I was completely unfamiliar with the anime-based Saban series Grimm's Fairytale Classics until a few days ago, although it seems that quite a few people grew up with said television series. Anyway, because I'm a fairytale h0r, I went and checked up on a few on youtube* just to see what it's like.

The dubbing drives me crazy, forcing the voice actors to take on unnatural speech patterns so they can squeezealltheirlinesintotheprerecordedspace. That said, I think I really like the show's reinterpretation of Cinderella, if only because they did something different from the other versions I've seen before, instead of just rehashing the exact same story all over again.

For starters, the famous ball scene doesn't even happen in this version. Oh sure, the king holds one because he wants grandkids, but the prince is all OMG NO THNX and sneaks out before the dancing can start. The prince hides in the gardens, where he stumbles on Cinderella – who was hiding out there as well because she couldn't figure out how to enter the ballroom without looking suspicious. So instead of Cinderella making a killer entrance and causing the prince to trip all over himself to ask her to dance, the two awkwardly meet outside the ballroom and Cinderella happily teaches the two-left-footed prince to dance. Awesome. The ballroom scene also practically takes place in the first act, which took me doubly by surprise.

There are other touches as well (including the complete absence of a crucial character, whoa), but the non-ballroom scene is the one I took away with me.

Direct links to the Cinderella episode:

Part One . Part Two . Part Three . Part Four . Part Five

*Quite a few people have informed me that a youtube crackdown on copyrighted material is due to happen in September. If this is true, it's back-up time for all ye swarthy pirates, arrr!