Cinderalla III: A Twist In Time

With much anticipation (on LatteGirl’s part) we got a copy of Cinderella III – A Twist in Time this past weekend, made some popcorn, cuddled under a blanket to keep warm and popped it in the DVD player. I did not have high expectations for this new Disney release, but that lead me to be not overwhelmed, but at least pleasantly surprised. To be honest, my impression and my daughter’s was vastly different, so I will try and give it to you both ways.

First LatteGirl, who gave this quick synopsis to TheWife who did not see it. “Funny, scary and some really, really sad parts. I loved it!” And, I will admit that I saw all those emotions coming from her as the movie unfolded. She laughed out loud a few times, cried a couple of times, and hid her head under the blankets at least once. For the duration she was completely and totally engrossed in the film. So, from the perspective of a six year old, the movie was totally engrossing. For somebody that rarely sits still, she did not budge or lose her focus for the duration.

Now from a more adult perspective, this movie is NOT Cinderalla, or even close. They did a good job of including some of the characters from the original, and even one or two characters from Cinderalla II, but there were character’s missing. For example the only mice here were Jaq and Gus. The others, none of whom were important per se , were still noticably absent. Other character’s just weren’t what you remember. The King wasn’t quite as crazy as he was in the first two films, the Duke wasn’t quite as stuffy, and the step-sister’s went from mean to outright bufoons.

The music in the movie seemed almost forced. With the one exception of a song by Jaq and Gus, it almost seemed like the music was stuck in as an afterthought, like somebody forget and then said, “Oh yeah, this is suppoed to be a musical. We will just have this one say this to music, and that one say that line to music and we are done.”

In the end, you got much better than some of the really poor offerings that marked the end of the Eisner era at Disney (i.e. Little Mermaid II, Pocohontos II), but certainly nothing on par with true first run Disney productions.