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A
Cinderella Story:
Once Upon a Song
starring Lucy Hale,
Megan Park, Missi
Pyle and Freddie
Stroma is a
complimentary
mash-up of young,
talented actors and
a timeless
fairytale. Some of
its qualities are
enduring and perfect
for it’s
demographic. Of
course this is meant
for that audience
and some of its
other traits will be
more than a tad
annoying to people
outside of that
group of peopl
Katie (Lucy Hale) is
our Cinderella in
this story. She
wants nothing more
than to become a
successful recording
artist but is
constantly setback
by her horrible
stepmother (Missi
Pyle) and her wicked
stepsister (Megan
Park.) When her
stepmother discovers
Katie’s amazing
voice, she develops
a wicked plan to
make her talentless
daughter, Katie’s
step-sister Beverly,
a star. The prince
in this story is
played by Luke (Stroma);
he’s a music exec’s
handsome son and
record producer.
Katie and Luke meet
the night of a big
Bollywood dance at
their school. Only
Katie never tells
Luker her name. From
there it’s a
Cinderella premise
but instead of
falling in love with
a girl and only
having the glass
slipper to find her,
Luke has a voice to
track her down. It’s
up to Katie to get
her prince and chase
her dreams in spite
of her wicked step
sister and her evil
step mother.
For women, this
movie will be
enjoyable. The
Bollywood theme is a
new twist that’s fun
to watch and
provides a good
dynamic. There are
also quite a few
laughs provided with
Megan Park being the
crazy step sister
and the young
Matthew Lintz being
the rotten little
step brother. Plus,
there are a few good
romantic moments
with Stroma and Hale
that the girls are
sure to love.
There’s some good
about this movie and
it’s enjoyable for
young girls and to
an extent families.
But for a movie that
originally aired on
TV and is aimed for
girls in the 11 to
13 range they use
the word ‘bitch’ a
little too
liberally. There’s
also this weird
dynamic with music.
The direction and
supervision from
that standpoint is
terrible. Plus the
perception is a
little odd… At one
point Beverly
actually tells
Katie, “You have
talent. You’re going
to go on American
Idol and forget
about us all.” AND
SHE SAID IT IN A
SERIOUS TONE. That
part of this movie
is hard to watch.
Plus the song at the
end of the movie
should have gone in
a different
direction. Instead
of showing off the
power of a voice
with an autotuned
pop vocal on an
overproduced pop
song (even when it’s
lip-synced),
shouldn’t they have
used a light
acoustic song to
really hit the point
home? For a movie
about a budding
music star who can
write and sing
songs, there’s way
too much use of
autotune in her
vocals at the end
and the lip-syncing
is awful.
The
music is a tad
lacking on this
movie, but the
acting is great. The
cast is strong and
fun to watch from
top to bottom and
we’ll see these kids
in tons of other
movies over the
years.
A
Cinderella Story:
Once Upon a Song
is
meant for the
teenage crowd and
they’ll love this.
It’s a great story
with a good twist. I
just wish everything
in music was as easy
as they portrayed it
to be here.
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