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.