Ella Enchanted
Rating: PG

Brought to you by OBS staff member Annabell Cadiz

When Ella was born her fairy godmother stopped by to pay a visit. Since Ella wouldn’t stop crying, the fairy godmother bestowed her with a gift of obedience. Ella grows up unable to control the need to listen to every direct order someone gives to her. One day, Prince Char shows up to visit Ella’s town since his coronation will be taking place soon and he needs to gain good standing with the people of the kingdom. Ella heads home at the command of her horrid step sister and ends up running into Prince Char who is trying to get away from a group of girls who are chasing him. Ella and Prince Char share a moment before Ella’s annoying step sisters show up and interrupt them, commanding Ella to head back home. Ella is sick and tired of having to listen to everyone, never having the chance to make her own decision. She dreams of being free to speak her mind and go wherever she wants without the consequence of having someone to command her to shut up or stay home. She sets out to find the fairy godmother who placed the spell on her and set herself free. But Ella’s journey isn’t as easy as she thought it would be. She not only has to free herself but save Prince Char from his power hungry uncle who will go to any lengths to gain his throne.

This was a very strange movie with a few delightful moments mixed in.

The cast was on their game. Anne Hathway who played Ella was beautiful and strong willed. She has an open heart and fights for those who cannot fight for themselves. Prince Char is charming, handsome, and a bit naive. It was nice to see the roles reversed in a sense, where Ella was the one doing a lot of the fighting and Char was learning his Uncle Edgar wasn’t being so truthful about what was happening within the kingdoms. Heston, the snake who serves Uncle Edgar, manage to steal the show a few times with his humorous quips.

The premise of the movie was thoroughly predictable: girl is on a journey of self-discovery, falls for the bad boy prince, has to help rescue a kingdom, bad boy prince matures and falls for said girl. The movie also has very odd moments that seemed out of place: the musical number with Ella at the bar for the giants and elves who sing and dance. One of them wants to branch out and become a lawyer. The fairy godmother is basically a drunk floozy and seems far more incapable of wielding whatever power she possess than actually doing any good with them.

The effects in the movie were decent. I did enjoy the man powered escalator in the medieval market place and when Ella is frozen in mid air when a solider tells her to stop.

Ella Enchanted is a light hearted movie with some pretty good humor and antics but there was at times too much going on within the plot (musical dance numbers, orks looking more like giant bald men than villains, elves acting as entertainment than powerful) to make the movie flow well.

Running Time: 96 minutes
Director: Tommy O’Haver
Rating: 8/10 stars