Cinderella Overload!!!

The past two weeks have been Cinderella-filled: first, I FINALLY found online videos of Cinderella (Cinderella Monogatari), the animated series I first saw over a decade ago in ABS-CBN, and second, watched Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella at CCP.

Prinsipe Leonard!!!

I’ve posted the Japanese opening sequence of Cinderella in my multiply account over a year ago, since I and my college friends suddenly got on reminiscing the old cartoon shows and Cinderella came up. Surprisingly, random people have been commenting on the video, also sharing their love of the series and finally, someone copied the one shown on TV again and I got to watch the whole series. Prinsipe Leonard is LOVE! Got to give credit to ABS-CBN, they dubbed the series pretty well, my mastery of Filipino got challenged and Leonard’s voice is a dream! I love his blue gray eyes (if you wouldn’t have noticed yet, gorgeous 2-D men are my weaknesses). Leonard really has his Edward Cullen moments, as Edell pointed out, “Hindi ka ba nasaktan? Kahit galos wala ka?”

It’s kind of sad that the network skipped a few shows, especially episode 22 where that KISS (or was it an almost kiss? Hard to tell) happened. Argh! But this is better than nothing. I especially love Leonard’s big reveal to that he is a prince, hahaha, with matching slow-mo pa of the swirling cape. Haaayyy…

Are you the sweet invention of a lover’s dream?
Ice and I watched Cinderella starring Lea Salonga last Friday, this is my fourth time watching Lea perform in a musical and I can say that it seems that she’s never changed, her voice still gives me goosebumps. We were bummed out that they ran out of souvenir programs, argh, have to find a way to buy them. I was wondering why the songs were so familiar at first then I remembered that these were also used in that Cinderella adaptation by Brandy and Paolo Montalban, hahaha. Anyway, I LOVE the songs, the actors (especially the stepsisters! I mean I love Lea and all but these girls stole the show for me), the costumes (especially the wedding!!!), and that CARRIAGE! Talk about a WOW factor. My favorite songs (the same ones that got my attention when I watched the Brandy version) was Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful? (love the line: Are you the sweet invention of a lover’s dream? Or are you really as wonderful as you seem?) and Stepsisters’ Lament (what IS the matter with the men? Ditto, stepsisters!)

I actually found myself in a moment while I was watching the play that I was chuckling over how cheesy Cinderella and the Prince sound like in the garden during the ball. And then a horrifying moment when I thought to myself that I might be becoming a cynical bitch over it, haha. Either way, I got to accept the Prince’s lilting voice (it really sounds like when James Marsden did the prince in Enchanted) and the sweeping lines…and got over the whole thing when the last sequence in the garden (when it was revealed who Cinderella was) showed me a hilarious side to the pairing (panalo yung, “Halt! I command you!” “But why?” “I don’t know”). Also love the way they somehow modernized the tale, with the King talking about interest rates (THAT was good), and the Prince employing the secret service to locate Cinderella.