Brief Story Line
Eleanor (Jillian Bell - Bill & Ted Face the Music, Workaholics TV series etc) was a young fairy godmother in training, who got information that her home, the Motherland might be on the verge of closing and there would be no more fairy godmothers. She wanted to prove that they were still required and thus save her home, so she wanted to grant the wish of a young girl named Mackenzie to live happily ever after.
However, things did not go as planned as when she managed to finally meet Mackenzie, she was already an adult (played by Isla Fisher - Keeping Up with the Joneses, The Great Gatsby etc) and single mother of 2 daughters who were usually being babysit by her sister Paula (Mary Elizabeth Ellis - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia TV series etc). Eleanor would find that it would be a real challenge to fulfill her "mission" on Mack and trying to set her up with her co-worker Hugh Prince (Santiago Cabrera - Star Trek: Picard, Heroes TV series etc).
To make things further complicated, the headmistress of Motherland, Moira (Jane Curtin - The Spy Who Dumped Me etc) was trying to bring Eleanor back home before it was too late. So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this quite fun drama comedy movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As I mentioned above, when I saw the trailer, I thought this would be fun. The idea of a fairy godmother in training who tried to fulfill the wish of a young girl but unfortunately had been an adult by the time she arrived, was truly unique. I could already imagine the chaotic situation that would happen in this scenario. The combination of Eleanor's inexperience and the bitterness of Mackenzie was fun to see. I actually had quite few laughs in here, though it might not be a real laugh out loud moment, but enough to make me feel happy watching it.
Those of us who know the Cinderella story would have been familiar with the gentle and kind fairy godmother who help her to to achieve happily ever after. And thus seeing Eleanor's character was really refreshing. I admired the creativity of Kari Garlund to come up with this kind of idea. It's probably a little bit similar to the feeling I had when watching Disney's Maleficent as it was told from the side of the antagonist character instead of the supposedly lead character Aurora (Sleeping Beauty).
The thing is, even though I had few laughs and the idea was great, the execution itself was not as fantastic as I expected. I am not sure why but it seemed to lack a bit of the really warm feeling I usually get when watching this kind of film. There was no real spark, and it felt like missing some major emotional moments. Although there was a brief touching moment in the park and another one towards the ending, but not that satisfying. Oh I also thought the film had a mature ending with huge moral message which was fine personally to me. However, somehow I felt it could kind of ruin the happily ever after concept and might take away the magical feeling of kids over Disney's princesses. But that's probably just me.
Jillian Bell suit her role perfectly as this inexperienced godmother and her counterpart Isla Fisher was not bad either as the bitter adult woman. The support cast performed their roles adequately. The young Jillian Shea Spaeder and Willa Skye were also pretty decent playing as Mack's daughters Jane and Mia respectively. As the story was set during Christmas, there were some nice decorations in the city of Boston with lots of snow which should bring Christmas mood for audience like myself, especially when I heard few Xmas songs. The movie has a quite long duration of 1 hour 50 minutes including closing credits that did not have any mid or post end credit scenes.
Overall this was a quite fun drama comedy movie. It has great creative idea, some magics though not magical enough, few funny moments, some Christmas but not too Christmassy and heavy moral message. I did have fun watching this movie, however it was not a really memorable one. But if you are seeking for some new fantasy Disney movie, then this one can be an option. Just do not expect the best quality.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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