Today I watched the Ella Enchanted movie, and I found that I was sorely disappointed after having read the book. Several aspects of the story were changed, and these changes seemed to be frivolous. First of all, Ella's relationship with her father was one of a loving father who truly cared for his daughter. This is completely contradictory to the father of the book who would readily sell his daughter if given the right price. I assume the producers made this change to appeal to a young audience who would be troubled by an unkind father. However, I feel that the strained relationship is part of what gave Ella her character.

Another difference was that all of the creatures in the land spoke the same language. The book did a much better job by portraying various languages for each of the magical creatures. Without the presence of the numerous languages, Ella was unable to show how smart and cunning she truly was. One of her gifts was the ability to quickly adapt to communicate with all of the creatures in the land. This aspect of Ella's character was completely removed when the movie was produced.

Next, Lucinda never realized the negative aspects to big magic. In the book it was a relief to finally see Lucinda cease her big magic. However, it seems that Lucinda's character was denied a shift in dynamics when her character was left in one dimension and unchanging.

Mandy played a much smaller role in the movie than she had done in the book. In the book, Mandy had been a character Ella could always rely on, but she was often absence in the book. I missed the motherly aspect Mandy had lent Ella.

Also, small details were removed throughout the movie that could have added so much in such short times. The movie never portrayed Ella's childhood friend learning of Ella's curse and using it against her. The movie said nothing of Ella's stay in the finishing school, where much of her turmoil actually began. The movie showed no change in Olive's character whereas the book had illustrated a progression from the naive almost-friend to the demanding step-sister. The movie also completely ignored the glass slippers after Ella stole them. This upsetting change completely removed the budding relationship formed by Ella and Char, and it removed the significance of the glass slippers as the Cinderella tie. All aspects of the "typical" Cinderella story (i.e. the pumpkin carriage, the glass slippers, the masquerade ball, etc) were gone in the final production of the movie.

Finally, the most important change was the change to Ella herself. In the book, she was portrayed as an incredibly strong, selfless, fun, and rebellious young woman. However, in the book, she showed a small bit of each of these traits, but they were greatly diminished. After the many changes enacted on the original Ella, much of her admirable and lovable character was lost in translation.

I definitely prefer the book to the movie, and I would love to read the book again while I would be more hesitant to watch the movie again.