FILM · 2004 · IRELAND
Ella Enchanted
30 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (30)
- #001
The overcast sky in Ireland was digitally recolored to a bright blue to create a more fairy-tale atmosphere.
- #002
The shoes Ella was meant to wear in the shopping mall scene were actually made of glass. Two pairs were made; unfortunately, Anne Hathaway broke both pairs during filming.
- #003
Anne Hathaway sang her own songs in the film.
- #004
During the fight scene with the giants, a horse fell on stuntman Rob Inch and shattered his pelvis in thirty places.
- #005
Creating the opening shot took about 6-7 months; live action and models were combined.
- #006
The woman driving Edgar in the car during the closing number is Anne Hathaway's cousin Meridith.
- #007
The tailor who worked on Char's cape is a real tailor living in Dublin, Ireland.
- #008
The Hall of Mirrors scene was the hardest to shoot because of the complexity of the mirrors and camera angles.
- #009
Twin babies were used during filming, one who cried a lot and one who was happy. The title Ella Enchanted was strategically placed over the babies' faces to hide the key.
- #010
Edgar's portrait reads "Hubris, never humility." Char's reads "Valiant, never Vainglorious."
- #011
Lamia, where Prince Char lives, is modeled on downtown Manhattan with castles instead of skyscrapers, bridges, rivers and island topography. It also takes its name from the Greek myth of Lamia.
- #012
After Cinderella (2000), this is the second of four times Lucy Punch has played one of Cinderella's stepsisters. She later did so again in Cinderella (2008) and Into the Woods (2014).
- #013
The actors playing the giants, Jim Carter, Paraic Breathnach and Daniel Naprous, were told that getting into makeup and costume would take only two hours, when in fact it took four to six hours.
- #014
Heston was originally going to be a puppet, but Tommy O'Haver immediately realized that wouldn't work and Heston became a digital character.
- #015
The prince's name "Charmant" is not just a pun, it is the French equivalent of "Charming."
- #016
There are several references to Cinderella - Ella has a stepmother and two wicked stepsisters. One of the stepsisters tells Ella to go home and clean the fireplace. Ella is created to steal a glass shoe/slipper. Ella has a fairy godmother who dresses her for the ball. The stroke of midnight is important. Another word for "Char" is "Cinder," so when you combine the names you get "Cinder-Ella." This is because Gail Carson Levine's original book was in fact an adaptation of the Cinderella story. In the book, many of these connections are made much more clearly. It is also thought that Char's full name, Charmont, is actually a play on the name Prince Charming.
- #017
EASTER EGG: There are several faces hidden in the image throughout the film. In order of appearance: 1. In the opening in the countryside, when you see the unicorn, the side of the wall where the branches are broken forms a face in profile. The broken part of the wall forms the forehead, nose and mouth; the branches form the hair, eyebrow and eye. 2&3. When Mandy (Minnie Driver) first opens the book, there are two hidden faces in the pages of the magic book. 4. When Prince Char and Ella see the giants working in the field, there is a face hidden on the hill on the left. You can see it in the shot that starts from the watchtowers and moves directly toward the field (the giants' last shot). It can also be seen in the first shot of the giants, but only in the widescreen version. 5. When Ella is chained to the tree, there is a small face hidden in the middle of the tree, between two extended branches (that look like short arms). In some copies of the film it may be very difficult, though not impossible, to see this (especially if the print is a little dark).
- #018
Tommy O'Haver affectionately called the Lamia Castle Guards his own Stormtroopers, referencing Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).
- #019
Slannen mentions the Brothers Grimm. They were the first to write down the story of Cinderella, on which this film is based.
- #020
The film adaptation differs from the book in several notable ways. Edgar, the villainous uncle played by Cary Elwes, does not appear in Gail Carson Levine's book.
- #021
Fairies are forced to appear wherever the magic they cast fails to work; this is how Ella finally draws Lucinda, the fairy who cursed her with obedience, to her.
- #022
Alexa PenaVega auditioned for the role of Ella of Frell.
- #023
Aidan McArdle and Steve Coogan are real-life cousins.
- #024
This is the second film in which Anne Hathaway plays a princess.
- #025
After Ella kicks a Crimson Guard behind her and sends him out quite quickly, her stepmother Olga, played by Joanna Lumley, is horrified by the move. Lumley also played Purdy in The New Avengers (1976) and was known for her kickboxing fighting style.
- #026
Andy Garcia, Mel Brooks, Edward James Olmos, Jeff Garlin and Bob Newhart were considered to voice Heston.
- #027
Cary Elwes appeared in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994), in which his character is killed by the snake Kaa. In this film, his character has a snake as a slave.
- #028
Fans are divided over Ella's removal of her curse from Lucinda: Some like the fact that Ella finds the loophole by using a mirror to order herself never to obey anyone again. Others find it incredibly stupid that Ella and her mother spent years unaware they had this power, which means Ella could have freed herself much earlier.
- #029
Anne Hathaway and Hugh Dancy were together in real life from 2002 to 2004.
- #030
A year earlier, Joanna Lumley and Minnie Driver appeared on screen together when Lumley guest-starred in the Absolutely Fabulous (1992) episode "Panickin'" (2003) as Driver's guest.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work