Disney’s newest Christmas movie is “Godmothered” and it’s only available on Disney+.  In “Godmothered”, Eleanor, played by Jillian Bell, a young, inexperienced fairy godmother-in-training, who upon hearing that her chosen profession is facing extinction, decides to show the world that people still need fairy godmothers.

She fines a mislaid letter from a 10-year-old girl in distress, which leads to Eleanor heading to the real work to track her down, where she discovers that the girl, Mackenzie, is now a 40-year-old single mom, played by Isla Fisher.

Having lost her husband several years earlier, Mackenzie has all but given up on the idea of “happily ever after,” but Eleanor is bound and determined to give Mackenzie a happiness makeover, whether she likes it or not.

Mackenzie works at a news station in Boston, which turns into a much bigger part of the story that you’d expect from a family-focused, rather than just an inconvenience.  It does feel like we spend more time with at home than getting to know her children, which makes sense from the “love” interest point of view and I think made the movie a little more interesting.

It’s hard to not to compare “Godmothered” to other movies in this genre like “Elf” and “Noelle”, but I think the “Fairy Godmother” element makes it feel at least a little different.  Elenor is a lovely character, who is massively flawed, but that adds to her charm.   Jillian Bell really stepped up in this movie as a lead actor and delivered many funny moments (many of which had me laughing out loud), which is what I want from Christmas movies.  I’ve been a fan of Isla Fisher since her “Home & Away” days, so it’s nice to see her back in a lead role, especially because her character is so “normal”, that its much more relatable for adults.

There was one major thing I noticed about this movie, that might not occur to everyone, but the last two minutes of the movie completely switch to animation.  It might have made more sense had we had some animation at the start of the movie, like in “Enchanted”, where once she goes into the real world, she becomes real.  But ultimately it felt like because of the Coronavirus, they didn’t have time to get these scenes finished and so they decided to just animate it, to get the film out for Christmas.  Honestly, it’s not a big deal and fits comfortably within the universe since they make multiple references to “Cinderella”.

My only gripe with the story was how once again, everything comes down to one big performance on a stage, which just feels so cliche and overdone, but it’s done so nicely, that it doesn’t really matter.

If you think of a “Disney” movie, “Godmothered” manages to hit all those key points, you’ve got cute animals, magic, a love story, castles, fairies and a lot of heart.  Having watched many Disney+ Original movies this year, “Godmothered” is pure “Disney” at its heart, which is exactly what we need right now.

“Godmothered” is a lovely, heartwarming comedy that is perfect for all the family and is well worth you checking out if you have a Disney+ subscription.

Rating 4 out of 5.

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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