Cinderella III: A Twist in Time is the second and final direct-to-video sequel of the 1950 Walt Disney Pictures animated classic Cinderella. The film was released on February 6, 2007, and rated G by the MPAA.
The film is directed by Frank Nissen and features the voices of Jennifer Hale and Susanne Blakeslee. For the UK release of the film, it was simply titled Cinderella: A Twist in Time, without any mention of it being a sequel. It made its world television premiere on Toon Disney on December 3, 2007.
Plot[]
It has been a year since Cinderella married Prince Charming. Both of them head to the forest to attend their wedding anniversary that two of the mice, Jaq and Gus, and Fairy Godmother have prepared for them. Meanwhile, Anastasia and Drizella, who are currently taking over Cinderella's chores at the household, are not having a good time. Anastasia manages to follow Cinderella and the Prince to where the anniversary is being held. Figuring out that it was magic that gave Cinderella her "happily ever after", she swipes the Fairy Godmother's wand when she drops it. Anastasia returns home quickly and shows it to Lady Tremaine and her sister, both thinking it's just a stick and she has lost her mind.
The Fairy Godmother shows up and attempts to get the wand back from Anastasia, who accidentally turns her into a statue. Impressed, Lady Tremaine takes the wand and reverses time to undo Cinderella's happily ever after by going back to the events at the end of the first movie, in a bid to once again make Cinderella's life a misery. She makes what was originally a tiny shoe that can fit in one of Anastasia's toes, fit Anastasia's big foot with her magic. Cinderella, being locked in her tower, was shortly after freed just to see Anastasia and Drizella leaving. While speaking with Cinderella as she's about to give her the other glass slipper she pulls out, Lady Tremaine snatches it with her staff and shatters it. Furious, Lady Tremaine confronts Cinderella and does not allow her to approach the Prince or the palace, but allows her to clean up this mess. When Lady Tremaine leaves, this leads Jaq and Gus to appear and for a heartbroken Cinderella to sing "More Than a Dream". Gus and Jaq feel sorry for her. Jaq tells a tearful Gus that "Princey knows he danced with Cinderelly!", which gives Cinderella the idea to go to see the Prince and convince him that they danced together.
Skipping back to the stepfamily, they've arrived at the castle, where the Prince is speaking while sword fighting with his father. They go into discussion about how the King was immediately smitten by his queen, the Prince's mother, who had passed away years before. With Anastasia arriving, the Prince is, at first, glad as he thinks it's the girl he danced with (Cinderella), but becomes slightly disappointed when he sees Anastasia. He tells her that she and her family will get an escort home, but Lady Tremaine uses the wand to make him forget who he really danced with and marry Anastasia that night. The Prince falls under the spell and, believing he danced with Anastasia, proposes to her with a ring. Anastasia goes hyper and accepts his proposal.
Meanwhile, Gus and Jaq have witnessed this event from a lamp high above in the room since they got inside with Cinderella, who claimed to the castle's housekeeper, Prudence, be the royal mouse catcher to get inside. After viewing Lady Tremaine casting the spell on the Prince, the mice rush off to tell Cinderella. Later on, Cinderella is seen confronting the Prince and both are confused, the Prince thinking he danced with Anastasia yet Cinderella knows the truth. She is cut short from saying what really happened by Prudence, who forces her to go find the mice (Jaq and Gus) that have come into the castle. Cinderella is placed in the cellar where she seems to be brokenhearted over the Prince not recognizing her until Gus and Jaq tell her what Lady Tremaine had done to him. Now realizing what really happened, Cinderella sets on getting the wand back.
Anastasia and the Prince soon have a moment where they dance in a waltz and Anastasia is repeatedly stepping on his foot by accident. She is shown to be a bit clumsy when it comes to dancing. Everyone watches as they are worried what would happen if Anastasia falls (including the probability of the glass slipper shattering apart), but instead, as she begins to trip backwards, she lands on her backside. The slipper does not break, and nobody has got hurt. While the Duke takes the Prince out after the waltz is over, the King summons Anastasia into another room and tells her about his late wife. He gave her the Queen's most treasured possession, which is a seashell. Both the King and Queen were walking one day on a beach, unaware of one another, when they reached for the same seashell at the same time. Their hands met and they fell in love. He allows Anastasia to keep the shell, who is smitten with it instantly. Back with the Prince, he tells the Duke that he felt nothing when his hand connected with Anastasia's, and is once again confused. Jaq and Gus get into the room where the stepfamily is staying and Lucifer's tail manages to get caught on fire, prompting the famous line "Someone put out the cat!" coming into play. Anastasia throws a pillow against him and whams him right into the wall, the stepmother demanding that someone calls the housekeeper. Cinderella arrives in disguise with a castle maid bonnet covering her eyes and hair.
Lady Tremaine pulls the bonnet off to reveal Cinderella. Jaq and Gus get the wand, and the three make a run for it down the halls while being chased by guards. Jaq and Gus use the magic from the wand. They transform Lucifer into a jack in the box first, then a mini-sized Lucifer, then back to normal while he's in the mouse hole. Cinderella makes it to a staircase where the Prince appears; Cinderella's attempt to break the spell on him so he would remember who he really danced with is cut off when the guards get to her, and Lady Tremaine takes back the wand. Cinderella manages to put her hand over the Prince's, which has him shocked and now baffled. Lady Tremaine orders Cinderella to be on the next ship in exile from the kingdom.
In the late afternoon, the Prince is seen talking to his father, who dismisses his confusion on but then goes into a small fitting room. He speaks with Jaq and Gus, who perform the song "At the Ball" explaining that he danced with Cinderella and that he is under a spell. This causes him to hurry out the room and to the stairs where he confronts his father, who forbids him from stepping down the stairs more. The Prince agrees, only to jump out the window and climb down the vines (technically obeying his father), then gets on his horse and demands one of the guards to tell him where Cinderella is. He rushes off to rescue her so she won't be sent away for good, the King allowing this to happen when he sees it. While the Prince is on his way to save Cinderella, the boat for her banishment is ready to leave. Heartbroken from her failure to be with the Prince again, she broads the ship with the belief that her dreams would never come true at all. The Prince and his trusty steed race after the boat, where they end up running through a lighthouse and the horse gets scared of heights. The Prince is seen flying onto the boat and using a small blade against the sail to soften his fall. He sees Cinderella and places his hand against hers and knows it was her who he danced with, thus breaking Lady Tremaine's spell and he proposes to Cinderella, who happily accepts.
They return to the castle where they tell the King about the true intentions of Cinderella's stepfamily. He orders for Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drizella to be brought into custody. They vanish before they can be arrested, and the Prince tells his father that it is Cinderella who he wants to marry. Later when Cinderella is in front of a mirror getting ready for her wedding, Lady Tremaine enters the room with Anastasia... now looking identical to Cinderella's appearance. A concerned Cinderella asks Anastasia if she would truly be happy with what Lady Tremaine is giving her, even going as far as to ask her if she even loves the Prince. Fearing Cinderella could conjure a change of heart, Lady Tremaine then teleports her into a pumpkin that magically turns into a carriage. Jaq and Gus jump in to help Cinderella, only to be teleported to the carriage after her. This carriage is an evil one and a human version of Lucifer appears as the driver after Lady Tremaine gave him the order to have Cinderella, Jaq and Gus be killed. The three escape from the pumpkin carriage as well as Lucifer, who is restored to his cat form after he fell into a lake when he is being knocked off the carriage by Cinderella, and ride back on the horse that was used to pull the carriage.
Cinderella makes it back to the wedding just in time to witness, to her surprise, Anastasia (still under Cinderella's appearance) saying "I don't" after she came to realize that she doesn't love the Prince enough to marry him. Furious, Lady Tremaine and Drizella reveal themselves to confront Anastasia, who declares she only wants to be loved for herself, not because of a magic spell. The King orders his guards to seize Lady Tremaine. Refusing to concede defeat, Tremaine decides to seize the whole kingdom by force using the wand to immediately turn all the guards into various animals. She proceeds to do the same to Anastasia with Drizella telling her mother to turn Anastasia into a toad. Determined to defend Anastasia for her honesty and save the whole kingdom, Cinderella jumps in front of her and forbids her stepmother to use any more magic. When an unfazed Lady Tremaine attempts to turn both Cinderella and Anastasia into toads, the Prince steps in and uses his sword to reflect the spell. It hits both Lady Tremaine and Drizella, causing them to disappear and reappear in the cellar as toads. Their plans in seizing the kingdom have been foiled.
Anastasia reunites Cinderella with the Prince, then she picks up the wand and transforms herself back to her normal appearance. She gives the wand to Cinderella, who forgives her by thanking her, and the two reconcile, putting their animosity firmly behind them. Both Cinderella and Anastasia bring back the Fairy Godmother from her stoned state. Anastasia attempts to give the seashell back to the King, believing she doesn't deserve it, only for him to let her keep it by saying, "Everyone deserves true love". The Fairy Godmother offers to undo Lady Tremaine's change of events, but the couple silently decides to keep everything as it is, and the offer goes unheard of. Cinderella and the Prince proceed to re-live their wedding, living happily ever after once again.
The ending credits show several paintings depicting the main cast before revealing a mid-credits scene that shows both Drizella and Lady Tremaine being restored to their human forms, but in the exact same servant dress they forced Cinderella to wear and with brooms, indicating that they will now work in the palace as servants, much to their horror.
Voice Cast[]
Because nearly five decades had passed since the original Disney film, most of the new voice cast from the previous sequel Cinderella II: Dreams Come True returned to reprise their roles in this film.
- Jennifer Hale as Cinderella
- C.D. Barnes as Prince Charming
- Susanne Blakeslee as Lady Tremaine
- Tress MacNeille as Anastasia Tremaine
- Russi Taylor as Drizella Tremaine/Fairy Godmother
- Andre Stojka as The King
- Holland Taylor as Prudence
- Rob Paulsen as Jaq/Grand Duke
- Corey Burton as Gus
- Frank Welker as Lucifer
Additional voices[]
Uncredited[]
- Tami Tappan Damiano as Cinderella's singing voice
- Lesli Margherita as Anastasia's singing voice
- Rob Paulsen as Herald/Bishop
Production[]
This film was Walt Disney Television Animation Australia's final feature (the studio was closed and equipment auctioned off once Cinderella III's production completed in July 2006). Unlike the previous sequel, Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, which was mostly made in Japan (that studio also closed shortly after completing Cinderella II), Cinderella III's animators were given meticulous model sheets and extensive live-action sequences for animation reference.
Soundtrack[]
- Main article: Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (soundtrack)
The original songs contained in the body of the film, including "Perfectly Perfect," "More Than a Dream" (and its reprise) and "At the Ball" were written by frequent Disney songwriters Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner. Hayden Panettiere performed the end credits song, "I Still Believe," and a music video was created as a DVD bonus feature. The original score was composed by Joel McNeely.
Release[]
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time was released on February 6, 2007 and went back to the Disney Vault on January 31, 2008. The film was re-released on Blu-ray/DVD in a 2-Movie Collection with Cinderella II: Dreams Come True on November 20, 2012, and reprinted as a Disney Movie Club Exclusive (including a Digital copy) on June 25, 2019.
Features[]
- Games and Activities
- Bibbidi-Bobbidi Game
- Cinderella's Ballroom (DVD-ROM)
- Music and More
- "I Still Believe" Music Video By: Hayden Panettiere
- Backstage Disney
- Backstage At Disney Cruise Line's "Twice Charmed"
- First Look at the new DVD, "Disney Princess Enchanted Tales"
Reception[]
Cinderella III received a mostly positive response among the six critics compiled at Rotten Tomatoes, who gave it a 75% rating, and the film scores 71% among users at Rotten Tomatoes.
Slate magazine writer Dan Kois uses Cinderella III to defend the merits of Disney's straight-to-video sequels, after Disney announced they were eliminating production of any more sequels. Kois points out that in Cinderella III, the wicked stepsister (Anastasia) - originally an "oafish caricature" - finally becomes a fully fleshed-out character, and some of the absurdity of the original film is gently mocked.
However, many fans of the original Cinderella, are very upset with this third installment of the series. Many have noted numerous similarities between the film's premise and that of Twice Charmed: An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story, a Broadway-style stage musical created by Walt Disney Creative Entertainment that currently runs on the Disney Cruise Line. The Nostalgia Chick rated it as the #1 "least-awful" Disney sequel.
Despite this, Cinderella III has been received better than most other Disney sequels of its nature and is at least "approved of" by some of the Cinderella fanbase. Fan approval has increased dramatically in recent years, however.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Prior to being brainwashed by Lady Tremaine, Prince Charming admits he hadn't thought a random girl could fit the slipper. This is ironic as any girl whose shoe size was the same as Cinderella's could wear the glass slipper.
- This is also referenced in the first episode of Season 7 of Once Upon a Time, where a version of Cinderella tells Henry Mills how strange the story is. This episode also features Lady Tremaine, obtaining the Fairy Godmother's wand.
- In some versions of the Cinderella fairy tale, the slipper is magically "married" to Cinderella and would not fit anyone but her, even with the same foot size. Whether this is the case in the Disney version or not is not confimed, but it is implied in this film when Anastasia is uncomfortable in the slipper and it clanks when she wears it.
- Due to Lady Tremaine's interference with the timeline, the events of the second movie Dreams Come True were reversed. However, since Anastasia is shown with the baker in the credits, Cinderella probably changed the traditions and set Anastasia up with the baker for a second time.
- However, the film may not be canon due to the strong changes.
- Bruno the bloodhound from the first two films is most likely absent in the film due to budget limitations.
- This contradicts the first film, as he played a major role in getting the key to Cinderella.
- Whenever Lady Tremaine and Drizella use the magic wand, the magic is green, reflecting their negative personalities and jealousies, as green is the color associated with envy.
- The magic Anastasia uses, on the other hand, is always white, as it better reflects her softening personality.
- Lady Tremaine was either too cheap or couldn't afford to hire help after Cinderella moved out, and thus forced her daughters to take care of the chores.
- Lucifer's fate was never revealed.
- This film showcased most of the characters' development, especially the King and Anastasia.
- Certain plot points in the film's climax (such as Cinderella witnessing Anastasia saying 'I...don't', and the subsequent reconciliation between the two) were removed from most novelized adaptations.
- This is the first direct-to-video film to contain the 2006 Walt Disney Pictures logo.
- This the last Disney animated film Direct-to-video sequel.
- Due to the enlargement of the glass slipper to fit Anastasia's foot by Lady Tremaine, a noticeable clanking sound can be heard from it throughout the first half of the film, particularly in the scenes of Anastasia fitting the slipper, and the scene of Anastasia and Prince Charming dancing.
- Over the credits, several parodies of paintings are shown, such as one of Edvard Munch's The Scream featuring the Grand Duke, and Gus in a parody of The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough.
- When Cinderella disguises herself as one of the castle maids tending the Tremaines' room, her voice actress Jennifer Hale uses the same voice she used for Ms. Keane from The Powerpuff Girls.
- The animation when Cinderella's torn wedding dress is repaired magically is reused from the original scene of her torn pink dress being turned into her silver ballgown from the first film.
- With this film being released nearly 57 years after the original film's premiere, this is essentially the longest sequel gap between two Disney Princess-related films.
Goofs[]
- This film contains several continuity errors. A common theory is that this is a continuation of the first movie and took place before the "An Uncommon Romance" segment of Cinderella II: Dreams Come True because Anastasia lived happily ever after in that one.
- However, this still contradicts Dreams Come True, as the Tremaines have fallen into poverty and their house into disrepair at the start of this film, and at the end, Anastasia becomes kind to Cinderella and Lady Tremaine and Drizella are punished by having to work as maids in the castle. In "An Uncommon Romance", the Tremaines are back to wealth with Drizella and Lady Tremaine not being maids and Anastasia is initially rude to Cinderella.
- An alternative explanation is that Anastasia could have broken up with the baker after the events of Dreams Come True then got back together with him after this film, though Drizella and Anastasia mention never being "invited to a ball or even tea", though this could have been hyperbole.
- It is also possible that the producers of this movie may have simply chosen to ignore the events of Dreams Come True, as Lady Tremaine is seen forcing Anastasia and Drizella to do many of Cinderella's old chores in her absence. This could be seen as a rewrite of the first film's aftermath, where neither of Cinderella's stepsisters were able to escape, and may also explain Anastasia's lovesickness at the beginning.
- The film also contains a few continuity errors in regard to the first film:
- When the Grand Duke arrives at the Tremaine Estate in the first film and begins reading the proclamation, Jaq and Gus are clearly seen working to steal the key from Lady Tremaine's pocket. However, when Lady Tremaine reverses time back to the day the Duke arrives at their house, Jaq and Gus are seen delivering the key to Cinderella in her upstairs room, before the Duke even enters the door.
- In the first film, it was the King who ordered for the glass slipper to be tried on every maiden's foot within his kingdom. However, throughout A Twist in Time, the King claims that it was the Prince's idea, even looking upon it as stupid when he and the Prince are seen sparring and discussing the edict.
- Reversing time should have un-petrified the Fairy Godmother, yet it did not.
- When the enlarged glass slipper slips into Anastasia's foot, three of her toes are shown to have folded inside the slipper as seen in some shots. Despite this, she does not seem to be in pain.
- Prudence claims to have worked at the castle for 30 years, but shows no signs of age as she looks like someone in her late twenties or early thirties.
- Lady Tremaine would not have the authority to order the guards to arrest Cinderella, unless she gained such privilege as the prince's mother-in-law-to-be.
- It is unknown how Lady Tremaine knew about the original Pumpkin Coach's existence in order to create a demonic version, though she might have seen it off-screen while rolling time back.
- During the King's rant demanding the arrest of Lady Tremaine and her daughters, Cinderella's hair is briefly shown tied back in a ponytail despite her hair flowing freely beforehand.
- The King and the Grand Duke should have realised that Anastasia did not look like the girl dancing with the Prince they saw from the balcony last night.
- The Prince, thinking that he was dancing with Anastasia, also should have asked Anastasia why 'she' ran away from the ball.
- While singing "More than a Dream", Cinderella left the house's door wide open.
- When the Prince first gives Anastasia an engagement ring, she puts it on her left hand. In the next shot, she admires the ring on her right hand. After Anastasia admires the engagement ring, it disappears and does not reappear on her finger for the rest of the film.
Release[]
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time was originally released in February 2007. It was also included in the October 2012 Cinderella trilogy.
