Ella Enchanted [VHS]

Ella Enchanted is 100 minutes straight of trope after endless overdone trope, CGI enhanced castles, juvenile slapstick, vaudeville/caricature that is ignorant of its own campiness, a terribly written screenplay with grating pacing, indecisiveness of which theme and genre mash-ups they're going for, but worst of all - weirdly uncomfortable sexual innuendo.Don't believe me? Here's a list:- Ella references how cute Char's butt is in her debate class. What?- Gratuitous ogre butts- I've only known you for a day but suddenly I'm going to make out with you- This line: "I bet he showers naked!"- The giantess had an extremely low cut skirt showing her hip bone and a good four inches below her belly button. I'm a prude, so I tend to overcompensate the other way when trying to judge these things - but anybody with eyes would scratch their heads to wonder why that was in a kid's movie.- The ball-gown-to-mini-skirt-or-underwear trope (see also the live action Beauty and the Beast for this one). Huh? Why is this a thing?If I were to take the genre of Czech Fairy Tales and find one single movie to express the exact polar opposite, it would be Ella Enchanted. It surprised me to see that this film is a UK production, filmed in Ireland. So why was it completely dripping in CGI? Totally unnecessary.Note that it is radically different from the book, which is a fun YA fairy tale reimagining of Cinderella which I would certainly recommend (and the sequels, if you're eight or nine).There are two fantastic parts of this film:The spot on, hilarious performances of Lucy Punch (Hattie) and Cary Elwes (Uncle Edgar) - or should I say Wesley. You can't help but chuckle just seeing him in a caricature-y medieval role - and his deadpan and Hattie's obnoxious snorting are pretty much the only thing that are worth seeing. Once.Unless your sweet child begs you to watch it, and then, of course you'll oblige, though hopefully not from being under the influence of any enchanted curse - which was a theme I think they downplayed in favor of a half-hearted attempt at our ultra-PC culture rallying cry of "you can be who you want to be" mixed with some pitiful peddling of democratic ideals.

If you like the book, you will be disappointed at this movie. I have no problems letting my daughter read the book, but I will not let my kids watch a movie full of inappropriate remarks, exaggerated kissing and provocative dancing. Yep. There are still people who do NOT like that in movies for children. I'm one of them.

Such a fun movie! My five-year-old and I watched this together, and we loved it! I did have to pause it a few times to explain a few things, which is to be expected since I think the target audience is just a little older. She caught on quickly, though, and was quite enchanted...no pun intended. :-)Adults may be a little skeptical about the special effects, as they are, well, not particularly expensive-looking. But if you can lose yourself in the story it's worth it.

I had a friend tell me about this movie a while ago, I had never heard of it, which is a shame because I really enjoyed it when I got around to checking it out. I don't know how this one got past me considering it has an excellent cast and a really fun theme.Ella Enchanted is a modernized Fantasy mash-up with plenty of fun, song, and some interesting re-imaginings of classic fantasy tropes, characters, and relationships. Think Princess Diaries set in a Fantastic setting. This movie has a lot of fun with modern themes by realizing them in the fantasy setting, such as an open air mall with working wooden escalators. It also uses the fantasy setting as a lens to provide some minor social and political commentary, but more for fun than to preach. It's a quirky story with lots of unexpected twists on character types that when combined yield unusual and unexpected resolutions to classic problems. It's a fun and different fantasy tale well worth checking out.

Really cute spin on the Cinderella story... refreshing & entertaining family movie! Reminds me of "Shrek" in style only with live actors. Wish they made lots more like these for those of us wanting to escape Hollywood's lack of imagination or creativity in so many adult movies now days....

I bought this movie for my 9 year old granddaughter. She loved it. I also enjoyed it. It had a fun family friendly story line. The acting was great. I would recommend it to anyone who has an older elementary aged daughter or granddaughter.

The flavoring of this movie is akin to "The Princess Bride" and the "Shrek" films. It has many of the fairytale aspects you would want: a young woman who is under a spell, a prince, an evil king, and fairy tale creatures such as dwarves and fairies. Like "The Princess Bride" and the "Shrek" films, "Ella Enchanted" sort of makes fun of the concept of the fairytale. When Prince Charmont meets no-nonsense Ella and tells her, "You are the first girl I've met who hasn't swooned at the sight of me," she replies with, "Well, then maybe I've done you some good."Everyone will love Anne Hathaway's Ella character, who is not your typical fairytale woman. She's strong, knows what she wants, and knows how to get it. You immediately want to root for her, and long for her horrible stepmother and two stepsisters to have a taste of their own medicine.I wasn't sure if I'd like this movie or not, but I found it great fun to follow along as Ella searches for the fairy who gave her a gift that Ella desperately wants the fairy to take back.

Ugh! Do not watch if you are over the age of 8 or so ... It's truly old-school slapstick with a ludicrous amount of poorly executed CGI as an enhancement. Your little ones will probably like it but if you are an adult looking for a decent Cinderella story, look elsewhere.

This is one superbly spellbinding film! Anne Hathaway stars as the free spirited, spunky Ella, who is blessed with the virtue of obedience. Unfortunately though, this means that whenever she is called to obey, she must do it, making it so that it is also a very poorly constructed spell destined to get her into trouble (and this starts to take effect when her new stepmother Dame Olga and stepsisters Hattie and Olive start to dominate her a great deal). Finding that this is way too much, and that she would rather not have to be quite so obedient, Ella is determined to find her fairy godmother Lucinda who blessed her in the first place.A great, contemporary twist on the classic "Cinderella" tale, this time with a young woman who, in spite of her unfortunate predicament is incredibly funny and is still able to learn to stand up for herself as the film goes on, "Ella Enchanted" shows that all things that can prove to be both good and bad can be overcome. Joanna Lumley makes a darkly glamorous and nasty stepmother, while Lucy Punch is wonderfully eccentric as Hattie who is both Ella's real bully and the self professed wife to be of Prince Charmont, played by Hugh Dancy, who is forever chased by her and other wildly screaming girls (talk about obsessed)! He is just gorgeous; hard not to love him, especially when he's not being followed by them. Jim Carter, who seems to pop up in almost everything (and not just "Downton Abbey") gets a cameo as a man eating ogre; I could just tell it was him by the voice. I seriously love Vivica A. Fox as Lucinda because she's just so hip, sexy and has a real attitude problem. Put that next to Minnie Driver who plays yet another fairy who has a serious spell casting issue and is joined with Jimi Mistry as the voice of her disembodied lover, Heidi Klum as a well stylish giantess with a grudge on the Grimms Brothers and Cary Elwes as the totally weird and wicked Prince Regent Edgar, and you've got yourself a right one way wicked ticket to a magically captivating film.Also on the DVD is a whole set of Special Features, which are well cool, apart from perhaps the "Prince Charmont's Fan Club" game (in my opinion we see enough of his fans in the film altogether)! Aside from that though, there's a nice selection of extended and deleted scenes (check out the one where Hattie gets her comeuppance for having been so nasty to Ella)! The film featurette "Making The World Of Ella Enchanted" is terrific fun, as it covers all of the music that made its way into the film and some other information about it, and Kari Kimmel's music video "It's Not Just Make Believe" is well worth watching, and she's got an awesome voice too! I'm very happy with this film; it's full of non - stop action, magic and pure family entertainment, and I recommend it to anyone who loved Anne Hathaway in "The Princess Diaries"!

I should warn anyone who has read the book "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine, that this movie is VERY different. You barely recognize the story you may have read. That's not to say it's not a great movie. You get the basics, but there are completely new characters- such as Prince Char's Uncle, and his pet snake (yes I said snake) Heston.It's thrilling, there's action- even if it's a little sexist. I wouldn't recommend it for young children- there are some mushy moments- be warned. It's a funny movie too- there are some great moments. I would say it's a family movie, maybe 10 and up? Mostly because of the romance. It's not very scary at all- don't worry about that!The actors and actresses are perfect though, and there are some classic songs in there, enjoy- be warned, I'm not sure if boys would want to watch this if they're at the "mushy = yuck" stage!Hope this review helps!Jessica

I had never heard of this movie before until my husband discovered it for our 2 daughters to watch on BT Vision and since then we've watched it non-stop as it's absolutely brilliant! Fantasic storyline with excellent music throughout. As you can see we've had to purchase the DVD so that the kids can also watch it at their grandparents house because they don't have BT Vision!!! I highly recommend it for kids (and parents who'll enjoy it too!!!)

Ok, love this dvd. Family film.

Good film

Excellent quality and fast delivery. Very happy with this purchase.

Wasn't worth the money as it skips and freezes so will have to buy again

great value

Big it with my 12yr old granddaughter

"not as good as I remember" was the verdict from the daughter who bought it. Still thinks it's quite funny though - may have to do with the fact that she is now 20, and remembers it from when she was 10!

Value for money

good dvd

Arrived quickly and well packaged it is a good family film really enjoyable.

Excellent, love this film and so do my girls. Have been looking for it for a while and was over the moon to get it for such a bargain.

Lovely teenage film. One for the girls to watch on a sleepover whilst eating popcorn. Hugh Dancy is adorable and so is Anne Hathaway