Ella lives in a fanciful and magical world where all children are given a "gift" from a fairy Godmother at the moment of their birth. Little Ella's birthright although is not as lucky as others as her the gift which is more a curse is that of obedience. He fairy Godmother Lucinda thinks that this gift is funny and even though her mother is appalled by it she refuses to take it back. As a result of this unfortunate circumstance, Ella cannot refuse any command, and is often left at the mercy of unscrupulous personalities. But when her father remarries she finds herself at the mercy of two terrible stepsisters who learn of her curse and use it at every opportunity to torture her. Unable to take any more of the abuse and in a bid to regain control of her life, Ella goes on a quest to free herself from this mysterious curse. Along the way she runs into Prince Char who at first she finds as indifferent and aloof, but she quickly needs his help and finds out he might not be as bad as she thought. Ella must outwit a kingdom filled with ogres, giants, wicked stepsisters, talking books and evil plots to try and find her Godmother and if she's lucky, she may find love along the way as well.

If there is one word I could us to describe this movie it would be contrite. I have rarely seen a movie so play down to its audience that if they have any intelligence they will and should be highly insulted. It’s like the producers of this film think everyone who watches it will have the intelligence and maturity of a twelve year old. I was not pleased to see them use so much modern twists and backdrops in a film about fairy tales and mystical creatures. This is not to say it can’t be done, Shrek comes screaming to mind, its just that they did it so badly. It was like reading one of those Teen magazines written for teenage girls and feeling that somewhere a studio executive was laughing at me for being fool enough to see this movies. The acting was nothing short of hideous as it is clear that Anne Hathaway has absolutely no range as an a actress and will prefer just to make sure she keeps getting cast in movies as brain dead as she is. Not for once instant did the movie make me suspend disbelief or even bother to make me interested in the story. It was one monotonous drivel of jokes meant for teenage girls and at no time did it bother to make itself accessible to anyone else. What bothered me the most was the terrible, terrible special effects. In today’s world of amazing CGI effects studios this movie looked like it was produced in the 1970’s, except for the blatant rip offs of more modern films like the Matrix. This movie is a waste of time and money.
1 stars out of 5