Ella Enchanted (film)

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Ella Enchanted
Image:Ella Enchanted original theatrical poster.jpg Original theatrical poster
Directed by	Tommy O'Haver
Starring	Anne Hathaway Hugh Dancy Cary Elwes
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	April 9, 2004
Running time	96 min.
Language	English
Budget	US$35,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Ella Enchanted is a comedy film and the screen adaptation of Gail Carson Levine's 1997 novel of the same name. The film stars Anne Hathaway as Ella and Hugh Dancy as Prince Charmont. It was released to North American theatres on April 9, 2004 (see 2004 in film). The film premiered on Disney Channel on August 10, 2007.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Box office
4 Soundtrack
5 Differences
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Plot

Shortly after her birth, Ella (Anne Hathaway) is granted the "gift" of obedience by a fairy named Lucinda (Vivica A. Fox). She is forced to obey every order she is given. One instance of this is when she befriends an Ayorthian named Areida (Parminder Nagra), who is being teased by another girl. When she sticks up for Areida, the girl says, "So? Bite me!" Ella bites her. Several years later, Ella's mother dies and she is left with her father who, in need of money, remarries a wealthy socialite. His greedy, expedient new wife and her two spoiled daughters Hattie and Olive treat Ella poorly and when they find out about her gift they start using her and try to make her life a misery and ruin it. Hattie takes malicious joy in Ella's suffering. Ella cannot bear to live under the obedience spell and Hattie's jealousy any longer and sets out to find Lucinda in hopes of her removing the spell. During her journey, she encounters an elf named Slannen, who refuses to be an entertainer, which all elves are expected to be under kingdom restrictions.

Slannen joins Ella on her quest to find Lucinda, but run into trouble with a group of ogres. She defends them with a stunning display of martial arts ability but they are still outnumbered. They are rescued by Prince Charmont (Hugh Dancy), the heir to the kingdom of Frell, who is openly infatuated with Ella. He follows her to a wedding in the land of giants, where Ella hopes to find Lucinda. At the wedding, Ella is forced to perform a rendition of Queen's "Somebody to Love". After the wedding, Prince Charmont recommends that Ella visits the Hall of Records to track down Lucinda and so that she can attend his coronation. As they make their way to the palace, Prince Charmont and Ella fall in love.

At the palace, Ella's "gift" is brought to the attention of Sir Edgar (a non-existent character in the book; played by Cary Elwes), the Prince's uncle and the regent of Frell until Char's coronation. Ella's stepsisters explain that she does everything she is told and he orders her to stab Prince Charmont when they are alone and not to tell anyone of the plan. Sir Edgar reveals that he was the murderer of Prince Charmont's father (Charmont's father was not dead in the book). Ella asks Slannen to tie her to a tree outside the city and to find the giants in order to help them.

In somewhat of a predicament, Lucinda appears before Ella and she asks the fairy to undo the gift of obedience. Offended by her request, Lucinda says that she cannot take it back and that if she no longer wants the spell, she must find a way to remove it herself. To make matters worse, she unties Ella from the tree after giving her a fancy dress to attend the ball in. When Ella gets to the ball, Charmont immediately takes her to the hall of mirrors and asks her to marry him at midnight. She is about to stab him with the dagger, when she frees herself from the curse by shouting "You will no longer be obedient!" into a mirror, which is reflected back to her. Since she has to obey whatever orders she hears, she obeys and thus is no longer obedient. This saves Prince Charmont from his uncle's treachery.

Charmont believes she tried to kill him, and Edgar (who was watching the entire scene behind a double-view mirror) order the guards to lock her up and have her executed in a few days. Slannen gets the giants, and the ogres come to help as well. They sneak into the castle. They rescue Ella and find out that Sir Edgar is poisoning the crown that is to be put on Char's head. Just when the crown is just inches above his head, Ella and the ogres and Slannen barge in and the crown is put on a table. Knights are ordered out by Edgar, but Prince Char and Ella along with the ogres and Slannen defeat them all. During the fight, Ella reveals everything that happened and Mandy (Ella's homemaker fairy) finally is able to change Benny (her boyfriend who was accidentally transformed into a book, and helps Ella to find Lucinda) back into a man.

Sir Edgar then admits to it, but yells to all that only he is fit to wear the crown. He then puts it on his head, and falls to the ground from the poison. A few seconds later Char asks Ella to marry him and she agrees.

During their wedding, which ends with a musical number (Elton John's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"), it is revealed that Sir Edgar did not die, but was very badly poisoned.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role(s)
Anne Hathaway	Ella of Frell
Hugh Dancy	Prince Charmont
Cary Elwes	Sir Edgar
Aidan McArdle	Slannen
Joanna Lumley	Dame Olga
Lucy Punch	Hattie
Jennifer Higham	Olive
Minnie Driver	Mandy
Eric Idle	Narrator
Steve Coogan	Heston
Jimi Mistry	Benny
Vivica A. Fox	Lucinda
Parminder Nagra	Areida
Jim Carter	Nish
Patrick Bergin	Sir Peter
Heidi Klum	Giantess

[edit] Box office

Image:Ella Enchanted film.jpg

DVD cover for Ella Enchanted, released August 24 2004

Ella Enchanted cost $35 million to make, but only grossed $22.9 million in theaters. DVD sales, however, helped make the bottom line.

[edit] Soundtrack

Ella Enchanted (album)

[edit] Differences

Slannen, an elf, has a bigger role in the film than in the book. In the book, he doesn't go on the 'quest' with Ella.
Ella meets the prince when he is being chased and disliked him. In the book, they met just after her mother's funeral when they were children and instantly had feelings for one another.
Uncle Edgar didn't appear in the book. He was created for the movie.
In the book there is no plot to kill the prince (although the possibility of one, involving the same manipulation of Ella's curse, is raised).
Prince Charmont does not follow Ella to the wedding in the book, he instead sends one of his knights with her.
The Fairy Lucinda does not give Ella a dress in the book, she gives her a necklace and tiara that disappear at midnight along with the pumpkin coach. The three dresses (for the three balls in the book) are Ella's mother's.
Prince Charmont does not propose to Ella in a hall of mirrors in the book. He tells her he loves her in a letter when he is out of the country and proposes to her in her own house after the final ball.
Ella's fairy godmother Mandy has no boyfriend in the book.
Ella goes to a finishing school in the book, which is where she meets her friend Areida. She runs away (alone) to go to a giant's wedding in where she heard that Lucinda is going to be.
In order to protect the prince and the kingdom of Frell Ella writes to the prince when he is out of the country, pretending to be Hattie and telling him that she has eloped with a rich man. In the three balls she is masked so she can see him again, knowing that he would hate her if he knew she was there. She goes by the name "Lela".
Mandy is not a house fairy, she is Ella's (and Ella's mother, grandmother etc.) fairy godmother.
Ella meets Dame Olga and her daughters at her mother's funeral. She attends their wedding where she sees Prince Char once again.
Ella and her father do NOT get along. He is never there and he thinks she is not a lady.
Ella's curse in the film is that she must obey without given an option like when a guard tells her to freeze and she freezes in mid air whereas in the book Ella can try and disobey an order but suffers for it, the pain only ending when she obeys the order.