Ella Enchanted Gender Movie Review

Ella Enchanted is a 2004 British-American film based on Gail Carson Levines 1997 bracing Ella Enchanted. The book itself is based upon Cinderella but now with the addition of mythical creatures like ogres, elves, and fairies. It has been said by critics that Ella Enchanted, the movie, varies so much from the book that people should be regarding the movie as a separate creative act. The movie follows Ella who was given the gift of obedience by her fairy god mother as a child.She spends most of the movie being controlled by various characters, from her step-sisters to the king of the kingdom. The main plot point of the novel is her journey to get the spell reversed which in the end she releases herself from the spell and then helps the prince. Anne Hathaway plays Ella and Hugh Dancy plays Prince Charmont, who end up getting married. For how terrible this movie was, they did well with what they had to work with.This movie aims forPrincess Brideself-awareness and the kind of anachronis tic comedy tardily popularized by theShrekmoviesbut rooted in the British stage panto tradition. There were cheesy dance poem and a couple oddly placed outbursts of song, despite the fact that this isnt a musical. Or at least it wasnt for most of the production. Anne and Hugh had great chemistry, which was essential because they end up getting married in the end after they fall in love after a disgustingly short sum total of time. Both had what their specific role called for and a good comedic timing.Anne has the child-like purity but also the confidence and smarts of a mature young woman that was needed to play a 19-year old where Hugh had the charisma, looks and intelligence to be the plausible heir to a kingdom. The actual film itself was horrendous. The use of green screens and special effects to create the fit and the creatures like giants and ogres were trivial and very primary feather. Elves are just Jewish guys in green tights. Giants are prescript people (some of the m in mini-skirts) projected up on a green screen behind the primary actors.Ogres are fat guys with blue spray paint on their heads. They tried to make this fairy statement more relatable to modern times by changing the wardrobe from actual medieval wear to flash 70s rip offs for the ladies and cartoon-ish attire for the men. Incorporating modern technology into this movie didnt help it any either. With a crank-powered woody escalator to an emergency button that dropped ninjas from the roof (that resembles the likes of a fire alarm), it was tacky and confusing. Though,Ella Enchantedavoids a stagger common mong girl-empowerment flicks, which often feel compelled to emasculate the male lead in order to make the heroine actually heroic. This approach backfires, of carry, since its unsatisfying for the heroine to wind up with a wimp who doesnt deserve her she needfully aworthysuitor. The film satirizes the teen-idol-worship culture of its own target audience with scenes of screami ng maidens swooning over dashing Prince Char, while the more sensible Ella protests injustices committed by Chars nefarious uncle.Of course Char is intrigued by Ellas lack of interest in him, and she in turn begins to respond to his attentions. Ella is meant to be seen as a feminist-like character that cares about equal rights and disinterested in appealing to the prince with her appearance or actions, which is pretty cool to see in a childrens film. Seeing how the book is based on Cinderella, I think its quite an improvement in role models. Cinderella was just obedient and cried a lot but Ella works to fix her issues determinedly.