Wednesday passed me by last week, but I'm back this week!
I finally watched Ella Enchanted the other day, after years of being told not to, so I decided to analyze the most glaring differences between them and write a little comparison post (spoiler: the book is infinitely better).
If you ask me what my favorite book is, I might just blurt out, "Ella Enchanted". It's the best Cinderella retelling I've ever read, and I've read quite a few. It's also the first Gail Carson Levine book I ever read, so it holds a special place in my heart. When I found out there was a movie version, I immediately wanted to watch it, because I'm an optimist and I always hope that movies will bring books to life in detail I can't imagine. My mom told me not to watch it because she's against book-to-movie adaptations on principle. My sister told me not to watch it because she'd heard that it was quite different from the book, and not in a good way (she wasn't wrong). So for years, I didn't watch it. But I finally decided to recently because, well, I'm an adult and I can do things like that.
So here are the five differences between the book and the movie that bugged me the most (WARNING: THIS POST IS FULL OF SPOILERS).
1. Sir Peter is a terrible person in the book.
Sir Peter seems like a decent dad in the movie, if rather preoccupied, and Ella is sad when he has to leave. In the book, he is quite different. Case in point:
"'Ella ...' He bit into a scallop and spoke while he chewed. 'Your father is not a good man, as the servants have already warned you, unless I miss my guess.'
"I didn't deny it.
"'They may have said I'm selfish, and I am. They may have said I'm impatient, and I am. They may have said I always have my way. And I do.'"
He extorts the people he does business with, he sends Ella to finishing school with Hattie and Olive, he tries to marry Ella off to the ancient earl, and he marries Dame Olga. Enough said.
2. King Edgar ... doesn't exist in the book.
Um, yeah. While I enjoyed seeing Carey Elwes in something besides The Princess Bride, I didn't appreciate having an entirely new character stuck into the story. I get that in the shorter format of a movie, it's easier to have a big, bad villain to raise the stakes. But honestly, I feel like it cheapened the story. It also felt borrowed from Hamlet.
3. The book ogres have enchanted voices – and they're not good guys deep at heart.
In the movie, King Edgar is basically putting restrictions on all of the magical creatures of Frell, including the ogres, who, it turns out, really aren't so bad. In the book, the ogres are being hunted because they use their magical powers of persuasion to trap and eat unsuspecting travelers.
And while I'm talking about the ogres, shall we mention the elves? Gosh that bothered me! The movie took the pop culture version of elves (dancing, singing, happy little people with pointy ears) and then "challenged" that version by having a singular elf who wanted to be a lawyer instead of an entertainer. Like, what?! In the book, elves are craftsmen. And, right in the book, it says, "The elves were the same height as humans."
I could go on, but I'll leave it there.
4. Ella met Areida at finishing school.
5. Lucinda doesn't get a character arc in the movie!
Every time we see Lucinda in the movie, she's running around being drunk and rambunctious, and she never reforms. In the book, Mandy goads her into experiencing her own gifts, and Lucinda realizes how horrible they are.
"'What did I bring on those poor, innocent people? How could I have done big magic? And so carelessly!'"
As you can see, Lucinda learns her lesson at the end, although Ella still has to undo her own curse. Come to think of it, while we're on the subject of fairies, I'm going to add a point to my original list ...
6. Mandy isn't a bad fairy, she just doesn't do "big magic"!
It really bothered me that the movie made Mandy, Ella's fairy godmother, into a bumbling idiot. Well, maybe not a complete idiot, but she's not good at magic. In the book, almost all the fairies understand that it's not a good idea to meddle with the laws of nature too much.
"'Or could you stop the rain?'
"Mandy nodded.
"'Do it. Please do it.'
"'Why would I want to?'
"'For me. I want to see magic. Big magic.'
"'We don't do big magic. Lucinda's the only one. It's too dangerous.'
"'What's dangerous about ending a storm?'
"'Maybe nothing, maybe something. Use your imagination.'
"'Clear skies would be good. People could go outside.'
"'Use your imagination,' Mandy repeated.
"I thought. 'The grass needs rain. The crops need rain.'
"'More,' Mandy said.
"'Maybe a bandit was going to rob someone, and he isn't doing it because of the weather.'
"'That's right. Or maybe I'd start a drought, and then I'd have to fix that because I started it. And then maybe the rain I sent would knock down a branch and smash in the roof of a house, and I'd have to fix that too.'
"'That wouldn't be your fault. The owners should have built a stronger roof.'
"'Maybe, maybe not. Or maybe I'd cause a flood and people would be killed. That's the problem with big magic. I only do little magic. Good cooking, my curing soup, my Tonic.'"
That was a very long quote to get my point across!
As you can see, the movie played with the book quite a bit to raise the stakes in a shorter time, which, in my opinion, damaged the integrity of the story. It didn't even feel like Cinderella, whereas the book really is reminiscent of the original fairytale.
What's a movie that you were disappointed by recently? Let me know in the comments! I'll (hopefully) be back next Wednesday with some more bookish ramblings. Maybe a snippet of something I'm working on? We'll find out!
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