Magic in the Wrong Hands

Of the various Disney heroines we’ve covered, certain ones would seem likely to get their own trilogy of films. Anna and Elsa are obvious contenders, not only because the magic that motivated their first film, Frozen, persists after their first adventure, but also because Frozen III has already been announced. Moana will likely get a further sequel past Moana 2, in no small part because that sequel was a license to print money. And while the likes of Rapunzel, Merida, and Tiana don’t keep the magic that motivated the stories once their adventures are done, these princesses are liked enough that if sequels were possible you have to think Disney would find a way to make them.

But then we get to the princesses that have been around much, much longer, and they have stories that don’t really lend themselves to sequels. Could the story of Snow White really go on now that the stepmother is dead and the princess has everything she wanted? Is there more to tell about Sleeping Beauty once that girl gets some caffeine and gets over her raging narcolepsy? Sure, there’s a Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, but, considering the quality of that film, it would seem to make the argument that Disney really should have stopped with one. And Cinderella? How do you possibly get a trilogy out of her adventures?

That was the question I had going into Disney’s run of animated Cinderella sequels, and while the first sequel didn’t really seem to have a good answer to the question – “oh, Cindy just… lives her life…” – her third film actually finds a way to not only stretch out the adventure but come up with a compelling reason to do so. In the process it gives us a Disney Princess sequel that is legitimately compelling and quite fun. Some very creative people worked on this movie and you have to think, in a different era, this actually might have made it to the big screen instead of getting condemned to direct-to-video hell. It’s actually pretty great.

One year after Cindy and the Prince got together we check in and find that they are still blissfully in love with each other. The mice, birds, and Fairy Godmother all plan to surprise the two lovebirds with a special celebration in the forest, which is appreciated by Cindy and the Prince. However, while working on her spells, Godmother loses her wand, misplacing it (like the scatterbrain she is). The wand rolls off, only to be found by Cindy’s stepsister, Anastasia, and when the girl gets the wand home she shows it off to her sister, Drusilla, and Lady Tremaine, her stepmother. An accidental spell turning the Fairy Godmother (who had come looking for her wand) into a statue convinces Lady Tremaine the wand is the solution to all her problems, and she snatches it up, using it for her own nefarious end.

Casting a wicked spell, Lady Tremaine rewinds time, shifting events back to a year before when Cinderella, and not one of her own daughters, made the Prince fall for her. This time, though, the stepmother uses a spell to make the show fit Anastasia, and then uses another to convince the Prince this was the girl he fell in love with . Meanwhile she destroys Cindy’s other slipper, and threatens the girl to stay away from the castle or she will suffer dire consequences. But Cindy knows the truth, and she knows if she can just get to the Prince she can convince him she’s the woman he loves. She just had to fight against her stepfamily, and all their misused magic, to get there.

There are a number of things I really enjoy about this film, but the foremost of them is the fact that this movie gives its main players their own agency. Cindy, like in the first sequel, is actually able to be her own person here and not just a passive spectator in her own story. When her stepmother screws her over, she finds her own way into the palace. When the magic is used against her, she finds ways to fight back. There’s even a climactic action sequence where Cindy rescues herself, needing no other hero to do her work for her. The film gives Cindy a lot of solid growth and I respect the hell out of it.

Similarly, Prince Charming (while still lacking a name) gets a lot of character grown here. In the previous films he may have gotten a grand total of ten lines and five minutes of screen time, but here he’s a major player in the film. We follow him, dulled by the magic and then brought to his senses by the mice and birds Cindy calls her friends. He gets to flee from the castle on his own (in a delightfully goofy sequence where he throws himself out a window), help Cindy out, and realize who he really cares about. Plus, he actually gets lines, which is a big upgrade for him. This film does a lot to make the Prince into Cindy’s equal, and it makes the film better.

On the subject of goofy moments, this film has a number of them that are entertaining. One detail I really loved was that Anastasia, who wears the one glass slipper throughout the film, making a little “tink tink” nose every time she steps on that foot. The sound designers didn’t need to do this, but you can tell at least one of them was amused to add that little glass sound every time she took a step, and it was appreciated. The Prince’s jump out the window is another great moment, as is every time he has to talk to the animals and thinks, “well, okay, I’m talking to little creatures.” The film calls itself out on its own weirdness, and it sells the humor so well.

I think the fact that the film is willing to commit to its own concepts adds to this world. The Fairy Godmother shows up in the first film unbidden, does her job, and then vanishes, but does that take her magic with her? This film says “no” and it illustrates what could happen if a bad person gained access to all that power. It logically thinks through the consequences, letting the story naturally evolve and play out. Plus it sticks within the rules set from the first film, noodling around the details of it to make a convincing, and enjoyable, exploration of the world.

This film has so much that it does right that I almost don’t really care about the one issue I still have about this series: Lady Tremaine. We still don’t get a real exploration of her character. There’s no reasoning given for why she hates Cinderella so much, what could have happened between them to make her want to steal her stepdaughter’s happiness from her. If it were simply a matter that the Lady didn’t get to enjoy the riches of the castle, all she had to do, likely, was ask and Cindy would have given freely. We need to know why Lady Tremaine is so mean, so rotten, and so averse to just talking to Cindy and working things out. She does a very evil and despicable thing here and I still have to wonder why?

And yet, that’s one small issue with an otherwise fantastic film. I didn’t expect to like Cinderella III: A Twist of Time, especially since I found the first film in the series to be dreadfully dull. But I did, I enjoyed it a lot. This was actually a really good film that could have been a solid, theatrical sequel in its own right. Disney had something pretty awesome here and they cast it to the home video bin. That’s a bit tragic but, at the same time, if people can find it and enjoy it, that’s what matters. This film is good, and if you’re going to watch any of the sequels from the Disney PrincessesReleased in 1937, Disney's Snow White was a gamble for the company: the first fully-animated, feature-length film ever created. It's success lead to the eventual creation of the Disney Princess franchise, which has spawned 13 main-line films and multiple spin-off movies and shows., this is the one I’d recommend above all.