This was a lot better than I expected. Of course, my expectations were in the sewer, so... I thought it was about as good as a Disney Channel Movie would be. The worst part was the ending where they resolved everything with a rap. The best parts were the actress who played the love interest, and the stepbrothers' song. The music was sort of meh overall, the only other one I liked much besides the stepbrothers song that made me laugh was the one where El was singing about how NY is the "best ever." I was sort of surprised when "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" started because I didn't think they were drawing on the animated
Cinderella at all. I also felt like this film drew on TP&TF and Aladdin a little, too, tbh. The scenes where El remembers his mother midway through the film made me tear up a little, but his desire to keep her dream going via a shoe shop reminded me of Tiana keeping her father alive through their dream of the restaurant. That and the whole "You lied to me" plot that came from a mile away was similar to
Aladdin--Aladdin's story being a bit of a male Cinderella anyway.
While on the one hand I was glad the stepfather was barely in this because the actor was bad (and I mean, how much of an evil Stepfather could he be if he's paying for El to have a cellphone...

), on the other hand, I hate seeing Disney trying to erase villains from fairy tales at this point just because they're too incompetent to be able to pull them off in their new movies.