Review of Ella Enchanted (Trophy Newbery)

Review

The simplest way to put it is that Ella Enchanted is a retelling of Cinderella with a bit of a twist. There are SO MANY retellings of Cinderella, but I think this story may have become one of my favourites.

Everyone knows the basic story of Cinderella (no doubt thanks to Disney’s cartoon adaptation of the story, with singing mice and everything), as with most well-known fairy tales. But it’s the always the original stories or the versions that deviate enough from the popular version that catch my interest. Take, for example, Gregory Maguire’s Tales of an Ugly Stepsister - the story of Cinderella as told from the point of view of one of the step sisters. Or the Brothers Grimm version of the story - Aschenputtel. Ella Enchanted is another version that stands out from other adaptations of the fairy tale by adding a fairy’s curse.

When Ella was born, the well-intending but extremely foolish fairy Lucinda gave Ella the “gift” (that term used very loosely in this instance) of obedience. Meaning that if anyone tells Ella to do something, she has to do it. While this doesn’t pose too many serious problems when Ella is growing up, after her mother dies things really start to get hard for Ella. Her soon-to-be stepsisters figure out that Ella has to do whatever she is told to and make her life positively miserable. Typical to the Cinderella story, Ella ends up practically slaving away for her stepmother and stepsisters. Also typical to the regular Cinderella story there are balls, and falling in love and all sorts of wonderful stuff.

Atypical to the regular stories, Ella has to figure out how to break the curse of obedience. That is where this version of Cinderella stands out from others.

I don’t know how I have not read this book before. I remember going to see the movie in theatres. I wasn’t too impressed (seriously? Anne Hathaway singing Queen? What would Freddie Mercury think of that?), but I had so many people stress that the book was so much better than the film. Still, I didn’t bother picking it up until last week. And then managed to read the whole thing in a manner of a few evenings.

It was an adorable book. It wasn’t hard to love Ella or Charm - they were both charming characters. Ella was a little snarky, and it was fun to see how she would rebel (in her own way) against the curse of obedience. I can definitely see why so many people really like this book.

8/10

Added by moonsoar 4 years ago
on 7 December 2008 20:02

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