As promised, this morning sees my take on Disney’s latest direct-to-video offering, Cinderella III: A Twist In Time, which will no doubt cause purists to raise their fists in uproar. Gotta tell ya that for the first half of this otherwise uncalled for movie, I was among them myself, but a second half reprieve and an especially exciting third act make for engrossing viewing. Sure, the animation isn’t as top notch as the 1950 classic, but Cinders III‘s intentions are in the right place and if you can make it past the truly agonizing first act and take it at direct-to-DVD face value, there’s some good old-fashioned entertainment to be found in there.

Though I didn’t agree with several problems the film has (including small but noticeable changes made to recreated scenes from the original film), Josh Armstrong’s recent promotional interview with director Frank Nissen, in which he defends those choices, makes for fascinating reading again after one has screened the film. As a side note, the end credits make a point of thanking the animators of DisneyToon Studios Australia for their years of hard work “creating beautiful hand drawn animation”. A nice touch perhaps, but how about thanking them instead by keeping their division open and putting them to work on a new feature, and something original at that? With The Lion King 1.5 and Bambi II these guys and gals have certainly shown they have the artistic chops for it, and deserve more than simply slaving on more princesses and computer animated Tinker Bell fairy continuations.

– Ben.