Ella Enchanted

I read the book a couple of years ago and the movie totally lived up to the book.

This is one of my favourite movies and if you're a lover of music and romance you'll really like it it. Also, it's a creative rendition of the Cinderella story, and combines music, humour and serious subject matter in such a delightful way. There are a couple of mildly offensive comments near the beginning, but they are so subtle and fleeting you don't even notice them really anyway. Anne Hathaway is a great comedic actress as well as a good singer we find out, and handsome Hugh Dancy is charming as Prince Char. It's a touching and funny story with excellent acting, although it is slightly corny in places. There are some great romantic moments and the chemistry between the two leads is excellent.

After Ella is born she is given a gift by her eccentric Fairy Godmother Lucinda so that she will always be obedient. Although this is ok when she is child, when she grows up her "gift", which is really a curse, comes to the attention of people who use it for evil intent. This is a great story to teach idioms and figurative language to kids, as Ella takes so many of these literally leading to funny situations. Ella's mother dies and her father remarries a woman with you guessed it...two daughters.

All the girls in the kingdom are in love with Prince Char and even have a fan club. When he meets Ella and then saves her life, he doesn't know what to make of the fact that Ella is not as enamoured as the other girls. Instead she sees what is wrong with the kingdom and the Elfin Restrictions put in place by his evil uncle Edgar who has taken over the throne. She also feels that Char as the heir to the throne should do something about this unfairness. Despite her original distain for the prince, Ella slowly begins to fall in love with Prince Char. after they wind up on a trip together with Ella's elf friend, Slannen. Their love for each other is put to the ultimate challenge when King Edgar tries to assassinate Prince Char. Will Ella be able to conquer the curse and be together with Char?

I would have given this 5 stars, but as I am reviewing the blu-ray I had to take that into consideration as well. This is the only blu-ray I own that has no features of any kind. It doesn't even have a menu page so you can access the chapters easily. There aren't closed captions or subtitles either. As a teacher of the deaf I view this as discriminatory and it's also ironical that a release for a movie that is partly about providing equality to all creatures in the kingdom doesn't have these. On the other hand, the widescreen DVD release has lots of extra features, including deleted scenes, a feature about making the movie, and an alternate ending. Although HD is always great and that part of it is well done, I'm not sure if the quality is that much different from the DVD to make it worth your while. So I would suggest buying the DVD and skipping this substandard blu-ray that was "lazy" and a quick money maker. I feel there is no excuse for it when the features are already present in another format. However I'd definitely recommend this movie.

Ella Enchanted is a fun family film, but this unique and not so traditional fairy tale could have used some bonus material. Unfortunately, the blu-ray doesn't even have a menu - it just loads and plays. The visuals look good on blu-ray, and the audio is fine, but the disc itself is so bare bones that there isn't even a scene select menu or captioning. For fans, the blu-ray might be worth it, especially at a discounted price. (3 1/2 stars)