Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Read Along-A Little Misunderstanding Game-Cinderella's Enchanted Castle Featurette-Musical Magic Music Video-Put It Together
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	70:29
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	John Kafka
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Jennifer Hale Tress MacNeille Rob Paulsen Corey Burton Holland Taylor Susan Blakeslee Frank Welker Christopher Daniel Barnes Andre Stojka Russi Taylor
Case	DV-7
RPI	$34.95	Music	Mike Tavera

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Greek Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.70:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Greek	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Cinderella II: Dreams Come True is a Disney animated feature that is divided into three distinct individual sections.

    During the movie, a group of friendly mice living in the royal castle decide to make a storybook to give to Cinderella. With the help of the fairy godmother, the mice illustrate the book and include the following three stories;

    Aim to Please: This story is set just after Cinderella and the Prince return to the castle after their honeymoon. The King and the Prince must leave the castle on state business while Cinderella is put in charge of organizing a large formal party. Her preparations are overseen by numerous staff members but it soon becomes clear that this will not be the typical party the King has come to expect.

    Tall Tales: Jaq, one of the castle mice, feels he is no longer able to help Cinderella due to his small size. His wish to be much larger is granted by the fairy Godmother and he is transformed into a human. Unfortunately, Jaq finds that his plans do not go as expected and he eventually learns that there are some things that only a mouse can do.

    An Uncommon Romance: Cinderella is holding a ball and her stepsisters are hoping to meet a prospective husband. While preparing for the ball, Anastasia, one of the stepsisters, meets a local baker and they instantly fall in love, but her mother forbids her from seeing this commoner. Cinderella arranges for her stepsister to meet the man and does what she can to help the romance flourish.

    Each of these individual stories have a common theme - you should always have faith in yourself and should not try and pretend to be something that you are not. The feature has been created with traditional cel animation design and has the look of classic Disney animation with only a small number of computer generated sequences included. Unfortunately, while this film is well written, animated and acted, the division of the story into three distinct parts makes the movie always seem as if it was designed for a home video audience and it never feels like a true Disney classic.

Video

    The excellent video transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.70:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. The transfer has small black bars on either side of the image but this will not be visible on most displays due to overscan.

    The transfer is consistently sharp throughout and is always able to reveal the fine details in the animation. The brightly animated transfer never displays any problems with shadow detail and at no stage displays any low-level noise.

    The transfer displays a wide colour palette and many subtle shadings that are always well saturated with no detectable problems.

    No MPEG artefacts were detected at any time during the transfer. A small number of minor aliasing artefacts are visible during the transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen at 3:20, 3:51, 4:45 and 55:03. All of these artefacts are quite minor and are only slightly distracting to the viewer.

    No film artefacts were detected at any time during the transfer.

    Three sets of white subtitles are included on this disc. I extensively sampled both of the English streams and found them to be consistently accurate.

    Despite the packaging claim otherwise, this feature is actually presented on a single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times during the transfer.

    As this is an animated feature there are the expected obvious problems with audio sync for each soundtrack. No dropouts were detected at any stage during the transfer.

    The classical-based musical score by Mike Tavera is used effectively throughout and is complemented by a number of original songs performed by Brooke Allison.

    The audio mix is focussed across the front three channels but the surround channels are used effectively during a number of scenes, such as the party, to create an enveloping soundfield. The subwoofer channel is used to provide support for the score but it never draws attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The animated menus are presented at an aspect ratio of either 1.78:1 or 1.33:1 depending upon player setup.

Disney Storytime: A Little Misunderstanding

    This section allows viewers to read a short 24 page story featuring characters from the main feature. Viewers are given the choice of either reading along with a narrator or reading the story at their own pace. This extra is presented with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Cinderella's Enchanted Castle

    This extra is an interactive section featuring three different rooms where the viewer must highlight different items to help Cinderella prepare for a party. This extra is presented with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Featurette: Musical Magic (5:55)

    This is a short featurette examining the musical performances in the film and the role that the score provides. This extra is presented with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and includes a set of Greek subtitles.

Music Video: Put It Together (3:53)

    This music video is presented with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• English dts 5.1 soundtrack
• Cinderella's Dollhouse DVD-ROM preview
• Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish soundtrack

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Dolby Digital 5.1 Greek soundtrack

    Technically, the preferred version of this disc would be the R1 edition with dts, but as this title is obviously aimed at young children you may feel that the addition of a dts soundtrack is not a requirement for the material presented.

    Cinderella II: Dreams Come True is an entertaining Disney animated feature that should appeal to younger viewers but it unfortunately will never be considered a classic.

    The excellent video transfer is almost flawless and only displays a small number of minor aliasing artefacts.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack fits the on-screen action well and will be enjoyed by all viewers.

    The collection of extras included will provide some additional entertainment for younger viewers.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall