Kidzworld saw Godmothered on Disney+. It’s a sweet, funny and modernized take on the happily ever after tale. True love and happiness looks different for each person and that’s great! Read our movie review.
Young Fairy Godmother trainee Eleanor (comic Jillian Bell) is sure that her teacher Moira (Jane Curtin) is right that the old formula; wear cool sparkly dress, get prince charming and live happily ever after still works. Others in the class are not so sure. With the demand for Fairy Godmothers waning, Moira will soon close the school. Finding an old request letter from young girl Mackenzie (grown up version Isla Fisher), Eleanor goes through a portal from magical Motherland to Boston hoping to prove she can give someone a happily ever after. Mackenzie proves to be a big challenge, especially for a Fairy Godmother in training.
Eleanor is a novice at Godmother magicCourtesy of Disney
Threat to Motherland
Local Motherland D.J. Agnes (June Squibb), age 172..at least, plays music from a tower and explains that young Eleanor was the only trainee Fairy Godmother to apply in years. Eleanor truly believes in headmistress Moira’s formula that a sparkly dress will attract your true love then…happily ever after. Others in class say this no longer works. People no longer believe. Motherland will soon shut down. Ever optimistic, Eleanor finds an old letter from a 10-year-old named Mackenzie asking for help. After some mishaps, Eleanor makes it through a magic portal to modern-day Boston where she is a definite misfit while searching for Mackenzie.
A confused Eleanor arrives near BostonCourtesy of Disney
Modern-day Mackenzie
Eleanor makes it to an address, a T.V. station where Mackenzie, now all grown up, is a segment producer for a news show. Thinking Eleanor is nutty, she throws her out. Overworked, underappreciated Mackenzie works with reporter Hugh Prince (who looks like Clark Kent in glasses…cute but understated). They are told to find more sensational stories. No more goodie-two-shoes, bland stories. Later, in the parking garage, Eleanor has to turn Mackenzie’s outfit into a giant puffer coat (by mistake) to prove she is a real Fairy Godmother. Freaked, Mackenzie believes after Eleanor gives her the letter she wrote at age 10.
Eleanor enjoys BostonCourtesy of Disney
On the Homefront
At home, Mackenzie’s daughters Jane (Jillian Shae Spader) and Mia (Willa Skye) skip their homework and eat pizza with Aunt Paula (Mary Elizabeth Ellis). Teen Jane has been asked to sing in a Christmas parade but Mackenzie doesn’t encourage her because singing in public has always made her violently sick. Jane tells Eleanor, who is bunking in the basement out of sight, that her husband ran away with a younger woman so there is no happily ever after. Using the magical spells she remembers from training, Eleanor turns a dog into a pet pig, a raccoon into a handyman named Gary and fancies up Mackenzie’s house hoping to please her. It doesn’t work.
Mackenzie with younger daughter MiaCourtesy of Disney
Off to Work
The kids are thrilled Eleanor is there so Mackenzie takes her to work and introduces her as her cousin… from Canada. A Bruins tailgate party gets turned by Eleanor into a magical fireworks show that Prince reports on and other channels pick up. That night, Eleanor learns magically from Agnes that Moira knows she is gone and will close the portal to Earth in four days, thus robbing Eleanor of her magical powers forever. Eleanor can’t return now. She is determined to get Hugh and Mackenzie together. She’s learned that Mackenzie’s husband died four years ago. She hasn’t faced it well and neither have her daughters. Jane used to sing with her dad.
Godmother Moira teaches old-fashioned valuesCourtesy of Disney
Christmastime
Mackenzie cheers up enough to get Christmas decorations and Jane sings on the street with Eleanor and gains a bit of courage. She agrees to sing in the Christmas parade.
Eleanor gets Jane (with guitar) to sing a bit on the streetCourtesy of Disney
Eleanor goes on assignment to a winter sledding area with Mackenzie and Hugh and manages to slide down the hill running into Hugh while he is on air and knocking him down. The funny fall goes viral and the station assignment editor is pleased.
Fairy Godmother Eleanor slides down the slopeCourtesy of Disney
Agnes calls in again with news that Moira will close the portal in two days! Mackenzie and Hugh grow closer but Mackenzie isn’t ready to risk her heart again.
Mackenzie decides to cheer up for ChristmasCourtesy of Disney
Will Happily-Ever-After Happen?
After an office Christmas party during which Eleanor interferes trying to rush things up between Mackenzie and Hugh, Mackenzie leaves angry telling Eleanor that she only wants to put her together with prince charming for herself, so she can succeed as a Fairy Godmother, not to really help Mackenzie. Is she right? Will Hugh and Mackenzie ever get together? Will Jane be able to sing in public? Will Eleanor make it back through the portal and save the Motherland? Is happiness so much more than a prince? Does true love exist in many forms?
Can Eleanor get Hugh and Mackenzie together?Courtesy of Disney
Wrapping Up
Godmothered is sweet, funny and a nice take on an old fairytale. Lead actress Jillian Bell reminds me of a less frantic and more PG-rated version of Rebel Wilson. She is charming, funny and does a great job of playing a clueless stranger-in-a-strange-land.
Jillian as Eleanor on setCourtesy of Disney
Isla Fisher always does a great job playing a woman who has to re-discover her joy and her Mackenzie is no exception. We don’t have another musical here but the songs are familiar, upbeat and “Rise Up” is a great choice for Jane to sing especially considering the down and out way many of us are approaching the holidays this year. It brought a tear to my eye.
Mackenzie tells Eleanor she isn't sure about HughCourtesy of Disney
The modernizing of the happily-ever-after message, i.e. true, forever love comes in many forms to many different types of people is a worthy one and nicely presented here. There is nothing ground-breaking in Godmothered but it is an uplifting entertainment for holiday time that is a bit different from the other offerings out there. We award four stars.
Godmothered Movie Rating: 
Courtesy of Disney
See Godmothered on Disney+ streaming this Friday, December 4th
