Wednesday Wishlist #26 - Fantasy and Retellings

This week it's fantasy and retellings. Yay!

The Queen of the Tearling - Erika Johansen
A nineteen year old girl must claim her right to the throne and become the fearless leader her brutal country expects. She battles against all those that would do her harm, but can she survive long enough? Magic, mystery and romance.. sounds pretty interesting!

Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine
I watched this film as a kid and I loved it! It's a fairytale about a girl who is given the 'gift' of obedience. She goes on a quest to get rid of it by finding the fairy responsible and ends up falling in love with a prince along the way. A Cinderella story, but not as you know it.

Cruel Beauty - Rosamund Hodge
Beauty and the Beast gets a makeover in this fantasy retelling. A girl has been betrothed to the powerful, immortal man who has issued a curse over her people, and she is trained to be the one who kills him. But he is not as expected, and soon she finds herself beguiled by his charms and his magic. A love story at heart, but with a nice bit of fantasy mixed in to make thing interesting. I must read this.

Kyra_x

Ella Enchanted - Film Mini Review

Mini Review Time!

Fairytales are the best aren't they? But what's more awesome isn't a retelling but a fresh take on the fairy-tale genre. Now for awesome factor I would go with Brothers Grimm, but for cute factor I'd definitely opt for Ella Enchanted.

The story is about a girl who was enchanted at birth so that she would always be obedient. So far, she has lived her life as a normal child, but then her mother dies. A few years after, her father remarries into a family that are always ordering people about, and suddenly Ella is made to do a whole host of things she never wanted to do. Her only chance is to find her fairy Godmother and get her to take back the spell.

Along her journey, she meets the handsome Prince Char (short for Charmant... original) and an elf named Slannen. But more is afoot than everyone realises. A sinister plot against Char threatens, and Ella's secret is revealed, with horrible consequences.

The Good:

• Anne Hathaway is in it, and she sings Somebody to Love. Come on, tell me you don't want to hear that rendition.
• Hugh Dancy is in it, and he's a Prince.
• It's actually got a few ideas about politics and human rights in there, including the main message; no-one should be made to do something they don't want to do.
• There are Giants, Elves, Fairies and Ogres involved... that's pretty cool.
• Even though it's meant to be kind of medieval, there's a very contemporary feel to it, with nods to shopping malls, botox injections and retirement homes.

The Bad:

• This film is horrendously cheesy; breaking out into song at the end, rhyming narrative at the beginning, a weird talking book that makes one-liners. You get the jist.
• The bad guy gets his comeuppance in the most unimaginitive way ever.
• The screaming girls begin to really grate on you.

Kyra_x