Cinderella III: A Twist in Time is a 2007 American animated direct-to-video musical fantasy film produced by Disneytoon Studios and distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Directed by Frank Nissen from a screenplay written by Dan Berendsen, Margaret Heidenry, Colleen Ventimilia, and Eddie Guerlain, it is the third installment in Disney's Cinderella trilogy and a sequel to Cinderella (1950) and prequel to Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2002). In Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, set one year after the first film, Cinderella struggles with the effects of a time-reversing spell cast by Lady Tremaine to prevent her from marrying the Prince. The film's voice cast consists of Jennifer Hale, C. D. Barnes, Susanne Blakeslee, Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor, and Andre Stojka, most of whom continue to replace the 1950 film's cast by reprising their roles from Cinderella II: Dreams Come True.
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time was completed over the course of two years, from 2004 to 2006. Inspired by Anastasia's romantic subplot introduced in Dreams Come True, A Twist in Time expands upon her reformation into a more sympathetic character, while the writers updated Cinderella and the Prince's personalities to be more appealing to modern audiences. Although none of Cinderellas original animators were involved in the sequel, the filmmakers referenced the 1950 film and Disney's Animation Research Library for research and inspiration. The film was one of Disney's last direct-to-video sequels before the studio pivoted towards making original content. A Twist in Time was also the final project produced by DisneyToon Studios Australia, with Disney dissolving various departments while the film was still in production.
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time was released direct-to-video on February 6, 2007. Unlike most of Disney's direct-to-video sequels, it received generally positive reviews from critics, who deemed it a vast improvement over its immediate predecessor and praised the character developments of Cinderella, the Prince, and Anastasia. Cinderella III: A Twist in Time has grossed nearly $93 million in home video sales.
Plot
Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, Jaq, and Gus host a picnic to celebrate Cinderella and the Prince's first wedding anniversary. Since marrying the Prince, Cinderella's stepmother, Lady Tremaine, has been forcing her daughters, Drizella and Anastasia, to perform Cinderella's old housework. Anastasia grows distracted and stumbles upon the picnic, discovering that the Fairy Godmother's magic helped Cinderella meet the Prince at the ball. When the Fairy Godmother drops her magic wand, Anastasia steals it and shows it to Lady Tremaine, who is only convinced once Anastasia accidentally turns the Fairy Godmother into a statue.
Seizing the opportunity to restore her fortunes at Cinderella's expense, Lady Tremaine uses the wand to travel back in time to the day the Grand Duke tries the glass slipper on Cinderella. With Cinderella locked in her room, Lady Tremaine magically enlarges the slipper to fit Anastasia's foot, leading the Grand Duke to declare Anastasia as the Prince's bride. When Cinderella finally escapes, Lady Tremaine shatters her remaining glass slipper, destroying her only proof of having danced with the Prince. Undeterred, Jaq and Gus reassure Cinderella that the Prince will recognize her, and the trio follows the stepfamily to the palace.
When the Prince meets Anastasia, he instantly realizes she is not the girl he has been searching for. However, Lady Tremaine uses the wand to enchant him into believing Anastasia is the one he danced with at the ball. Cinderella sneaks into the palace as a maid and encounters the Prince, who informs her of his plan to marry Anastasia. Jaq and Gus, having seen Lady Tremaine use the wand to cast her spell, reveal the truth to Cinderella, and together they devise a plan to recover the wand.
Despite Anastasia's lack of refinement, the King grows fond of her, as she reminds him of his late wife, the Queen. He gifts her the Queen's cherished seashell, which causes Anastasia to start having mixed feelings about her family's deceit. Meanwhile, Cinderella sneaks into Lady Tremaine's bedroom and manages to steal the wand, but is captured by guards before she can reverse the spell. As she is apprehended, she grazes the Prince's hand, sparking a faint recognition. Under Lady Tremaine's orders, Cinderella is sentenced to exile and placed on a ship to leave the kingdom. Jaq and Gus reveal the entire scheme to the Prince, presenting him with Cinderella's repaired glass slipper. The sight of the slipper restores his memory, and he rushes to intercept the ship. There, he confesses his love to Cinderella, who joyfully agrees to marry him.
After returning to the palace, the Prince and Cinderella inform the King of Lady Tremaine's scheme, prompting him to order the Tremaine family's arrest. However, they flee with the wand. As Cinderella prepares for her wedding, Lady Tremaine returns with Anastasia, whom she has magically transformed into Cinderella's double. Using the wand, Lady Tremaine traps Cinderella and the mice in an enchanted pumpkin carriage driven by their cat, Lucifer. Cinderella, Jaq, and Gus work together to escape before the carriage drives over a cliff.
Cinderella arrives at the palace on horseback just in time to witness Anastasia rejecting the Prince's proposal, realizing she wants to find her own true love. Angry at Anastasia's defiance, Lady Tremaine transforms several guards into animals. The Prince uses his sword to shield Cinderella and Anastasia from the same spell, which deflects and transforms Lady Tremaine and Drizella into toads. After returning to her original form, Anastasia offers the seashell back to the King, but he declines, reminding her that everyone deserves a chance at love. Cinderella and Anastasia reconcile and restore the Fairy Godmother; she offers to return them to their original timeline, but seeing that Cinderella and the Prince’s bond has only grown stronger, decides to leave things as they are.
In a mid-credits scene, Drizella and Lady Tremaine are restored to their human forms, but are both dressed in Cinderella's old rags, much to their horror.
Cast Cast and order of credits adapted from Variety and the British Film Institute: Jennifer Hale as Cinderella Tami Tappan provides Cinderella's singing voice C. D. Barnes as the Prince Susanne Blakeslee as Lady Tremaine Tress MacNeille as Anastasia Tremaine Lesli Margherita provided Anastasia's singing voice Russi Taylor as Drizella Tremaine and The Fairy Godmother Andre Stojka as the King Holland Taylor as Prudence Rob Paulsen as the Grand Duke and Jaq Corey Burton as Gus Frank Welker as Lucifer
Production
Development Adhering to Disney's then-popular strategy of releasing direct-to-video follow-ups to some of their classic animated films, Cinderella III: A Twist in Time is Cinderellas second sequel, after 2002's Cinderella II: Dreams Come True. Despite being unfavorably reviewed by critics upon release, Dreams Come True proved to be a top-seller on home video, encouraging Disney to commission a third installment. Whereas Dreams Come True resembled an anthology film containing three self-contained episodes from a canceled Cinderella television series, A Twist in Time focuses on one contiguous storyline. A Twist in Time was directed by Frank Nissen, who had previously directed the Winnie the Pooh film Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005). Disney approached him to direct "a Cinderella movie" just as production on Pooh's Heffalump Movie was wrapping in 2004. Nissen claims he was not intimidated by the responsibility of directing a Disney property as revered as Cinderella, instead finding the opportunity a daunting but exciting challenge he hoped to learn from. He re-watched Walt Disney's 1950 film several times to obtain story and artistic inspiration.
Some critics and Disney fans protested the announcement of another Cinderella sequel. Addressing the debate surrounding the perceived inferior quality of direct-to-video Disney sequels at the time, Nissen believes the challenge is always attempting to expand upon the original in a meaningful manner: "in the case of Cinderella, she gets the prince, so what else is there to talk about? ... how do you make an equally interesting and equally strong story, an equally satisfying story, when everybody kind of knows who the characters are and what's supposed to happen". Nissen opted to ignore the studio's negative reputation and focus on simply making the best film he could possibly make. Nissen maintains that Disney executives allowed him much creative freedom to fulfill his vision. Despite essentially being an alternate re-telling of the Cinderella fairy tale, the director was not influenced by other revisionist fairy tales of the time. Although A Twist in Time was produced around the same time as Twice Charmed, a Cinderella-inspired stage musical hosted on the Disney Cruise Lines, Disney insists that the film is not a spin-off of the production, despite sharing songwriting team Michael Weiner and Alan Zachary. As such, A Twist in Time does not intentionally borrow elements or characters from the stage production, with Nissen explaining that any similarities between the two are merely coincidental. A Twist in Time was Disney's first direct-to-video sequel to officially contain "III" in its title, despite not being Disney's first direct-to-video sequel to be a franchise's third instalment.
The voice cast consists of a roster of established voice actors Disney typically re-hires to voice their older animated characters, re-using most of the cast from Dreams Come True for continuity. Despite understanding that these characters' voices would need to be mimicked based on previous performances, Nissen concerned himself little with the voice acting, trusting "that the actors had the skill and the craft to recreate the voices". Instead, he focused on providing the actors with material that felt authentic to the original iterations of their characters.
Writing Cinderella III: A Twist in Time was written by Dan Berendsen, Margaret Heidenry, Colleen Ventimilia, and Eddie Guzelian. Dating back to as early as 1950's Cinderella, Anastasia had always been depicted as Cinderella's marginally less unpleasant stepsister. Inspired by Anastasia's burgeoning reformation in Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, the writers expanded upon the 2002 film's subplot about Anastasia becoming a more sympathetic, complex character, opting to continue her character development over Drizella's. Along with the character Prudence introduced in the previous film, Anastasia's character arc was the only recurring motif borrowed from Cinderella II, although the Baker (Anastasia's love interest in Dreams Come True) makes a cameo during the end credits.
The writers believed focusing on a supporting character would in turn offer a more interesting story, as opposed to solely highlighting Cinderella. Due to Cinderella's popularity as a character, Disney wanted to tell a different story that captured the original film's spirit nonetheless. Nissen commended the writers for crafting a compelling story, which granted them freedom to "fine-tune the emotional stuff within that structure, so we didn't have to worry about solving why something happened or the logic behind how someone was feeling" in order to focus on the more cinematic aspects of the film. He also credited producer Margot Pipkin with keeping the crew focused, resulting in few regretted cut scenes, although Nissen wishes the film could have been longer in order to accommodate new characters and concepts. A subplot revolving around Gus discovering a parallel universe inhabited by mice was storyboarded but discarded because they found it distracting from Cinderella and the Prince's relationship.