Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (also known as Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True) is a 2002 American animated direct-to-video fantasy anthology film. It is a sequel to the 1950 film Cinderella. Directed by John Kafka from a screenplay written by Jill E. Blotevogel, Tom Rogers and Julie Selbo, it is the first in the series to use digital ink and paint. It stars the voices of Jennifer Hale, Russi Taylor, Corey Burton, and Rob Paulsen.
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 This film simply isn’t done!
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Cinderella II: Dreams Come True was released on February 26, 2002, and received generally negative reviews from critics.
Plot
Prologue
In the royal palace, Cinderella's mice friends Gus and Jaq head to a chamber where the Fairy Godmother is reading the story of Cinderella to the other mice. Much to their disappointment, Gus and Jaq arrive just as she has finished the story. With her help, the mice set off to make a new book to narrate what happens after the Happily Ever After, by stringing three segments of stories together into one narrative.
Aim to Please
Cinderella and Prince Charming return from their Honeymoon, and Cinderella reunites with her mice friends and her dog Bruno. She is later put in charge of the palace banquets and parties while the King and Prince Charming are away. However, Cinderella is dissatisfied with the emphasis on tradition and decides to organize the upcoming party her own way. Although he initially seems to be shocked at Cinderella's changes, the King ends up satisfied with the party.
Tall Tail
Jaq thinks he is too small to help Cinderella in the palace as he used to do. The Fairy Godmother turns him into a human, named "Sir Hugh," so he can help out. However, this does not stop Pom-Pom, the palace's cat, from chasing Jaq around. After an incident with an elephant at a fair, he learns to be happy with himself.
An Uncommon Romance
Anastasia, one of Cinderella's stepsisters, falls in love with a baker, of whom her mother Lady Tremaine and older sister Drizella disapprove. Cinderella, unbeknownst to anyone else, arrives and secretly watches as Lady Tremaine berates Anastasia, thus leading her to help Anastasia in getting ready for the ball together. Later at the ball, Anastasia thanks Cinderella for helping her. Lucifer also has an encounter with Pom-Pom, the castle's cat, with whom he falls in love and enlists the help of Jaq and Gus to woo her. They reluctantly agree, but with the understanding that Lucifer won't chase them anymore. Lucifer manages to win Pom-Pom's heart, but when Lucifer breaks his promise to hunt mice with Pom-Pom, Jaq calls the deal off.
Epilogue
The mice finish their book, and the movie ends as they gather in front of the fire with Cinderella, who begins to read their story.
Cast
As five decades had passed since the release of the original film, a new cast was used for the movie. Although Ilene Woods who played Cinderella was alive during the time, she was too old to reprise the role and was replaced by Jennifer Hale who voiced the character since 2000.
- Jennifer Hale as Cinderella. She was voiced by Ilene Woods in the original film.
- Rob Paulsen as Jaq/Grand Duke/The Baker/Sir Hugh/Bert/Flower Vendor. Both the King and Grand Duke were voiced by Luis van Rooten in the original film.
- Corey Burton as Gus. Jaq and Gus were voiced by Jimmy MacDonald in the original film.
- Andre Stojka as The King.
- Russi Taylor as Fairy Godmother, Drizella Tremaine, Mary Mouse, Beatrice, Countless Le Grande and Daphne. Fairy Godmother was voiced by Verna Felton in the original film. Drizella was voiced by Rhoda Williams in the first film
- Susanne Blakeslee as Lady Tremaine. She was voiced by Eleanor Audley in the original film.
- Tress MacNeille as Anastasia Tremaine. She was originally voiced by Lucille Bliss.
- Holland Taylor as Prudence
- Christopher Daniel Barnes as Prince Charming. He was voiced by William Edward Phipps in the original film.
- Frank Welker as Lucifer/Pom-Pom/Bruno. Lucifer was voiced by June Foray in the original film. Bruno was also voiced by MacDonald in the first film.
Why It’s Not A Dream Come True
- The first major problem is that the film came out 52 years after the original film. While this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing given how they were a few instances of this being executed well, there were still few who have had a gap between their predecessor's release date this big. And needless to say, the fact that it took this long for a sequel of the original Cinderella film automatically makes the chances of the sequel being a great film relatively low. As many consider these many years way to long for a sequel of a film to be made.
- The plot is rather unoriginal, and feels more like a rehash of many of the previous Disney princess films than anything. As it's mainly just Cinderella learning how to adapt to life in the palace by dressing in intricate dresses, cooking only the most exquisite of meals, and looking down on regular citizens all because she happens to be royalty. And while it does make sense that Cinderella would have to get some time getting used to being a princess after spending most of her life as a servant for people in a similar amount of wealth, it's still not executed very well here due to how generic the story is.
- While the concept of redeeming Anastasia in this film is admittedly a pretty good one, it still felt like she was forgiven for her actions in the previous film too easily and quickly. Not only that, but she never showed any hinting of a redemption arc in the previous film so her all of the sudden redeeming herself here feels like it comes out of nowhere. She could've started off this film much like she was in the previous film but redeem herself as the movie went on, and by the end she would be fully redeemed. But instead, she just starts the film off as a nice person without much proper build up or development to it. Though thankfully, the following sequel was able to fix this issue by giving Anastasia the proper character development that was required for her redemption and made it feel all the more deserved.
- The film's already bland and uninteresting story is also incredibly boring and has lot of padding and filler, causing it to drag out and feel much longer than it actually is.
- Like Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World and Atlantis: Milo's Return, this film is made up of several segments that were originally the pilot episodes for a spin-off television series that ended up being rejected (and were therefore patched up and released as a direct-to-DVD sequel). And as a result, the plot is divided into 3 segments with little to no connection to one another. It also isn't helped by the fact that the stories themselves are far from interesting.
- Misleading title: In spite of what the title states, the plot doesn't actually have many of the characters' dreams coming true, unlike the other two films. On the contrary, most of the plot is focused on Cinderella's struggles to adapt to what she had thought of to be her dream for so long.
- In fact, all three of the film's segments were originally planned to be three episodes which are part of the 1999-2001 Cinderella sequel TV series entitled "Cinderella Stories" which got cancelled, and when these three episodes are stitched together with interstitial wrap-around animation in the final film, for some reason the finished film doesn't retain it's original working title Cinderella Stories which is far less misleading than the actual title seen in the final film.
- Plot hole: In the film's first segment "Aim to Please", it is revealed that peasants (which the film refers to as "commoners") are never allowed in the King's castle, with the castle staff not even allowed to give any royal invitations to any of the peasants at all, hence heavily contradicting the first film where every peasant girl in Cinderella kingdom is given an invitation to the ball at the King's castle and the very fact that where Cinderella, a peasant girl, marries Prince Charming at the film's ending (which Cinderella herself is even aware of), hence making the King's decision to organize this ball for Prince Charming and the peasant girls and approving Cinderella and Prince Charming's marriage in the first film seem very hypocritical.
- Overall, this film has little to no impact on the Cinderella franchise. While the third film does have some references to this film and doesn't outright ignore it, it's still clear that it was made with the intention of being a sequel to the original film more, so skipping over this film wouldn't leave out any major plot details or anything.
Redeeming Qualities
- Great voice acting, especially from Jennifer Hale as Cinderella and Tress MacNeille as Anastasia.
- The animation is good and an arguable step-up from the previous film's (in spite of that film having great animation as well).
- The side plot of giving Anastasia more character exploration and a love interest is actually a good one, and easily the most interesting part of the film's story.
- The ending isn't too bad.
- Unlike another Disney Princess compilation movie, the characters aren't flanderized/dumped on and are mainly faithful to the original incarnations, especially Cinderella herself and are still likeable.
- Unlike both compilation films Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World and Atlantis: Milo's Return, this film at least has a somewhat decent explanation on why all three of the film's segments "Aim to Please", "Tall Tail" and "An Uncommon Romance" do not connect with each other, which is revealed to be Jaq, Gus and the rest of the mice, creating these stories by themselves.
- Despite the fact that this sequel is completely unnecessary, it's great to see another Cinderella film after 52 years.