Once again, sorry for bumping another thread (I've been on a Cinderella binge lately, sue me
), but watching this movie again...I may be going crazy but there are plenty of things to like about Cindy II.
Yes, the episodes are very poorly made, the animation sucks big time and at times its extremely cheesy and unfaithful to the original, but I do admire a bit what they were trying to do.
The first story with Cindy being in charge of the banquet was a good one. I enjoyed watching her interact with Prudence (speaking of which where's OUR Prudence?) and it was neat seeing her perform royal duties. Had this been the whole movie (done in Cinderella III animation, with a tighter story and character development) maybe it wouldn't have been as bad.
The second story is definitely the worst. Jaq as a human is UGLY, and you can tell the writers were being lazy because by the second story Cindy is yet again preparing a festivity. When she says "We sure throw a lot of parties around here", I concur with her. Plus...to heck with the mice! They were all over the place in the first movie, I wanted to see more of the HUMAN characters!
Finally, you have to give the third segment credit for creating a very charming and cute story. This works better if you see Cindy III before Cindy II, though. Back when it was released it was hard to swallow the fact that Anastasia had gained charm. She was so over the top in the original that there was no way she would fall in love with a fat, lower class baker.
But if you watch Cindy III in which her character is explored and evolved in a great way you actually believe that Ana learned to love and believe in herself, hence why she falls in love with the baker.
These stories would have worked better as either comic stories or book stories. The way they are created in the film doesn't do them justice and its just cheap.
Toning down the cheese would have helped too. Don't get me wrong, Cindy III manages to be cheesy at times, but it cleverly dives into the romance created by the first movie. Finally, Cindy II doesn't seem to take itself seriously. We know its a cute collection of stories but there's no need to kidify the concept further.
So in conclusion, Cindy II is bad, Cindy III was much better, but the first one is still the best (in my honest opinion). But I admire the concept of following Cinderella as a princess and a future queen and it would have been a big hit had the creators treated it seriously and not as a Saturday morning cartoon...Oh wait.
