Ella Enchanted: the Movie
Jan. 5th, 2011 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerThe Ella Enchanted movie is TERRIBLE.
First off, it just looks cheap. The CGI is obviously fake. I think they stole Ella's cloak from Arwen. The king's scepter appears to be plastic - nothing has any sense of weight. You can tell the filmmakers don't give a darn about the book even before you realize that they changed everything that was good about the story.
Most obviously, they wrecked the Ella/Char relationship. In the book, they are two people who bring out the best in each other: a kind, serious, slightly aloof king-to-be with a hidden spark of humor, and an irrepressibly vivacious girl with a hidden curse. In the movie, Char is a nincompoop who hasn't noticed that his uncle has imposed apartheid on his kingdom. Ella despises him and is, I guess, "spunky," in the sense that she's a feisty talker but completely incompetent.
For instance: in the book, Ella uses her mad language skills to save herself from some ogres. Char shows up to save her, but there's no saving left to do so he gives her a lift to her destination instead. In the movie, Ella's hanging over a boiling cauldron when Char shows up and manfully rescues her.
Presumably this was the only way the filmmakers could justify their eventual romance. They certainly can't connect on any intellectual level, like they do in the books, because Char is an idiot. Consider: Char asks Ella why she doesn't want to be with him. "Is it my politics?" he cries. "That doesn't matter! What matters is how we feel about each other!" No. Just NO. Char is going to be king, his politics matter tremendously! And if Ella really cared about the kingdom, as the filmmakers insist she does, she would know that. She would care about that. She couldn't love this vapid prince.
This is especially unfortunate, as Ella/Char is the only relationship the filmmakers much care about. I'm particularly irritated by their treatment of her friendship with Areida. In the book, Ella runs away to find Lucinda because she doesn't want to hurt Areida. In the movie, she hurts Areida and then goes to find Lucinda for other spurious reasons. Not that we really care, because in the movie, it's not clear why they're friends at all because Areida gets practically no lines!
In the book, Ella's friendship with Areida actually matters for its own sake, whereas in the movie, it exists mainly to show that Hattie and company are totally evil. Similarly, in the book, Mandy is a wonderful mentor figure. In the movie, she's kept her boyfriend's head in a book for the last twenty years. (Also, the filmmakers lopped thirty years off her age. Just 'cuz. Gag me with a spoon.)
Don't even get me started on Char's fan club. Or the scene where Char says to Ella, "You're not like other girls," and it's clear this means he's falling for her, because Ella doesn't have all those icky girl cooties other girls have. Ugh, ugh, ugh!
In conclusion: read the book! Ella Enchanted is an awesome book! Just writing this review has made me want to read it again!
First off, it just looks cheap. The CGI is obviously fake. I think they stole Ella's cloak from Arwen. The king's scepter appears to be plastic - nothing has any sense of weight. You can tell the filmmakers don't give a darn about the book even before you realize that they changed everything that was good about the story.
Most obviously, they wrecked the Ella/Char relationship. In the book, they are two people who bring out the best in each other: a kind, serious, slightly aloof king-to-be with a hidden spark of humor, and an irrepressibly vivacious girl with a hidden curse. In the movie, Char is a nincompoop who hasn't noticed that his uncle has imposed apartheid on his kingdom. Ella despises him and is, I guess, "spunky," in the sense that she's a feisty talker but completely incompetent.
For instance: in the book, Ella uses her mad language skills to save herself from some ogres. Char shows up to save her, but there's no saving left to do so he gives her a lift to her destination instead. In the movie, Ella's hanging over a boiling cauldron when Char shows up and manfully rescues her.
Presumably this was the only way the filmmakers could justify their eventual romance. They certainly can't connect on any intellectual level, like they do in the books, because Char is an idiot. Consider: Char asks Ella why she doesn't want to be with him. "Is it my politics?" he cries. "That doesn't matter! What matters is how we feel about each other!" No. Just NO. Char is going to be king, his politics matter tremendously! And if Ella really cared about the kingdom, as the filmmakers insist she does, she would know that. She would care about that. She couldn't love this vapid prince.
This is especially unfortunate, as Ella/Char is the only relationship the filmmakers much care about. I'm particularly irritated by their treatment of her friendship with Areida. In the book, Ella runs away to find Lucinda because she doesn't want to hurt Areida. In the movie, she hurts Areida and then goes to find Lucinda for other spurious reasons. Not that we really care, because in the movie, it's not clear why they're friends at all because Areida gets practically no lines!
In the book, Ella's friendship with Areida actually matters for its own sake, whereas in the movie, it exists mainly to show that Hattie and company are totally evil. Similarly, in the book, Mandy is a wonderful mentor figure. In the movie, she's kept her boyfriend's head in a book for the last twenty years. (Also, the filmmakers lopped thirty years off her age. Just 'cuz. Gag me with a spoon.)
Don't even get me started on Char's fan club. Or the scene where Char says to Ella, "You're not like other girls," and it's clear this means he's falling for her, because Ella doesn't have all those icky girl cooties other girls have. Ugh, ugh, ugh!
In conclusion: read the book! Ella Enchanted is an awesome book! Just writing this review has made me want to read it again!
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 05:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 05:28 am (UTC)Do you suppose bitter anger tastes good with chocolate?
no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 05:29 am (UTC)Even bacon. (Or so I hear.)
no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 01:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 01:14 am (UTC)For the record, I hated Enchanted, but I haven't seen Ella.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-08 12:15 pm (UTC)First, you must understand, I loved that book so much that I literally read it twice in a row. And then, when my class was told we were taking a field trip to see the movie in theaters, I was so excited about it that I read it through all the way again for a third time.
I was so sorely disappointed right from the start of the movie. And man, that was when I was too young to realize the implications of changing her character so that she requires saving and isn't as intelligent, and that they had converted Areida from an interesting character into nothing but a plot device. At the time, all I was thinking was, "This is all wrong! I don't like this... this is boring! :C"
But maaan reading this review just renews that RAAAGE I had as an elementary schooler sitting in that theater with all my classmates.
What I'm trying to say is, agreed 100%. >:C
no subject
Date: 2011-01-08 02:56 pm (UTC)But yeah. I have a sneaking suspicious that the script was written by a middle-aged white guy who despised everything about teenage girls except their ability to whine money out of their parents.
"This book contains far too many girls being awesome," he said. "Only ONE girl can be awesome in any given movie. And that one girl is of course Ella, because Mandy is old and Areida is, like, brown. I mean that in a non-racist way. I know! Let's make the movie about how bad racism is! Then Ella's opposition to racism can stand in for actual character development!
"But she's still too awesome. We have to counteract her awesomeness somehow, because teenage girls are just not that awesome. I know! Let's throw in a deranged Char fan club so we can include some normal (a.k.a. deranged) teenage girls!" Etc., etc.