A Cinderella Story Upon A Song

[Gaby Zenz]

SynopsisKatie Gibbs (Lucy Hale) connects with the son of a famous music director, Luke Morgan, (Freddie Stroma) through their love of singing. However, after getting caught by her abusive step-family, she is forced to help her step-sister lie and fake her singing ability so that she can get Luke to fall in love with her step-sister instead.

They essentially reverted back to everything that I hated in the first movie (cheesy conflict, one-dimensional villains that never have their motives explained, kindergarten-level comedy, girls vs girls mentality) combined with song and dance every five minutes.

At this point in time, I just want to advocate for an R-rated Cinderella Story so that the writers can truly shine and actually illustrate high school bullying. And also be able to make the Cinderella go Carrie on her step-family.

Your donation will support the student journalists of Mountain View High School. Your contribution will allow us to continue publishing six print issues a year and cover our annual website hosting costs. For a tax-deductible donation please visit the Spartan Webstore.

The movies are not sequels of each other. Every movie has a different lead actress and lead actor. There are 6 movies, starring 6 different actresses. Hillary Duff, Selena Gomez, Laura Marano, Lucy Hale, Ashlee Hewitt, and Sofia Carson. There is no order for them because every movie is a different story line.

Sorry you found them to be so intolerable. I mean, I watch movies to be entertained. I understand alot of the people that review movies watch them only to point out every flaw in every second of every movie. It honestly seems like a miserable existence. But regardless, I wish you much luck in life and suggest staying away from movies, considering your mindset.

The movie's central message (other than that cruelty will eventually be repaid by justice) is that you should never be afraid to follow your passion or use your gifts. Both Katie and Luke are suppressed by controlling (and in Katie's case abusive) guardians, but they persevere and are eventually able to show off their musical talent.

The grown-ups are all negative role models: Gail is cruel and moneygrubbing, Luke's father is doesn't listen to him, and the guru is a quack. Katie is selfless but a bit too self-effacing; she doesn't ever stand up to her stepmother until prodded by Luke, who's a good role model for following your own dreams rather than those imposed on you by your parents.

Teens go out on a date and nearly kiss. Another couple flirts and ends up sharing a couple of kisses. The word "hot" is used a few times to describe girls. In one scene, a prank leaves a girl naked, but viewers only see her shoulders and legs. A boy makes jokes about "partial nudity."

Some insults like "idiots," "freakin'," "stupid," and "crap." The stepmother makes cruel comments about nearly everyone. She calls her daughter "untalented" and tells her stepdaughter that she'll never amount to anything. The stepmother also calls a girl "an Asian dwarf" and pretty much says something unkind every time she speaks. Her own young son calls her a "beeyotch."

Parents need to know that this is the third take on a familiar tale, A Cinderella Story. Like the first two movies, this one follows a talented-but-put-upon Cinderella stand-in who lives under the tyrannical rule of a mean stepmother. The teen romance is mild and only includes two sweet kisses, but the protagonist endures quite a lot of emotional -- and verbal -- abuse from her humorous-but-cruel parental figure. The stepmother character, however, gets hers in the end, and at the very least, this Cinderella has unexpected allies who help her triumph. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.

Katie Gibbs (Lucy Hale) is a gifted singer-songwriter, but before she can head off to music school for college, she must endure one final year under the emotionally abusive supervision of her "evil stepmother" Gail (Missi Pyle) and bratty stepsiblings. Gail, who's the headmistress of Katie's private school, has landed a star transfer pupil, Luke (Freddie Stroma), the handsome son of a billionaire music producer. A condition of his attendance is that Luke produce the school's annual talent show. When fame-hungry Gail realizes that Katie is much more talented than her own daughter, she forces Katie to sing songs that stepsister Bev (Megan Park) will lip-sync during the big show. Katie agrees, but watching Bev and Luke get cozy over her own songs nearly breaks her heart.

This third installment in Warner Bros.' popular Cinderella Story franchise is as sugary sweet and entertaining as the others -- which is to say, fluffy and cute, not deep and enduring. Tween girls will delight in Hale (star of Pretty Little Liars) and Stroma's (who memorably played the cocky Cormac McLaggen in Harry Potter) attraction at first listen, and parents will approve of how their relationship develops in an almost Cyrano de Bergerac fashion -- a meeting of like-minded artists, not teens in hormonal overdrive.

Unlike other Cinderella adaptations, Katie's stepsiblings aren't always cruel, but the stepmother is completely cold-hearted. Pyle is definitely the movie's top scene-stealer, with her pinched smile and narrowed eyes. She's the kind of character actress who deserves a starring comedy or sitcom role but instead has to settle for these supporting gigs. Pyle's love-to-hate-her performance, combined with Hale and Stroma's adorable leads, makes this a perfect sleepover pick for girls who haven't graduated to PG-13 romances.

Families can talk about how family relationships are portrayed in this story. Does Katie have a healthy home environment? How does her stepmother treat her? Are kids sometimes treated this way in real life?

In this modern telling of the classic tale, aspiring singer Katie Gibbs falls for the new boy at her performing arts high school. But Katie's wicked stepmother and stepsister are scheming to crush her dream before she can sing her way into his heart.

No one should expect anything ground-breaking out of any type of "Cinderella Story" -- so I am not docking points for that.

The antagonists, especially the step-monster, chew the scenery so badly that it's cringe-worthy. I really like Missi Pyle normally, but not here.

Finally, there's something very ironic that the movie blasts lip syncing, and yet, the lip syncing of the main characters is awful. I'm not saying that they aren't singing, but it's clear that they are not singing while acting. Further, the "live" performance at the end is very heavily auto-tuned. It's sad, because I actually like the songs, but those two elements really bother me.

This movie is honestly really great! Lucy Hale is great at playing her role and has an amazing singing voice. She becomes strong overtime and doesn't obey like most of the other Cinderellas. Jessalyn Wanlim is great as the best friend/fairy godmother role. The others are alright, definitely not the best but still did their part well. I didn't even know Freddie Stroma could sing until I saw this movie. His voice is great too!The songs are fun and catchy, the choreography for the Bollywood dance scene is one of the best I have seen in awhile, and the story is good. The ending is the best part of the whole movie. I loved getting to see Lucy's character have her moment to shine.This movie isn't as good as the others before it. I think they could have done better but this was still really entertaining and fun to watch.

A Cinderella Story: Once Upon A Song is a 2011 film that is part of the A Cinderella Story franchise which started with Hilary Duff back in 2004. This film is about a singer songwriter named Katie Gibbs(Lucy Hale) who dreams of making it big. She catches the attention of an English singer named Jake(Freddie Stoma)who is looking for the next big thing. But when Katie's evil stepmother(Missy Pyle) wants to use her other daughter Brie(Megan Park) to pretend to be the good singer,can Katie prove that she is the actual singer.

Sure this film has nothing got to do with Cinderella,but overall I enjoyed it.

6/10

C+

3a8082e126