The Cinderella Story (1999 TV special)

The Cinderella Story (not to be confused with the 2003 movie with Hilary Duff) is a 58-minute television special adaptation of the fairy tale Cinderella featuring the Fred the Ostrich characters. Fred hosts the special with King Macintosh, his assistant Weatherington, Bruce the Dog (from the unsold pilot for The Land of the Twiddledee), and a new character, an African bull elephant named Jumbo, appearing in the special as well. The original music score was composed by the late Joe Raposo. The one-hour-and-a-half special was first shown on YTV on March 12, 1999 and on Nickelodeon on April 3, 2000.

Plot
The story follows Cinderella : a beautiful girl who is forced to do all the chores by her wicked stepmother and two stepsisters with only her dog Bruce to help her.

At the palace, King Macintosh is bored and wishes to throw a party so that he may be given presents. As an excuse, he decides that his son Prince Arthur Charming, ought to wed and use the ball as a means to find a suitable princess bride. Arthur does not like this arrangement and while gardening explains to his friend Fred the Ostrich that every girl who knows him is a snob. His only hope to find an unsnobbish girl is to find a girl who does not recognize him as the prince.

Shortly after, Cinderella meets Arthur in the gardens as she is fulfilling a task given to her by her stepmother (to muddy her shoes, dirty the kitchen floor, and then scrub the floor). Seeing that Cinderella does not recognize him as prince, he introduces himself as Arthur the gardener and secures an invitation for her by convincing his father to invite every person in the land to the ball rather than just the princesses (the king agrees, as it will get him more presents). Because the ball is a masquerade, Arthur and Cinderella decide to each wear a geranium as a means of recognizing the other.

The night of the ball, the stepfamily leave with a gift of old socks for the king. Cinderella is only allowed to attend if she finishes her chores, and finds a suitable dress, carriage, and coachman for the ball before the last minute (an impossible task, as she is told this at the last minute). When Cinderella dreams of attending the dance as well, her fairy godmother appears (who had been seen prior, attempting to turn a pumpkin into a coach as a magic trick). In a rare instance of her magic working, the fairy godmother provides Cinderella with a beautiful dress and glass slippers. She convinces Kermit to drive the carriage (though he refuses to turn human for it). It is pulled by his elephant friend Jumbo after he accidentally scares away all the horses. The fairy godmother warns Cinderella to be home by twelve and attends the ball as well, to make sure the deadline is met. Unfortunately, the King decided to give all guests a geranium to wear so Arthur and Cinderella are unable to recognize each other. When they dance, Cinderella knows Arthur only as "Prince Charming" and he knows her only as a mysterious maiden. At the stroke of midnight, the fairy godmother and Cinderella run from the palace leaving behind only one glass slipper which Arthur accidentally steps on and smashes.

Determined to force Arthur to marry the "mysterious maiden", the king first hires all his horses and men (a reference to Humpty Dumpty) to put the slipper back together and - when that is unsuccessful—look in all the unlikely places for the other one. Cinderella learns of this plan and though she realizes that she is the maiden they are searching for, she wishes to marry Arthur the gardener and not the prince. She convinces Bruce to bury the slipper, only for the prince to arrive and for Cinderella to realize that he and the gardener are the same person. She tries to explain that she's the mysterious princess, yet no one believes her. Finally, the fairy godmother appears, but in an attempt to turn Cinderella's rags back into the ball gown, Cinderella vanishes. In the meantime, Fred and Jumbo return the slipper. After a number of times, Cinderella appears in ball regalia, and she and the prince are finally married (with Fred commenting that he could have solved the mystery much sooner, had he only been asked).

Afterwards, Fred receives a personal invitation regarding the wedding of Arthur and his new bride. Sitting by a well and reading it, it includes he must bring a present for King Macintosh. After reading it, he remarks "How's that for a Happily ever after?"

Trivia

 * Later syndicated alongside The Fred the Ostrich Show.
 * After a five-year hiatus, Jumbo the Elephant would be featured as part of the Fred the Ostrich franchise in 2005.