Ella Enchanted & Enchanted

After a little refreshing of my memory I see that it's been almost a year since my last 'Alphabetical Movie Project' movie review. And it's probably been about that long since John and I actually watched a movie in project too. We finished the F's and then the project stalled. We needed a wee break I guess and we haven't started up again. Perhaps we will over the winter. In the meantime here are the rest of the reviews for the movies that we did watch.

Ella Enchanted is the Cinderella story with a little humourous spin. As a baby Ella was cursed by her fairy godmother with the gift of obedience. As a teenager she has had enough of the 'gift' and no longer wants to do what she's told, especially when her new step sisters discover that she has to do exactly what she's told. She goes in search of her fairy godmother to break the curse. To guide her she takes her other fairy godmothers boyfriend (who's been accidently cursed into a talking book). She bumps into the handsome prince that she's been picketing against and who her step sister is trying to marry, but she is less than impressed with his presence. Along the way she meets a dwarf that wants to be a lawyer, visits a giant village and gets rescued from ogres by the prince. She falls in love with him and before she can accept his marriage proposal his uncle discovers her obediance curse so he tells her she has to kill him at midnight. Will she be able to overcome her gift? Will she get the curse lifted in time?

Eric Idle narrates this fairytale, set in a magical realm with modern day music and fun. Anne Hathaway stars as the cursed Ella, alongside Hugh Dancy as the handsome prince. Joanna Lumley makes an appearance as the evil stepmother and Minnie Driver plays the fairy godmother (the good one, not the one that curses her).

I'm a big fan of Anne Hathaway, I'm not entirely sure why, but it might be because when I imagine the movie of my life I picture Anne Hathaway playing either myself or at least one of my friends. Weird? Sure. Anyway, I like Anne Hathaway and her acting work. She is particularly fun and joyous in this lighthearted movie and who knew she could sing! And not only sing, it was 'Someone to Love' by Queen, not the easiest song in the world to sing.

I enjoy the magic and fun of the movie. The singing dwarfs, the giants, the curse and of course that the prince falls in love with her. Yes it's a children's movie, but it's fun and I'm all for fun, lighthearted movies.

You won't miss anything by not watching it, but if you enjoy a musical, magical, children's movie, then this is the movie for you.

The next movie in the list was in the same vain and even the same name as the one above. Enchanted is also a fairytale and aimed generally at children or tweenagers.

Princess Giselle is your typical fairytale, cartoon princess. The movie starts out in cartoon form with the Princess very quickly falling in love with Prince Charming as he rides by. On her way to the wedding she is pushed into a very, very deep well by the evil Queen and falls through to modern day, real life Manhattan. Giselle is very lost and confused, but is rescued by Robert and his young daughter Morgan. Giselle tries to find her way home, while Prince Charming falls through the well followed by several other cartoon characters. Eventually Robert realises that he's falling in love with Giselle despite being in a relationship with Nancy. He must decide if the beautiful and quirky Giselle is for him, or if he should send her back to her cartoon world.

Amy Adams stars as the beautiful but naive Giselle and Patrick Dempsey stars as the worldly Robert. James Marsden is Prince Charming and Indina Menzel is Nancy. Amy Adams has the childlike, innocent look about her that plays very well as the naive cartoon come to life. While Patrick Dempsey is gorgeous and a great actor, I can't help but always see him as Dr McDreamy from Greys Anatomy. Meanwhile Indina Menzel is fabulous as Nancy. She's just fabulous in general, beautiful and an amazing singer (not that she sang in this movie, but I've seen her sing and she's great.) She made her start as a broadway actress and has moved into TV and movies. Susan Sarandon also cameo's as the real world evil Queen and of course she's great, when is she not?!

This movie could be any fairytale retold, but what makes it stand out is that it starts as a cartoon and the characters come to life in the real world. Without giving away the ending, one real life character falls the other way and ends up staying in the cartoon world. Rather quirky for a Hollywood movie with some big stars. But, it is of course a children's movie and has the obligatory enchanting animals and birds, singing princesses, a child that can see the 'real' beauty and awe of the fairytale, a prince that loves her and another man that doesn't love her but fallens in love with her in the end. Is that typical? Apparently so in fairytale land.

Once again, this isn't a must see by any means. And honestly you won't enjoy it if you don't like children's movies or a sickly sweet Amy Adams. But if you have a child or need something that is completely predicatable, mindless and sweet then give this a go.

Next up for review is Erik the Viking, Erin Brokovich, Escape from New York and Ever After. Then it's the F's. And there's a lot more of them than you'd think.