Cinderella 3

I have a passion for this movie.

I can't say I don't understand the people who avoid this movie, nor the people who claim it ruins the original story of Cinderella, but I still don't agree with them.
Because we don't like to see original content based on existing content from Disney, fans already tend to be skeptic. And I can't blame them; as Disney sequels are often far from good. The Lion King movies being one of those rare exceptions.

Cinderella 2 is by far the worst sequel, as it consists out of a cheap collection of three different stories, and mediocre animation. It's what made people even less eager to watch the third movie.
Though, it looked like everybody agreed with each other that the story of Cinderella's stepsister, Anastasia, was the by far the best thing the movie had to offer, and I fully believe it is what spawned Cinderella 3.

In many ways, Cinderella 3 looks like a big "sorry, let's try that again" from Disney. There's no doubt that the second movie was a spit in the face of the original classic, but it also seemed to function as a poll, and results showed that people were quite alright with Anastasia's character development. And really, that is why Cinderella 3 stars Anastasia. Besides Cinderella.

The animation in this movie is just great. Obviously it's not of the same quality as the original, and looks clean like animation tends to be these days, but you can see they've put alot of love into this movie.
The characters we never cared about have a personality now and there are some serious giggles. I find the story to be creative and fun, even though the plot is considered the problem by viewers.

The movie starts off showing everybody's life after Cinderella married the prince, with Cinderella being happy and her ex-family always having way too many dishes for some reason, but then the romantic Anastasia wanders off, discovers Cinderella's secret to her happiness, and manages to get hold onto the fairy godmother's magic wand.
She brings it to her mother, who's inner villain gets awakened, and she decides to use the wand to turn back time and make sure Anastasia is the one who marries the prince.

I found all of this to be just brilliant, and it even makes us forgive Anastasia for her bland hateful behaviour in the first movie.
But, when keeping her original character in mind, does this "new" Anastasia really belong? This is really the only instance where Cinderella 2 comes in, as it stars an Anastasia not too different from the original, but still you see her change into a nicer person. Cue in Cinderella 3.
But oddly enough, considering that movie canon wouldn't make any sense to the overal story, chronologically. When did Anastasia meet up with that baker guy? If it's before Cinderella 3, then why is she even interested in the prince? If it's after Cinderella 3, then why is Anastasia being such a bitch to Cinderella as shown in the second movie?

Cinderella 3 makes a reference to its lazy prequel in the credits, so it does acknowledge the baker Anastasia fell in love with. I don't know how the puzzle fits, but it's clear that Disney listened to their viewers.