Loyal fans of Gail Carson Levine's acclaimed children's novel may be put off at first by the ways this amusing fairy tale deviates from the original, but the film's lush scenery and sharp modern twists cast a powerful spell. The misguided fairy Lucinda (Vivica A. Fox) curses Ella of Frell (Anne Hathaway) at birth with the gift of obedience. As a spirited teenager, she tries to keep her compliant ways to herself, both for her own safety and because her late mother ordered her to. But Ella's father (Patrick Bergin) remarries and his new wife, the self-important and overly-batoxed (for the uninitiated, that's bat feces and ox blood) Dame Olga (Joanna Lumley), puts Ella'...
Released:
2004
Rated:
PG
Length:
95 mins