A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song

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.

Apparently, the line towed, from the very first rendition, on is that the step people tell Cinderella that she is ugly. The problem is that you have to suspend belief because every actress that ever portrayed her, is beautiful. Knowing the story, this rendition makes you hold your breath for the climax. It is not a good writing. Lucy has a great voice and we are just waiting for her to sing. And that's the gist of it. Of all the 'stories', Bailee Madison's is the best. Chalk it up to writing. It's not the fault of the actresses.

A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song – TRASH IT/ CATCH IT (Lucy Hale & Freddie Storma fans Only) ( C ) Do I have to tell you what's it's about? The name says it all. The only reason I saw this to watch Lucy Hale and Freddie Storma. And not surprisingly these two are the only good thing in the movie too. Pretty Little Liar's Alum Lucy Hale is not only pretty but can also sings, dance and act well like another Disney' child. Freddie Storma the British lad is a heartthrob. Megan Park is alright being bitchy. Besides that there is nothing interesting or intriguing about watching this movie. This is as expected and as clichéd as it could have been. Waste of time. Only for the Lucy hale and Freddie Storma fans.

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.

I taped this on the dvr to watch with my 14-year-old daughter.I thought it looked like a fun Disney movie, but we were both a little disappointed. This could have been so much better. The writing left much to be desired, as well as some of the acting.

The good: Lucy Hale, Freddie Stroma the little brother,and the music.

The bad: Missi Pyle, as the step-mom was acted out way to cheeky. Narayan as Ravi, the meditation guru, was also pretty ridiculous.

To sum it up, cute for the kids and OK for adults, but I just think with more effort, it could have been a lot better...like 'A Cinderella Story' (Hillary Duff) & 'Another Cinderella Story' (Selena Gomez),which were both much better. Feb 2012