Hathaway portrayed princesses and appeared in family-oriented films over the next three years, subsequently becoming known in mainstream media as a children's role model. After voicing Haru Yoshioka for the English version of "The Cat Returns" (2002), she starred in Douglas McGrath's comedy-drama "Nicholas Nickleby" (2002), which opened to positive reviews. However, the film did not enter wide release and failed at the North American box office, totaling less than $4 million in ticket sales. The fantasy romantic comedy film "Ella Enchanted" (2004), in which Hathaway played the titular character, also performed poorly at the box office. She first read the book on which the film is based when she was 16, and stated that the script was originally much closer to the book, but did not work as a film, and therefore prefers the film the way it became. The film opened to mostly mixed reviews. Hathaway sang three songs on the film's soundtrack, including a duet with singer Jesse McCartney.