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A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish                             review by Drusilla Blakey

“Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.”

A Cinderella Story - Christmas Wish BD B

Combining a modern day musical, romantic drama, and a classic fairytale, A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish brings together light hearted fun and song in this fresh and imaginative retelling.  'Christmas Wish' is the fifth movie in the 'A Cinderella Story' movie series.  This time the beloved Cinderella fairytale is mixed with one of the most beloved holidays - Christmas!

A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish follows Kat Emerson who could really use a Christmas miracle. The aspiring singer-songwriter may have big dreams, but she has even bigger problems. Treated like a servant by her vain stepmother and self-involved stepsisters, Kat is forced into a demoralizing job as a singing elf at billionaire Terrence Wintergarden's Santa Land. But there is one bright spot to the job: Nick, the handsome new Santa at the tree lot. When Kat gets invited to the prestigious Wintergarden Christmas Gala, her step-family is determined to prevent her from attending and snag their own invitation.

Many will recognize Laura Marano (Disney's Austin & Ally) as Kat Decker.  Kat is our Cinderella.  Her father has recently died and she is now having to live in the attic of her stepmothers house.  As is typically of this story, she is mistreated and made to do all the chores. Laura does a good job in this role and has some very emotional scenes and dialogue which add a little bit of depth to the story. Also joining are main cast are Gregg Sulkin (Wizards of Waverly Place) is Dominic Wintergarden.  Dominic is our prince charming; handsome and rich and a little bit far beyond our reach.  He also puts forth a decent performance in this role, and even brings to light some issues of stereotypes, bullying, and the importance of having a good group of friends around you. A personal favorite of mine is Isabella Gomez (One Day at a Time) who is Kat's best friend, Isla, who makes things happen! She is the one that encourages our two leads to talk, to get to know each other, and to ultimately fall in love. She is a true and selfless friend.

 

Our three main characters do a good job with the singing and dancing, and the songs are pretty cute.  I do wish there had been more for them to do with regards to their acting and dialog, but unfortunately the story is just not that complex.  Very simple dialog and a predictable script do not really allow them to display much of their acting ability. There are some good heart felt moments and luckily the movie keeps moving at a decent page. But unfortunately, this is one of those movies where anyone could have played these characters and made it just as good. 

 

Three other characters that many will remember from the Cinderella story or the wicked stepmother, and it two evil stepsisters. Unfortunately, in this film, they were exaggerated, over the top, and a little bit comical and the way they were portraying their ugliness towards cast. I understand that perhaps the audience for this movie are teens or tweens, so I’m sure we did not want to go “full mean and evil” with these characters, but it was not a good portrayal in my opinion.

 

Overall, for fans of these actors' previous work, and/or the Cinderella Story series, they will find the film enjoyable. The story is cute and entraining enough for adults to watch with their kids as well.

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