Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, and Timothy Spall
Directed by Kevin Lima
Music by Alan Menken; Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Enchanted began in 1997 as a far racier script, inspired by R-rated comedies of the 80's and 90's like Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It was reworked in 2005 into something more family friendly and closer to the Disney fantasies of old. It's also Disney's first live action/animated hybrid since Who Framed Roger Rabbit from 1988 and a satire on the cliches inherent in Disney movies in particular and fairy tales in general, from the prince and the damsel falling in love in an instant after meeting to the princess being the one rescued. Is it worth saving from an ogre, or should it be left in Times Square? Let's begin in animation with typical Disney damsel Giselle (Adams), waiting for her true love with her animal friends, and find out...
The Story: Giselle first encounters handsome Prince Edward (Marsden) when he saves her from an ogre. They fall in love the moment she lands in his arms and agree to wed the next day. Edward's stepmother Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) will lose the throne if her son marries, so right before her wedding, she shoves Giselle down a well.
When Giselle comes up through the well, she finds herself stepping through a man hole cover in Times Square. Now a live-action woman, Giselle wanders lost and alone through the streets of Manhattan until she's found by cynical divorce lawyer Robert Phillip (Dempsey) and his daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey). Morgan loves fairy tales and believes she's a princess. Robert doesn't believe it initially. He stopped believing in fairy tales after his wife abandoned him and their daughter. Optimistic Giselle, who sees beauty and romance in every squalid corner of the city, shows him New York through her eyes...and gradually, they fall in love.
Edward and his servant Nathaniel (Timothy Squall) have followed her, though, along with her chipmunk Pip (Jeff Bennett). Edward wants to find his true love and continue the wedding, while Robert's harried girlfriend Nancy (Idina Menzel) just questions what he's doing with this woman. Giselle is learning that, messy as the "real world" can be, it also allows a princess to not only save herself, but those she loves as well.
The Animation: The opening and about a minute or so of the closing sequences are done in 2-D animation that's likely meant to ape the 50's Disney films Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. While not as lush as those films, Andelusia is still colorful and lovely to look at. The animated characters flow well and do resemble their live-action counterparts, and the backdrops are pretty and detailed. It's enough to make me wish Disney had continued turning out full 2D animated films.
The Song and Dance: Adams is the perfect Disney princess in this hilarious homage to their earlier animated films. She's sweet without being cloying, kind without being pushy, and is a ball of sunshine. The sequence where she quarrels with Robert and feels anger for the first time is especially adorable. The opening alone is hilarious, with its literal fall into love plot and stunning animation. Marsden and Squall have almost as much fun as the prince charming who will do anything to get his lady fair back and mousy servant who learns that there's more to life than just following a queen's orders. The gorgeous costumes and authentic New York location shooting adds a great deal of intimacy and elegance to the goofy story.
Favorite Number: We open in animation, with Giselle and her animal friends creating a scarecrow representing her perfect prince. She sings "True Love's Kiss," which Edward eventually finishes before and after the arrival of the ogre. "Happy Working Song" is Giselle cleaning up Robert and Morgan's apartment with the help of the wild animals of New York City - pigeons, rats, mice, and cockroaches. Seeing all those vermin scrubbing toilets would be almost gross if it wasn't so darn funny.
"That's How You Know" is the big chorus number in Central Park. Giselle starts by singing along with a couple of strolling marimba players as she explains to Robert why he has to tell Nancy that he loves her. It gradually spreads through the whole park, taking in everything from a wedding to tourists relaxing on benches. Robert doesn't get it, but Giselle and everyone else around her happily rolls with the cheerful and adorable song. The remaining two numbers are sung over the soundtrack. The ballad "So Close" provides the backdrop for Giselle and Robert's dance at the ball, while the uptempo Carrie Underwood ballad "Ever Ever After" plays under the closing credits.
Trivia: "So Close," "That's How You Know," and "Happy Working Song" were nominated for Oscars, but they ended up canceling each other out. The winner was "Falling Slowly" from Once.
What I Don't Like: For all the comic trappings, the story in and of itself is nothing new...which, honestly, is kind of the point. Some of the tropes it discusses, like True Love's Kiss and falling in love at first sight, had already vanished from 90's Disney princess movies like Beauty and the Beast and would be further deconstructed in Tangled and Frozen over the next five years or so. The Shrek movies went into similar fairy tale satire territory earlier in the 2000's, including True Love's Kiss and the damsel in distress who isn't that distressed.
The Big Finale: Bright and fun, with some of Menken and Schwartz's best music and a delightful starring turn by Amy Adams, this is highly recommended for musical fans, princess lovers, and those who have ever wanted to see Disney take their high-falutin' fantasy epics down a peg or two.
Home Media: Easily found in all formats, often for under ten dollars. Disney Plus has it with a subscription. (It also has its sequel, Disenchanted, which we'll discuss next Saturday.)
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