Search - Disney Princess Stories - Beauty Shines From Within (Volume 3) on DVD

NOT for younger children! Stay away from this one!

Cheri G. Volkin | France | 09/19/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"What a waste of money! Mind you, I buy almost anything that has a Disney Princess on it for my daughter, but this one tops everything! My 5 year old refuses to watch it and doesn't like Ariel and Jasmine anymore! The princess's introductions to their stories are very choppy and poorly edited. The Cinderella story is fine but the Ariel and Jasmine ones are NOT! Basically, if Ariel laughs, she destroys everything around her (her home, for one!) and Jasmine gradually turns into this really scary looking snake, like a cobra with a hood and tongue and all! I don't know what possessed Disney to use THESE stories, but I know I will not buy anymore 'Princess Stories' DVDs. I still will buy all sorts of princess stuff in the future and spend enough money on Disney that I should own at least half of the company, but I think everyone should get a fair warning to stay away from this one!"

Really bad slapped together splice job and not very "Princes

Sebastin Garrett | San Jose, CA | 02/28/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"My daughter is now into the Disney princess thing, and we thought this video might be a nice expansion of the disney universe based on the three "princesses" mentioned on the cover: Ariel, Cinderella, and Jasmine. Turn out this is yet another rush job from disney to take people's money away.

Disney is a marketing juggernaut and they've figured out that their characters have such strong appeal that merchandising them in many ways is immensely profitable. And I don't blame them. However, this includes releasing countless numbers of DVDs aimed at the children that are really nothing more than mixing and splices of previous cartoons. In the disney princess series, it's basically a focus on the female characters from different movies.

This DVD is #3 in the series and is themed "the inner beauty", a positive message, but in reality very loosely tied to the stories on this DVD.

The first story is about Arial, the Little Mermaid. This is a "new" cartoon (not splices of the movie) and clearly low budget animation; about on the level of a Saturday morning cartoon. The story is ok, and is about what I'd expet for this product. Arial, Sebastin, and Flounder return in this story and have an encounter with a magical "blow fish" which casts an bad spell on her, making bad things happen whenever she laughs. Long story short, she helps turn around the bad fish to be positive and laughter is once again safe to partake in. The most positive note was an original score about laughing by Sebastin along the same lines as "Under the Sea" score from the original The Little Mermaid.

The second story is about Cinderella who recaps her own story... which turns out to literally be splices of the movie Cinderella turned into video clips and video stills bordered by a cheasy graphic border. Seriously, nothing new is added other than a womans voice that sounds like Cinderella summary narrating her own story. My 2.5 year old daughter, whose favorite movie happens to be Cinderella, actually got bored with this, as the original movie Cinderella is so much better. It seemed like even she was thinking, "what's the point?"

The third story is about Jasmine. Essentially a further adventures cartoon, this one is poorer quality than the Arial one and REALLY reaks of a bad Saturday morning cartoon. This one is about Jasmine encountering an evil spirit who tricks her into taking a magic potion (salve) that takes away her outward beauty by turning her into a huge cobra snake, but of course Aladdin loves her anyways and true love prevails. This one is downright creepy and scary, especially for my 2.5 year old. Disney could have written a story accomplishing the same thing without the demons and freakishly scary cobra-Jasmine. At one point, snake-Jasmine actually poisons Aladdin accidentally with one of her many sharp spines and he almost dies. What were they thinking?!? This is a PRINCESS VIDEO yet this story is so dark and sinister, and left me with a really bad taste.

I'm extremely disappointed with this video. I had expected a more light hearted and dreamy and at least original story expansions about the three princesses, and instead they gave us Saturday morning cartoon about Arial (with a reasonable attempt at a new score), a ridiculous splice and dice of the original Cinderella movie (and if you already own Cinderella, this 2nd story is pointless), and a freakish dark story involving Jasmine and Aladdin.

We have other Disney videos besides the Classics including Disney Christmas specials, and even the "education" series (which was a splice and dice itself). But this Princess #3 stories was not only a splice and dice, the end result is horrible and doesn't even follow the Princess theme very well at all. Big thumbs down on this one and I hope no one else wastes their money on it."

Disney Princess Stories - Beauty Shines From Within Review

J. Price | Kingston, WA | 09/29/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Well, I thought this would be a good movie for my daughter. I didn't like it at all. My wife and I were very disappointed with this movie. After watching this dvd once we decided NOT to let our daughter watch it again. The cover, title and commercials made it look appealing and delightful. It was terrible! I would expect alot more from a Disney film, especially one made for young girls.
I think you should stay away from this one!!"

BIG waste of money!

Tresa | 10/11/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I agree with the other customers who rated this DVD very low. This DVD is such a big dissapointment to me. My daughter hated it and both my husband and I watched it with her the first time (and the last) and thought that it was completely inappropriate for this age group. It had no educational value and was not fun to watch. I wish I could return it and get my money back on this. I expected more from a Disney product."