Capsule/Summary **½
A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song is a third entry in Warner Bros.' series of contemporary stories adapted from the familiar "Cinderella" template, this time starring Lucy Hale as a put-upon teen step-daughter with musical ambitions. Despite a charismatic cast, The film does not distinguish itself significantly from prior versions of the story and represents a typical made for television/home video tween-oriented movie along the lines of what viewers could see on The Disney Channel or Nickelodeon on any given weekend. It is presented on DVD with a video transfer that mars some above average cinematography via too-frequent digital video noise and a serviceable audio track that comes to life particularly during the film's handful of musical set-pieces. Extras are kid-oriented and largely promotional in nature.
A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song
Directed By: Damon Santostefano
Starring: Lucy Hale, Megan Park, Freddie Stroma, Jessalyn Wanlim, Titus Makin, Jr., Missy Pyle, Matthew Lintz, & Dikran Tulaine
Studio: Warner Premiere
Year: 2011
Rated: PG
Film Length: 88 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Release Date: September 6, 2011
The Film **½
A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song is the third in a series of modern updates of the familiar Cinderella fable targeted at tweens. It was preceded by A Cinderella Story in 2004 starring Hilary Duff and the direct to video Another Cinderella Story in 2008 starring Selena Gomez. In keeping with the tradition, the star of this one is also the star of a popular teen-oriented television series on a Disney owned network: Lucy Hale of ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars. The basic plot will be no surprise to anyone familiar with the Cinderella template. Hale plays Katie, a talented young girl with musical aspirations who is mis-treated and used as a servant by her snooty stepmother, Gail Van Ravensway (Pyle), who also happens to be the dean of the prestigious private school she attends. Her home life is further vexed by her spoiled step-sister, Bev (Park), and her obnoxious prank-loving step-brother, Victor (Lintz). When Luke Morgan (Stroma), the son of fabulously successful music producer Guy Morgan (Tulaine), enrolls at their school, Katie conspires to slip a copy of a recorded demo into Guy's briefcase and Gail schemes to make a romantic pair of Bev and Luke. When Guy calls the school to indicate that he liked the demo and is interested in meeting the singer, Gail puts two and two together and blackmail's Katie into pre-recording vocals so that Bev can lip-synch to them at the upcoming school musical production. (Sidetrack -- Suggestions for alternate titles: Cinderella de Bergerac?, Cind-ing in the Rain? ...). A series of chance encounters in which Luke become's fascinated with Katie's voice without actually seeing her face leads to a search that plays right into Gail's lip-sync deception plans (Sidetrack Addendum: The Little Mer-House Maid?).
Despite it's oh-so predictable plot and derivative characters, A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song manges to go a long way on the charm of its cast, every member of which tries valiantly to elevate the material given to them without quite succeeding. Missy Pyle at least appears to be having fun with the broadly comic vacuous evil stepmother role and manages to somehow elicit a few chuckles even when saddled with most of the expository plot-establishing dialog. Lucy Hale and Freddie Stroma make a likable if not particularly memorable couple, and Jessalyn Wanlim and Titus Makin, Jr. do about as well as their respective sidekicks. At best, they manage to come across as charming and/or funny people given nothing particularly charming and/or funny to do or say. At worst, the viewer is confronted with Manu Narayan, who is given the actor's dream of playing not one, but two borderline offensive stereotypes.
The filmmakers seem to have taken a "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" approach to the plot, with apparent hopes that there will be something for everyone. The film's plot is not quite sturdy enough to contain such disparate elements as a Bollywood-style production number, young Victor's Dennis the Menace-style antics, an extended slapstick sequence involving Katie being locked out of the house naked, and (the only one I have not seen before so points for originality) a running gag involving singing groups auditioning for Luke while he is standing at a urinal (points deducted for hygiene). While the music is in the teen pop mold, there is enough variety in styles to keep it from being too boring, and in a refreshing change from other recent teen fare, the voices of the singers are occasionally allowed to be heard above the heavy production, suggesting that Hale and a few of her cast mates actually could carry a tune without the aid of Autotune and massive amounts of reverb and double tracking.
The film amounts to a middle of the pack example of the type of TV movie kids and parents are likely to encounter on The Disney Channel or Nickelodeon on any given weekend.
The Video ***½
This direct to video release is framed at a 16:9 aspect ration and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. Despite it's non-theatrical origins and modest budget, A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song is a very attractively shot film, and the video presentation usually is up to the challenge of making that readily apparent. Unfortunately, the presentation is marred by frequent occurrences of digital video noise that seems to be confounding with natural film grain. This flaw is too frequent to ignore, but the presentation otherwise features a solid range of contrast with deep shadows and bright but not blooming whites. The color palette is also well represented as best embodied by the deeply saturated colors in the "Bollywood"-style musical production number in the middle of the film.
The Audio ****
The 384 kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 track plays like a 3.0 stereo track except for the musical sequences of the film which employ the surrounds and LFE both for discrete effects and reverb/ambience. Dialog and music are well recorded and integrated into the mix, and the relatively low bit-rate does not appear to impair the fidelity significantly. There are no available alternate language dubs.
The Extras **½
When the disc is first played, the viewer is greeted with the following skippable promos presented in 4:3 video, letterboxed when appropriate, with Dolby Digital 2.0 Audio:
Proper extras consist of a series of featurettes in 16:9 enhanced video with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound:
Spotlighting Lucy Hale: Our New Cinderella (6:34) focuses on the lead actress, consisting largely of praise from other actors and members of the production staff and a little bit of Hale talking about herself and the film. O-camera interview comments are provided by Hale, Executive Producer/Choreographer Michelle Johnston, Megan Park (“Bev Van Ravensway”), Freddie Stroma (“Luke Morgan”), Jessalyn Wanlin (“Angela”), Missy Pyle (“Gail Van Ravensway”), Writers Jessica Scott and Erik Patterson, Songwriters/Sountrack Producers Tim James and Antonina Armato, and Titus Makin, Jr. (“Mickey O’Malley”)
A Cinderella Story: Meet Prince Charming (7:42) is a featurette focusing on Freddie Stroma. While still not particularly deep, it is at least deviates a bit from the electronic press kit format of the other featurettes on the disc by being almost entirely built around on location conversations between Lucy Hale and Stroma which are about 2% interview, 98% goofing around. The discussions are intercut with ocasional behind the scenes footage.
A Cinderella Story: Make ‘Em Move (6:22) is another "Talking heads" featurette that focuses on the choreography from the film’s musical set-pieces with the majority of the on-camera comments coming from Johnston with additional comments from Hale, Park, Jessalyn Wanlim (“Angela”), and Makin.
Flippin’ on Set (6:24) is a collection of on-set footage captured by the cast with flip-cams intercut with occasional interview segments setting up the context.
Lucy Hale “Bless Myself” Music Video (3:43) is a music video of the song from the film’s climactic concert scene. It mixes footage from the film with occasional shots of Hale singing into a studio microphone. While not a particularly creative video, it offers viewers a chance to hear the complete song by itself without the additional production audio from the concert sequence.
Packaging
The disc is enclosed in a standard Eco-Box DVD case with no inserts. The on-disc menus do not include a chapter menu, but the film is encoded with nine chapters accessible via the DVD player's remote.
A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song is a third entry in Warner Bros.' series of contemporary stories adapted from the familiar "Cinderella" template, this time starring Lucy Hale as a put-upon teen step-daughter with musical ambitions. Despite a charismatic cast, The film does not distinguish itself significantly from prior versions of the story and represents a typical made for television/home video tween-oriented movie along the lines of what viewers could see on The Disney Channel or Nickelodeon on any given weekend. It is presented on DVD with a video transfer that mars some above average cinematography via too-frequent digital video noise and a serviceable audio track that comes to life particularly during the film's handful of musical set-pieces. Extras are kid-oriented and largely promotional in nature.
A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song
Directed By: Damon Santostefano
Starring: Lucy Hale, Megan Park, Freddie Stroma, Jessalyn Wanlim, Titus Makin, Jr., Missy Pyle, Matthew Lintz, & Dikran Tulaine
Studio: Warner Premiere
Year: 2011
Rated: PG
Film Length: 88 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Release Date: September 6, 2011
The Film **½
A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song is the third in a series of modern updates of the familiar Cinderella fable targeted at tweens. It was preceded by A Cinderella Story in 2004 starring Hilary Duff and the direct to video Another Cinderella Story in 2008 starring Selena Gomez. In keeping with the tradition, the star of this one is also the star of a popular teen-oriented television series on a Disney owned network: Lucy Hale of ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars. The basic plot will be no surprise to anyone familiar with the Cinderella template. Hale plays Katie, a talented young girl with musical aspirations who is mis-treated and used as a servant by her snooty stepmother, Gail Van Ravensway (Pyle), who also happens to be the dean of the prestigious private school she attends. Her home life is further vexed by her spoiled step-sister, Bev (Park), and her obnoxious prank-loving step-brother, Victor (Lintz). When Luke Morgan (Stroma), the son of fabulously successful music producer Guy Morgan (Tulaine), enrolls at their school, Katie conspires to slip a copy of a recorded demo into Guy's briefcase and Gail schemes to make a romantic pair of Bev and Luke. When Guy calls the school to indicate that he liked the demo and is interested in meeting the singer, Gail puts two and two together and blackmail's Katie into pre-recording vocals so that Bev can lip-synch to them at the upcoming school musical production. (Sidetrack -- Suggestions for alternate titles: Cinderella de Bergerac?, Cind-ing in the Rain? ...). A series of chance encounters in which Luke become's fascinated with Katie's voice without actually seeing her face leads to a search that plays right into Gail's lip-sync deception plans (Sidetrack Addendum: The Little Mer-House Maid?).
Despite it's oh-so predictable plot and derivative characters, A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song manges to go a long way on the charm of its cast, every member of which tries valiantly to elevate the material given to them without quite succeeding. Missy Pyle at least appears to be having fun with the broadly comic vacuous evil stepmother role and manages to somehow elicit a few chuckles even when saddled with most of the expository plot-establishing dialog. Lucy Hale and Freddie Stroma make a likable if not particularly memorable couple, and Jessalyn Wanlim and Titus Makin, Jr. do about as well as their respective sidekicks. At best, they manage to come across as charming and/or funny people given nothing particularly charming and/or funny to do or say. At worst, the viewer is confronted with Manu Narayan, who is given the actor's dream of playing not one, but two borderline offensive stereotypes.
The filmmakers seem to have taken a "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" approach to the plot, with apparent hopes that there will be something for everyone. The film's plot is not quite sturdy enough to contain such disparate elements as a Bollywood-style production number, young Victor's Dennis the Menace-style antics, an extended slapstick sequence involving Katie being locked out of the house naked, and (the only one I have not seen before so points for originality) a running gag involving singing groups auditioning for Luke while he is standing at a urinal (points deducted for hygiene). While the music is in the teen pop mold, there is enough variety in styles to keep it from being too boring, and in a refreshing change from other recent teen fare, the voices of the singers are occasionally allowed to be heard above the heavy production, suggesting that Hale and a few of her cast mates actually could carry a tune without the aid of Autotune and massive amounts of reverb and double tracking.
The film amounts to a middle of the pack example of the type of TV movie kids and parents are likely to encounter on The Disney Channel or Nickelodeon on any given weekend.
The Video ***½
This direct to video release is framed at a 16:9 aspect ration and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. Despite it's non-theatrical origins and modest budget, A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song is a very attractively shot film, and the video presentation usually is up to the challenge of making that readily apparent. Unfortunately, the presentation is marred by frequent occurrences of digital video noise that seems to be confounding with natural film grain. This flaw is too frequent to ignore, but the presentation otherwise features a solid range of contrast with deep shadows and bright but not blooming whites. The color palette is also well represented as best embodied by the deeply saturated colors in the "Bollywood"-style musical production number in the middle of the film.
The Audio ****
The 384 kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 track plays like a 3.0 stereo track except for the musical sequences of the film which employ the surrounds and LFE both for discrete effects and reverb/ambience. Dialog and music are well recorded and integrated into the mix, and the relatively low bit-rate does not appear to impair the fidelity significantly. There are no available alternate language dubs.
The Extras **½
When the disc is first played, the viewer is greeted with the following skippable promos presented in 4:3 video, letterboxed when appropriate, with Dolby Digital 2.0 Audio:
A Dolphin Tale Theatrical Trailer (1:45)
Happy Feet Two Theatrical Teaser (1:25)
Santa’s Magical Stories DVD Collection (1:17)
"Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo (1:52)
"Pretty Little Liars" Complete First Season DVD Promo (1:27)
Happiness is Peanuts: Snow Days DVD Promo (1:00)
Proper extras consist of a series of featurettes in 16:9 enhanced video with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound:
Spotlighting Lucy Hale: Our New Cinderella (6:34) focuses on the lead actress, consisting largely of praise from other actors and members of the production staff and a little bit of Hale talking about herself and the film. O-camera interview comments are provided by Hale, Executive Producer/Choreographer Michelle Johnston, Megan Park (“Bev Van Ravensway”), Freddie Stroma (“Luke Morgan”), Jessalyn Wanlin (“Angela”), Missy Pyle (“Gail Van Ravensway”), Writers Jessica Scott and Erik Patterson, Songwriters/Sountrack Producers Tim James and Antonina Armato, and Titus Makin, Jr. (“Mickey O’Malley”)
A Cinderella Story: Meet Prince Charming (7:42) is a featurette focusing on Freddie Stroma. While still not particularly deep, it is at least deviates a bit from the electronic press kit format of the other featurettes on the disc by being almost entirely built around on location conversations between Lucy Hale and Stroma which are about 2% interview, 98% goofing around. The discussions are intercut with ocasional behind the scenes footage.
A Cinderella Story: Make ‘Em Move (6:22) is another "Talking heads" featurette that focuses on the choreography from the film’s musical set-pieces with the majority of the on-camera comments coming from Johnston with additional comments from Hale, Park, Jessalyn Wanlim (“Angela”), and Makin.
Flippin’ on Set (6:24) is a collection of on-set footage captured by the cast with flip-cams intercut with occasional interview segments setting up the context.
Lucy Hale “Bless Myself” Music Video (3:43) is a music video of the song from the film’s climactic concert scene. It mixes footage from the film with occasional shots of Hale singing into a studio microphone. While not a particularly creative video, it offers viewers a chance to hear the complete song by itself without the additional production audio from the concert sequence.
Packaging
The disc is enclosed in a standard Eco-Box DVD case with no inserts. The on-disc menus do not include a chapter menu, but the film is encoded with nine chapters accessible via the DVD player's remote.
