This last weekend while helping remodel at Doug and Amanda’s house I saw a commercial for Cinderella II while passing the TV carrying something (I don’t recall what it was).
There’s a lot of television that you shouldn’t take in passing.
You should take it sitting down.
You should actually not take any television, at least not unless you’ve paid for it.
Anyway…
What grabbed me was that the commercial boldly proclaimed, “This time she’s in charge!”
As usual, my mind went wandering off imagining what that meant.
Close your eyes and imagine the following with me:
Ha ha!
If you’re reading this, then your eyes aren’t closed.
So then, open your eyes with me and close your imagination as we imagine the wonderful whirled of Dizzy bring Cinderella II life.
She’s sitting there on a nice bay window seat, soft cushion underneath, outside the birds are chirping, singing a song just like they did in the first movie (you must capture the minds of the children with familiarity, if it’s not familiar now, it will be when they watch it for the 234th time).
As the birds sing they start to draw near.
The screen pans over to a smallish hole in the castle walls and a cute, chubby mouse (Gus) squeezes out onto the castle floor, other mice pour out after him and in a quick second Cinderella sees the mice and screams with a blood curdling scream, “How on earth does blood curdle?”
The mice scatter, the cat comes running in, blood and carnage ensue.
Children are scared by this, their parent’s sue.
Someone gets upset because their name has been infringed upon in the legal process, her name is Sue, so she gets involved in a litigation as well.
Lawyers get rich, their client’s get mixed up in the legal system and before you know it John Kerry’s beating them in the polls as well.
Anyway, Cinderella being in charge sounds a whole lot like trouble.
Is Disney hurting for cash?
Are they running out of culturally diverse movies where the mother dies in the first few minutes of the film (note that in The Lion King the father dies, but what in the heck happens to the mom)?