Last week I said I had a couple holiday movies I wanted to review, and I posted the first one (for Happiest Season), and then completely forgot to write the second one! So, here I present to you my movie review for the other new holiday movie I watched over Christmas break: Godmothered.

Godmothered is a Disney movie that was released directly to Disney+ on Dec 4th, starring Isla Fisher and Jillian Bell. It is clearly in the tradition of Disney holiday movies meant for whole families, and I frankly: I thought it was really REALLY cute!

The basic premise is this: Jillian Bell plays Eleanor, a fairy in training in “The Motherland” to become a Fairy Godmother, only she discovers that no new fairy has been made an official Godmother in YEARS because there are no more missions. And there are no more missions because people on Earth have stopped believing in magic and happily-ever-afters. The head-Godmother Moira, played by Jane Curtin (which was both strange and amusing), announces that the Motherland is officially going to be closed, and all fairies will be made into Tooth Fairies. Eleanor decides she won’t accept this: she finds a single mission, a wish from a little girl named Mackenzie, and goes to Earth to give Mackenzie a happy ending and prove that Godmothers are still needed.

Lo! And behold, however: the wish is old, and Mackenzie is now an adult woman with two children, working at a failing trash-news station. She is widowed, miserable, and has mostly checked out of her childrens’ lives. When Eleanor arrives, Mackenzie is understandably skeptical and then HORRIFIED when she discovers that Eleanor really IS magical. Mayhem and hijinks ensure, during which Eleanor decides that Mackenzie’s happily-ever-after must mean that she should fall in love with her attractive, charmingly-geeky coworker at the news station, aptly named Hugh PRINCE, who must SURELY be her TRUE LOVE. Eleanor causes several disasters and highly embarrassing situations (I am very sensitive to secondhand embarrassment and squirmed through a couple scenes). And the movie ends, of course, happily, but perhaps not in the way one might expect.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was sweet and charming and funny. Clearly, it must be safe for children, but I found for the most part that it played as much to adults who would understand and empathize with Mackenzie’s disillusionment with romance, happy endings, and life in general. Isla Fisher and Gillian Bell are wonderful in the movie. They’re funny and played off each other very well. Santiago Cabrera, who plays Hugh Prince, was (as I said) charmingly-geeky and adorably idealistic. Even the two children were pretty good (and I usually find child actors in these kinds of movies either FAR too twee, or just plain-old BAD). Quite a few scenes made me laugh out loud, and even the more cheesy scenes weren’t TOO cheesy. But what I really appreciated about this movie was the ENDING.

AND HERE WE GET INTO A SPOILER FOR THE ENDING OF THE MOVIE! CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

At the end of the movie, following all of Eleanor’s failed attempts to get Mackenzie and Hugh together in the belief that this is the ONLY TRUE Happily-Ever-After, Mackenzie comes to a realization. Eleanor has succeeded in giving her a Happily-Ever-After (despite Moira’s claims that she has failed and therefore the Motherland will close as planned), NOT because she’s in love with Hugh, but because she has reminded Mackenzie how to enjoy the small things in life, and helped her reconnect with her children. She announces (to a rather large audience) that her True Love is her CHILDREN, that they give her life meaning and happiness. She says that there is no single kind of True Love, and no single kind of Happily-Ever-After. And then the  camera pans to a father looking at his son, a grandson looking at his grandmother, etc etc etc. And folks it was FANTASTIC. It was such a great message! 

The movie hints to possible future development between Mackenzie and Hugh, but the happy ending does not HINGE on that fact AT ALL. And it was WONDERFUL.

So yeah… I really enjoyed this movie. I think it’s a great movie for families, and possibly also a great movie for adults who are perhaps lonely or disillusioned with life in general. At the very least, I bet it’ll make you smile for a little while!