Easy to watch, yet surprisingly deep Ella enchanted should be incredibly average at best, from the synopsis of the film it would appear to use all the Hollywood clichés including many that a lot of viewers will have seen in the Shrek franchise.
But, Ella is actually a very charming movie, it sets out to entertain a pretty wide audience demographic and to a large degree it succeeds. It would be preposterous to suggest that any of the actors were stretched by the roles that they were asked to play; but Anne Hathaway remains easy to watch, with a confident style to her acting and looks gorgeous throughout.
Hugh Dancy plays the dashing, yet oblivious prince with ease- although for British viewers you may consistently be reminded of Will Young; they are uncannily similar.
The films budget doesn't always seem to stretch to the greatest special effects, perhaps best evinced by Anne's singing sequence with the giants; but at no point does this really take anything away from the film.
It is clear that the film has been crafted to appeal to a family audience, but for those with a background in sociology or media studies some of the issues raised by the 'imperialism; of Sir Edgar will seem very familiar. For instance the representation of the elves as reluctant entertainers, forced to put on shows at every opportunity could easily be equated to the idea of 'Emotional Labour' discussed by Hochschild or more broadly the 'Disneyization' of society discussed by Alan Bryman.
This film is destined to remain in the shadow of 'Shrek' in terms of it's depiction of 'fairy tales with a modern twist' but I truly believe that it is good enough to stand on it's own, it might be predictable but it is consistently amusing and always entertaining. Well worth purchasing on DVD in my opinion.