review for Cinderella II: Dreams Come True on AllMovie

Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True will please younger children, but it's a poor sequel to Disney's original. There's really no reason for a continuation of Cinderella's story, but even taking that into consideration, Cinderella 2 is lacking in imagination and creativity. While it at least has a fairly unusual (for film) anthology structure, that actually works against the piece, making it seem like three episodes of a Cinderella TV series strung together. The stories themselves are trite and predictable, and the characters are strictly by-the-book. That said, the animation is actually very good for a direct-to-video production, with the character design attractive and the action sequences nicely done. The behind-the-screen vocal talent is fine, with Tress MacNeille an appropriately grumpy but pathetic stepsister and Jennifer Hale kind and helpful as Cinderella. Russi Taylor makes a warm fairy godmother and Rob Paulsen is a lovable Jacques. Brooke Allison's "Put It Together" is not only a bad song, but is so stylistically wrong as to be jarring. Taken altogether, Cinderella 2 is strictly average entertainment, fine for children, but a bit boring for adults.