Cinderella 3 - A Twist In Time (DVD)

...and the ugly sisters that Cinderella achieved her status through the magic of her fairy godmother. One of these step sisters, Anastasia, finds out one day when she discovers the fairy godmother in the woods. She steals her magic wand and takes it back to her mother to reveal all. The Step-mother then uses the magic wand to turn back Time to just before the Grand Duke arrives at their house to try out the glass slipper on all the females' feet to ...
...much to everyone's surprise, including Cinderella and the Prince. There, then follows the attempts of Cinderella to get to the Prince and to break the spell.

I like the concept of time travel in stories but actually here it is more of a "What if?" question, where it is considered how subsequent events can turn out differently when a change happens in the original occurrences. It reminded me of the film "Sliding Doors" ... more

This is the second sequel to the popular main feature story of Disney's version of Cinderella. Here the story initially takes place a good while after the happy marriage of the Prince and Cinderella. Apparently, it was not known at the time to the evil Step-mother and the ugly sisters that Cinderella achieved her status through the magic of her fairy godmother. One of these step sisters, Anastasia, finds out one day when she discovers the fairy godmother in the woods. She steals her magic wand and takes it back to her mother to reveal all. The Step-mother then uses the magic wand to turn back Time to just before the Grand Duke arrives at their house to try out the glass slipper on all the females' feet to find the Prince's mysterious partner at the ball. Using the magic further, the glass slipper is made to fit Anastasia's foot, much to everyone's surprise, including Cinderella and the Prince. There, then follows the attempts of Cinderella to get to the Prince and to break the spell.

I like the concept of time travel in stories but actually here it is more of a "What if?" question, where it is considered how subsequent events can turn out differently when a change happens in the original occurrences. It reminded me of the film "Sliding Doors" and the play "Intimate Exchanges" by Alan Ayckbourn in this respect. Do things really turn out differently? Is there a hand of fate, which makes things inevitable? Do things end up the same anyhow but by a different route? These questions and more are a bit too in-depth for a Disney film but at least ideas are thrown into the ring, which makes the film a bit different from the usual run-of-the-mill offerings.

The film also raised the question about the glass slipper not necessarily only fitting the one who danced and then fled from the Prince but this is not pursued. Presumably this would have raised too many issues for this type of film to cope with but then in that case, maybe it shouldn't have been raised in the first place.

The question of how Cinderella was going to break a spell that she didn't know existed was also a difficult one for the film to cover. It was fudged in the end by the mice, Jaq and Gus, telling her the whole story after witnessing some magic performed by the Step-mother. However, they couldn't possibly be aware of the whole story from the beginning so that was rather a let down, even if it was wonderfully portrayed by the mice in an amusing manner.

The characters are pretty well portrayed with at least Anastasia shown in a more three dimensional light. The Prince is portrayed as such a nice guy but not in a sentimental or sickly way. He is polite, modest and heroic especially with the wretched Anastasia. Cinderella shows herself to be not a bad heroine herself. A good example is her actions in the pumpkin coach, which was a nice take on that original magic spell. Other favourite characters make reappearance in this film including Prudence the house keeper and Lucifer the Step-mother's cat. The palace cat, however, is nowhere to be seen. There are plenty laughs in this film with slapstick which always seems to go down well. The funniest bit seems to be when Lucifer, the cat, is miniaturised and the mice are now bigger than it is. However, they are still no match for it and still have to run away from it. Another is the repeated verbal joke of "Are we in the right room?" when the Prince enters a room to be faced by an unexpected situation.

There are weaknesses in the plot such as no mention of, let alone a search for, the fairy godmother. The other sister, Drizella, gets no look in as the replacement bride, despite her showing the greater evil streak and remorselessness. However, what I thought was the biggest ambiguity, being the complete disregard for and divorce from the first sequel, Cinderella 2 - Dreams Come True, is neatly circumvented right at the end. However, it is done in such a nonchalant manner that it is not even clear that the filmmakers were even bothered by any potential anomaly.

EXTRAS

· Video of "I still believe" by Hayden Panettiere. This is a straightforward video of her singing whilst walking round a neighbourhood intercut with scenes from the film. A perfectly pleasant song without making any great shakes. She is now appearing in the new Sci-Fi show, "Heroes" so she can probably safely abandon her pop career. It will not be a great loss to music.
· Game. This is a very simple game that involves going round the castle transforming things using the magic wand or deciding who has made the changes. As it is not very challenging or stimulating and, frankly down right boring at one point, this will not become a favourite unlike the ones with "Lady and the Tramp" or "Heroes"
· DVD ROM game for the computer. This has been untried so cannot comment.
· Sneak peaks. The usual type of trailers of forthcoming releases.

This is not a great or very entertaining film but at least it tries something a bit different rather just rehashing the original story in a similar way that Disney has done for other sequels such as Peter Pan and Brother Bear . My five year old son caught hold of the concept very well, which I thought was quite sophisticated of him. However, in the end, it is the comedy that he is after and there needed to be a bit more of that included. For a sequel though, it was imaginatively done and for this alone it deserves praise and encouragement.
 

...less