'Ella' is truly 'Enchanted'

Ella of Frell, a spunky young motherless girl, is cursed from birth to be totally obedient -- to anyone and everyone. She lives in a magical, ogre/dwarf/giant inhabited world, and minutes into the movie, she gets a wicked stepmother and two evil stepsisters.\nCinderella on a head-trip? Yes -- and girl power never had it this good. Anne Hathaway as Ella is politically minded, smart and has shockingly good martial arts skills, for being raised in the Middle Ages. But is she Ella? Nope -- at least not as she is described in the children's book of the same name. But appearances aside, she's great -- her face when she must magically obey is priceless. Her shoulders snap back, her eyes roll and sparkly, "it's magic" music chimes. Minnie Driver, as Ella's charmingly inept house-fairy, is sweet and funny. Cary Elwes is spectacular as the goatee-scratching evil king, and newcomer Hugh Dancy isn't too bad as the leather-pants wearing prince with a screaming fan club (and he ain't too hard on the eyes either, ladies). \nAnd while some might rag on the "Shrek" meets "The Princess Bride" feel, it really is funny. Yes, this type of movie has been done before. Yes, this is "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" for the Tiger Beat set. Yes, Hathaway's gazoombas are way too big to be playing a 16- year-old. But Frell is a charming fairyland; Hattie and Olive, the two wicked stepsisters, are delightfully, maniacally daffy; and the pop culture references, while maybe a bit too advanced for the target audience, are hysterical. For example, the evil stepmother wants to look 25 again, and so decides to get injections of a combination of bat dung and ox tail. The resultant product? Bat-ox. Kids will giggle, but parents (and college students) will be rolling. \nBut it's sometimes sappy, to the point of putting the audience in a temporary sugar coma. The "dying mother tells young daughter to just look inside herself" scene is eye-rollingly syrupy, and the "hooray!" ending and ensuing dance scene are a little much. \nBut finally, this film is a reminder that sometimes it's nice to feel 14 again. It's not a date movie, but it's perhaps the ultimate Saturday afternoon guilty pleasure. It's a warm little bonbon of a film which will put you in a wonderful, let's-remember-childhood mood.