Cinderella's Anastasia: A decent plot, failed by terrible writing By Dan
An essay on Cinderella 2
Disney in the 90s had one bad habit that had very few successes at the time, and that was direct-to-movie sequels. Aladdin aside, most failed, such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and so on. One that I found was dull, was Cinderella, although I admit there was one story that I actually did not mind.
We all know Cinderella’s story, the young orphaned woman, who was abused by her wicked stepmother and stepsisters, forced to do all the chores in a house that was rightfully hers, then we have a royal ball to find the young Prince a bride, so he can become King.
Then, Cinderella, with the help of the Fairy Godmother and all the barnyard animals, goes to the ball and her and the prince fall in love, and upon hitting midnight, Cinderella has to leave, leaving behind her shoe. Then you have the Grand Duke searching for the maiden with the glass slipper, and finding Cinderella, and thus, she marries the prince. A tale as old as time.
Unlike Aladdin who had a good sequel in “The Return of Jafar”, and a really good third installment “Aladdin and the King of Thieves”, Cinderella wasn’t a franchise that really needed a sequel. All that we have, is a bunch of short stories that really are simple in nature, and boring at heart. The frame narrative with the mice putting together a memory journal for Cinderella may seem sweet, but it was the wrong approach overall. If it was the Fairy Godmother sharing stories to the mice of various characters, then that would be a better narrative, even if weak.
The first story is Cinderella’s story, and all she is doing is arguing with a snobby woman called Prudence on how a royal ball is to be done. Next we have Jaq, the mouse who wishes to be human to impress Cinderella, but it all goes nowhere. Honestly, with these stories, you’d be better off watching the Little Mermaid tv series. (It wasn’t as bad as others. A little juvenile, but it had its moments.)
The one story that caught my interest was actually the third one, with Cinderella’s stepsister, Anastasia. I actually never expected a love story for her, as she was catty and unlikeable in the original movie.
This portion wasn’t really the best written, but it did bring forth a different angle to what happened in the household after Cinderella left. With Lady Tremaine being obsessed with wealth and status, she unleashed far harsher treatment over her own daughters, as she no longer had Cinderella to punish for her own pleasure and pettiness.
With Cinderella putting together a royal ball, (Part of the frame narrative connecting the other two parts of the movie together) Lady Tremaine wants her daughters to find nobles, but when the three go into town, Anastasia is surprised by the scent of bread and meets the town baker, who is smitten by the ugly and plain young woman.
Her mother puts her foot down and forbids the short story’s protagonists from meeting with him, and restricts her daughter’s movements far more, in order to prepare her for the ball.
Anastasia finds herself kicked by a horse and crashes into the bakery, with all the ingredients and eggs all over her and her eggs where she runs crying, in a scene very reminiscent of the first movie, with Anastasian crying by a fountain alone.
However, instead of the Fairy Godmother, Cinderella finds her, much to her surprise decides to be a wingwoman. The next part is very cringy, I must confess, and we can attribute it to bad writing, and we have Lucifer trolling the entire short story because… Reasons.
In the end, Anastasia stands up to her mother, and with the courage her heroic stepsister gave her, stands up to her mother Lady Tremaine, and chooses to go to the ball with the baker.
The quality of the short story is rather lacking, but I really did love the concept behind it. And it having an effect on the story of the third Cinderella movie, (Which had a better frame narrative, and a more cohesive story, that isn’t just the rats putting together a picture book) However, it should have been folded into the third movie with the baker that should have played a more prominent role in the movie.
This short story is a bit of a mix between Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella, and the topic of redemption for Anastasia is an interesting choice, considering the original story where one of the stepsisters was actually far more sympathetic to Cinderella.
I honestly never expected to see this idea, and it is indeed one that leads into her giving up being with Prince Henry and all the wealth, to go and live with the baker. It’s hard to imagine that we have one of Cinderella’s haughty sisters, deciding to live with her hands in dough and making bread and other pastries, as well as talking and selling bread to the common peasants, as her new role in the family of a baker would be that she needs to learn how to bake, and how to tend to a shop.
In fact, I would have liked to see how she adapts to her new life, and how she works to bake a cake, or loaves of bread to finally make some that would be perfect for selling, revealing a love for baking and a talent she never knew she had, discovering thanks to Cinderella showing her how it’s done. That would be far better than Jaq’s story, and a bit of a slice of life. Perhaps a little less silly than the short story presents itself, but still pretty lighthearted and silly.
But alas, “what if” doesn’t matter in the end. Good potential means nothing if the potential isn’t reached. Cinderella 3 tried to piggyback on that story that proved a little popular, but it wasn’t as good as the Aladdin sequels. (Even if there were problems with those ones as well.)
People liked Iago’s redemption arc, but Aladdin is a far more different series than Cinderella, and it can’t be helped. It really is a pity that they couldn’t have a proper writer refine the potential story, but what can we do? Nothing really, But we do see that even the more unlikeable people can change when they meet their true love.
How else to explain all those shitty live-action remakes of animated films they force down our throats?
I'm shuddering at the very thought of this movie existing in the universe. Yikes! Great write-up as always.