome. But in this one, I could barely make the leap of why Cindy would want to help the girl who tore her dress to rags, among various other cruelties. Is anyone really THAT kind hearted? In the Disney universe, I guess they are.

This video is only 73 minutes, so it's good mindless entertainment for the younger set. For other Cinderella fans, I recommend skipping this dog and sailing on the Disney Magic, where their stage show "Twice Charmed" shows just how creative and entertaining a sequel to the Cinderella story can be.