Review of Ella Enchanted (2004) by Tracey C — 11 Feb 2011

This movie isn't the first time Eric Idle narrated a fairy tale. There was that sketch on Monty Python's Flying Circus, where he reads a series of them that turn out to be more scandalous than even he expects. This time he narrates a tale by Gail Carson Levine(sort of), which is somewhat of a re-write of Cinderella, The Wizard of Oz, and a few other fairy tales thrown in, along with the addition of female empowerment that those other tales lacked.

When Ella of Frell was born, Lucinda Perriwhether, a fairy godmother who was a fair-weather friend of her mother's put her under a spell that made her automatically obedient, a convenience for her parents, but not so good for Ella herself. Her mom(Donna Dent), and other godmother Mandy(Minnie Driver), both of which are amateur fairy godmothers know this, and try to get her to take it back. Unfortunately, Lucinda refuses and threatens to turn her into a squirrel(something she enjoys doing), so they let her keep it. This gave her plenty of problems in life, and the older she got, the more problems the spell gave her. Her mother never tells her about the "gift" until she's eight years old, and nobody but her, Lucinda, and Mandy know about it. Long after her mother dies, her father marries a shrew named Dame Olga(Joanna Lumley) with two teenage daughters, Hattie a manipulative bitch(Judy Punch), and Olive an idiotic kleptomaniac(Jennifer Higham).

Lamia, the kingdom in which they live isn't exactly so ideal. It's ruled by the evil King Edgar, who has segregated Giants, Elves, and Ogres(although he may be right about the ogres), and Ella and her friend Areida(Parminder Nagra) are dead set against it. Still, most of the girls around her don't care, because his nephew Prince Charmont is apparently a dream-boy. And since he's part of the monarchy, Ella hates him even though he's nothing like the king. Hattie, who's the head of the Prince's fan club, realizes early into the entry of Ella's family that she and other people can control her for some reason. When Prince Char speaks in front of a crowd of swooning teenage girls, Hattie abruptly cancels Ella's anti-monarchist demonstration. When she stumbles upon the Prince and drops her purse, he makes her stay in the middle of the road while he retrieves it, and almost gets hit by a horse-drawn wagon, only to be rescued by the prince. When her evil step-sisters force her to shoplift and get her to blame it on her best friend, she realizes she has no other choice but to but to find the old fairy godmother to try to get her to reverse that spell. Luckily Mandy has Benny, an old boyfriend she accidentally turned into a book, who can help her find Lucinda... sort of. A few clues later reveals that the woman is somewhere in Giantville, and Ella and the Benny-book are off.

On their way to Giantville, she comes across an elf named Slannen, being hassled by some peasants. After she rescues him, he joins her on her journey. Thanks to the king, all elves are forced to sing and dance for humans, and this elf is dead set against doing so. He wants to be a lawyer. They also comes across some ogres who try to eat them, despite her push for their re-integration, and Prince Char comes to her rescue again. Slannen makes her invite him to come along, since Lamia is on the way. Upon arrival, the prince finds that the giants are used as slaves, and after some coaxing by Ella to lend them his ears, he finds that many of the giants, ogres, elves, and other non-humans have good reason to be upset with the royal family.

The highlight, of course is Anne Hathaway's cover of Queen's 1976 hit "Somebody To Love," which she only sings when commanded to by some giants who fail to get Slannen to do so. Slannen falls in love with a giantess named Brumhilda, played by Heidi Klum. And believe it or not, some of the other giant girls are even cuter, but that's besides the point. It seems that both think the myth of how each species are supposed to act began with the Brothers Grimm. In the meantime, Prince Char offers to let Ella spend some time in the hall of records to look for Lucinda. As you can expect, they fall in love after all. But Sir Edgar has other plans for the prince. And when he finds out about Ella's "condition" through Hattie, he uses her against the beloved Char. Being that this is a fairy tale, you can probably guess what kind of ending to expect. The operative word in that sentence being "probably.".

As enjoyable as this movie is, when I read about fans on the book who complain about the movie's apparent misinterpretation of it, I find it disturbing. I'm not saying they're not right(because I'm not one to judge), I'm just saying they're harsh. Moreso than critics of the adaptations of "Maniac Magee," and "The Power of One." This is the unsettling part. Like so many storybooks, this was was rewritten for the silver screen, perhaps too rewritten for some people. I also wondered if Sir Edgar's talking pet snake Heston(Scott Grimes) was the true evil behind the King's agenda, especially since he's got statues of himself in some parts of the castle. Sure, the use of 20th Century pop-hits are an extraordinary anachronism, but that can be easily forgiven. And if you can forgive that, you shouldn't have as much of a problem with the rest of the movie. So I say, give it a try whether you've read the original book or not.