Ella Enchanted (2004) & Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Two fairy tales about working through a curse into a blessing.

Ella Enchanted (2004; free on Pluto or Paramount+)

Cinderella’s classic tale gets a twist when a fairy “blesses” the child with… obedience. It’s a twist on the classic fairy tale, but it’s faithful to the heart of what a fairy tale is: a story with a moral compass, to help orient the compass in our own heart. Anne Hathaway plays a teenager quite convincingly, making it remarkable to see her as the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland just six years later. But she was already twice the age she was playing in 2004.

The movie has a memorable tone. The costumes and sets feel earthy. The sound effects are magical but not pretentious. The special effects are quaint, but they work (especially the ones that play with the scale of the characters). Some of the CGI feels cringily outdated—but even this has its dated early 2000s charm, and CGI was never meant to replace real things anyway.

It’s a movie for the young teenager in us all. The teenager constrained by obedience while figuring out how to burst forth into personal responsibility. Full of hopes and young loves. Holding on to moral truth in a complex world.

For sensitive viewers: Some fight scenes (think Hamlet). Two uses of g** as an exclamation. Occasional rude humor, like a baby urinating.

Sleeping Beauty (1959; Disney+)

Cursed to prick her finger on a spinning wheel on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Princess Aurora is raised in a cottage in the woods by three doting fairies until the sorceress—and true love—find her. This Disney princess movie is unique. It has the same old classic Disney humor, animals, songs, and voice acting (especially the unmistakable Eleanor Audley as Maleficent). But the look and the pace are… different. It’s filmed in super widescreen. The trees are grand, tall and rich, and the character designs are less cartoony than usual. The songs are even put to the melodies of Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” ballet. It isn’t fast-paced or cute like all the other Disney princess movies; it’s artistic.

Since it’s such a simple story, there’s time. Time to sing, to waltz by the forest lake, to put the castle to sleep one room at a time. The pace of the plot is halting, with stops and starts, like train cars that bump up against each other when the engine stops (I’m picturing Casey Jr. in Dumbo). It’s frustrating and fascinating at once, because the movie doesn’t deliver on time. (Or perhaps worse, the film will deliver Aurora up on time, no matter how much you strain against it.) It makes you wait, run through the dark halls calling for the princess while your voice echoes and she’s no where to be found. It makes you fight your way through an unavoidable curse and thorns and fire. But from scene one, it wows you with the scale of its world—countless soldiers, exquisite throne room, vast forest.

It’s no wonder the makers of Frozen II were inspired by its forest design. Come get lost. And found.

For sensitive viewers: A scene (actually a whole song) about drinking alcohol and one character gets drunk. Menacing fantasy villain who curses the protagonist. Battles, or as the MPAA rating system started saying in the early 2000s, “mild peril.”

Nathan’s Writing Update

I’m getting through my video essay about the films of Brad Bird! I hope to finish this week. However, this is one that I plan to send to an academic journal of audiovisual essays, so it won’t be viewable until they (hopefully) accept it and publish their next issue.

In the meantime, a friend recommended that I make a Letterboxd account. This is a website for logging, rating, and reviewing the movies you watch. I have no desire to waste my time on yet another social media site, but I have enjoyed using this to log my thoughts on what I’m watching now. For example, I just wrote new detailed reviews of Castle in the Sky and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind after rewatching them last week. Since then, their melodies have been gently wafting in my head. 🎵 

Also, welcome new subscribers!! I see you, Mary and Shelby and Jennifer and Lili and Shirley! Romper bomper stomper boo.
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