hm I haven’t seen that movie in a long while, should get around to it, but I think I would generally agree that it is a good thing?   

Kois points out that in Cinderella III, the wicked stepsister (Anastasia) - originally an “oafish caricature” - finally becomes a fully fleshed-out character, and some of the absurdity of the original film is gently mocked (wikipedia)

“she’s never called ugly,since she isn’t”

a bit odd- she’s also never called an ostrich, since she isn’t? :P  I get what you’re saying but I think maybe this illustrates how, more than anything, characters are “coded” to make us think certain things about them.   She’s made to be “ugly” in the first film because they expect ugly to correspond with bad, and be a contrast to Cinderella (Good=beautiful), yet when you extend this into a followup movie where bad becomes good, everything is thrown into reverse.   “Pretty” and “ugly” are both subjective and socially determined rather than real standards, but it’s obvious that one character is coded to look more attractive than the other in a distinctive good v. bad way.  

The movie might be a little iffy because it sort of focuses around Anastasia being sad she didn’t get a guy or whatever, and then goes back in time to get a guy, and then the whole movie is about setting things right so everyone gets their correct guy… right?  

And even though I totally agree that not every girl character should end up with a guy (she didn’t, right?  I thought I remembered it happening but I couldn’t find it in any film reviews so I doubt I remembered right), it’s sort of sad that the only characters that ever miss out on romance in Disney are the ones we would say are not “stunning.”   It’s part of the way we internalize “pretty” v. “ugly”- if you’re ugly it’s enough for someone to just make you good in a movie.   You don’t need to get everything the pretty girls always get, it should be enough that you’re not a villain this time.  I mean I’m typing way too much about this and I don’t mean to undermine the overall positive theme going on in the film but I think it’s at least something to think about?

PS you don’t have to respect my opinions if they’re not respectable.   Society tells you that you need to respect my opinions “because they are opinions,” because society refuses both to self-critique its own opinions, and also ignores the weight and change a single opinion can bring.