ELLA ENCHANTED
ANNE HATHAWAY DOES WHAT SHE'S TOLD

It's hard to review movies that are aimed at kids.  Not because I can't appreciate a good children's film, but because for the most part, kids are a pretty undemanding lot.  A 2 hour film of Scooby Doo farting could be the funniest movie of all time to a 6 year old, but that's just too easy.  No offense to my 7 year old daughter, but when she told me that Ella Enchanted was one of the best movies she had ever seen, I have a hard time believing it.  Especially since she watched the entire thing stone faced and laughed only when somebody fell down.  But who am I to argue? 

Granted, a kid will watch pretty much any film you let them (I was the same way), but a truly great kids film is one that charms the adults that are along for the ride, as well.  Fortunately, the star of Ella Enchanted, Anne Hathaway, makes the otherwise mediocre film pretty easy to watch.

The 22 year old Hathaway, who broke through with her popular role in Disney's The Princess Diaries, shows that she's definitely got what it takes to be a star.  She's incredibly charming and carries a great combination of beauty and intelligence that's pretty rare with younger actresses.

Ella is cursed at birth with a "gift" that compels her to do anything anyone tells her to.  This uncontrolled obedience presents challenges for Ella, and after her mother dies (what fairy tale would be complete without a dead parent?), a stepmom comes in with evil daughters who are more than happy to exploit her problem.  Ella sets out to find the fairy (played humorlously by Vivica Fox), to remove the spell.

Based on the 1998 book of the same name by Gail Carson Levine, the film version Ella Enchanted hardly breaks any new ground.  In fact, the entire movie is a potluck of elements that have already been done before in recent films.  It's as if someone took Shrek, The Princess Bride, A Knight's Tale, and a dash of Harry Potter, and mixed it all together.  But just like those "suicide" sodas you'd make as a kid with 6 different flavors, it leaves a pretty bad taste in your mouth.

Just like Shrek, the fairy tale characters have been exiled from the kingdom and are forced to perform hard labor.  There's definitely an air of "The Princess Bride" throughout, which is rubbed in with Cary Elwes (who played Wesley in the Rob Reiner classic), unsuccessfully tries to chew up the scenery as the evil Uncle Edgar.  As the main villain of the film, hee comes across as cartoony, silly, and rather shallow.

Perhaps the most glaring "borrow" is the use of contemporary songs performed in a Medieval era setting.  While the crowd watching a jousting match singing "We Will Rock You" was good for a laugh in "A Knight's Tale", it's jaw droppingly shameful to see yet another Queen song used in a party setting in this film.  Though seeing Hathaway vamp it up as she sings, "Somebody to Love", is kind of fun, it's just uninspired goofiness.

Kids movies with adult oriented jokes in them work well if both generations of viewers get some sort of humor out of it.  The script in Ella stoops to the low of using unfunny Botox jokes, and even "oh so timely" OJ Simpson Trial humor when an elf says, "If the gauntlet doesn't fit, you must acquit."

Minnie Driver is fine as the aunt, Lucy Punch is suitably annoying as an evil stepsister (a role she's recently played in a TV version of Cinderella), while up and coming UK star Hugh Dancy does a fine job as Prince Char (like Charming, get it?), giving the duo plenty of chemistry.

One odd bit of casting is ER and Bend It Like Beckham star Parminder Nagra, who at 29 plays a high school student about as believably as Stockard Channing did as Rizzo in Grease (at 34).

There's also a funny flaw and plot hole in the film I picked up.  Though Ella is forced to do anything anyone tells her to, she refuses an offer from the prince to let him help her up after they fall down shortly after they first meet.   And (SPOILER AHEAD...highlight this section to read) when the Prince's uncle admits he killed Char's father, instructs her to kill the prince, and says she cant' say anything about his plan, you wonder why she couldn't tell him about his father's killer, at least.((END OF SPOILER).

If you've got a young kid you'd like to drag to the movies, you could do a lot worse than Ella Enchanted, but I'd recommend Disney's last traditional animated film, "Home On The Range" for a more solid fick that you'd enjoy along with them.