Ella Enchanted

“Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally.”

By Greg Call

Ella Enchanted was written by Gail Carson Levine and is a Cinderella retelling set in the medieval-fantasy kingdom of Kyrria with the twist that Ella, our first-person narrator, was cursed from birth with the gift of obedience by an irresponsible fairy. So the story's driving force is Ella attempting to break the curse and dealing with the consequences of her curse all while stubbornly refusing to accept her fate and falling in love with Prince Charmont. One of my favorite things about the book, that despite it being a retelling it feels original and genuine, it's a Cinderella story that takes itself seriously. Too often I pick up books that are fairy-tale retellings or are using fairy-tale tropes only for the plot and characters to be mocked endlessly, which might be clever in the hands of a talented writer but most of the time it simply comes off as mean-spirited. Which is part of the reason Ella Enchanted is so charming is that it tells its own story, no fourth wall winking and all the characters 

are invested in what's happening to them so the reader is too.

While definitely written for a younger audience in mind, older elementary students, it holds up surprisingly well to a re-read, and remains one of my favorite books, certainly one of my favorite fairy-tale retellings. The prose is straight-forward suiting Ella's honesty and the plot spans her childhood to adulthood and while it is not fast-paced, it remains engaging and is by no means devoid of action. There's not to much to say without giving too much of the book away, but it really is worth a read. It is perhaps more high fantasy than Neil Gaiman's Coraline but those who enjoy Coraline would probably also enjoy Ella Enchanted. Gail Carson is a talented writer and I do enjoy her other books, but without a doubt Ella Enchanted is my favorite of her works. That all said I read Ella Enchanted in elementary school and adored it as only a budding young fantasy fan can love a book. Then the movie came out in 2004.

Betrayal doesn't even begin to cover how younger me felt upon seeing this film for the first time. . For some reason Miramax Films decided that doing a remake of the Cinderella story was too hard they waned to make Ella Enchanted about political intrigue and fantastic racism instead with whacky anachronistic high-jinks on the side. I understand that the book would have to be changed in order to be translated to a visual medium, but the changes are so extreme the movie isn't even recognizable as a book adaption beyond the original premise and the name of the characters. I had even been a big fan of Anne Hathaway having watched The Princess Diaries (I had not read the books) and that couldn't save this movie for me. 

Though despite my original reaction to the movie I don't hate it in the least mostly thanks to the fact that my niece who I babysat discovered the movie and wanted to watch it every time she came over. At first I couldn't even bear to be in the same room, but eventually I got so numbed to it that I actually noticed that the film is rather enjoyable to watch in its own way. Not to say that it is a good movie by any means. It's become one of my guilty pleasures; it has Cary Elwes (Wesley from The Princess Bride) playing the most wonderfully hammy of evil uncles of all time, a huge Queen musical number for no particular reason, and the actors are so clearly enjoying themselves that it's almost impossible to outright hate. It helps that this movie was also made early enough before fairy-tale parody movies were a 'thing' so the plot actually takes itself half-seriously. I would place the movie comparable in enjoyment and demographic niche to Quest For Camelot (though slightly better I think) Speaking of which Eric Idol is in both movies, though he's only the narrator in Ella Enchanted. The only thing that bugged me any on my most recent re-watching was how often Ella was referred to as 'Ella of Frell' that a drinking game could be made of it.

Not evil at all

To end with I would heartily recommend Ella Enchanted the book to anyone with a spare handful of hours, but the movie only to people who are fully aware of the absolute corny, knight-ninja mess they're walking into. Or if someone needs to keep the kids they're babysitting entertained for a little bit it's also good for that, but not much else.

Red Robin: The Grail

Warning for minor spoilers

"He's out there somewhere, I know he is. I know I'm right. Bruce Wayne... Batman... is alive. They think I'm grieving. That I'm in denial. That I've lost it. But he's all I have and he has to be alive."

 I was incredibly excited when I first ordered Red Robin: The Grail, despite almost exclusively reading Marvel comics, Tim Drake is my favorite Robin and I really wanted to know more about his character. So the first volume of his most recent solo series (That I'm aware of anyway) seemed like a good place to start. Though as I researched the background of this volume, while waiting for it to arrive, I became a little anxious with more than a few sources mentioning a dislike of the darkening of Tim Drake's character that occurs at this period of time in the DC universe. So by the time I received the volume I was wary of setting my expectations too high.

The cover is pretty good, the yellow contrasting with the black keeping it from being overbearingly dark like many Batman covers tend to be. The pose is a little awkward, but I really like the Red Robin costume which is on display. I personally prefer the back-cover art displaying Red Robin fighting Batman (assumably Dick Grayson who has just taken up the mantle at this point). It's dynamic and also has the yellow background that helps the characters pop out perhaps alluding to the fact that Red Robin was originally Robin for all that his costume is less bright now. The back summary is also pretty decent. That may seem like a weird thing to point out, but I know more than a few books that are ruined by a horrible summary. This one intrigues the reader without giving too much away. Personally I don't think they should have mentioned Ra's as an ally since that doesn't occur until after the first issue, but it's not a big problem.

The interior art is also decent and looks close enough to the cover art that it's not horribly jarring like in some comics. My only complaint is how the artist sometimes draws women; mostly that when one appears something just looks off until you realize that they're actually rather disproportionate is the bust to waist to hip ratio. It is nowhere near as off putting as some art styles, but the tendency to make them pouty lipped and show off their bare stomachs only make the occasional anatomy slip-off more obvious. Another minor pick is the way he draws makes Tim occasionally look much younger than the sixteen-ish year old he's supposed to be. That may just be me however and it doesn't detract from the story.

In a nutshell the plot is that nearly everyone Tim loves is a) dead or b) to busy dealing with their own crap to deal with him, only with Bruce now gone too Tim just can't accept it and goes on a cross-continental journey to find proof that Batman is not really dead. Pacing-wise it's a little slow, which seems odd to say given that there's a kidnapping/fight scene/explosion in the first five or so pages, but what the book is really about doesn't really start rolling until part three. There's plenty of action no doubt, but even Tim in his rather angsty internal monologue points out that these fights are just “distractions” (for the reader). It doesn't help that the story is interrupted by a constant stream of flashbacks showing why Tim has left and why he's so bitter at the moment. The flashbacks are effective in outlining his motivation for what he's doing, but they're unhelpfully labeled just “Before” leaving the timeline of what happened to Tim in Gotham a little blurry chronologically.

In terms of the atmosphere the comic projects I would draw attention to these two graphics: 

 

One is of Tim (looking all of twelve) standing in a graveyard being sad because Batman is dead and no one understands and the second of Tim in his Red Robin costume on a motorcycle with an explosion in the background. It's a bit of a strange dichotomy to say the least, but strangely effective for the most part. The action keeping the slow plot from dragging and lightening up the flashbacks, but the more somber Gotham scenes keeps the action from seeming too over the top and relates back to us Tim's motivation.

Despite being unfamiliar with earlier runs of the character I can sympathize with those critical of Tim becoming 'darker and edgier'. Tim's baggage of man-pain while understandable does get old pretty quickly. I think the more irritating part about it from where I stand is that all the other people he lost, his father and his two best friends are pretty inconsequential to this plot. The entire catalyst of the story is Batman's death and Tim's desire to prove that Batman is indeed alive. Perhaps the idea is that the other deaths leave less people to talk Tim out of this, and it's what makes Bruce's death just so utterly unbearable to Tim, but really? It seems like it just gives Tim the excuse to feel really really bad about himself. Still after seeing what route DC took with Arsenal after he had his own trauma conga I can't complain too much about Tim, at least he remains heroic and competent even if he's whining about it. At least all the bad fan-fiction I've read about Tim crying on rooftops is starting to make sense now.

Despite my diatribe I don't hate the trade itself, that was more a distaste with the comic industry's tendency to kill of characters for cheap drama than anything else. Overall I enjoyed and found myself getting invested in the mystery plot. By the end I found myself liking Tim a lot more than I did in the beginning as he seems to get over himself for the most part and starts acting like the hero I know he is. Hopefully this means most of Tim's wangst will be left out of the future volumes which I fully intend to read. I can completely recommend this to someone especially if they're pre-inclined to like Tim Drake, but I wouldn't recommend it as someone's first introduction to the character.