Cinderella (The Wonderful World of Disney) [VHS]

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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Completely Charming, October 25, 2001 This review is from: Cinderella (The Wonderful World of Disney) [VHS] (VHS Tape) This movie floats like a rainbow in the sky sprinkled with fairy dust. It is the most visually stunning, spectacular feast for the eyes I have ever seen. The messages are wonderful and wholesome, the plot perfect and the singing...magical. I can't find one single thing wrong with this movie.

Brandy brings a sweet innocence to Cinderella, and in my mind, she is the most beautiful Cinderella ever. Her voice lacks a certain maturity, which was perfect for the role. It breathes innocence and a human spirit into Cinderella like never before. She is sweet, mysterious and very feminine. She presents women in a very positive way.

When Cinderella and the Prince meet in the market, you just can't imagine it happened any other way. Paolo Montalban: wow...he is the perfect prince and so handsome. I was so impressed with his voice. When Brandy and Paolo sang together it gave me shivers and one time almost made me cry. It was like two souls mingling in the sky with longing. The choreography was stunningly original. The scenes in the market with all the food will just delight every cook.

The story starts in a market with Cinderella and her two sisters shopping. She meets the Prince, and is then told not to talk to him and is whisked home. Almost immediately, plans are being made for a Royal Ball to find the prince a wife so he can produce an heir for the kingdom. Whoopi Goldberg is hilarious as the Queen, and Victor Garber comes across as a loving father who wants the best for his son. I was amazed when the King and Queen were actually in love, which was not the case in other movies.

As in all the Cinderella stories, Cinderella is left at home and then when she wishes to go to the Ball, the fairy godmother magically appears.

Whitney Houston plays a fairy godmother just as you would imagine her to be, ethereally floating next to the horses and carriage, sparkling, singing...wow, what more could you ask for. It was amazing. Then, the humor was also there as she tries at first to turn the pumpkin into a carriage and fails on the first try. She mumbles something about how she should be able to do this after 600 years of practice. What she does with a pumpkin, well...baby, get ready. This woman can cook! She turns the pumpkin into the most stunning carriage. The pastel blue dress Brandy wears is simply gorgeous.

When Cinderella arrives at the ball, her sisters have already had their chance to um, impress the prince and have failed. The costumes and sets are so incredibly gorgeous and the ballroom dancing almost makes you dizzy because they keep spinning and spinning and spinning. There is a scene at the ball that will make you laugh out loud when her sister is on the staircase. Oh, my that was funny.

Cinderella of course makes it to the end of the stairs at midnight as her beautiful gown changes back to her regular clothes and she loses her glass slipper. When she gets home, more fun awaits. Her sisters are very suspicious of how much she knows about the ball. One of the funny things is that Bernadette Peters looks younger than one of her daughters, but still manages to pull off the step mother act with great flair. We cannot say the same for her daughters. They are quite funny and bumbling, just as we want them to be.

When Cinderealla's stepmother says something about remembering to hide flaws until after the wedding, Cinderella comments as to how a man should love a woman for who she is. A great message to women who sometimes try to be all things to men and fail to find true happiness in being just who they are.

I've always adored the story of Cinderella, and the fact that in this adaptation Cinderella is African American was delightful. Anyone who says Brandy can't act is really lying. She brings a wonderful spirit to this movie and does a wonderful job, she is a much better actor than eighty percent of the actors in movies today. The warmth she pours into this story is so needed in our world today.

I am literally SHOCKED at the poor reviews this movie has received. I have never seen anything this beautiful and heartwarming in my life! This is now my favorite version of Cinderella besides Ever After, which also makes Cinderella so much more human. They are both on my list of favorite movies.

The message of having a wish and then making it come true shows that everything starts with a wish. This message of hope and eternal optimism is so needed in society today. The multicultural actors added so much to the story; and it sends a wonderful message.

You will totally fall in love with this movie!

~The Rebecca Review

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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Pure musical perfection, September 23, 2000 This review is from: Cinderella (The Wonderful World of Disney) [VHS] (VHS Tape) Bernadette Peters, Natalie Desselle, Paolo Montalban, Brandy, Veanne Cox, Whoopi Goldberg, Victor Garber and Whitney Houston all sing and dance up a storm in this glittering new mounting of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic CINDERELLA.

This time however, the score is augmented with three new songs, written by Rodgers and Hammerstein in their seperate early careers.

They include 'The Deepest Love In All The World', sung by Brandy and Paolo Montalban, 'The Music In You', sung by Whitney Houston, and, my personal favourite, 'Falling In Love With Love', sung by the incomparable Bernadette Peters, with additional vocals by Natalie Desselle and Veanne Cox.

The entire production is flawless, and I loved every minute of it.

It has previously been recorded live on television with Julie Andrews and again with Lesley Ann Warren. Both of those cast albums are still available.

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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Cinderella, The Best One Yet, November 18, 2001 This review is from: Cinderella (The Wonderful World of Disney) [VHS] (VHS Tape) Cinderella beats the best. This remake from 1965 and 1954 was excellent. It has an all-star cast, including Brandy as a marvelous Cinderella, Whitney Houston as the eccentric Fairy-Godmother, Paolo Montalban as a very charming and (unlike the others) caring prince, Whoopi Goldberg and Victor Garber as a great and hilarious royal couple, Jason Alexander as the overlooked/overstepped harold, Bernadette Peters as the flirtatious/evil Stepmother, and Veanne Cox and Natalie Dessette as a wonderful combination of Stepsisters. The costumes and sets were just breathtaking. That, along with the technology, put it way above the previous remakes. It was romantic, with an upbeat feel, and plenty of humor. My favorite scene is the totally redone "The Prince is Giving a Ball". It gave you that feel-good music, mixed with the humouruos exasperation from the Prince's valet. It had just exellent choreography, and colorful costumes and props. The ballroom scene was also great. Especially the "Stepsisters Lamade". And I loved the new songs, including "Falling in Love With Love", and "Waiting Somewhere for Me". I think the Step-units stole the show, as they had a right to, with their brilliant acting and singing. This is a must-see film (again and again and again...) Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? 
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Aladdin and the King of Thieves (Disney Presents) [VHS]

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars The only good DTV Disney ever made, July 25, 2002 This review is from: Aladdin and the King of Thieves (Disney Presents) [VHS] (VHS Tape) Cinderella II. Lady and the Tramp II. Lion King II. Pochahontas II. The Hunchback of Notre Dame II. Return of Jafar. The list of direct-to-video stinkers made by Disney seems to be endless. Fortunately, Aladdin and the King of Thieves is the exception.

Released early on before Disney decided to defile it animated classics, Aladdin and the King of Thieves features a solid, new storyline that does not simply rehash the original. Maybe this extra attempt at quality was made to get Robin Williams to reprise one of his coolest roles? After two movies and countless tv episodes, Aladdin and Jasmine are finally getting married. Then the forty thieves show up and trash the wedding, and Aladdin goes on a quest to find his father and a unique treasure with the golden touch. While not targeted to older kids like Disney's Atlantis was, this movie is slightly darker than the two that came before it, which is a good thing. A lot of this comes from the forty thieves, who sing about robbing, plundering, in an endearing kind of way. There is a sword duel conveyed in hellish reds, murky blues, and shadows, and lightning is used to symbolize Aladdin being wounded. And the villain's demise is quite original, not the usual "falling to their death" we've seen over and over. In fact, I daresay Atlantis even borrowed the demise for their film's climax. All in all, it's an entertaining, never-boring, thrill ride, and ties up the saga nicely, with a nod to the street merchant who began this whole thing.

The songs in Aladdin and the King of Thieves are not up the quality of the original, but they are much better than all the other Disney DTV's. The two songs the forty thieves sing are quite hilarious and memorable, the romance song didn't make me cringe at all, and the opening number gets the ball rolling really well. The only semi-clunker is the father and son song, but that wasn't bad either. The animation isn't cinema-quality, but it's also above-average and commendable. My only curiosity with this movie is some of the Genie's jokes. The animators went with whatever ad-libs Robin Williams came up with, and even after six years of watching this movie, I still can't understand most of them, especially the homages to past comedians. This is the only part children won't understand.

Aladdin and the King of Thieves is a high-quality Disney DTV, and as things stand, their ONLY high-quality release ever. Worth picking up on video, or even on the eventual DVD release.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Recovery from "Return of Jafar", July 9, 2004 This review is from: Aladdin and the King of Thieves (Disney Presents) [VHS] (VHS Tape) "The Return of Jafar" was a big step down from the grand Disney hit "Aladdin." Everything about it - the animation, the acting, and the music - was low-quality. But probably the biggest disappointment was that Robin Williams, the perfect Genie, was gone. It was little more than a long Saturday morning cartoon.

"Aladdin and the King of Thieves," on the other hand, is a surprisingly well-made and entertaining direct-to-video cartoon sequel. Not only did the creators return Robin Williams to do his excellent job as Genie, but they also cast none other than John Rhys-Davies (Indiana Jones, The Lord of the Rings) as Cassim, Aladdin's long-lost father. Their acting is the best part of the film.

While the animation is by no means as good as that of the original "Aladdin," it is fairly well-done, and much better than that of "Return of Jafar." The locales and characters are colorful and original. The songs of the movie are only so-so, but the music is better. The storyline with its plot-turns moves along fairly well and keeps the viewer's interest as Aladdin and company search for Cassim's coveted treasure, the Hand of Midas.

All in all, the Aladdin trilogy is redeemed from the failures of the middle chapter by this surprisingly well-made and entertaining film. Hopefully, the entire trilogy will one day be available on DVD.

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars Final episode brings back good old ALADDIN memories, June 23, 2000 This review is from: Aladdin and the King of Thieves (Disney Presents) [VHS] (VHS Tape) ALADDIN showed viewers an unforgetable world.... THE RETURN OF JAFAR was a trasy disappointment....

And now Aladdin has his final adventures as the trilogy comes to a close in this final episode, ALADDIN AND THE KING OF THIEVES. The best part was by far Robin Williams' return as the great blue Geenie. But another pleasent suprise was a fresh, orginial plot (compared especially to THE RETURN OF JAFAR's reused plot), and entertaining new characters (such as the Forty Thieves).

However, the music is no better than THE RETURN OF JAFAR's. Not even the big fanale song. I wish we hadd Alen Meken and Tim Rice back. Their music for the first ALADDIN film was extrodnary! I'll never forget how they helped Aladdin show his princess a whole new world! The visual effects were a treat, though, and made up for the loss of good music. The Geenie's scenes were extreamly elebrate, and the scenes featuring the Hand of Midis were also nicely done.

It was also nice for Aladdin to find relations, but his father's excuses for not being there for Aladdin when he needed him were extreamly poor. As bad as THE RETURN OF JAFAR was (in my opinion). And if you've seen my review of it, you know how I feel.

To sum everything up, ALADDIN AND THE KING OF THIEVES was a treat, but still not as 100% classic as ALADDIN was. It was enjoyable to find that Disney obviously learned their lesson after the trashy THE RETURN OF JAFAR. (Reccomended to rent, but NOT a must-have for your video library unless you have the other two and want to complete your ALADDIN collection.)

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