A Cinderella Story: Starstruck has some good laughs and family-friendly messages that people of all ages should be able to enjoy. If you're a fan of the series, you'll enjoy giving this one a watch.
Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided us with a free copy of this Blu-ray/DVD that we reviewed in this blog post. The opinions we share are our own.
Finley Tremaine (Bailee Madison, Good Witch), a small-town farm girl, longs to spread her wings and soar as an aspiring performer. When a Hollywood film crew arrives in her sleepy town, she is determined to land a role in the production and captures the attention of handsome lead actor Jackson Stone (Michael Evans Behling, All American). Unfortunately, a botched audition forcers her to change course. Now, disguised as cowboy “Huck,” Finley finally gets her big break. But can she keep the charade a secret from everyone, including her evil stepmother and devious stepsiblings?”
The sixth installment of the A Cinderella Story series, the newest one, takes the exact same formula from the previous ones and applies it to a new situation. Instead of a Christmas theme in which the young girl dreams about becoming a singer/songwriter, A Cinderella Story: Starstruck is about a young girl in the country who dreams about becoming an actress. When I say the same formula, I’m not exaggerating in the slightest, it’s the exact same movie but change the girl, change the location, change the dream. That being said, there is a reason these films have gone on to have six installments: that targeted demographic of the younger audience, that also hits the older crowd who enjoy the feel-good, wholesome nature of films they might see on The Hallmark Channel. This type of content is very much in demand.
If you’ve seen any in the series, you know exactly what to expect. Evil stepmother, vicious and horrid step-siblings, that seem too outlandish to believe they could exist in a modern-day environment. Although A Cinderella Story may not be too concerned with believability, my biggest issue with this, and with the previous film, is that it is just too hard to accept that a young girl, almost 18 years old, with access to the outside world and how people are supposed to be treated, would be entirely fine with having her bedroom out in the barn, and basically be a servant to her step-mother and her two children in the home she grew up in. It’s simply emotional manipulation, and not even a really good kind. It gets the job done, however, you instantly loathe the step-family and want all kinds of bad things to happen to them.
What I think the film did well at, though, was go a bit further than it had to. In the previous films, as with the story of Cinderella, the main character has to hide her identity from the one who’d sweep her off her feet. Instead of it just having the identity hid, there is a gender role reversal at play, allowing the story to explore a couple new avenues it otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. Also, the film can be quite funny at times. From the awkward gender reversal situations, to the movie director and some of his strange directions he yells out to his cast, there are some really good sequences that will make anyone laugh, no matter the target demographic. Oh, and the pig’s name is John Ham. Not to mention, the film takes place almost entirely on the set of the Kent Farm from Smallville.
Video
A Cinderella Story: Starstruck has been released on DVD only, offering a Standard Definition release. The film itself looks fine. Colors look good, and the film is free of any defects or issues. The lack of detail and brighter colors from a High Definition release are certainly missed.
Audio
The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The audio track sounds good, with a nice mix coming from the surrounds and center channel. There are a couple of musical numbers in the film, giving a very full range sound.
Special Features
There is no Digital Code included with this release.
- Finley’s Best Friends: Meet the Farm Animals – Meet the animals from the film and see their best scenes and bloopers!
- Dirt Under My Nails: The Making of A Cinderella Story: Starstruck – In this Cinderella story, we explore the music and choreography, as well as costume surprises!
If you’re a fan of this series, you’re likely to enjoy this new installment, that adds a few twists and turns to the story and formula you may remember from previous films. It offers some humor, and wholesome moments of dreams coming true.