Ella Enchanted

Year of release : 2004

Run time : 1h37m

Genre : Fantasy / Comedy / Jukebox Musical / Satire

Cast : Anne Hathaway, Hugh Dancy, Minnie Driver, Cary Elwes, Eric Idle, Vivica A. Fox

The movie is loosely based on the 1997 novel of the same name by Gail Carson Levine.

In Frell, after Ella was born, a crazy fairy, Lucinda, came to bestow her gift upon her. Her mother and her house fairy, who’s bad at spells, hide her when they hear Lucinda is coming ,as she gives the worst gifts.

Unluckily for them, Lucinda finds her, and because Ella was crying, Lucinda gives her the gift of obedience, having to do what others are telling her to. When her mother and house fairy say it’s an awful gift to do what you’re told against your wishes, Lucinda threatens with doing worse, so they agree with her, that’s it’s an amazing gift.

Despite this awful gift, Ella grows up being a good person, and not many people can notice she does what she’s told.

Her mother and house fairy tell her about the awful gift, and shortly after, her mother gets sick and dies, and tells her never to tell anyone about her gift, so they won’t use it against her.

Years later, Ella’s father remarries, to a woman who has two daughters, who might have married him because she thought he lived in a castle. He also married her because she’s rich and he was about to lose the house.

From the moment she meets them, it’s obvious the woman doesn’t like Ella, and the two daughters are annoying, infringing on Ella’s space. Because she’s cursed with doing what she’s told the two daughters take advantage of her, as she has to give them what they want (her closet, her mother’s necklace ) for they are spoiled and bratty. They are also fans of the prince.

One day, Ella debates Hattie, the evil step sister, about sir Edgar, the king of the land, who enslaved the ogres, giants and elves so the kingdom could thrive. Ella thinks it’s a bad thing, while Hattie thinks it’s a good thing. Seeing Ella again, doing what she’s told, she realizes she has power over her, to make her do her bidding.

 

Prince Char is about to be crowned king, but he doesn’t really want to rule. This might be a good thing, as his uncle wants to keep the throne at any cost.

Prince Char and his uncle, sir Edgar, make an appearance at a town meeting, and Ella is there protesting their ruling, while her step sisters are there to show their support for prince Char whom they love (honestly they are fangirling like fans at a concert ). Seeing Ella is protesting, Hattie sends her home. Because the girls try to get him, hearing he’s not a fast runner, he runs away from them, and jumps into Ella, who was doing as told, going home.

Ella seems to be the only woman who’s not into him. And he likes that. He’s surprised to hear the things Ella tells him about how things are in the kingdom.

She realizes she lost her purse when he bumped into her, and he tells her to wait right where she is, in the middle of the road, for him to go get it. Just then,a carriage comes towards her, fast, and she can’t move. Luckily, he comes back and rescues her. Unluckily, her sisters find them together, and Hattie sends her to the mall with her other sister.

Hattie finds Ella at the mall, as Char runs away from her, and Hattie makes her steal items.

The step mother is upset Ella is a felon, and Hattie tells Ella to say her best friend put her up to it. Her step mother makes her never talk to her again, while Hattie makes her tell her even more atrocious things.

This makes Ella have enough of it, and decides to look for Lucinda, to ask her to take the curse back. Mandy, the household fairy, tells her to take her boyfriend with her, whom she unfortunately turned into a book 20 years ago.

The book can show her anything she asks of it, so it shows her where Lucinda is but without knowing the name of the place. Mandy realizes it’s a wedding registry in Giantville.

Before she leaves she does one last thing for her step mother, getting her and her daughters the bouquets she asked for, without telling what kind, giving them a taste of their own medicine.

I personally enjoyed the movie.

I liked the world they created, I loved the house Ella lived in with her family, but I hated the costumes, especially the ones of the leads.

On her quest to find Lucinda Ella meets ogres,giants,fairies and elves, and befriends a few. She befriends an elf who wants to become a lawyer, but in their kingdom the elves are forced to sing and dance, and not allowed to do anything else.

Ella was good and kind, and didn’t deserve people taking advantage of her.

The prince was oblivious to what was going on in his kingdom, like any teenager would be, and didn’t really want to rule. He’s the only one who doesn’t want to order Ella around, telling her she doesn’t have to do something if she doesn’t want to.

Mandy was nice, and really bad at casting spells, as she couldn’t even turn her man back from a book, until the end of the movie.

The step mother doesn’t have a big role, Hattie is mostly the villain of the story (alongside sir Edgar who wants to keep the throne at any cost), but I liked how Lucy Punch played her.

Lucinda was annoying, had no patience with anyone, and thought she was amazing, although she was a drunk. Probably the reason she gave such bad gifts that people had to suffer through their whole life.But she thinks her gifts are amazing, and people love them!

The acting was good.

Heidi Klum has a small part playing a giant.

The visual effects were good.

The soundtrack was good. The movie is a musical, so the actors sing well known songs.

The movie received negative reviews from the critics and the writer who complained the movie has nothing to do with the source material, sir Edgar and his snake, Heston, being new characters created for the movie.

Cinema Score audiences graded the movie an A-.

The movie grossed 27.4 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 31 million dollars, being a flop.

You can watch the full movie for free on the Ok.Ru platform, in English with Romanian subtitles.

Rating : Worth a watch !