Ella Enchanted (2004)

Ella Enchanted, THE MOVIE


Warning: I am stepping upon my soap box!

This movie brings me back to my childhood, I say that as if I am an eighty year old! I remember going to this movie with my mom and a neighborhood friend. It was one of the last weeks the movie would be shown in any show houses in my home town. Thus the theater was deserted, except for my party of three. I remember that during the musical parts of this movie my friend and I danced and sang along in the sticky aisle of the theater. I can just imagine me singing the song RESPECT along with the movie! :D It soon became one of my favorite movies. Now my eyes have been opened by reading the book that the bejeweled movie was supposedly "based" on. I am quite puzzled now about the movie I once upon a time adored.



So I read the book, it changed my view. I could not believed how far the movie strayed for Mrs. Levine's masterpiece of a story. So I watched the movie, then called my friend who had also read the book. I released all my feelings of the absurd changes the movie had made to my beloved book. She had only seen a scratch of the movie. I needed her to understand my feelings so we went to rent the movie. Unfortunately all the movie rentals were closing, so I ended up buying the movie. It turned out to be a great move, buying the movie, for I put much research and effort into comparing the movie and book. I reread the book and watched the movie countless times. I am still perplexed with the movie and why they thought it was a grand idea to change it so much from the storyline of the book.



So, after me painting the background for you, I shall give my opinion, my comparison, and my review. I believe that the movie is splendid in showing another story of Cinderella, quite different even from the book it was based on. Yet, I disagree on they way they presented the story written by Gail Carson Levine! Actually, I do not believe the movie resembles the amazing book. I can understand why they changed it so, they probably wanted it to fit a wider audience, yet in doing so they lost the charm and magic the book gave to its fellow readers. They cut out many of the parts that made the book delightful and so consist to the story of Cinderella, which made it one of my all time favorite books. Again I congratulate Mrs. Levine in her splendid way of giving me a deeper, beautiful, touching, and imaginative fantasy that became part of my life. The movie barely follows the book at all. Instead of a wonderful fairytale full of adventure, love, and finding your true self the movie presents a comedy, that lost much of the wonderful delight of the book. Then strayed into a whole different feeling and story. So in all the movie lost many of the details of the book, that I loved and now miss and added many things that were unnecessary and unwanted by me. Do not get me wrong. I still quite enjoy the movie, yet the book overshadows the movie in a great manner. So, as if you could not decipher this before, I wish the movie could have been more thoughtful in following the already perfect book. Instead they produced a movie, of which had little connection with the book I loved.

One of the most upsetting changes is the addition of the evil uncle king. He did not exist in the book at all. I feel that a villain is unneeded and the story's purest power is Ella's focused concentration to overcome the trail of her curse, no cliche evil king uncle dude!

SO TO SUM THINGS UP. While I did enjoy the movie, since reading the book, I have become bias. I felt as if the movie took the general idea of the book and ran off with it. Making it into something they thought would sell. In doing so I believe, they lost much of the splendor of which I found in the book. To me the book and movie are two whole different stories. The movie added, in my opinion, unneeded characters and elements. They really strayed from the book! The book and movie seemed night and day to me. So remember never judge a book by the movie. For upon reading the delightful book, you shall find a whole other rendition.



Well that's my soap box speech. I hope it can be comprehended, sometime I struggle making my thoughts clear and in a manner I would have them stated.





Movie came out in 2004

Cinderellis and the Glass Hill by Gail Carson Levine

Have you ever finished a book and wished you could just keep reading? I do all the time! I usually feel this way after "crash reading". Crash reading is when I get so entangled in a great book I do not put it down for hours. So my life becomes the book and everything else around me is gone. This causes a problem when the story ends and my life is stopped. So after crash reading Ella Enchanted I really needed it to continue. Well I needed to read something so I went to one of my mom's many book collection looking for any Cinderella books. Then I found one of my childhood favorites called Cinderellis and the Glass Hill! I loved that book while growing up! :D Then to my surprise I read the author and realized that it was the same author as Ella Enchanted! I was happy and began to read immediately.

Cinderellis and the Glass Hill has a major twist to it! Let me see if I can explain it.... Okay there is a farm boy named Cinderellis who is longing for the acceptance of his malicious brothers. Cinderellis is a great inventor and a hard worker. His two brother look down upon him and leave him out all the time. In this magically land there is a crazy King and his beautiful princess. The king leaves his princess Marigold while he goes on quests to find magical things. Marigold is very lonely except for her one friend, her cat Apricot. The king want to find the perfect man to marry his daughter so he comes up with a wacky plan. He would have a large glass hill built and have a competition to see who may climb to the top and receive the princess to wed and parts of the kingdom. There is a lot more to this story and I highly recommend it. It is very short chapter book and a nice read especially to a younger audience!

(Published 2000)

Stories to go: 292!

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.
Awesome book to start of this adventure! I just can not wait for what lies ahead for this story reading journey. Hopefully many of the books to come will live up to this one! Ella Enchanted is a cute book with a deeper story of Cinderella. There is a girl named Ella who has an awesome personality you will get to know and enjoy. The most fascinating part is Ella at birth is given a fairies "gift" of obedience. While you would think any parent would enjoy this "gift", Ella and her mother look at it as a curse, which truthfully it is. Ella is left with no agency and no matter how she tries she can not disobey. Yet still she tries in vain.

Later on Ella after the tragic death of her mother she meets a "Charming" prince named Char. <3 against="against" and="and" at="at" basically="basically" br="br" char="char" command="command" commanded="commanded" dad="dad" death="death" do="do" ella="ella" everything="everything" evil="evil" excels="excels" fancies="fancies" figures="figures" finishing="finishing" for="for" hattie="hattie" her.="her." her="her" information="information" is="is" mother="mother" must="must" of="of" olive.="olive." out="out" over="over" personality="personality" recent="recent" school.="school." sends="sends" she="she" sisters="sisters" spends="spends" the="the" there="there" they="they" this="this" time="time" to.="to." to="to" totally="totally" uncaring="uncaring" unsporting="unsporting" use="use" which="which" whopped="whopped" wishes="wishes" with="with" yet="yet">to her advantage. Ella runs away in search of the fairy who gave her the "gift" so she can demand to have it taken away. Later on Hattie and Olive become Ella's step sisters!!She goes through much turmoil but I will leave all that for you to read for I fear I have told to much already!

What I most ardently enjoy about this book is the clever telling of Cinderella's story. Yes it has a prince, a ball, a curfew, fairy godmother,and a happily ever after. Yet the thing that touches me most is the courage and unwavering strength of Ella, especially when she must over come herself and the horrid curse!

A for AWESOMENESS! :D
299 more stories to go!

Introduction to Cinderella 300

Dear readers,
Let's face it, in the world some things are not that different from country to country. I view the story of Cinderella to be on of the common threads which ties many cultures together. Cinderella is a universally known story to almost all nations. While titles may vary and the direct descriptions may differ, the story of a young girl overcoming difficult circumstances lives in the hearts of people all over the world. What a amazing thing that such a sweet story can connect nations which differ in many ways.

My name is Emma. I am an average teen who loves fairy tales, princesses, and happily ever afters. As a little girl I remember pretending to be "CinderEMMA". I would try to be as obedient as could be and go around doing household chores. Yet reality set in and cleaning was not really appealing to a young six year old child. Truthfully I could not be any less like Cinderella. I am blessed with a wonderful family and can rarely be seen cleaning. Yet the story of Cinderella is dear to my heart. Cinderella shows me hope and belief that one can conquer difficulties of life and live a happy ending of their own.

A few days ago I was thinking of all the different stories there are about Cinderella. Even just in my culture there are numerous renditions of Cinderella. I must confess I am a dreamer who believes with hard work, courage and a little bit of craziness, one can achieve their wildest wishes. So I thought about how cool it would be to read several different stories of Cinderella. I thought it over and it kept occupying my mind. One day I decided in my life I would read as many stories as I could of this tale. Some how my mind tripped across the number 300 and I thought it was the perfect amount. Some may say is there really that many versions out there? Oh yes there is and I am about to journey on a trip that will change the way I see the life of one young girl.

Here are my conditions. I will record every story I come upon and write a brief description. The story can be read or watched. Wish me luck of reaching my destination of 300 editions!
Love Cinderemma