Enchanted

Rating: 7/10

I have to admit that when I first heard about Enchanted I wasn’t exactly well, enchanted by it. I really didn’t like the early trailers. Gradually though, through repetitive exposure to the trailers and my wife reminding me about how much she wanted to see it I reluctantly agreed to see it in the theatre. Today we brought home the DVD to add to our collection. I can’t believe I’m about to say this but with few exceptions Enchanted is a great movie!

Enchanted begins in the animated land of Andalasia with a voiceover by Julie Andrews describing the kingdom and how the evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) dreads the day when her stepson finds love and gets married. When that day comes she will lose power. The queen enlists the aid of Nathaniel (Timothy Spall) to ensure that that day never comes.

Giselle (Amy Adams) has just woken up and is describing her dream prince to her animal friends. The animals are helping her construct an ad-hoc statue that represents this prince and she thinks it’s complete but then realizes that he has no lips. She then breaks into a song about True Love’s Kiss. The scene then jumps to the heroic Prince Edward (James Marsden) taking down a troll when he breaks into another verse of the song being sung by Giselle. As he finishes his verse he hears Giselle singing in the distance. He jumps on his horse and hurries in her direction.

In his rush to find Giselle, Edward leaves Nathaniel alone with the troll. Nathaniel releases the troll and sends it to kill Giselle but the troll fails. As is typical in princess movies Giselle immediately falls in love with Edward for saving her and promises to marry him the following day.

Upon arriving at the castle for the wedding, Giselle is greeted by a mysterious old woman that leads her to the wishing well. The old woman pushes her into the well where she is magically made real and sent to New York City where she meets Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) and his daughter, Morgan (Rachel Covey).

The story then follows Giselle as she tries to adjust to this strange new place while she waits for her prince to come rescue her and take her home. Over the course of the next few days she and Robert develop a friendship that quickly turns to romance and Giselle is torn about what to do.

This movie was actually a lot of fun to watch. The humor was kept in check and the writing never really tried to be too clever. There were actually several things I really enjoyed about this film.

The first thing that got my attention was how well Disney recaptured the style of hand-drawn animation and story that made them so famous to begin with. The beginning of the movie really feels like a traditional Disney princess film.

The second thing that I really enjoyed was how well Disney caricatured their old films! Throughout the movie we see both subtle and blatant references to their previous works. The old lady at the castle is nearly identical to the stepmother/witch in Snow White. Building the statue is done in a manner almost identical to building Cinderella’s dress. Giselle and Robert are eating dinner in a manner (intentionally) reminiscent of Lady and the Tramp. Giselle and Edward fall in love and plan to wed only moments after meeting. The list of references goes on and on and that makes the movie all the more enjoyable.

Enchanted is most definitely not without its flaws though. After two viewings of this movie I still have two major problems with the plot that I think are inexcusable. The first major flaw centers on the relationship between Giselle and Robert. The second centers on the queen.

A great deal of the story is spent on making sure that people take the time to get to know each other before committing to long-term commitments such as marriage. Robert has been seeing Nancy (Idina Menzel) for approximately five years and is getting ready to propose to her when Giselle enters his life. This story takes place over a matter of days (yes, days!) and Robert breaks up with Nancy to be with Giselle! How can a plot focus so heavily on this point and then throw it away so easily?

The other major flaw is Queen Narissa’s behavior at the end of the movie. Like the first major flaw, this problem is caused by completely ignoring another point that the movie had been focusing on. From the very beginning of the film we’re told that Queen Narissa wants to hold onto her power and much of the movie focuses on her and Nathaniel working to prevent Giselle and Edward from getting married. In short, the queen wants Giselle dead. At the end of the movie it becomes apparent that Giselle and Edward are not going to wed yet the queen transforms into a dragon and tries to kill Robert…a man that has absolutely nothing to do with the land of Andalasia! Also, it is made clear through some dialog early in the movie that Giselle is not actually a princess so there is no danger of the queen losing her throne if Giselle and Robert wed. The queens attempt to kill Robert made absolutely no sense to me. What am I missing?

Despite these flaws though, Enchanted is definitely worth watching. It will always be good for a few smiles and laughs.