I'm revisiting this list for a couple of extra entries as two recent ones showed a couple of fun Cinderellas.
This list will only show animations that have used the Cinderella story to some degree in universe, all entries must have the three crucial scenes of the Godmother, the Ball and the Glass Slipper.
So without further delay lets begin.
12. Alvin and the Chipmunks
This version is obviously told through the Chipettes as Brittany refuses to do chores and not surprising doesn't get to go anywhere, so cue the Cinderella dream sequence with all the bells and whistles you can expect from the story. Simon's role as Fairy Godmunk is particularly hilarious to watch.
11. Hamtaro
Lead human Laura gets picked for the title role but the slipper goes missing during the play so it's up to the Ham-Hams to get it back to her. Like I said in my review of Hamtaro last year, it's the ultimate in super safe anime.
10. Betty Boop
Cartoon's first femme fatale is the oldest entry on this list with all the classic sing song and slapstick of cartoons of that era, she also has red hair which is quite unique as her hair is normally black.
9. Science Fell In Love So I Tried To Prove It
The Science type Cinderella is hilariously off the wall as our two leads try and make sense of the story through Scientific eyes yet still playing the roles themselves.
8. Keroro Gunso
One of only two genderswap entries in this list. Giroro wants to declare his love for Natsumi at the ball she's going to, so using a device borrowed from Kululu, he makes himself human and dances with her, you know it's only a short but you can't help but hope for a happy ending.
7. Pink Panther
The Pink Panther cartoon has always been an interesting one as each short is done with just music and sound effects and no dialogue. In this version the Pink Panther finds a witch's wand and helps out a girl in need of some luck and love which the Panther is more than happy to help with, what makes this more interesting is the fight he has with the witch.
6. Strawberry Shortcake
The only Cinderella story I know to feature stepsisters who apologize mid insult. It's even better in the German Dub.
5. Family Guy
One of the rare moments where Meg Griffin is allowed to get her own back a bit, it's surprisingly well done for a relatively new episode as it's in the same season as that other episode that killed Brian off.
4. New Fruits Basket
The miscasting of all the roles with Tohru being a step sister, Kyo being the Prince, Yuki being the Godmother...okay not all miscast and finally Goth Girl Saki as Cinderella who only went to the ball for Yakiniku. My niece expected food at the ball as well, I'm glad there's a Cinderella who agrees.
3. Cardcaptor Sakura
The other genderswap version and boy is it hilarious as Toya pulls off the manliest looking Cinderella ever. Brooding males seem to work as princesses, who knew?
2. Smile Precure
The Precures go into the Cinderella world to try and save it by making sure the story finishes on a happy ending. Cure Happy is obviously Cinderella, but we got Cure Beauty as the Prince (Yuri Writers smile in delight), Cure Peace as the Godmother and Cure March & Sunny as the horses, yeah you heard me, horses.
1. Sakura Wars
But the best ones at doing Cinderella are the Imperial Floral Assault Team, as the lead goes to Sakura Shinguji as part of her character development but that's not the end of it. In a spinoff Columns puzzle game, all the girls have a go at becoming Cinderella with some surprising results particularly how well Kanna cleans up in a dress despite the fact that she almost always passes for a man, it must be the Monkey D Luffy voice.
Were not far off now, there will be 25 left by the end of the day
40. Inazuma Eleven
A true spectacle of sport, weirdly based on an rpg of all things, Inazuma Eleven takes the high power shots of the game and ramps it up to eleven.
39. Hamtaro
The ultimate safe anime of the late 90s, the little Hamtaro and friends try and solve problems and try and make sense of what their owners are saying.
38. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
With a style no one can equal and one of the few soundtracks reliant on Western music, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is an absolute over the top joy.
37. Air Gear
One of my biggest inspirations for story writing, from the awesome soundtrack to the utterly absurd story, Air Gear is one flying anime.
36. Gundam Seed
It's probably the only Gundam series to really take both the old and new of the franchise and fuse it into one great war epic. Would've been way higher if not for Destiny.
So we come from a mecha anime game review to a very very cutesy anime in Hamtaro, lets see what we can learn from this.
Hamtaro is about a group of hamsters who go on random adventures while their respective owners are not around, meanwhile the secondary plot revolves around Laura's day to day life who is of course Hamtaro's owner.
This show is very innocent, the threat level is extremely low, the cast of characters both human and hamsters are well designed and easy to enjoy. It's hard to find any criticism regarding this anime but equally it's also difficult to praise anything as nothing really stands out as spectacular.
Yes it's a cute series but it suffers from the same problem as Tiny Fairy Snow Sugar in that you can work out what goes on pretty quickly and the rest becomes predictable but unlike Tiny Fairy Snow Sugar the predictable nature doesn't ruin the experience and doesn't prevent you from watching it.
But there is something I've only just realized about Hamtaro; the cast of Hamsters is very similar to the cast of Animal Crossing as many of the hamsters share character traits with the weird animals of Animal Crossing, not only that but Hamtaro predates Animal Crossing by four years, so I wonder how much influence it gave Nintendo's weird franchise.
Final Verdict: It's safe and innocent but also very enjoyable, it will become boring after a while but don't let that spoil the experience before hand, there's no real bad thing to say about Hamtaro.
