Movies - Ella Enchanted

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Ella Enchanted is an Newbery Honor book written by Gail Carson Levine and published in 1997. It is also the title of the American movie based on the novel and released April 9, 2004 directed by Tommy O'Haver and starring Anne Hathaway and Hugh Dancy. The story is a contemporary retelling of Cinderella featuring various mythical creatures (including elves, ogres, dwarves and giants).

Plot outline (book)

At the moment of Ella of Frell's birth, she was unfortunately bestowed a "gift" by a fairy named Lucinda. Despite the objections from her mother and fairy godmother/family's cook (Mandy), Lucinda cursed Ella with the "gift" of obedience. From that day forward, Ella was to obey any direct order given to her by anybody, no matter what it was (orders ranging from hopping on one foot all day to chopping off her own head). Ella, however, stays lighthearted by making a game out of her curse and finding loopholes around orders. For example, if Mandy orders her to hold a bowl of cake batter, Ella would move her feet and run around the kitchen, having Mandy chase after her until she gave her another order or request.

At her mother's funeral, Ella meets Prince Char in the graveyard next to a large willow tree. The two have a long conversation full of laughs and wit until Ella's father takes her home. When they return home after the funeral, Ella meets Dame Olga and her daughters, Hattie and Olive, whom she discovers are being sent to finishing school. After the three leave, Ella's father forces her to go to finishing school because he doesn't want his daughter to grow up being a clumsy cook's helper. The night before she is sent away, Mandy gives her a fairy book that can show her children's stories, journal entries and letters from friends and family, as well as maps and other things. She also gives her her mother's necklace.

The day she is sent to finishing school, she first goes on a small trip with Prince Char, who shows her all of her favorite places and promises to bring her a centaur. Ella gets in a carriage with Hattie and Olive, who automatically begin to take advantage of the curse, making her give up the necklace as well as her money. When they arrive at finishing school, Ella befriends an Ayorthian girl named Arieda and the two are very close until Hattie forces Ella to end her friendship. Ella soon learns of the Giant's wedding and that both her father and Lucinda may attend. Eager to be free from the curse, she flees from finishing school in the night and tries to make her way to the Giant's wedding.

In the process, she meets the elves who give her a gift (a beautiful Slanen sculpture of a howling wolf) and a horse. After she leaves the elves, she's kidnapped by ogres who eat her horse and try to eat her. However, after observing the Ogrese language overnight, she hypnotizes them and is soon saved by Char and his knights. They bind the ogres and take them in, and Char lets one of his knights take her to the wedding. Ella meets Lucinda and begs her to remove the curse, while at the same time hoping Lucinda isn't offended and won't turn her into a squirrel. Lucinda refuses and orders her to be happy with her obedience, with serious aftereffects.

She meets her father and they return home, while learning that he is now a ruined man for selling an item that did not belong to him. In order to keep his family from being thrown into the streets, he plans to marry Ella off. At first Ella is happy, as she is ordered to be, and even meets one of her suitors at dinner. However, an order from Mandy telling her to feel however she feels about her curse makes her change her mind rather drastically. Her father refuses to marry Ella off, and instead decides to marry Dame Olga. Ella's worst fears unravel as Hattie and Olive are now her sisters.

At the wedding, she meets with Prince Char again, and they share a romantic evening together. They find glass slippers in a garden and Ella wears them as they dance together. It would be the last time they would see each other for some time, for he would have to leave for Ayortha for one year, but they promise to keep in touch through letters. Lucinda arrives at the wedding and bestows a curse on the married couple, granting them eternal love. Any chance of Ella's father leaving Dame Olga has now been ruined. Instantly, Ella is turned into a slave in her own house, working with the servants and abiding by Hattie and Olive's ridiculous orders, while at the same time having fun slipping sleeping herbs into Dame Olga's supper.

Ella receives a letter from Char, where he pours out his heart to her and in the end, proposes to her. At first she is happy, but soon realizes that marrying Char would make things much worse. Her stepsisters would take advantage of her completely, especially since she is queen, and if she was ever captured by an enemy of Frell, she could be forced to kill Char or reveal any secrets. Ella sends a fraud letter to him saying that she has run away with another man and will be "smiling at her jewels and laughing at the world." A journal entry in her fairy book shows a picture of Char burning her letters as well as a page from his journal stating how he despises her. It breaks Ella's heart, but she is happy that he is safe.

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Movies - Ella Enchanted

Plot outline (book)

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