Ella is a girl who just can't say no...but that's not to condemn her as a young lady of loose morals.

The problem is she literally cannot decline because she was cursed with gift-wish when a baby which says she cannot refuse any order.

The feckless fairy that landed her with this curse unfortunately flitted off, leaving the now teenage girl with her auto-submissiveness syndrome.

Things are bad enough... then her mum dies and dad weds evil Dame Olga (Lumley), who brings in tow spoilt daughters Hattie (Lucy Punch) and Oliver (Jennifer Higham).

When the spiteful Hattie discover's Ella's binding secret, she must leave home to find the gift-bearing fairy and the reverse the spell.

This is one of those films - think Shrek - where there's an ironic attempt to marry a classic fairy story with a knowing 21st century twist.

It's a difficult stunt to pull off and this doesn't quite manage it being more like panto night at Sunderland Empire despite the occasional surreal flourish and a handful of attractive characters.

Hathaway - who plays Ella - appears to have feisty-within-a-set-limit heroines down to a tee after Princess Diaries while Dancy doesn't bring an awful lot of romance to the romantic lead.

Cary Elwes is a pretty wishy-washy villain while Lumley and Minnie Driver as Ella's nursemaid are never given full rein.

However, it all looks very handsome - Brothers Grimm given a computerised, contemporary tweak - and the dialogue throws up the odd funny line.

There's a decent sequence where Ella's is instructed to sing Queen's Somebody To Love in various styles along to an accompaniment of drunken giants.

Whether a nation of nippers will have the spine to say no as convincingly as Ella remains to be seen.

If you refuse, all spell could break loose.

Tim Evans