20 Years Later, Ella Enchanted Is Still The Best Cinderella Adaptation

The story of Cinderella has been around for centuries, but many of us in the modern world associate the story with the classic Disney version. You know the one: a young woman lives with her evil stepmother and two jealous stepsisters, who force her to toil away all day and try to prevent her from meeting (and marrying) Prince Charming. Since Disney released its animated film in 1950, we’ve seen a variety of adaptations, including Ever After with Drew Barrymore and A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff. The best version, however, is the fantastic 2004 film Ella Enchanted.

Ella Enchanted stars Anne Hathaway as Ella of Frell and Hugh Dancy as Prince Charmont (or, as his fan club has dubbed him, Prince Char). Yes, this is a love story with fantastical elements like elves, ogres, and giants — and, of course, a fairy godmother — but that’s pretty much where the similarities to other Cinderella adaptations end. It’s a totally unique story that, in my opinion, never got enough credit.

I recently re-watched the movie with my 8-year-old daughter (who was riveted, by the way) and found myself loving the movie as much as ever. The contrasts to typical Cinderella stories are what makes Ella Enchanted so special. Here are a few of my favorites.

Ella is cursed.

In most Cinderella adaptations, Cinderella’s parents have died, and she’s stuck living with a wicked stepmother and two equally awful step-sisters who all treat her as a servant instead of a member of the family. The happy ending is that she’s no longer under their thumbs, and as a bonus, she gets to move into the palace as the prince’s wife.

In Ella Enchanted, Ella’s mother dies and her father remarries, but he’s alive and well (he travels a lot for work, though). Ella is different from her step-family, but she’s not treated as free labor. Instead, the major conflict is that when she was born, Ella’s fairy godmother, Lucinda, showed up to give her a gift. Unfortunately for Ella, it was the gift of obedience. So whenever someone tells Ella what to do, she has to do it.

After one of her step-sisters discovers Ella’s “gift,” she uses it to her advantage in every way, leading Ella to set out on a journey to find Lucinda and beg her to take the gift back.

Ella’s not trying to fall in love, she’s trying to influence politics.

While she’s out searching for Lucinda, Ella crosses paths with Prince Char. He expects her to basically fangirl over him and is surprised when she’s indifferent, at best. She is not happy with the way his uncle has been running the kingdom since Prince Char’s father died. He’s segregated all of the fairy tale creatures (elves, giants, and ogres), claiming it’s because they are the reason for the king’s untimely death (spoiler: it was actually a Lion King death situation, if you know what I mean). Unbeknownst to Prince Char, his uncle has also ordered elves and giants into lives of servitude, and Ella is not impressed.

Prince Char is intrigued by Ella — and after her curse gets her into sticky situations, and Prince Char saves her life a few times — she takes him on her journey so he can see what’s happening in the kingdom for himself. Her agenda here is entirely political. She’s not trying to climb any social ladders or escape her life; she’s simply trying to influence the prince to undo the harm his uncle has done since taking over as king.

Prince Char isn’t a nitwit.

One of the more infuriating plot points of many Cinderella stories is that the prince is an idiot who can't recognize Cinderella outside of a ballgown (I’m specifically looking at you, Austin Aimes/Chad Michael Murray), and a hunt ensues so he can find her after the ball. In Ella Enchanted, this isn’t a thing whatsoever. There is no masquerade party or lost shoe, there is a ball that the prince invites Ella to, where he intends to propose.

Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned because Prince Char’s uncle becomes privy to Ella’s curse and tries to have her carry out his plan to kill the prince. It’s a bummer for Ella and Prince Char, but I’ll take this storyline over the prince checking out all the women’s feet any day.

The movie is hilarious.

Not to disrespect Jennifer Coolidge’s iconic performance as Fiona, the evil stepmother in A Cinderella Story, but Ella Enchanted is by far the funniest Cinderella adaptation I’ve seen. There are musical numbers with dancing so cheesy you can’t help but laugh.

Ella’s aunt has magic powers, but she’s horrible with spells, leading to some very funny mishaps. And speaking of magic, Ella’s fairy godmother is a trainwreck who drinks too much at a giant’s wedding, gets kicked out of her community, and is totally oblivious as to why people don’t like her — she’s fantastic.

My favorite comical plot point is the Prince Char fan club. It’s full of girls who carry his posters around and shriek with joy in his presence (essentially acting the same way I did as a kid obsessed with *NSYNC). One of Ella’s step-sisters is the club president, and when she comes across the prince, she proudly recites all of the things she knows about him without the self-awareness to realize she’s giving off majorly creepy vibes.

As a mom of two princess-obsessed daughters, I’ve seen a lot of versions of Cinderella, but I still have yet to see another movie from the last 20 years that is anywhere close to Ella Enchanted. Its fairy tale roots are apparent, but it still has everything you’d want in a light, silly rom-com. It can’t be beat.